bx8

Hello, this is probably a stupid question but why did you ride across the country to advocate for a disease that's (for the most part) completely cured and has less than 30 reported cases a year (according to the WHO).

I understand that you contracted Polio in 1979 but there has been a significant decrease (over 99%) of cases from then until now and as such, the awareness is already there. Of course, this is ignoring the anti-vaxxers but that's a seperate discussion all together.

I guess my point is, what are you hoping to accomplish by being an advocate for a disease that's largely irrelevant due to modern medicine?

Hi Ramesh, sorry to post again on the same topic but my initial post went unanswered... This is a direct quote from the WHO website on Polio

Wild poliovirus cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries then, to 22 reported cases in 2017.

Of the 3 strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2, and type 3), wild poliovirus type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and no case of wild poliovirus type 3 has been found since the last reported case in Nigeria in November 2012.

Wouldn't you agree that only 22 cases in 2017 on Type 1 and Type 2 & 3 having 0 reported cases is as close as we are going to get to eradicating this disease? For arguments sake, over 450 people die each year from falling out of bed... There is actually the same amount of shark attacks PER YEAR (22) as there is Polio...

At this point, with modern medicine, isn't Polio basically eradicated? The majority of countries are actually listed as polio-free and it's a few remaining developing countries that still have the occasional case but even then, 22 cases in 2017

Follow up, wouldn't it make more sense to advocate for vaccinations rather than eradicating Polio in itself (as the potential for another epidemic of Polio could be caused by disregarding the vaccination process).

Me too

Why don't you just apply for political asylum?