shades fills you in

Polio is a viral disease. Most of the time, it’s asymptomatic, but it can also cause paralysis, disabilities, and even death. We’ve basically wiped it out everywhere in the world, thanks to intense vaccination campaigns

But! Polio might be back. In July, 2022 The NYT reported that a man in Rockland County, New York, was diagnosed with polio after experiencing weakness and paralysis. This is the first case in the U.S. since 2013

Wastewater in some counties tested positive for polio for months after. Then, after a few weeks of negative test results, polio popped back up in the wastewater tests in January -- Lohud

Polio cases like this pop up every now and again. NPR says that’s because the oral polio vaccine uses a live virus -- and in rare cases, the virus mutates and starts replicating again, which can get unvaccinated people sick. (By the way, we don’t use the live virus vaccine in the U.S.)

Health officials think that’s exactly what happened in the New York case, reports Forbes. Based on wastewater samples, they say hundreds of people might have polio

Hundreds? Should you be worried? The LA Times says probably not. Odds are, you’re vaccinated (92.6% of Americans are) and you’ve got nothing to worry about. But if you or anyone you love is unvaccinated, now’s the time to get that polio jab

Right, says this polio survivor in a CBC Op. Without vaccines, more and more people will become paralyzed or disabled because of polio -- especially kids. The polio vaccine saves lives!

The Daily Beast is concerned -- just like with early COVID, the CDC won’t let non-government labs run testing and surveillance, which could seriously hamstring our efforts to track and stop the virus

Not 100% sure if you’re vaccinated? You’re not alone. In the wake of the NY polio case, tons of people are texting their parents just to double check whether they got the vaccine as kids, reports BuzzFeed

But do you need a booster? Well, probably not. The full vaccine series is just fine, unless you’re especially high risk or aren’t sure if you got the full series -- The Charlotte Observer