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Polio vaccines: hope, hype, and history repeating?

Announcement of new polio vaccines has once again raised hopes of eradicating polio. But the ongoing difficulties of their predecessors provide a cautionary tale, writes Robert Fortner

In June 2023, a research article in Nature heralded new, “more stable” versions of the vaccines against two of the three types of poliovirus (types 1 and 3).1 “Super-engineered polio vaccines created to help end polio,” read a BBC headline.2 “Polio endgame finish is in sight,”3 added a Nature news article.3 The backdrop, however, is a little muddier.

A similar fanfare had greeted the first of this new generation of oral polio vaccines in 2021. Novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) targets type 2 polio and went straight into widespread use. But it remains far from clear how well nOPV2 works.

Before it was approved for emergency use, scientists warned that nOPV2 would not solve the problem set for it: to stamp out vaccine-derived polio. So far, it has not done so. Instea ....

Robert Fortner , Global Polio Eradication Initiative , Us Centers For Disease , World Health Organization , Melinda Gates Foundation , Disease Control ,