Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked August 16, 2022
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
In June 2022, a 20-year-old in Rockland County was diagnosed with vaccine-derived
poliovirus paralysis. The patient had not been vaccinated against polio
Many developing countries still use an oral polio vaccine that contains live virus, which
then spreads to others in the community. When vaccination rates are low, the spread of
vaccine-poliovirus can cause the virus to mutate back into a paralytic form
The U.S. uses only inactivated injectable polio vaccine that does not spread communally.
The inactivated polio vaccine prevents paralysis, but not infection. So, even those who
have received the inactivated version can be infected by a vaccine-derived poliovirus, and
can spread it to others
Almost all modern-day polio cases are caused by the vaccine strains. India’s polio
eradication campaign in 2011 caused 47,500 cases of vaccine-induced polio paralysis —
a condition that is twice as deadly as wild polio