Did Marjorie Taylor Greene Compare Polio And Covid-19 Vaccines? Here’s The Problem

What’s polio acquired to do with Covid-19? Nicely, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) introduced these two completely totally different infectious ailments collectively in a tweet on Sunday (12/19) night. She tweet-quoted an ABC Information Politics tweet about Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) having a breakthrough an infection. Booker had gotten contaminated with the extreme acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) after having been totally vaccinated after which receiving a booster towards Covid-19.

That apparently promoted Taylor-Greene to ask, “what number of breakthrough instances of polio are there,” as you’ll be able to see within the following tweet:

Umm, isn’t {that a} bit like asking what number of llamas using unicycles are at Walmart? Most giant retail shops within the U.S. haven’t allowed llamas to journey unicycles on their premises for years. Equally, the U.S. has been polio-free since 1979. In different phrases, a polio case hasn’t originated within the U.S. since Pink Floyd launched their album “The Wall” and Michael Jackson launched “Off the Wall”, to not be confused with “The Wall” that was began in 2017 and by no means completed. With out the polio virus round, it’s actually, actually, actually, actually troublesome to get a breakthrough case of polio.

How did polio get eradicated from the U.S.? Nicely, the reply rhymes with “science schooling” and “don’t be taught science from a Dalmatian.” It’s vaccination. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, “because of the polio vaccine, devoted well being care professionals, and oldsters who vaccinate their kids on schedule, polio has been eradicated on this nation for greater than 30 years. Which means that there is no such thing as a year-round transmission of poliovirus in america.” Numerous people on the Twittersphere alluded to this historic reality reminiscent of @rexzane1:

Yep, getting near all Individuals vaccinated towards the polio virus is what took polio from inflicting over 15,000 instances of paralysis every year within the early 1950’s to one thing that most individuals don’t even take into consideration or learn about apparently. About 92% of the whole U.S. inhabitants is at present vaccinated towards polio, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This quantity has hovered within the 90’s for years. Why? Faculties have lengthy required polio vaccination. In case you went to high school, irrespective of how a lot or how little science you discovered there, likelihood is you have been already vaccinated towards polio as somewhat child.

The polio scenario could be very, very totally different from the present Covid-19 scenario. As of December 20, solely 61.5% of the U.S. inhabitants had been vaccinated towards Covid-19. That’s means beneath the 80-90% wanted to succeed in herd immunity thresholds. In the meantime, the Covid-19 coronavirus has been surging. On December 19 alone, the U.S. had over 72,000 new reported Covid-19 instances. That’s roughly 72,000 extra instances than the variety of new polio instances that day.

The effectiveness of a vaccine relies upon closely on how a lot of the virus is round you. To grasp this idea, take into consideration balls. Baseballs, that’s. A catcher’s mitt can shield you nicely ought to just one ball come at you at a time. When numerous balls are thrown at you unexpectedly from totally different instructions, although, one catcher’s mitt alone is probably not sufficient. How nicely the Covid-19 vaccine protects you relies on how prevalent the SARS-CoV-2 is round you, which in flip relies on how many individuals round you will have gotten the vaccine.

If the polio virus have been as widespread because the Covid-19 coronavirus is right this moment, you’ll most likely see much more breakthrough instances of polio than zero. The truth is, within the early days of the polio vaccination program, earlier than excessive sufficient vaccination protection ranges have been achieved, breakthroughs occurred:

Furthermore, not all viruses are the identical. Simply because one thing has the identical phrase in its title, doesn’t imply that it behaves the identical means. For instance, a thunder storm is one factor. Storming the Capitol is one thing completely totally different. Equally, designing a vaccine towards the polio virus ain’t the identical as designing a vaccine towards the SARS-CoV-2. The polio virus tends to reside in gastrointestinal tract, whereas the SARS-CoV-2 tends to contaminate your by way of your respiratory system. Your intestines shouldn’t be the identical as your respiratory tract and lungs. If they’re, see your physician instantly.

Designing a vaccine towards a respiratory virus could be notably difficult. For instance, whereas the flu shot does shield you towards the flu, it’s effectiveness can vary from 20% to 60% or so, relying on how nicely the influenza strains within the vaccine match the strains which might be at present circulating, as I described lately for Forbes. That’s why breakthrough influenza infections happen each single yr, as one Twitterer identified to Taylor Greene:

How’s that tune go? “Do not know a lot about historical past. Do not know a lot biology. Do not know a lot a couple of science e-book?” Nicely, understanding why there are not any breakthrough instances of polio within the U.S. now requires understanding the historical past of polio, the biology of the virus, and a few science books. Making an attempt to check the polio breakthrough an infection fee with the Covid-19 breakthrough an infection fee ain’t a scientific breakthrough. In case you are one way or the other utilizing the comparability in an try and discredit the Covid-19 vaccine, it could as an alternative be a really unscientific breakthrough.