I came across this article and with a little bit under two dozen polio cases in Manila Philippines 🇵🇭 reported recently, I thought it was titanically unfair what the headline and the story were saying.
The article blames The Philippines Department of Health expenditure cuts and, of course, vaccination rates in the high 60s for the “reemergence” of polio after it had been “eradicated”. The question will be left eternally unasked: “If Polio was eradicated where is it coming from?”
Before we go any further let me say clearly:
* I believe Vaccines 💉 confer a certain level of immunization against disease. Vaccinate —> Immune response —> level of protection: I’m on board with the basics.
*You have to throw that disclaimer in these days when you “question” vaccine policy.
All that being said Polio is a Virus , they burn out through populations, as it was in the US even before the introduction of Vaccines. Even during the height of Polio pandemics in the United States 95% of those who contracted polio were “asymptomatic”. Let me translate from Pharma talk: a tremendous amount of people “caught” polio, but their immune systems were strong enough to defeat it and confer its own level of natural immunity. The only way you would know they had polio was testing their blood and finding anti-bodies afterwards. Only about 4-8% of people who “got” polio started to express the horrible symptoms that we normally associate with being a victim of Polio. So many “got” polio only a few “got sick”. Hip-Hip Hooray for Strong Immune Systems.
While Viral mutation does not appear to render vaccines as useless as drugs that have met bacterial resistance, believing that one of the oldest, most resilient, fastest replicating organisms on the planet is powerless against Vaccines being pumped out of R&D at Merke is wishful thinking. This is not an anti-vaxx argument, per se, but a pro immune system argument.
When the article isn’t blaming Government policy (*Cough Cough* The Duterte Administration) they are of course going after the devil of all devils: the unvaccinated, or worse the willfully “Anti-Vaxx”. I already know where this narrative is going.
Being a Hippy Dippy Chiropractor I know plenty of those awful “anti-vaxx” children. They remain some of the healthiest kids I know because Vaccines, whatever your “let’s fight to the death” position is, confer “specific immunity” and not “health” to the inoculated. Health is a combination of lifestyle choices: hygiene, nutrition, exercise, preventive health care etc. and I’ll take my friends unvaccinated, active, athletic, organic eating chiro/acupunctured kiddos against they legion of vaccinated ambulatory wads Of McMuffin scarfing kids slothing around US school campuses.
Yes there was a dichotomy in there but not necessarily a false one.
Even worse off than America’s soy addled Brats having lived in the Philippines I’ve cringed as I’ve looked at naked children, undoubtedly from lower economic strata, joyfully playing in dirty flooded sewer waters like it was a swimming pool, jumping in the splashes of water as cars sliced through creating waves.
How is poliomyelitis transmitted again? 🤔 (Hint: Polio is primarily transmitted oral-fecally)
So saying that “the unvaccinated” are at fault for Polio’s comeback tour when the term “unvaccinated” can mean:
A. Upper Middle class children with excellent heath habits eating their non gluten, hormone free, free range, grass fed organic Food
B. immune-compromised Lower income individuals fresh from a dengue crisis with poor nutrition/hygiene splashing around in a fucking open sewer
Is a tad disingenuous. “Unvaccinated” is not synonymous with walking Petri dishes.
All that being said… since immune systems are not going to be magically rebuild overnight, nutritional habits are not going to change quickly , intergenerational inaccessibility to health/hygiene education isn’t going to rapidly appear… BY ALL MEANS get the Vaccines as they will confer a level of protection to help stop the spread. The Philippines recently acknowledged the unfortunate after effects of a bad Dengue Vaccine which shows they don’t suffer safety Issues in their vaccines in deference to drug manufacturers like other regulatory agencies might (Looking at You, CDC 😘) so I trust them to administer a Vaccination program.
In the meanwhile, wash your hands, eat clean, get some fresh air and for fucks sake don’t let your kids play in the sewer…
Chiropractic Rōnin 