New York governor declares disaster emergency after polio found in wastewater

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Fri Sep 9, 2022, 02:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

Sept 9 (Reuters) - New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency on Friday after samples of the polio virus were discovered in wastewater in three counties outside of New York City.

Hochul's executive order came more than a month after an adult in Rockland County, north of New York City, was diagnosed with the disease in July. It was the first confirmed case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade.

The declaration would expand the number of people authorized to administer polio vaccines and other steps to accelerate inoculation rates. The state of emergency will stay in effect until October 9. The polio virus was present in wastewater samples collected as early as April, Hochul's executive order said.

Virus was detected in wastewater samples taken in Orange, Rockland and Sullivan counties every month since April, indicating the virus was present in the state before the Rockland County case was found in July.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-governor-declares-disaster-emergency-after-polio-found-wastewater-2022-09-09/

---

Short article but now updated.

Original article -

Sept 9 (Reuters) - New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency on Friday after samples of the polio virus were discovered in wastewater in a New York City suburb, an executive order from Hochul's office said.

[bronxiteforever]

1. Anti vaccine clowns are bringing this killer back

[Evolve Dammit]

2. Damn. This on top of covid and other diseases making comebacks.

[hlthe2b]

3. All the anti-vaxxers who decided their kids should not receive childhood vaccines may well

be transported to the fear and horror of pre-1960s America. This is tragic.

[onecaliberal]

4. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[TeamProg]

6. +1 !!!

[McKim]

5. Tragic: An Unvaccinated Underclass

This is also due to poverty, chaotic lives, lack of public health infrastructure across America. This is an expected result of people who are outside the safety nets or who are under educated, not just Trumpers and antivaccers.

[Probatim]

10. But in a way, it falls directly on their shoulders.

They've campaigned and voted against any safety nets, healthcare, and healthcare infrastructure for decades. And plan to do worse should they ever get back in to power.

[McKim]

15. Absolutely!!!!

Absolutely, it is the fault of Neoliberal policies and Right Wing think tanks and the super rich!

[McKim]

16. Absolutely!!!!

Absolutely, it is the fault of Neoliberal policies and Right Wing think tanks and the super rich!

[Hekate]

17. Counterintuitively, a study some years ago showed that unvaccinated kids were more likely ...

… to be well into the middle class and have educated mothers.

The study showed that poor kids with access to state and county vax programs, and then Obamacare, were more likely to actually have a full set of shots — especially as public schools require them.

One of the worst things the antivax mommies have done is break down that public school requirement, leading to a comeback of whooping cough quite awhile ago.

[eggplant]

7. Around me, there are these three anti-vaxx billboard trucks.

They park in highly visible areas. They were gone for a long time, but I just started seeing them again yesterday. Ugh.

[ToxMarz]

8. Probably being them for next 2 months.

They don't really serve much purpose anymore other than to keep the Magat base engaged.

[Evolve Dammit]

25. enraged is more accurate; gotta keep them in a whipped-up lather

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Isn't the polio vaccine a live virus vaccine?

Is it possible that virus in the waste water is from recently vaccinated people shedding the virus?

I recall reading several decades ago that the live virus vaccine was actually responsible for most cases of polio in this country by that point.

[womanofthehills]

11. It's a live virus vaccine in many Asian and African countries and in Ukraine.

US has dead virus vaccine. The type found in wastewater was shed from live virus vaxx - probably someone who traveled here from overseas. Our dead virus vaxx will keep us from getting sick from shedded live virus but not from getting it and transmitting it.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. The U.S. stopped using the oral live virus (OPV) version after 1997

and only use an inactivated injection type (IPV) now.

However since a good chunk of the world are still using the oral version (due to ease of administration), the speculation has been that any outbreaks here have been from foreign travelers who were vaccinated with the oral version.

I remember before going to Egypt back in 1992, the U.S. had just started phasing out the oral vaccine. However that type was all my travel clinic had and that is what they gave me as a booster (as a kid, i had already had whatever doses were required back in the '60s).

[hamsterjill]

19. I hope they bring the oral version back!

Needle phobes like me are sick and tired of having to get jabbed. It’s a serious concern and not one to be made fun of (not that anyone here is doing that) because the very real terror keeps people from getting vaccinated. If there’s an oral version, it should at least be an option.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. I think they are trying to do a nasal for COVID-19

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02824

And there has been some work on sublingual (oral) IPV for Polio - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28400164/

And agree that the injection issue is probably a big reason why the vaccine and vaccine booster uptake is so low (particularly among children).

[hamsterjill]

22. The nasal vaccines for COVID never seem to materialize.

Unfortunately. There have been promises since the beginning of the vaccine development, but sadly, no real progress. Maybe one day…

[BumRushDaShow]

23. They are not approved here in the U.S.

but just got approved in China and India this past week -

News Release
World’s first nasal COVID-19 vaccine approved in India; based on Washington University technology

Inhaled vaccine may reduce infection, transmission

by Tamara Bhandari•September 7, 2022
Getty Images

The world’s first nasal vaccine for COVID-19 was approved Tuesday, Sept. 6, in India for emergency use. The vaccine, called iNCOVACC, is based on technology licensed from Washington University in St. Louis and developed in collaboration with Bharat Biotech International Limited in India.

The world’s first nasal vaccine for COVID-19 – based on technology licensed from Washington University in St. Louis – was approved Tuesday, Sept. 6, in India for emergency use. Since the vaccine is delivered via the nose, right where the virus enters the body, it has the potential to block infection and break the cycle of transmission, as well as prevent lung damage. Washington University scientists developed the nasal vaccine in collaboration with Bharat Biotech International Limited in India, a global leader in vaccine innovation and a developer of vaccines for infectious diseases.

Early studies at Washington University showed that nasal delivery of this vaccine creates a strong immune response throughout the body, especially in the nose and respiratory tract. In animal studies, the nasal vaccine prevented infection from taking hold in the body. While injectable COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to elicit protection against severe disease, this route of administration is thought to be less effective at preventing infection and possibly transmission.

(snip)

https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/worlds-first-nasal-covid-19-vaccine-approved-in-india-based-on-washington-university-technology/

Scientists say that inhaled and nasal vaccines may be needed to beat Omicron. China just approved the world’s first inhaled one

BY Grady McGregor
September 5, 2022 at 5:01 AM EDT


China’s government approved the world’s first inhaled vaccine against COVID-19, the vaccine’s maker, CanSino Biologics, announced on Sunday.

The vaccine, called Convidecia Air, changes the liquid form of the vaccine into an aerosol using a nebulizer. The vaccine can then be inhaled through the mouth using the nebulizer machine. The needle-free vaccine “can effectively induce comprehensive immune protection in response to SARS-CoV-2 after just one breath,” CanSino said in a statement.

The science appears to back CanSino’s claims.

(snip)

https://fortune.com/2022/09/05/cansino-china-worlds-first-inhaled-vaccine-omicron/

[hamsterjill]

24. Well, come on USA, then!!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

28. Since Washington University (St. Louis) helped with that one in India

that might have a good chance of going through the EUA process here. Will have to see!

[Evolve Dammit]

26. there was 60 years ago; tasted like sugar water

[BumRushDaShow]

29. That is still being used in other countries around the world.

It was phased out here by 1997.

[Evolve Dammit]

30. we are woefully unprepared again, it would seem. What is CDC proposing this time? Who needs what?

[BumRushDaShow]

31. There's nothing stopping people who are not already vaccinated against Polio

from getting the vaccine.

I expect that OPV-based polio virus has ALWAYS been around the U.S.... for years and years. But it's only because of COVID when municipalities started looking at wastewater for the presence of that virus and then decided - "Hey lets look for others!!", when they finally realized it was out there. And in some places (like CA) they were finding monkeypox in the watstewater too. Those who were already vaccinated and who may have had contact with it, probably didn't have any symptoms or react to it in any way. The few cases of people who have contracted it have been unvaccinated.

If you don't look for something, there's a good chance you won't find it.

[womanofthehills]

33. Most polio cases are in kids under 5

And the majority of people who have polio have no symptoms. People who take care of toddlers and change diapers are most as risk.

“The majority of infections (72%) do not lead to any symptoms. About a quarter of cases (24%) result in “abortive” poliomyelitis which leads to nonspecific symptoms for a few days, such as a fever or a cold, and 1-5% of cases lead to “non-paralytic aseptic meningitis”, in which the patient suffers from stiff limbs for up to 10 days.”

“The poliovirus is found only among humans and is transmitted via the so-called fecal-oral route. In other words, polio is mostly transmitted by drinking water that has been contaminated by the feces of a person carrying the poliovirus. The virus therefore spreads especially well in conditions of poor sanitation, for example when people defecate in the open or do not filter their water before drinking it. The fact that the virus can only survive in humans (and no other animals) makes it possible to completely eradicate the disease from the world – if it was a virus with an animal host such as influenza (birds) or tuberculosis (cows) that occasionally mutates to attack humans, polio could only ever be controlled but not eradicated.”

https://ourworldindata.org/polio

[BumRushDaShow]

36. Well yeah but one of the concerns nowadays

is that if you do have it circulating and you have some percentage of unvaccinated - you may actually start running into problems during these major heatwaves across the country, where you have people who are "swimming" and or are sitting in big fountains in town/city squares/parks (particularly if the water is not being continually chlorinated) and/or in many urban areas, you have people setting up little portable pools out on the little streets for kids (and even adults) to "cool off". And those little pools are definitely not being treated.

So we're not just talking untreated "drinking water" but unintentional/accidental ingestion of untreated water, period (from fountains/water features, small wading pools, man-made ponds being used for "cooling off", etc., that are not properly treated).

For example, someone in a neighborhood here in Philly did this type of thing making a "pool" out of a dumpster -





https://billypenn.com/2016/08/01/meet-the-philly-genius-who-turned-a-dumpster-into-a-pool/

The following year, they did try to "do better" -



https://billypenn.com/2017/07/30/this-is-what-replaced-the-dumpster-pool-at-the-fishtown-block-party-this-year/

You also have tons of this kind of thing going on -





I know here in Philly with places absent a public pool, they had set up "spray grounds" where water was sprayed on some kind of pavement area (with reduced-skid cement) and/or with water bubbled up from underground sprinklers being used on the same types of surfaces, and these preclude any "standing water" where there could be accidental contact with, and ingestion of fecal matter.

[hamsterjill]

32. Ours was out actually put on a sugar cube.

What could be easier? Sometimes I think we get too technical and get away from simplicity. This vaccine was obviously working because it was used for decades.

It’s all about big pharma and how they can make the most bucks in my opinion.

[Evolve Dammit]

39. wonder if we need "boosters"? That was a looong time ago for me

[hamsterjill]

41. I have the same question.

Have wondered the same thing. I hope it is addressed at some point. I wish we would learn to get ahead of things like this instead of ignoring them until they become catastrophic.

[Evolve Dammit]

44. Yeah, for all our money and technology we seem woefully inadequate at dealing with real planning,

let alone intervening in a major crisis that hits quickly. I was so embarrassed for us when Hurricane Katrina hit and the anemic response ("heckuva job Brownie&quot . Ever since I have been convinced that you are on your own. We have the resources but lack coordination and rapid response. Can't help but wonder if it gets mucked up intentionally for political ideological points. I really fear what we would do with any nuclear incident. God Forbid, as they say...

[Initech]

13. Thanks anti-vaxxers!

[womanofthehills]

34. Supposedly there are a number of different strains of polio

One from the oral vaxx being shed thru feces and the other called “wild polio” - the one we are vaxxed for in the US. This strain in NY was previously identified as a strain coming from someone who had the oral vaxx - given in poor countries in Asia and Africa and also in Ukraine. There has been a polio breakout in Ukraine because Covid and the war has kept many children from being vaccinated. Here we do not give the oral vax but because it is a different strain than we are vaxxed with - if we catch it, we will not get sick but can pass it on. All these diseases are very complex.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

14. Anyone who has witnessed the effects of polio should be clamoring for the vaccine.

This is insanity.

[Hekate]

18. It's been over 50 years since we had crippled kids in every school,&we failed to teach public health

…to our public school kids, apparently. They were not taught, and it went down the memory hole.

I think the American Pediatrics Assoc. could do a helluva lot of good by putting informative and gruesome pamphlets in the offices of pediatricians. My dermatologist has stuff like that, one for every disease.

[Evolve Dammit]

45. Whatever happened to all those extremely effective public service ads that targeted smoking,

pollution, etc.? We could be doing the same for so many issues every day and it wouldn't cost that much to raise awareness.

[Hekate]

46. I know. Instead we left it to Jenny McCarthy and Robert Kennedy Jr to "teach" people...

Not to mention allowing FB to become a cesspool of misinformation.

[Evolve Dammit]

47. So glad I have never had any interest in participating in "social media." Luddite and proud!

But seriously, some of those ads kept me from smoking and polluting/littering, etc. I don't do any of those things, because I knew it harmed the planet and all of us.
They also inspired career and lifestyle choices. Hugely consequential IMHO. No reason they couldn't be resurrected. Could even recycle the same ones. They were powerful and I think would stand the test of time.

[womanofthehills]

35. All of us seniors probably have immunity- the polio vaxx lasts a lifetime

“The good news is that both polio vaccines are remarkably effective and long-lasting. If people received a full course of either vaccine as children, they do not need to get a booster now. “Anyone who has had a complete polio vaccination series does not need a booster,” says Racaniello. “Immunity to polio conferred by vaccination lasts a lifetime.” This, he stresses, is true whether you received either the IPV or the OPV in childhood.” https://time.com/6206535/polio-vaccines-how-to-stay-safe/

(Studies at major universities have recently confirmed this). Plus - most cases of polio are in those under 5 yrs old. It’s mostly spread by feces.

[MOMFUDSKI]

21. I am 74 yrs old

and had a classmate in 2nd Grade that had had polio. Her thick neck was affected, and her head tilted permanently to one side. And her leg was way thinner than the other one and she limped a bit. I remember my mom telling me how she wouldn't allow my 9 years older brother go to the public pool one summer and, of course, he had a fit but thank God we had a smart mom. I am sick to hear this disease is coming back due to the homeschoolers not vaxxing their kids. Those poor kids DON'T have smart moms.

[womanofthehills]

37. Have you read of any kids having it yet?

I haven’t seen anything in the news except it being in wastewater and one man having it. We had the polio virus it in our wastewater 10 yrs ago and it did not cause a pandemic, however more cases are happening around the world at this time.

[Evolve Dammit]

27. Government emergency roll-out of boosters (if needed for those who rec'd) and new patients asap

[womanofthehills]

38. Polio is not easy to catch - like Covid is

Because it is spread mostly by feces.

[Evolve Dammit]

40. So basic sanitation, hygiene etc. should eliminate the risk?

[Novara]

42. For me, transmissibility is sort of beside the point

We had it pretty much eradicated. Idiot anti-vaxxers brought it back. A horrible, devastating disease brought back out of selfishness. That's inexcusable.

[Evolve Dammit]

43. Indeed. I lost respect for many during the pandemic and the simple recommended safeguards.

[womanofthehills]

48. If you want to start blaming- start with the wars in Afganistan & Ukraine

These are the kids who will be suffering. Because of Covid and the war, they are not getting any vaccines and polio is showing up.

Polio
Before the war, Ukraine had just embarked on a nationwide immunisation programme to vaccinate more than 100,000 children who were unprotected against polio. This came after a case of paralytic polio was found in an unvaccinated 17-month-old girl in the Rivne region in October 2021. Then, a couple of months later, a second case appeared in the Zakarpattya region. After this, 20 more cases of polio were detected in children, though not all suffered paralysis.

Health authorities planned to ramp up vaccination efforts against polio for children in the country and the campaign got under way at the start of February. But it was brought to a halt a few weeks later when the war began.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a disabling and life-threatening infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. The poliovirus spreads from person to person through faeces and saliva, most often through dirty hands, infected food, and water. Most people with polio will not have any symptoms and will fight off the infection without even realising they were infected. A small number of people will experience a flu-like illness 3 to 21 days after they are infected. In a small number of cases, the poliovirus attacks the nerves in the spine and base of the brain. This can cause paralysis, usually in the legs, that develops over hours or days. If the breathing muscles are affected, it can be life-threatening. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/3/15/polio-tb-hiv-how-the-war-could-worsen-ukraines-health-crises