LAUSR

The "endgame" in the campaign to eradicate polio suffered major setbacks in 2019. While the effort lost ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an especially alarming situation developed in Africa, where 196 children were paralyzed not by the wild virus, but by a vaccine-derived strain called type 2. A brand new vaccine is now being rushed through development to quash type 2 outbreaks; it could be rolled out for emergency use as early as the middle of this year. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is also debating whether to combat the resurgent virus by re-enlisting a triple-whammy vaccine pulled from global use in 2016. That would be a controversial move, setting back the initiative several years, as well as a potential public relations disaster.