Did Vaccines Really Eradicate Polio?

In a different video, Gavin de Becker claims that polio didn’t disappear because of vaccines, that most new polio cases come from the vaccine itself, and that people should decide for themselves whether to get the vaccine.

The reason polio was wiped out in the United States is mostly because of vaccines. In the 1950s, scientists made the first polio vaccine, which was a huge step forward in medicine. These vaccines worked very well to stop the spread of polio. They helped kids live normal lives again and gave parents peace of mind.

Since 1988, scientists and health organizations around the world have worked together in a global effort to end polio so that no person ever catches it again. They’ve done this by giving vaccines to millions of people and keeping close watch for new cases. Because of this work, polio cases around the world have dropped by 99%.

It’s true that not every child in the world has been vaccinated, since some people don’t have easy access to vaccines. But polio is caused by a virus, and it can only spread if someone is already infected. Thanks to the global vaccination effort, wild polio now exists in only two countries. This means that the number of deaths from polio is very low—both in vaccinated and unvaccinated people—because there are so few cases left.

Even though polio is almost gone, we still give the polio vaccine. That’s because diseases can travel fast. For example, in 2022, there was a polio outbreak in New York, showing that the virus can return if people aren’t protected.

De Becker also talks about measles, saying that the death rate is the same for vaccinated and unvaccinated people—but that’s not true. In places where most people are vaccinated, measles deaths are almost unheard of. But in 2023, there were an estimated 107,500 measles deaths worldwide, mostly among unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children under 5 years old.