Two-plus years of COVID-19, and people are thinking differently about viruses.
The U.S. this month declared monkeypox a public health emergency, and people at high risk of getting the virus — particularly men who have sex with men — are lining up in city streets to get vaccinated. An avian flu outbreak that pushed egg prices higher is finally winding down. Polio reemerged in New York. And then there’s SARS-CoV-2, which is still infecting about 93,000 people a day in the U.S.The U.S.
Just last week, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called for a reorganization to the public-health agency.For now, however, the focus is on encouraging vaccination, whenever possible. New York health officials last month reported a case of polio in an unvaccinated resident of Rockland County, which is north of the Bronx borough of New York City.
Polio vaccines, which have been around since the 1950s, are included in the childhood immunization schedule. However, only 86% of New York City children between the ages of 6 months old and 5 years old have received all three doses of the polio vaccine.