2 August

One of the most important things to note about the re-emergence of polio is that it was nearly always an incredibly mild disease, causing no symptoms at all or known lasting effects. But the minority it impacted badly were paralysed for life. That used to be enough to mobilise a population to take emergency action. Now we let much more dangerous pathogens just spread at will, because they interrupt our lifestyles. We need to look long and hard in the mirror every day at the society we’ve become.