Polio vaccines: hope, hype, and history repeating?
Announcement of new polio vaccines has once again raised hopes of eradicating polio. But the ongoing difficulties of their predecessors provide a cautionary tale, writes Robert Fortner In June 2023, a research article in Nature heralded new, “more stable” versions of the vaccines against two of the three types of poliovirus (types 1 and 3).1 “Super-engineered polio vaccines created to help end polio,” read a BBC headline.2 “Polio endgame finish is in sight,”3 added a Nature news article.3 The backdrop, however, is a little muddier. A similar fanfare had greeted the first of this n...