Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) reported that seven children had the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in Africa. This vaccine-derived polio has been linked to the Bill Gates funded polio vaccine that received Emergency Use Listing by the World Health Organization (WHO) in November 2020. This new oral polio vaccine (nOPV2) that is attributed to recent polio outbreaks was delivered to 28 countries globally, with close to 600 million doses of nOPV2 administered. GPEI reported that stool samples of six children with acute flaccid paralysis in the Congo and one in Burundi had circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2(cVDPV2) linked to the vaccine. Africa was officially certified wild poliovirus-free on August 25, 2020. Coincidentally, new vaccine-derived polioviruses began circulating and several outbreaks have occurred in the continent. So why did the WHO allow this dangerous vaccine to receive Emergency Use Listing given the known risks and reported incidents globally? Could it be because the World Health Organization also receives its funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation? Probably.
Virulent Vaccine Strains
Bio Farma (Indonesia) developed the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BGMF) and is now the main supplier of polio vaccines in the world. Additionally, In October 2022, the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation announced that it would invest $1.2 billion to ‘End Polio’ globally. The irony is that new cases of polio have emerged in the once polio-free Africa. In March 2023, Burundi announced its first polio outbreak after more than 30 years. The World Health Organization claims that the detection of the circulating poliovirus type 2 portrays the ‘effectiveness of the country’s disease surveillance’. We found that the main reason for the detection was because extremely virulent strains of this vaccine are easily found in water bodies, after a few months of administering the vaccine. For instance Japan suspended using the oral polio vaccine (OPV) for routine immunization for polio. Why? Because after only three months of using this OPV,16 extremely virulent strains of the vaccine viruses and 78 strains in total were found in their sewage and rivers.
Other causes of Polio-like Paralysis
African countries lack access to clean water and sanitation and once the vaccine is administered the virus can be passed through stool and can mutate to cause paralytic polio. Eradicating polio would call for improved sanitation and hygiene, provision of clean water among other things. India’s activists claimed that pesticides and other agricultural toxins, including exposure to lead and arsenic, other neurotoxins, injections and vaccines can trigger polio-like paralysis, hence a thorough and holistic approach is needed to review and eradicate polio not just using vaccines. This is important because Africa has embraced widespread use of pesticides and other chemicals banned in the developing world, thus a thorough analysis and investigation should be conducted before administering the polio vaccines.
Research
Research shows that the OPV is a live vaccine that carries high risks of causing vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) and polio epidemics of vaccine derived poliovirus (VDPVs). Due to these risks associated with OPVs, the world was moving toward using the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). Brazil researchers detected paralysis cases classified as Guillain-Barre’ syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis and facial paralysis confirmed their origin from oral polio vaccine strains that demonstrated mutations known to increase neurovirulence. Nigeria boycotted the polio vaccination campaign in the early 2000s, because the OPV vaccine had been illegally and unethically tested on African children during the eradication program. Also, OPV inserts showed that it had not been tested for cancer causation or infertility and rumors began to spread that the vaccine was laced with anti-fertility agents (estradiol hormone), HIV and cancerous agents. Moreover, the vaccine virus strains are known to lay dormant in the body and cause polio years later after its administration.
Comparing Wild (naturally occurring) poliovirus to Vaccine-derived polio.
Exposure to wild polio viruses rarely ends up causing paralysis. From the three types of wild poliovirus, Type 1 causes paralysis in about 1 in 200 infections, Type 2 was last recorded in late 1990s and Type 3 causes paralysis in only 1 in 1000 cases. So why is it that the vaccine-derived polio is so risky in causing paralysis? Exposure to wild polio virus is actually the best natural immunity against viral polio. It offers permanent immunity to 99 percent of those exposed to it. In India, data showed an increase in paralysis among children even as the polio eradication programme expanded, yet the government hasn’t revealed cases arising from the vaccine. Data shows that OPV vaccinated children are 6.26 times more likely to be paralyzed with a rare adverse effect of OPV causing infantile paralysis. World renowned medical virologist, Indian pediatrician and vaccine expert Dr. T Jacob John described the continued use of OPV as an ‘ethical anomaly’ causing avoidable polio to children. John found that the use of OPV ‘was both inefficient and universally unsafe in spite of its being branded as ‘one of the safest’. John found the alternative ‘IPV to be completely safe and exquisitely efficient’. So the oral polio vaccine risks outweigh its benefits.
Conclusion
It is wrong that cases of polio caused by vaccine viruses outnumber the polio caused by wild polio virus which rarely causes paralysis. The Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) consists of live and infectious viruses, therefore being chosen as the only panacea for eradicating polio is a dangerous mistake. The OPV was discontinued in developed countries, so why is it acceptable for use in Africa? It is unethical to continue the administration of this vaccine. Why is the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) so insistent on the use of OPV-only in Africa? The GPEI is also funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, so your guess is as good as ours!