Polio

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Polio Objectives

Provide information on polio including transmission, symptoms, and why it is close to being eradicated from humans.
Explain how COVID-19 may impact different human groups.
Describe what science literacy is and how it relates to this course’s nine outcomes.

Polio, like Smallpox, is a disease that has impacted humans world-wide for thousands of years. However, even though we have an effective vaccine and have tried to eradicate polio since the 1980s, some cases still exist. This is a story of resources, medical infrastructures, and conflict.

This video provides a context for the battle against poliovirus.

You can select the closed captioning “cc” option if you would like to see the text.

In 2019, the number of “wild” polio cases (cases not related to symptoms after receiving the vaccine) dropped under 100 cases. However, the cases rose to over 200 in 2020. Conflict, the covid pandemic, resistance to vaccination programs, and limitations in medical infrastructure hampered vaccine distribution. In 2022 cases dropped to only 22 people in two countries, you can read more here.

COVID-19 and Inequality

Q. Why are certain people, older and with pre-existing conditions, more likely to develop severe covid after viral exposure?

A. Excellent question, and one still under research. There are most likely numerous reasons for discrepancy related to age, including less immune response or delayed and inappropriate immune response. One area under research is the process of a “cytokine storm,” a release of the chemicals from wounded cells that trigger an inflammation response. Too much inflammation can lead to too much blood leaking from vessels, organ failure, and shock. Another issue is untreated or poorly managed illnesses confounding the effect of the virus, which may be significant in people with chronic illnesses or lack of sufficient health care.

Q. Why did wealthier countries initially have more coronavirus than other countries?

A. At first there were many hypotheses for why cases were increasing in the European Union and the United States, but not countries with a less-developed medical infrastructure. However, cases subsequently rose dramatically in many countries, including Brazil and India. The delay may have been due to a number of factors including less direct transportation with the original outbreak location, fewer elderly individuals concentrated in nursing homes, and limited population testing leading to under-diagnosis. Unfortunately the virus ultimately spread throughout the world.

This photo of a COVID-19 victims funeral in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) was taken in April of 2020. Follow the global impact of this disease through updates from the World Health Organization.

Literacy has traditionally meant to be able to read and write. The term science literacy means something different: understanding science. In the context of COVID-19, science literacy has taken on a new urgency as misinformation arises and needs to be evaluated.

Science literacy is broken into three components that will seem very familiar to you at this point: the concepts, skills, and connections outcomes you are filling in for your final portfolio.

Science Concepts

Characteristics and themes of science knowledge

Science Skills

Techniques for discovering the natural world

Science Connections

Links between science and society, including real-world applications

Whether it is physics, chemistry, or other science, you will have concepts, skills, and connections.

Courses focus on more specific levels of knowledge. For example, this is a biology course, but it is impossible to introduce all of life in 10 modules, so there was further focus on human biology. Each level of focus still includes concepts, skills, and connections; so that gave this course three levels of focus and nine total outcomes.

Outcomes

Some aspects of science literacy are used repeatedly, including knowledge about local species, skills involved in treating a cold, or recognizing science icons like the DNA molecule in popular culture.

In constructing the final portfolio for this course, you are demonstrating aspects of your science literacy. The portfolio could also be a start of further science adventures.

The next section discusses the significance of new vaccines.

Check your knowledge. Can you:

provide information on polio including transmission, symptoms, and why it is close to being eradicated from humans?
explain how COVID-19 may impact different human groups?
describe what science literacy is and how it relates to this course’s nine outcomes?