Has the world given up on eradicating polio?

A police officer stands guard while a healthcare worker administers a polio vaccine to a child in Peshawar, Pakistan – one of two countries in the world where the infectious disease is still endemic. — AP

The polio juggernaut, which has skidded past eradication deadline after deadline, seems to have finally run out of fuel, suggests an investigation published by The BMJ journal on July 28 (2021).

Journalist Robert Fortner reveals that the World Health Organization (WHO) has already fired 500 staff on the polio programme, “perhaps ending a decades-long, multibillion dollar crusade engineered by some of the most powerful actors in global health”.