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The continued eradication of Poliovirus is a testament to the almost inhuman tenacity of the medical and perimedical community that's dedicated so much of their

The continued eradication of Poliovirus is a testament to the almost inhuman tenacity of the medical and perimedical community that's dedicated so much of their time and professional lives to the issue. There's been a number of other public nuisance / threat viruses that haven't fared so well in recent years. HIV among them; treatment has improved so significantly that the previous risk communication ethos, "avoid risky behaviors or you might die," just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. Transmission reductions have stalled in adolescent to middle-aged groups is still high and over the total population looks to have been stalled for some time.[1] CDC [2] and other reporting numbers show it stalled for most of the last 15 years.

munificent 11y ago
> The continued eradication of Poliovirus is a testament to the almost inhuman tenacity of the medical and perimedical community that's dedicated so much of their time and professional lives to the issue. We see a lot of things like crowdsourcing, crowd funding, and the constant stream of stories like "sick kid gets a million get well cards after plea goes viral". Those are all interesting lessons in the power of the attention of a lot of people for a short amount of time. But I think we forget what is ultimately a greater contributor to human progress: the attention of a few for a long time. You don't need a crowd to change the world. You just need persistence.