SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Polio has been circulating in parts of New York state where vaccination levels are low.
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While overall vaccination levels among California kindergarteners are high, UCSF Infectious Disease expert, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong told KCBS Radio's "As Prescribed" he's concerned that polio has the potential to spread among small, under-vaccinated communities.
"We haven't seen any cases yet in California, but there's a lot of transportation between California and New York, and about 90% — if not more — of people who have polio are completely asymptomatic and can shed it in their stool," he warned.
Vaccine hesitancy has been prevalent in the United States, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. "There's a lot of evidence that vaccine hesitancy, vaccine misinformation is infectious. It's just like a disease," Chin-Hong said. "One person hears it, they give it to another person and then so on and so on."
Parents that might be newly hesitant about vaccinating their kids for COVID-19 could apply that thinking to polio as well, he added, which would open the door for this potentially deadly virus to spread widely.
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