Ponzo
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2021
The OPV (oral polio vaccine) can spread the poliovirus by (albeit rarely) mutating into a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) and spreading amongst a population that is servery unvaccinated. So it's still ideal for EVERYONE to get the polio vaccine, rather than letting only a tiny minority rely on receiving the OPV:
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Hence why developed countries (the ones I imagine most Kiwis reside in) prefer the IPV, which three doses of it provides the same life-long immunity you correctly noted OPV also provides, though IPV does not prevent transmission:
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WHO/Europe | Disease prevention - Poliomyelitis (polio) and the vacci…
archived 27 Oct 2021 14:33:39 UTCarchive.ph
In conclusion, the polio vaccine is only truly 100% effective when as many people (preferable the entire population) is vaccinated. The OPV's "gut immunity" is great but if everyone else isn't properly vaccinated, then it's all for naught if cVDPV develops and spreads like it did in eastern Syria in 2017 (or indeed the wild Polio virus still spreads among the unvaccinated, as it does in Pakistan and Afghanistan currently).
One can apply the same logic to COVID-19; if virtually everyone gets immunised against it, then its circulation among the population is less severe and it will have less of a chance to mutate (such as that 'Alpha' variant which developed in Kent, England, perhaps in a severely immunocompromised person).
No you can literally not apply the same logic to COVID-19 because in fully vaccinated countries like Gibraltar you had the highest rate of new COVID-19 infections among fully vaccinated people, same goes for Israel.