Polio is Only a Plane Trip Away by Past District Governor Bob Rogers
Our speaker for Thursday, November 3, 2022, was Bob Rogers, past District 5130 Governor (2017-2018). Bob’s topic was Rotary’s Efforts to End Polio, a topic with which he is extremely familiar as a polio survivor. Bob joined the Rotary Club of Sebastopol in 2007, was Rookie Rotarian of the Year, joined the District’s PolioPlus Committee, and was Rotarian of the Year a few years later. He is a past President of his club, became an Assistant Governor, and then District Governor. As our DG he collaborated with others, including Peter Hoberg, to establish “Pedal 4 Polio,” a project for a 350-mile ride from Crescent City to Petaluma. Bob and Peter (and others) raised $140,000 for polio eradication efforts! Bob is now the District 5130 Polio Chairperson.
Bob gave us a great summary of the status of polio eradication efforts. At the beginning of 2022, Bill Gates reported that the world had never been as close to eradication as it was at that time. Unfortunately, 29 new cases of wild polio have been detected in 2022 so far, including 20 in Pakistan, 2 in Afghanistan, and 7 in Mozambique. The Afghanistan and Mozambique cases appear to have resulted from Pakistani travelers. The increase in polio cases in Pakistan can be attributed to vaccine disinformation, violence against polio workers, and recent floods. Campaigns are underway to fix these problems and increase the vaccination rates. Bob also described the “vaccine derived” polio problem. “Vaccine derived” refers to a strain of the weakened virus contained in the oral vaccine, which can, in rare conditions, revert to a form that causes illness and paralysis. This isn’t a huge issue in the U.S. because we’ve exclusively used the inactivated poliovirus vaccine since 2000. However, it can be a problem in under-immunized communities. There have been 1,113 cases of vaccine derived polio in 2022 to date. One case came from Rockland County, New York and there have been instances of this form of polio in sewage samples in New York City and surrounding boroughs.
The great news is that at the 2022 World Health Summit in Berlin leaders pledged $2.6 billion to secure funding for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The goal is to secure $4.8 billion in pledges. Rotary International was the 2nd largest donor at the Berlin Summit! More good news: the Polio Plus Society, which was started in District 5130, has just been approved as an official program of the Rotary Foundation! Bob also thanked and awarded 9 club member for their contributions to polio eradication by joining the Polio Plus Society: Marty Behr, Ralph Harryman, Harry Coffey, Scott Holder, Roy Johnston, John Jones, Paul O’Rear, Penny Millar, and Randy Seelye! Members of the Society have agreed to give $100 to the Foundation each year until polio is eradicated. Finally, don’t forget that November 29 is Giving Tuesday, a great time to donate to help conquer polio!
Thank you, Bob, for the terrific update. And thank you for your many years of Rotary service and terrific representation of our District.
Click HERE to view the presentation for a limited time.
