Lessons from the global effort to eradicate polio

The World

You don’t hear about it much these days, but polio ravaged the world for decades. It prompted summer lockdowns in the US and paralyzed millions of people around the world. Enter the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Considered the single largest internationally coordinated public health project in history, it launched in 1988 and continues today. The World’s Elana Gordon reports on how the lessons learned from this massive effort are now being applied to COVID-19.

Will you support The World?

The story you just read is not locked behind a paywall because listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Now more than ever, we need your help to support our global reporting work and power the future of The World. Can we count on you?