THIS week, the rich (Bill Gates) and the powerful (Bill Clinton) extolled the
virtues of vaccines. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Gates
marked the start of a global vaccination programme into which he has pumped
$750 million. Clinton urged the development of new vaccines to banish
scourges such as malaria and HIV.
They should give a thought to polio. It is not a new challenge: in fact, the
virus is nearly extinct, a fine example of vaccines at work. But we now face a
tricky endgame
(see page 20).
Ironically, the very weapon that defeated polio…
