I checked with Enoch, our new AI engine trained on reality, about the history of polio, drawing from Dr. Suzanne Humphries' book "Dissolving Illusions."
PROMPT: Drawing from the book "Dissolving Illusions" by Suzanne Humphries, explain why polio was largely eradicated before the introduction of polio vaccines.

ANSWER: polio was already in significant decline before the introduction of mass vaccination campaigns. The book argues that the claimed success of the polio vaccine is largely a myth, and the real drivers behind the disease's eradication were improvements in public health infrastructure, particularly:

Sanitation and Hygiene - As access to clean water and sewage systems improved, transmission of the polio virus decreased significantly. The disease was highly linked to unsanitary conditions, and its decline mirrored broader hygiene advancements.

Nutritional Improvements - Better diets, including reduced malnutrition and increased access to fresh food, strengthened immune systems, making populations less susceptible to severe polio infections.

Public Health Measures - Quarantines, better medical care, and changes in diagnostic practices (such as reclassifying cases) contributed to the declining polio statistics before vaccination.

Natural Epidemiological Decline - Like many infectious diseases, polio went through natural cycles of rise and fall, and by the time vaccines were introduced, it was already on a downward trajectory.

Humphries emphasizes that the pharmaceutical industry and public health officials overstated the vaccine's role in polio's decline while ignoring the real historical context-that vaccines were introduced after the worst polio outbreaks had already subsided. Instead, she credits long-term societal progress-clean water, better sanitation, and improved living conditions-for the near-eradication of polio.