The news that the poliovirus has been found circulating in New York City wastewater fueled a wide range of reactions in city parents on Monday. Some were unfazed. Others were terrified.
Public health officials, however, had a simple message for them: Get your children vaccinated. If they are vaccinated, they are safe.
In South Williamsburg, a largely Hasidic enclave in Brooklyn where the polio vaccination rate among 5-year-olds is the lowest in the city, mothers in playgrounds pushed swings and watched their children play. With only one case found so far, in a Rockland County resident who became paralyzed, several mothers said they thought of the situation as something to watch out for, but not an imminent threat.