Ramesh Farris, a Canadian polio survivor, spoke at a World Polio Day event in New York on Oct. 24 and urged continued vaccination to prevent spread of wild poliovirus. "My name is Ramesh Farris. I'm a Canadian polio survivor. I'm here in New York City on World Polio Day, October 24," he said.

The event highlighted the progress and remaining gaps in global polio eradication. A commenter said, "We have reduced the number of children with polio to less than 50 in the entire world. And from infecting essentially every country in the world, we now have only 2 countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where there is still wild polio virus." Farris added, "Polio is out of sight, out of mind. And so it's a forgotten about disease. People are questioning whether or not to even vaccinate their own children."

Speakers framed the problem as one of waning political will and incomplete coverage rather than lack of an effective vaccine. As one speaker put it, "This is political will problem. We need to come together. We need to reach every child. We have a vaccine that works. We know it works." Farris also warned of the global risk of remaining cases: "It's important to remember that a case of polio anywhere in the world is a threat to children everywhere. And so every child everywhere needs to be vaccinated. So the wild polio virus has no place to go."

There were no formal actions, votes or policy decisions recorded at the event. The remarks were public comments delivered at the World Polio Day gathering in New York City.