In mid-July, reports began to emerge from the Gaza Strip that polio was detected in the water. Days later, the Gaza Ministry of Health declared a polio epidemic and called for “immediate intervention to end the [Israeli] aggression and find radical solutions” to the worsening public health crisis in the Strip. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children from being infected. But whether Israel would open up the borders to allow the vaccines in remains to be seen. In this episode, host Yumna Patel speaks with Yara Asi, a Palestinian public health expert, about the consequences this latest development could have for public health in Gaza and the world, where most strains of the polio virus have effectively been eradicated. Yara M. Asi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics and Co-Director of the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights. Her work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals, The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, and other outlets. She is the author of How War Kills: The Overlooked Threats to our Health (2024). - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical, independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related U.S. politics. Donate today at https://mondoweiss.net/donate Subscribe to our free email newsletters. Share this podcast Share The Mondoweiss Podcast with your followers on Twitter. Click here to post a tweet! If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Podchaser, leave us a review, and follow the show! Follow The Mondoweiss Podcast wherever you listen Amazon Apple Podcasts Audible Deezer Gaana Google Podcasts Overcast Player.fm RadioPublic Spotify TuneIn YouTube Our RSS feed We want your feedback! Email us Leave us an audio message at SparkPipe More from Mondoweiss Subscribe to our free email newsletters: Daily Headlines Weekly Briefing The Shift tracks U.S. politics Palestine Letter West Bank Dispatch Follow us on social media Mastodon Instagram Facebook YouTube Bluesky Twitter/X WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn