Serious question, because I’m not an immunologist: didn’t we eradicate polio? How do we keep finding it in weird places every once in a while? Is it actually just that good at surviving in adverse, ex vivo conditions?
And it’s because the CIA used vaccination drives as cover, which was eventually found out, and of course make people skeptical of American vaccination missions going forward. Genuinely one of the stupidest fucking calls the CIA has ever made - and they’ve made a lot of those (coughIRANcough).
There’s plenty of infectious agents that can just lay dormant almost indefinitely.
There’s major concern about viruses coming from the melting permafrost in regions like Siberia.
If you want to hear something even more terrifying, prions can last about indefinitely. Chronic wasting disease in deer is particularly bad because a deer might die and its remains will decompose into the earth. But vegetation will later grow, and some of those prions will have contaminated the new vegetation. A new deer will get infected by eating that vegetation, even years later.
Just to lessen to concern about the permafrost viruses. Those viruses are frozen since very long ago, and are certainly not adapted to any life as it is now on the planet or especially in the area they are found. Which also means, unlikely to infect a human just because they come in contact.
Of course viruses can adapt, but this basically has a similar risk as the bird flu jumping over to humans. Potentially even less since these viruses may not even be able to infect any lifeforms from the start.
Isn’t that non-adaptation a double-edged sword? Sure, the viruses aren’t adapted to humans. But likewise humans aren’t adapted to these forms of viruses. So while the chances of infection may be lower, the immune system won’t have any adequate answer to it.
But, prions suck. Even bleach won’t kill these bastards.
Hell, although there’s no real, strong evidence to suggest it actually has made the jump, and research has shown it would be really difficult, its probably not impossible. If you ENTERTAIN the stories about the people suspected of possibly contracting CWD, it’s even more scary. (Yes, I know the study does more to disprove human infection, than not, but it does a good job of outline suspected cases)