This week, on the eve of the World Cup, as some 6.5 million fans from more than 100 countries pour into 16 cities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the Washington Post ran a headline: “The infectious diseases that experts worry could spread during the World Cup.” Public health officials are bracing for an outbreak — but of what? Ebola? Hantavirus? Measles, which has come roaring back to more than 2,000 U.S. cases this year, the most since it was declared eliminated in 2000? A new variant of COVID? Or something we have never seen before?

In this match against an unseen virus, the key to winning against this invisible opponent may lie in defeating a disease most of the world has long forgotten. And the answer may rest with the three athletes you see above — who are part of Team End Polio.

I first met Ramesh Ferris, the man in the center, on Roosevelt Island last year, at a World Polio Day event where what I’ve come to call the “Avengers of Public Health” — leaders from around the world — had assembled to talk about finally eradicating polio from the planet.

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