Poster used in the 1950’s to raise awareness of Polio. Credit: March of Dimes Foundation.
The Golden Age of the 1950s and Polio
In the 1950s, America enjoyed an iconic golden age of full employment. Additionally, there was a massive expansion of suburbia throughout the nation and a widening range of entertainment in the form of movies, television shows, and rock and roll stars. Consumer spending peaked, with Americans anxious to buy homes, automobiles, and televisions.
With World War II as a memory, most of the decade enjoyed a time of peace, and we welcomed the birth of millions of children during the era of the Baby Boomers.
The decade also reflected a gradual change in our culture in that Americans enjoyed more leisure time—many images of families showing smiling faces at baseball games, amusement parks, beaches, mountain trips, and much more. To the world, it seemed as if America had finally arrived. Our success was real indeed. We had arrived, but so had one of the nightmares from our past – a disease that had affected many.
Along the way, science struggled to find the correct answers.
Polio in the Early Twentieth Century
Poliomyelitis has existed since human history has been recorded. One of the early cases was that of the famous British writer Sir Walter Scott, who contracted the disease as a baby in 1773, leaving his right leg useless for the rest of his life. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that it evolved into an epidemic.
Virus
Little was understood about the virus and why it could paralyze individuals, causing them to lose the use of their arms, legs, and even the ability to breathe. The modernization of America may have contributed to the expansion of the deadly disease in this nation.
Urban Growth
As urban areas grew, the new communities lacked proper sanitation and sewage management. The actual scientific study of poliomyelitis was a slow process that produced a number of assumptions that turned out to be false.
Contaminated Water and Poor Hand Washing. There was little rhyme or reason as to why some individuals recovered, and others did not. Unfortunately, the numbers were proving that in at least 10% of the cases, sometimes more, the patient died. After much research, most scientists agreed that the leading causes were related to contaminated water or a lack of proper hand washing. The research indicated that small children, usually under 5, were the primary targets.
1909- Doctors Struggling to Advise the Public about Polio
On Christmas Eve, 1909, the Morning Oregonian published a not-so-cheery article, “Physicians Find Baffling Disease: It Has Appeared in Epidemic Form to Scare Doctors.” The article reported that several people had already died in Portland, Oregon, from the disease, and many, especially children, had paralysis in their legs.
Public Health Authorities and the Disease. The medical researchers at that time suggested that although the disease was severe, it was not contagious and that authorities had “no idea” about what was causing it. In less than ten years Public Health authorities reversed their opinion and advised the public that it was absolutely contagious. The consensus of most medical people was that cold weather stopped the disease from developing and during the winter months the public was safe. Later, this was found not to be true.
It was strongly felt that African American children, for unknown reasons, were immune. This notion, along with others, was just flat-out wrong. It was clear that science was behind in its’ understanding of the disease.
1909-1910 – the Competing Diseases of Polio
Science had little understanding of poliomyelitis and advised the public that the disease was not contagious and that the public was safe during the year’s colder months. The following year, the Morning Oregonian ran another article, abbreviating poliomyelitis to polio, stating that medical people now believed the dangers of the polio were exaggerated and blamed the press for “alarming” the public. In the article “Polio Danger Greatly Exaggerated” It cited tuberculosis, pneumonia, influenza, and enteritis with diarrhea as far more dangerous than other infectious diseases. Antibiotics did not exist then, and the vast number of cases of these other diseases quickly made the case that the public had more critical concerns than polio. A few years later, the so-called “minor illness” of polio, reappeared, killing thousands.
1916
On Saturday, June 17, 1916, New York authorities announced an epidemic was flourishing in its community. That year, there were 27,363 cases and 7,130 deaths due to the disease in the United States, with over 2,000 deaths in New York City alone. The names and addresses of individuals with confirmed cases were published daily in the press, and their houses were identified with placards.
The 1916 epidemic created an atmosphere of fear, and eventually, widespread panic ensued. Thousands fled the city to nearby mountain resorts. Movie theaters closed, meetings were canceled, and public gatherings were almost nonexistent. Children were warned not to drink from water fountains and told to avoid amusement parks, swimming pools, and beaches. The nature of the disease, however, remained largely a mystery.
1940s
By the 1940s, science began catching up with polio research and offered the public some preventive tips. The Dallas Morning News published an article (7/14/1946) entitled “Few Simple Rules May Help Lessen Polio Peril”:
* wash your hands
* keep flies away from your food
*Don’t swim in polluted water
* avoid becoming extremely fatigued. This guideline came about because of a 1942 case reported by Time Magazine where a family had six children who received tonsillectomies at one time. Five of the six developed polio, and 3 died. This took place in Akron, Ohio, and was considered isolated.
1950s -The Innocent Suffered the Most
In historic Wytheville County, Virginia, the summer of 1950 is remembered as a tragic and disturbing part of their rural Appalachian history. Ambulance sirens screamed all summer during the widespread polio epidemic in the county. Many times, hearses doubled as ambulances, and after the first fatality, the local funeral director purchased a large number of infant and child caskets, fearing that the deaths would increase. He was right. By the end of the summer, the spread of polio in Wytheville was recognized as one of the most significant outbreaks of the deadly virus, per capita, in the nation’s history.
Clifton Harmon Death sometimes came quickly. The mother of nine-year-old Clifton Harmon said to a newspaper reporter years later:
“He got sick on a Sunday, and we took him to Roanoke (nearest hospital) … By Monday, he was dead.” Southwest Virginia Enterprise, July 24, 1986
Wytheville Families are stuck.
The terrible disease reached deep into the quiet depths of the religious community, and all felt the heartbreak. The Taylor family had four of their six children come down with polio during the summer of 1950. Howard, Danny, Sherman, and Allen became ill in the summer of 1950. Their older sister Bonnie had already contracted the illness in 1944. Two of the Taylor children passed away. Six-year-old Sherman died on July 25, 1950, and his brother Howard survived until 1958.
Archer Family The Archer family was also stricken with polio. Two brothers, Frank and Robert Archer, and their wives and children shared the same house in Wytheville. One family lived in the downstairs apartment, and of their five children, three were stricken with polio. The Archer family living upstairs had two of their three children develop polio. Despite suffering for weeks and months, all of the Archers recovered.
Death
With a population of only 5,500, the town of Wytheville had 184 cases of polio. Sadly, 17 (all children) passed away.
“Polio was a plague. One day you had a headache and an hour later you were paralyzed. How far the virus crept up your spine determined whether you could walk afterward or even breathe. Parents waited fearfully every summer to see if it would strike. One case turned up and then another. The count began to climb. The city closed. ” Richard Rhodes, A Hole in the World
It was abundantly clear that the disease was not only a highly contagious one, but a serious public health issue.
1952 Epidemic
The 1952 polio epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation’s history. Of the 57,628 cases reported that year, 3,145 individuals died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis. The tragic event spread fear throughout the nation, especially in parents. The heightened level of public awareness pressured Public Health towards finding a vaccine.
1955 Epidemic In 1955 it was announced by the National Public Health that American physician Jonas Salk had created a vaccine that was 90% effective in preventing paralysis caused by the disease. Within one year cases dropped by 50%. The last case in the United States was in 1979. By 1995 the disease was considered eliminated in the Western Hemisphere.
Resources:
Thomas J. Boyd Museum, Wytheville, Va.
Eisenhower Presidential Library
National Institute of Health
Archival newspapers noted in narrative
About the Author
I remember the early 50s and the fear of polio. We had to take naps every day to be well rested, eat balanced meals, and keep to the same playmates. One of our friends would ‘disappear’ and no one ever talked about why. I visited the hospital one day and sat next to a young man in an iron lung, he had to time his responses with the pump of the lung and I had to sit in one spot so he could see me in the attached mirrors. I was one of the first to receive the Salk vaccine. Momma was a Public Health Nurse so she made sure I was immunized, both for myself and as an example to the community that the vaccine was safe. I never want to go back to those years. Today, I watch carefully, especially those isolated cases of childhood paralysis that pop up. My fear is that the anti-vaxxers will tip the scales too far and polio will return.
Thank you, Mary, for sharing your personal experience. I appreciate you reading OGAH.
I was born in 1954 and the oldest of 6 and we too had to take naps everyday, which we hated and were told we couldn’t drink from water fountains, and whom we could or couldn’t play with based on our parents perception of who was sanitary or no, etc…we all knew somebody who had had polio… unlike Mary, who seems Carte Blanche on all vaccines, it appears the vaccines in those days were incredibly effective giving mostly lifetime protection as today with the constant jabs and boosters ie Covid shots. I remember in elementary school once a year we would bring our Pennys to school and we would get these little metal badges with a fold over tab to show we had donated… interesting times..
Emmett, thank you for contributing to this article.
It was amazing to see full compliance when the polio vaccine came out. Our school gym was packed with people lined up to get a sugar cube of vaccine. Children first. Parents later— I can’t remember yesterday but those memories are so vivid.
I was a Polio Pioneer in 1952. That shot became life saving for the population. I will always believe in science and research.
I remember getting my shot in grade school and at the same time we got the Smallpox. Our school gave them to us.
My favorite boss’s wife caught it at 10 months old and she was never able to walk. They are such beautiful people! The vaccine wasn’t around when she caught it. One of my great aunts had it as a teenager and had to use crutches and braces the rest of her life. This kind of thing, absolutely vaccinate against!
Had to take a nap everyday in summer….supposed to help keep us safe. Mom had me at the Health Department for the Salk vaccines
I’m so glad I was young enough not to realize how scary this was. I did know a that was paralyzed about my age. I didn’t know that she had polio. Thank you scientists for all the life saving vaccines.
In 1958, I was a 3 year old in the hospital having my tonsils out. I remember there was an older girl in my room who was in a rocking bed. I was a little jealous because I wanted a cool bed too! During the night a number of nurses came in and out checking on her. I asked what was going on and was told to go back to sleep like a good girl. The next morning when my parents came in, they explained that she went to see Jesus.
I was 8 and remember standing in line at the nurses office with my classmates to get our first shot of the polio vaccine. The last one was a sugar cube. When I became a mother I took my babies to the Public Health Clinic to get their shots. Same went for my grandkids who received them when they were babies, too. I suffered through all the measles strains and chicken pox. My grandkids didn’t. Thanks to science!
My mother’s baby sister (my aunt) caught it and died before she was a year old. My mother and her family were quarantined. This was in 1937-1938. The quarantine caused my mother to repeat first grade.
I remember the terror my mother experienced every summer. She had so many rules about what we could and couldn’t do based on her fear around my brother and I contracting polio. My friends mothers as well.
My sister got polio in 1950. She was twelve. She was hospitalized for three months. The girl in the next bed was in an iron lung, and died. My brother and I did not get it. As soon as the Salk vaccine came out, we were first in line. My sister had a weakened arm, but she lived to be 84.
So tragic, I think I remember Balanchine’s wife, a very famous ballerina, danced the night before and the next day came down with it and lost the use of her legs. It was that fast.
My dad was a Dr. My parents had lost two sons before I arrived in the mid 40’s to non-related problems. When the vaccine came out, they were thrilled. And terrified. Yes, I do remember the stress. He vaccinated me. And I was and am fine. And a BIG fan of vaccines.
We used to see an Iron Lung modified to fit into something like a trailer driven around Miami Beach with a boy with polio inside looking out a small window. He was Harvey Firestone Jr. whose family had a mansion on the beach.
So sad.
As a social worker for people 60 and over, I found out one of my clients had Post-Polio Syndrome. I had learned about it years earlier while watching a news story. She was frustrated because her doctor didn’t take her seriously and treated her as if she had made the whole thing up. I was just so angry that her doctor was too lazy to spend two minutes to Google it. I went back to my office, Googled it from a reliable medical site, printed the information, and gave her several copies to give her doctors. She told me later it helped her a LOT.
I remember hearing from my parents how relieved that they could vaccinate us for it! They remember losing friends to polio, and the iron lungs kids sometimes had to be placed in. I am so angry that we have antivaxxers in this country that want to bring us back to those dark days of damaged children from diseases that are preventable now.
It was a terrifying time. Parents wouldn’t let kids play together or go to public places. It was like the restrictions for Covid but self imposed. When the vaccine was ready for us, we lined up in school to get the sugar cube. Hooray, we were free. Several sanitariums with iron lungs were located in isolated places in the Adirondacks not far from where we lived. They had been built to house and care for tuberculosis patients decades before. The lingering fear of being in an iron lung for life was terrible and occasionally haunts my dreams even now at 78!
I remember the scare, was never allowed in a swimming pool. Shots and sugar cubes.
I remember it well. I had a mild case. But as few of my school mates had serious cases and are still in wheelchairs or braces with crutches. Thanks to science, st last a vaccine worked and one really hears about polio anymore. There were no anri-vax parents back then and the vaccine was given in school. Mine was given in a liquid form dropped on a suigarlump. Painless and delucious.
Few anti-vaxers ever refer to those terrible years before polio vaccine!
I was playing with my friend one day and the next day she was in the hospital with polio..we were 8. 1950
My uncle got the vaccine when it first came out in the 1950s. He went to bed and woke up the next day and couldn’t walk. He suffered for the rest of his life with Polio.
My mom got polio as well. It affected one leg. She never let it stop her though.
My brother had polio in 1959. I remember looking at him in the Iron Lung and wondering if he would ever get out. He as “lucky” a year later he was walking with a brace. He only lost permanent use of the muscles in one leg.
I was in the iron lung in 1955. I was 10. My sister also had polio. She was 7.
I remember that from the 1940’s. Everyone was scared. City swimming pools were closed and we tried to stay away from crowds. Thank God for the vaccinations.
I remember the excitement and elation when the vaccine became available. Polio is a terrible disease. The son of one of my father’s friends had contracted it and was in braces and a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He was much older than I and the one thing I’ll always remember about him is his cheerfulness. In spite of his affliction he truly enjoyed life. Or perhaps because of it Holger Hansel
I also remember those days and that fear!
I remember it well. We were kept in all summer and couldn’t swim in our creek. A few friends were so sick and eventually wore body braces. It was an awful time. I relived it during Covid.
Three of my uncles contracted polio. One also had a form of MD. I remember standing in line for the sugar cube with the Salk vaccine.
I was born in 1946, I remember being kept in the house in the summer. My mother was a nurse and had many polio patients. I remember being taken to see the lines of iron lungs in our hospital
I remember the fear of polio. I had a cousin who was crippled. Grateful my mother was strict with us and keeping us home all summer, no swimming or crowds
I was in a test for the Salk vaccine. I taught a classmate what had a mild case to learn to roller skat
My great aunt and uncle’s oldest child got it and died within 24 hours. My grandmother was pregnant with my mother (she was born 6 days after he died) and she had been sitting with him the night he came down with it. They were afraid my grandmother would catch it but she didn’t. It was in 1943.
I was in the iron lung when i was 4. I was lucky. I was 5 went i went home. The polio settled in the chest area. I had several operations but i was able to walk.
I had a friend whose sister had it in the 50s (she was eight years old). She recovered after almost a year and was fine for years. Then it recurred and killed her at the age of 59.
It’s still in the world. Americans are being careless with getting vaccinated. Soon they will understand why it’s so important. Whooping cough is now everywhere.
My mom was a nurse in a polio unit. Her stories of that are sad.
I remember that! My parents were worried sick that one of us would catch it! When the vaccine came out, we were right in line to get it at the public grade school. I wasn’t too sure about it, envisioning a shot of some kind, but was pleased to learn it meant sucking on a sugar cube. I wanted to go back for seconds! Some of my classmates and a high school teacher were not as fortunate!
I remember the Iron Lung but I lost an Aunt just after WWll because she got it they feel when she was overseas during that period as a Navy Nurse. Never got to meet my Father’s oldest sister.
I remember everyone in town going and getting the sugar cubes down at the auditorium. Still have the card.
My sister, and many others in our county, had polio in the late 1940’s. She was in the 7th grade, I was in the 3rd grade. My b.i.l. Was one who had to be put in lung…wheelchair for the rest of his life. Sister only had a dropped foot…the rehab was a long process…cannot understand these non vaccination people. Friends of my parents lost children. Father was already involved with March of Dimes. Then mother and us girls helped do our share.
I remember those days when our parents were so afraid for us kids. I think I was in the fourth or fifth grade when the first vaccine came out. I also remember a couple of kids who got sick and never came back to school and we were told they had gotten polio.
My husband’s mum had it. She raised 4 kids from a wheel chair
The first polio vaccines were administered with BIG needles in the kids’ arms. Mine, for one
My Father got sick on a Friday. That Sunday he could not walk due to polio. Because his family was very poor, my dad had to go to the Univeristy Hospital for treatment and rehab. That lasted 2.5 years, with no family being able to afford to visit him. This was in the 1930’s.
When my cousin was three years old, she contracted polio. She was in an Iron Lung for quite some time,both legs were affected. After finally getting out of the iron lung, she had to have braces and crutches for years. She spent nearly every summer during the school year, getting surgeries on her legs to lengthen them. She finally was able to get to just a half brace on one leg after years of therapy. It was a terrifying time for our family. Thank goodness for the polio vaccine
People today have forgotten these horrible things. Especially the people who are anti vaccine.
My brother had polio as a child. He walked with a limp and was in a wheelchair later in life. He had leg braces as a child. So sad
I am 82 and live through this frightening time, had a cousin in an iron lung for years, a playmate left crippled for life, and endured the painful GG injections that saved so many lives. And I still get angry when I think of those peope who refused to wear a mask during covid and so many of them died … and for what
Looking back I’m glad for the three shots I was given to prevent the disease some in my school class had had and also their parents had had!
My cousin was afflicted and never walked again. He was one of five kids and thankfully, none of his siblings were afflicted. I remember vividly standing in line in our school gym to receive the vaccine. Thankfully, we didn’t have the controversy over vaccines and everyone happily participated.
I remember getting the vaccine orally on sugar cubes at school. I also had a boss who lived with the effects of polio. He wore braces and had a permanent limp. I don’t know why parents are refusing vaccines for their children now. Those vaccines saved a lot of lives over the years
An uncle and a cousin survived Polio. When the Salk vaccine became available when I was in 3rd grade Our health department went into every school, preschool, and well baby clinic and vaccinated every single child for free. You can bet my sister and I were at the head of the line. Absolutely no BS from anyone being anti vaccine. FYI: The very first child to receive the shot was J. Salk’s own child.
I remember that it didn’t always cripple a person totally. I have met people who tell me that they have lasting effects from having had polio at sometime in their lives.
I remember when we lined up at school to get our polio shot!! At no cost I believe. Several students in our school suffered with polio. A young girl in a community near by lived the rest of her life in an iron lung. She learned to paint pictures holding the paint brush in her mouth. We saw her every year at the clothes line fair, at the Prairie Grove Civil War Battlefield park, in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. They have a small medical museum in Lincoln, Arkansas, I believe, and have her belongings on display there. Memories.
All true. Everyone was so afraid
There was a vacant lot with a charming creek running through it in my childhood neighborhood, but my parents forbid me to play there and I obeyed. Four other kids who spent time there ended up with polio. When Dr. Salk first publicly released his polio vaccine in sugar cubes at free distribution clinics, we were at the head of the line!
I remember them lining us up at school to receive our vaccinations. Our parents were happy
I remember being told that we couldn’t go to the park or the pool or pretty much anywhere one summer because of there being polio around
When I was in college, 1972, I paid for my art supplies working as a helper for the most inspiring woman I’ve ever met, Marsha Jaquay. She had polio as a child and was in an electric wheelchair when I met her. She had partial use of one hand and arm up to her elbow and could scoot a bit to assist her movements. She received a college degree, married and had a wonderful son and aas an author. She did everything for herself that she possibly could do and I assisted her with things she could not do. She mopped floors holding the mop handle in her mouth while using her electric chair to push forward! The energy it took must have been exhausting but her independence and love for her family ruled. We had such great times just doing regular routine chores and caring for her son, we laughed and she taught me so many things about love, courage, independence and fulfilling your dreams!
I had a Home Health patient with post polio syndrome. She had polio as a child without many issues. When she was in her 50’s she developed debilitating weakness in her legs. She could stand for only a few minutes at a time
.
The story goes that out family doctor told my mom as soon as he could get the vaccine, he was holding on to 3 doses for my mom for my sister, brother and me. Not sure what year, but my brother was born in 1954, me 1953, my sister 1951..so..I don’t know how old you had to be before you could get it.
My mother was 3 months pregnant with me when she got polio (1955). The doctors told her that I would, most likely, be severely affected or die, but I was totally fine. I was placed in a foster home (our minister) for 6 months while my mother was in rehab.
The virus effected my mothers stomach muscles and right leg. As a child, I remember her strapping on big metal braces that encircled her waist and went down both legs, attaching to special shoes. She’d use metal crutches. It got to be too much ‘bother’ for her, so she switched to a wheelchair full time.
In the 1970’s or early 1980’s, she was part of a study about post polio syndrome. When they heard my story, they wanted to ‘study’ me, also, because they said that very few infants were born who had no symptoms. I declined.
I had it at 2 yrs old, many surgeries later I could walk. When to work in a Hospital on my feet all day, Medical Technologist . Was okay for years but now I can hardly walk as the muscles have become wreaker and weaker. Young people don’t realize how easy, if you don’t get your immunizations for measles and other diseases that were once a thing of the past, you might have a child who dies or is extremely crippled.
My mother got Polio at age three. This was in 1910-1911. She used crutches the rest of her life, took care of our father (dementia) and raised three daughters. Her house was spotless. She baked bread from scratch. She played the piano at church and taught Sunday School. Nothing held her back.
In the early ’50’s I had a school friend who wore braces on both legs with crutches due to Polio. Because of my Father having had it, it was something familiar to me.
Both my parents had polio. They met in a school for children with disabilities especially polio.
I remember it too well.. The fear of getting it & not able to go swimming, because that seemed to be where it was coming from.. When the first Polio vaccine came out, I remember getting the shot & feeling like I could relax again.. Same as I have felt since the Covid-19 vaccine came out.. I just got another Covid-19 vaccination 2 days ago.. It always makes me feel calmer after I’ve gotten the booster..
I remember that absolutely ever one in town was at the school for the polio vaccine.
Police, firemen, whole families. They even closed the taverns. No anti vaccine nuts.
My uncle bud. 1st son out of my Nana’s children my mom was first polio epidemic not sure what yr I never knew him without his braces and crutches but he was my fav out of 5boys 2 girls youngest three yrs younger than me.
Thankful for Rotarians world wide who have worked to eradicate polio! The goal is in sight!!!
I had a friend that had polio as a child. I recently saw an old pic of him as a child in heavy braces. His legs were really messed up even as an older adult.
I was in grade school when they came out with the vaccine. I remember lining up at lunchtime in school when we all got the sugar cube.
Thank God who gives us scientists who can stop such scourges by creating vaccines. As teen I visited an acquaintance imprisoned in an iron lung. An unforgettable experience
My grandmother had polio as a young child in the early 19 hundred she had a dropped foot and had to wear a special shoe but it never stopped her
My grandfather survived childhood polio. It caused him to have one arm that was smaller than the other. Fortunately, he still had use of the impacted arm and hand. I remember standing in line in front of our local high school to get the Salk polio injection, when I was 5 or 6 years old.
Around 1946 my Mom contracted polio. She was 5 years old and was one of the lucky children. She is still alive today
As soon as there was a vaccine for polio, Mom took us in to get it. Then we were allowed to go to the swimming pool every summer. Pools were a way the disease spread.
My uncle was born in the middle 20s and he had it when he was 2 years old. He was crippled his entire life, and he could have been spared if the vaccine was available then.
Elvis Presley was so instrumental in getting people to get the vaccine. He almost single-handedly helped to wipe out polio
I remember going to the high school gym. It was packed with long lines waiting to get the first polio shots. Before the vaccine Mom wouldn’t let us go outside in the heat of the day. They thought getting too hot played a roll. I could kick anti vaxers into next week if I could.
I had polio in 1948. After hard work, we thought I had a complete recovery and I became a professional dancer and ice skater. Turns out the more you use those muscles, the faster their nerves die. I am now permanently disabled because of it
Anti vaxers should meet people who were afflicted. Many of my parent’s friends had it but have since passed. My son in law from Egypt contracted polio as a toddler because he was not vaccinated. He required many surgeries over his lifetime and has lifelong disabilities because of it.
My Uncle Richard was lucky to have suffered “only” one leg shorter than the other and a limp from polio back in the early 1900’s
An excellent reminder regarding the importance of vaccines. Two great books about vaccines: “The Speckled Monster” (about small pox) and “Keep You Safe” by Melissa Hill (a novel).
I took care of a wonderful woman who got polio when she was 10. She lived her life to the fullest even though she was wheelchair bound.
Unfortunately, polio, tuberculosis and measles are making a comeback. If the Republicans get in the White House they plan on doing away with immunizations so it will come back like a vengeance!
My mother was 21 years old with a 18 month old child.
One of my uncles had it way back in the 1920’s. He had a life long limp. It exempted him from the draft in the1940’s. Maybe it saved his life. He could have been killed in the war.
This is the miracle of Immunization! Just picture your child contracting Polio. I’m guessing many of the younger generation can not. It is all a battle against any Immunizations whatsoever. In my mind, I think…what if your child contracted measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and those are the one’s most of my generation all suffered through. Painful, contagious, hard on our immune system, Mother’s health, and sanity. Now let’s add in polio and smallpox. Most have been eradicated by Immunization. Not by your fussing and throwing a fit. Yes, kid’s get feverish, grumpy, and oh my gosh….crying for a day or two. No Mother today wants to suffer with that! You can’t begin to imagine the sufferage of the actual virus or disease. No work for you!!! No babysitter in the world wants a sick child interacting with any other children. That would put them out of business in a heartbeat. I want to try and understand your dislike of any kind of Immunization. As a Mother, I wasn’t thrilled with those day’s of your child screaming with a needle stick. They honestly get over it in a few minutes from a mother’s touch, affection, and love. Yes, they are irritable, fussy, and probably feverish for a day or two. Maybe even several. Their bodies are building immunity. That is what yours, your infant’s, and children’s body’s do while building to protect them in the future. Wake up, read, learn, and try to understand why this is necessary. Or….would you possibly prefer a country with a new found disaster and distribution of ALL these viruses and diseases. So many baby’s and children in the hospital’s. Then worried parents would be throwing a fit about their child’s not instant recovery. And possible transport to a larger hospital. And, God forbid…possible death of….oh my gosh…something they could have been protected from. Oh ya….you are sooo right to protect them from “the jab.” Maybe you can protect them once they are deathly ill!
One of my aunts had polio she walked with a limp, but she never let that slow her down.
My dad had polio as a child. Fortunately, his dad was a doctor, and his mother a registered nurse, and they were able to nurse him back to health
My Aunt Margie got polio and was hospitalized for a very long time. I was seven at the time . She was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. This was eighty years ago.
My father was born in 1926 and as a toddler was struck with Polio…..one leg was left paralyzed
Pray they would have more people like Dr. Salk that would truly work to find a vaccine to cure diseases.
I remember it well. My parents were so happy when a vaccine came out.
Heartbreaking stories. I remember being scared even getting a leg ache. Couldn’t go swimming. Grateful when my brother’s and I got the vaccine
I remember “Polio Summers”
I remember a boy probably early teens would drag himself up the sidewalk by his arms,it was so sad to watch.
Music legend Neil Young is a survivor
Brother and I received the vaccine on a sugar cube.
I remember the noise the Iron Lung made.
My dad and one of my uncles got polio when they were kids and it had lifelong effects.
My aunt passed away from polio on 1951 she was 12 yrs old.
I’ve had an anti-vax twit tell me that polio was a myth and all the symptoms and suffering were caused by DDT exposure. I am so very tired of anti-science lies.
It was a terrible disease I really don’t want to see it back anti taxes have no idea, if you want your child to die a painful lingering death this is it
I remember it well. A friend of mine had it. We were little. It was terrifying. I gladly got my sugar cube. Anti-vaxers Don’t get it. People who forget history…Do you think they get their pets their rabies and distemper shots? I wouldn’t care if it was just them, but what they do affects the rest of us. Children and us old people.
My dad had polio when he was a child. Fortunately, it only affected his forearms and shoulders. He had big scars on his shoulders and told me that’s where the Indians shot him. We were very lucky to have him.
I remember…it was a scary time for us kids!
The scary thing….so many have turned against vaccines, how many horrors will return. We were so glad to get that vaccine. And the one for smallpox
I had 4 friends who contracted polio. One was in an iron lung. She survived but loss the use of her legs. As a Senior Citizen, it reoccured & she became paralyzed again & caused her death .
My husband contracted polio when he was 3. In 1953. He was in the hospital for months. Only his parents could visit. No siblings. He was one of the lucky ones. Affected his left leg. Shorter and muscle atrophy as he grew. Kept up for years, but as we both are aging, he is in his 70s now, it’s taken a toll on him. Physically with mobility and pain. And not one dr can actually treat it as a long term result of polio. All try to explain away with other reasons. They just don’t know. They never studied what the long-term affects would be. No research. Nothing.
I had two class mates that had to wear the leg braces because of polio
I woke up one day and legs were hurting. I was taken to hospital in Detroit. The doctors thought it might be polio. This is the test I had to endure: I was laid on my side and needles were injected in my spine in order to withdraw spinal fluid, no pain killers or being put to sleep. I was 10 years old. Fortunately, it was not polio.
I’m 75 I remember kids having Polio,could not walk or play!
I remember getting a shot and a sugar cube at school in 1960.
What caused it??? I heard the apple orchards used toxic chemicals
These comments are heartbreaking. Anti vaxxers are so stupid
I remember this, I went to school with kids who, at best, limped…many wore braces, used arm crutches. Then there were the kids I didn’t know, because they weren’t there to grow up
I remember eating the sugar cube. Scary times for people.
I remember getting the shot at school. We also got smallpox vaccine at school. My scar is all but invisible now.
Many summers we weren’t allowed to go anywhere there would be a concentration of people or groups indoors. No movies or going to public pools made for a long summer. When the vaccine became avaliable every child I knew received it. Parents were ecstatic that it was available
If Kennedy were in charge of the health system. Millions would due from his incredible warped views on vaccines & healthcare. This is a scary very troubled individual.
I remember being cautioned as a child to avoid cold water, sitting on a cold surface such as concrete in order to avoid polio. I was in 4th grade when the mass vaccination of grade school children began. What a relief it was to have protection against this disease.
Us Boomers were the first generation not to worry about getting polio
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Whooping cough was bad back then too…and pneumonia…
The shot was the first vaccine by Dr. Salk. The sugar cube doses came later by Dr. Sabin. The second vaccine was an upgraded version. Those of us who got the shot were encouraged to get the Sabin vaccine as weĺl.
My neighbor and his brother were invited to a birthday party. The birthday child had been running a fever that day, but the mother went ahead and had the party. Both brothers came down with polio as well as other kids
To some the vaccinations were just as scary as the disease. My Dad wouldn’t let us get the vaccines when they first came out
If I’m correct we were given the treatment on cubes of sugar weren’t we? I remember getting vaccinated as well.
My mother was so happy she cried when the vax became available. Thats how terrified she had been.
Had a 3rd grade classmate get polio and fortunately recovered. We were so glad to line up for polio vaccines in 1955
I, too, remember the excitement when the vaccine came out. I knew only one anti-vaxxer, and oddly, he had a medical background! He refused to let his daughter take the vaccine. She contracted polio and died, and he never got over the guilt.
I have a cousin who limped after she had polio. Now, she is suffering from bone deteriation in that leg. From the affect of polio. Polio has long-time effects.
Thank goodness for the vaccine!!!
I remember the trials they did in the schools. 3 years in a row. We were lined up and herded like cattle through the shot line. I can still remember the smell of alcohol, kids crying, scary times
I grew up in the 40s and 50s. I remember the polio scare very clearly! We couldn’t go swimming, or “congregate” in groups, and every little neck ache or headache was cause for fear.
Something else that isn’t talked about very much is that of the ones who contracted polio before the vaccines, and appeared to recover with little or no after-effects, is that many years later, a number of them had what seemed like another attack of the disease, and left some crippled from this second round.
My grandfather was a polio victim and spent years in an iron lung with withered legs that eventually had to be amputated from the knees down due to gangrene.
My godfather caught it in the ’50s. It really never stops advancing. Ever. You only get weaker and weaker as time goes by – if you’re lucky enough to get out of the Iron Lung – and then you die. Nobody even knows how to care for Polio patients any more. Yes, even doctors. I looked and researched just a few years ago. Nope. Rotary has nothing for handling the surviving patients. They do distribute the vaccinations worldwide, but there’s no support for long-term patients.
I was one of the first to receive the polio vaccine when I lived up on Troy Hill, and we got the shots in the classroom. They were doctors and nurses All in White and the needles were so long.
Little girl in front of me I don’t know her name but her arm was so tiny and they gave her their shot and I’m standing right behind her I step up and I get my shot. There’s very little in the way of preparation for us you know told what was going to happen or what to do or anything. We end up walking back to our class which was down the hall and to the left, my sister was in my class so they were two classes in the same room. The little girl who sat in front of me passed out. They took her to the cloakroom and later on the floor there and of course one of the doctors came nurses to check on her. And then moments later I passed out I wake up in the cloakroom. I hadn’t breathe from the time they gave me the shot and I walked back the hall and sat down in the classroom. Pittsburgh , Pa.
My aunt had polio at 10, just a few years before the Salk vaccine came out. A “mild case” which mostly affected her right arm. She is now in her early 80’s and has had painful post-polio syndrome for years
Too bad we failed to learn from that tragedy. When Covid came to our country, the weak refused to be immunized and wear a simple face mask. That led to refrigerator trucks full of our dead, while our “leader” said it would just magically disappear.
One of my friends contracted polio as a child. It recurred in her sixties.
It will come back with all the antivaxers out there…sad
I remember the fear of those years! Everyone knew one or two people who contracted the disease.
I vividly remember the fear. Three neighbor kids got it, had to use braces for the rest of their lives.
Going to UTEP in 70’s seeing kids across the Rio Grande showing the effects from polio In Mexico. Thankful for public health services in 50s & the sugar cube vaccines!
I remember the day I received my polio vaccine. I was in grade school and we all lined up for the county nurse to give us a shot. In later years it was a sugar cube.
My sister caught polio in 1957 and was hospitalized. She caught it from a local public swimming pool. Our house was quarantined for weeks intil she came home, polio free. She recovered, thank God, but still suffers from the effects of it today at 80 years old.
My Uncle was a ‘Polio Pioneer ‘ . He was an early test recipient of the vaccine!!!!
I remember getting the polio vaccine when I was very young. I can’t comprehend what would have happened if we had had all these anti-vaxxers back then.
I remember the tail end of the polio epidemic. Movie theaters and public swimming pools were closed down and when I asked why it was explained in somber tones. And then one day my mom told me they’d signed me up to be a Polio Pioneer, to get the three injections that the doctors said would keep me from ever getting it. Of course we still got all the “minor” childhood diseases: chicken pox, mumps, both kinds of measles. It was sheer misery every time, and when I hear the foolishness from today’s anti-vaxxers I just want to smack the stupid out of their heads!
It was a time full of fear. The vaccinations providing protection were such a relief for families.
Jonas Salk never patented or sold the rights to the vaccine. He believed it was too important to withhold from ANYONE.
Apparently some people didn’t get the hint on vaccinations from that so they made the rest of us suffer through covid
Too many people today do not remember that we had numerous illnesses that could kill or cripple. We have vaccinations for many of them, like measles, whooping cough, and mumps, but babies are vulnerable to severe illness and death because they are too young for vaccination. They depend on herd immunity to protect them. Every year a few babies die from whooping cough.
Too bad the anti-vaxxers won’t read these stories.
I ,for one,am Eternally Grateful that the person that found the serum to build our immune system through injection, and thus making it a mandatory first childhood inoculation ,did not want to become a billionaire !!
He did it to help humanity out ,
Unlike the folks who “thought” they found an inoculation to “beat Covid .
Yes Polio is becoming greater where war is destroying hospitals
According to many conservatives, it actually didn’t exist because viruses aren’t real. Everything we call a virus they claim is a bioweapon. Even smallpox which was around well before we could make bioweapons. We used smallpox to infect native Americans but not because we knew how to manufacture it in a lab. Same with polio. It was an incredible advancement in vaccine science when they finally got it .
I remember how afraid my parents were and they eagerly signed my sister and I up to be polio pioneers when the Salk vaccine became available
Thank the Lord that the scientist discovered what caused polio and that he developed a vaccine to keep us from getting it. Horrid disease
I remember those days. I was ten years old when it affected some people I knew. Really sad and so scary. Took quite a long time for the polio vaccine to be invented and approved.
At least our country was smart enough to go for the vaccine 100% and get rid of this disease.
The boy across the street ended up in an iron lung and just a few doors away another boy had his legs paralyzed. Note to stupid anti-vaxers, the polio vaccine saved many lives.
And a vaccine stopped it. Now people don’t want to vaccinate their kids.
I remember when the Salk vaccine came out. My mother marched all 7 of us down the block to the doctor and got us vaccinated.
I met the last person to live in an iron lung. If you saw him, you would never hesitate to vaccinate. He just died this past spring
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/…/Paul_Alexander_(polio…
Before the Salk vaccine, the first batch of vaccines didn’t work and many were harmed for life. That made people afraid. I remember as a kid standing in line for the pink sugar cube and the moms talking about if they were doing the right thing, and they finally decided that they were because being alive and disabled was better than dead or life in an iron lung. African Americans are hesitant to vaccinate because historically they have been used and lied to as medical guinea pigs. Read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and be horrified by this biography.
Sadly not enough research had been done to help people in their older years with post polio health issues. Can’t even find a dr that’s heard of any help.
My mother and grandmother were Polio Epidemic volunteers. I remember my mother waking me up during the night and asking me to touch my chin to my chest—bend my neck. Afterwards, she would kiss my forehead and tell me to go back to sleep. Not being able to do so was a sign of Polio.
Immunizations eradicated that horrible disease! Trust science!
Polio struck Franklin Delano Roosevelt, paralyzing him forever from the waist down, in a wheelchair… he was born into
Wealthy family. He did go one to be president for nearly 4 terms, his heart and brain were good. He is rated no.2 of all presidents,after Lincoln, by noted historians. Gave us help and hope after the Great Depression, ( Like Social Security and Jobs, also housing those homeless…And Took Europe to Victory with Churchill…against invader,Nazi, Hitler.. in WWII.
My great uncle was born in ’26. He had infantile Polio. He was young and and his mother died within six months of giving birth to him. They were boarded in an orphanage while my gg grandfather worked to support his family. I never heard the details. One leg and foot was smaller than the other. Being poor and frugal, he picked out the two different shoe sizes from the box to match his two different sizes of feet. He’s only been gone less than ten years.
I’m old, vaccines saved millions of people. Millions more died or were stricken with disease. Then we got vaccines for them! And then some person from Europe decided to start lying and poured doubt all over our progress against killer diseases! People believed the lies even after the person was found to be lying and had no proof at all! But the brainwashed just kept up the lies!
My parents so glad we all got the polio vaccine, good grief, students in our school had it, 1950’s! How stupid are parents who don’t do that now? Have to be idiots, should not be parents! Or have pets.
the polio vaccine was the savior of generations since this. So many died or were crippled or left lying in an iron lung from this plague. Elimination of the risk of polio was huge!
And then there is post polio syndrome. There already is post covid problems. Antivaxers are just plain stupid.
Fortunately, there weren’t many anti-vax conspiracy nuts out there when the polio vaccine became available. No one that I recall objected to all school children lining up first for the shot, then later for the oral version.
My brother came down with polio about a week after getting the vaccine jab in school. Daddy didn’t allow us girls to get the jab and we never got polio.