General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI had a talk with a more "mature friend" about the .."polio vaccine"
...Something us.."more mature" people might remember..I recall that "polio" was an extremely dangerous disease that no one wanted to get. Not only did it kill, it could destroy one's life for the rest of the time that someone was alive. Some who lived through it, lived in iron lungs for the rest of their lives..
...Today, 60 years later there is no fear of the current virus like there was for polio back then.
..Trump encourages that lack of fear. We all know that. But in the early 50s, polio was clearly a "fear" to all, and when the vaccine was discovered by Jonas Salk in the mid 50s, it was an incredible, and wonderful event that everyone knew about.
...Yes, Donald Trump encourages death and danger. His stupidity and lack of caring for others will always be remembered. The hundred & 20 thousand deaths, or whatever the final number will be, will also be remembered.
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)I remember scary .... commercials?... with iron lungs. Glad thats pretty much gone from our psyche.
Im not as optimistic about a Covid-19 vaccine but heres hoping.
Hekate
(90,538 posts)Dont know when you were born, but I well remember the last great polio epidemic. It terrified our parents, just terrified them. Every single school in the country, when I was growing up, had its share of children crippled for life, using crutches and clunking along in metal braces. For children who couldnt manage stairs and other obstacles or who needed wheelchairs, there were special schools they shared with the deaf and blind.
When the vaccine became available it was FREE, and my family joined others who lined up all around the block to make sure their kids were vaccinated.
The trouble with it being gone from our psyches is that the place where it used to be has been filled with misinformation, ignorance, conspiracy stories and outright lies.
leftieNanner
(15,058 posts)They were offering the vaccines in the elementary school auditorium.
I had a friend in kindergarten who had a mild case of polio and she was slightly disabled. But I do remember seeing the photographs of a room full of iron lungs.
Because so many of these diseases have been erased because of effective vaccines, young people today don't seem to understand that the diseases are still around, but they are protected because of vaccines/herd immunity.
Not so (so far) with the Corona Virus.
I don't trust this current administration if they magically produce a vaccine for this thing before November. Dr. Fauci says it will take longer. I will do all the right things and wait until a fully tested vaccine comes out.
agingdem
(7,804 posts)lining up for a polio vaccine...scared it would hurt more scared of crying...after the shot I was handed a Fudgsicle...made the scary go away...I remember summers were the worst..it was like contagion season...I wasn't allowed to go to a pool or day camp but the summer after first grade it all changed...
Hekate
(90,538 posts)...ballyhooed by Trump. I dont trust this administration as far as I could throw them Trump has corrupted everything he touches.
katmondoo
(6,454 posts)I was 1 year younger then him but never got polio. We were always together. He survived with a damaged left arm but died young from an enlarged heart from the effects of the polio. It took many years before a vaccine became available.
malaise
(268,668 posts)assault on reason, access to communications tools like social media and the belief by the most uninformed that (in the famous words of Isaac Asimov)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'
This profound quote was on DU a few weeks ago.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)It meant no swimming, no county fairs, no big gatherings, no sporting events and constant fear that you would catch it. We all collected dimes for the March of Dimes, which at the time had as one of its chief missions funding iron lungs for kids with polio that would never live outside of a metal tube again, so we certainly knew what iron lungs were and we were scared to death of them. The worst was the summer when the older brother of one of my playmates contracted polio. He was 'lucky', eventually winding up with 'just' a withered leg but that happening put all our parents on Red Alert and we spent the rest of that summer doing practically nothing.
I also remember the relief when we got the first Salk vaccines, given to us on sugar cubes at school. Sabin soon followed with an improved vaccine and now polio is essentially eradicated in the U.S. But it was a formidable enemy and we never poo-pooed it away as some of our fearless leaders would have us do.
Lars39
(26,106 posts)It's like they have no fear of us bringing Covid-19 to them. They're old enough to have heard stories of the 1918 pandemic, lived through the polio outbreak, and all the other horrible stuff, yet they expect us to go see them. Most of the family does go to see them, and they are in hot spots right now. <smdh>
Greybnk48
(10,162 posts)for the good of humanity. He never profited one dime from it. And that was not super uncommon for people to act like decent human beings.
Stuart G
(38,410 posts)Thank You for mentioning this....An idea for another thread for another time & day..
Freedomofspeech
(4,221 posts)We all have degrees from there. Proud of its history.
dmr
(28,344 posts)The line was extremely long, too, so we had a long wait.
I do remember my parents fear. I remember fear from all the adults back then. I had a friend who could barely walk after surviving her bout of Polio. She died in her 20s from complications.
Funny, I was just talking about the Polio fear and its vaccine the other day.
unc70
(6,109 posts)She was in the test group who first got the Salk vaccine. As I understand, she had received the first of three shots and then contracted polio. I'm sure that a bunch of researchers, in addition to her parents, were freaking out. Allegedly she contracted one of the strains Covered by the later shots and was not one who had received the bad batch of the vaccine.
She mostly recovered physically and could walk fairly well and such. Never recovered from being a small child in the polio hospital looking across the hall at a ward filled with iron lungs.
uponit7771
(90,301 posts)ThoughtCriminal
(14,046 posts)Have continued to help speared the disease and undermine efforts to bring it under control.
MuseRider
(34,095 posts)and adults who got polio. I remember my mom being really afraid of it. I was on the late end of it all, got the sugar cube version as soon as it came out. Still, I remember parents of my friends in wheelchairs or using crutches and I have had several friends just a little older who have a pronounced limp from polio.
We all saw the videos of kids in the Iron Lungs, rows of them and it was scary.
We should be afraid of this virus, mainly because our country is going to really really regret letting this happen like it has. It is going to be very hard very soon and last a while I fear. If Donald Trump comes up with a vaccine I will stay in place. I would not trust a single thing from that man or his administration and I believe many of you here feel the same way. At my age it is easier to do and say.
MiniMe
(21,708 posts)Back in the 60's, you took the vaccine orally in a sugar cube.
haele
(12,635 posts)I had just gotten over post-partum Scarletina, about 8 months old or so when they dropped by Mom's old high school to visit with some of her teachers, and one told her of the new Polio vaccine they were trying out on the high school kids, so she, Dad and I all stood in line and got our shots.
This was in 1960.
Dad lost one of his Elementary school friends to Polio; it was a big scary deal back then. And yes, they closed public facilities and warned people to distance and wear masks back then if a cluster of infections started popping up.
Thing is with most diseases those days, people were contact shortly before showing symptoms. With COVID, it's definitely not the same.
Haele
Initech
(100,029 posts)When this could be far less impactful.
PlanetBev
(4,104 posts)The virus swept through the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles in 1951. She recovered after 14 months and I will always be eternally grateful that my father, sister and myself didnt get it.