Polio Part 2: When We All Got Vaccinated

  

Photo is from Genesis Health

Dear children--Grands and Greats,

    This is a side note to the thing I'm telling you about Doug, but it actually includes him, and it's important that you know what happened to end this epidemic and the fear that was gripping all parents.

    As  is the case with many epidemics, a vaccine happened. In your own lifetimes, of course, when your lives and mine intersected, the COVID epidemic caused hundred of thousand of deaths until a vaccine was created. Joanie was born right in the middle of the epidemic and right in the center of it in New York City. When Luca came along, everyone was still wearing masks. By the time Rafe came into the world, we had seen the worst of it, but we were still getting vaccines and people were still getting sick. Doug had a very bad case of COVID and was in the hospital. I had COVID twice: once with very mild symptoms when Doug was in the hospital and then again, last summer, when I felt really bad, but it wasn't serious.

    Back to the polio vaccine, however.  By the 1950s, there were around 50,000 cases of polio. Although adults did get polio, it was a disease that affected mostly children. What Doug and I remember is this: We re both in high school at the time. I was at South Park High School on Beaumont and Doug was in high school in Denver. It would have been around 1955.  I was in Miss (that's what single women were called then)  McDougal's English class when the nurses walked in with a tray full of sugar cubes. We all lined up and one by one, we were given the sugar cube and the nurse watched while we popped it into our mouths, waited for it to dissolve. and then swallowed it. It was a time of great celebration. I think maybe school was canceled for the day, but I can't be sure about that.  After the vaccine, the cases plummeted.

    But here's what's really interesting. As far as I know, our parents did not have to give permission for us to received the vaccine. I believe it was just announced that vaccines would be given in the schools on a certain day. Of course, they would have gladly given permission. 

    Now back to Remembering Doug.