Polio & US History

[duenor]

I've heard from a few people online that back in the days of polio, the disease did not stop people from living their lives any differently than if there were not. Some have also said that people were not concerned about getting the disease.

From what I find from a bit of searching, however, that does not seem to be the case. Nor do the memories of family members and neighbors who were around in the 40s and 50s. In 1952, the worst year on record, 60,000 got sick and 3,000 died. Unlike SARS CoV2, Polio acts the opposite - it is worst on the very young, while adults are mainly unaffected. It also seemed to spread most easily through water. For this reason, pools and theaters were closed at times during the summer, and states created radio programs to keep kids entertained while be kept cooped up at home. All of these articles are at least several years old, so there shouldn't be any propaganda going on there.

I did some reading up on this, mainly to look at history for some inklings of our our own future. When Jonas Salk declared his vaccine a success in 1955 (a prototype was developed in 1952), it was apparently a major event celebrated across the world. I suspect that when we have a vaccine for SARS CoV2, a similar response will be had. Hopefully, it will be soon.

[plinkr]

I've heard from a few people online that back in the days of polio, the disease did not stop people from living their lives any differently than if there were not. Some have also said that people were not concerned about getting the disease.

From what I find from a bit of searching, however, that does not seem to be the case. Nor do the memories of family members and neighbors who were around in the 40s and 50s. In 1952, the worst year on record, 60,000 got sick and 3,000 died. Unlike SARS CoV2, Polio acts the opposite - it is worst on the very young, while adults are mainly unaffected. It also seemed to spread most easily through water. For this reason, pools and theaters were closed at times during the summer, and states created radio programs to keep kids entertained while be kept cooped up at home. All of these articles are at least several years old, so there shouldn't be any propaganda going on there.

I did some reading up on this, mainly to look at history for some inklings of our our own future. When Jonas Salk declared his vaccine a success in 1955 (a prototype was developed in 1952), it was apparently a major event celebrated across the world. I suspect that when we have a vaccine for SARS CoV2, a similar response will be had. Hopefully, it will be soon.

Whoever makes the vaccine, I wonder if they will give it away like Salk did.

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[capo]

I've heard from a few people online that back in the days of polio, the disease did not stop people from living their lives any differently than if there were not. Some have also said that people were not concerned about getting the disease.

From what I find from a bit of searching, however, that does not seem to be the case. Nor do the memories of family members and neighbors who were around in the 40s and 50s. In 1952, the worst year on record, 60,000 got sick and 3,000 died. Unlike SARS CoV2, Polio acts the opposite - it is worst on the very young, while adults are mainly unaffected. It also seemed to spread most easily through water. For this reason, pools and theaters were closed at times during the summer, and states created radio programs to keep kids entertained while be kept cooped up at home. All of these articles are at least several years old, so there shouldn't be any propaganda going on there.

I did some reading up on this, mainly to look at history for some inklings of our our own future. When Jonas Salk declared his vaccine a success in 1955 (a prototype was developed in 1952), it was apparently a major event celebrated across the world. I suspect that when we have a vaccine for SARS CoV2, a similar response will be had. Hopefully, it will be soon.

Also don't forget that infection by poliovirus is almost always either asymptomatic or causes only mild symptoms, only very rarely do central nervous system complications arise which lead to paralysis (less than .5% of all cases) and most of those cases still recover (CFR for paralytic poliomyelitis is ~10%). Yet after infection people develop lifelong immunity, as a result even before the vaccine most people living in the US weren't susceptible to polio. Only young children who hadn't ever been exposed before were at high risk.

What we're dealing with today is a virus which is at least as likely to cause severe complications, more likely to cause death among that group and virtually the entire country is susceptible to infection. That's a much more serious thing to contemplate as a medical professional.

[duenor]

Whoever majes the vaccine, I wonder if they will give it away like Salk did.

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Sabin's vaccine was far cheaper and in the end, many more children were vaccinated using Sabin's vaccine. In the west, however, it is Salk that we remember, mainly because Sabin had been born in Russia and had ties with Soviet virologists - so his oral vaccine was called the "communist vaccine". Here too, it seems the present reflects the past, I suppose.

In the end, the Sabin "communist vaccine", in oral preparation, is the one that is still used most often today. Salk still got the last word in, though, because Sabin used a live weak virus from a very specific strain that only infected the digestive system (how he was able to isolate that, I have no idea - must've been really difficult). While it is indisputable that Sabin's OPV allowed billions of children to be immunized cheaply, it is an unfortunate truth that occasionally polio cases did occur due to that vaccine because the virus was still live and therefore, rarely, did mutate.

Salk's vaccine used only dead viruses, so had no chance of that. It illustrates a difficult dilemma of ethical perspectives: do you save everyone (the world, really), knowing that some will end up getting ill or dying from that vaccine, or choose the safest vaccine, but be unable to vaccinate everybody due to cost and production time?

[Flyron]

Polio & US History

Sabin's vaccine was far cheaper and in the end, many more children were vaccinated using Sabin's vaccine. In the west, however, it is Salk that we remember, mainly because Sabin had been born in Russia and had ties with Soviet virologists - so his oral vaccine was called the "communist vaccine". Here too, it seems the present reflects the past, I suppose.

In the end, the Sabin "communist vaccine", in oral preparation, is the one that is still used most often today. Salk still got the last word in, though, because Sabin used a live weak virus from a very specific strain that only infected the digestive system (how he was able to isolate that, I have no idea - must've been really difficult). While it is indisputable that Sabin's OPV allowed billions of children to be immunized cheaply, it is an unfortunate truth that occasionally polio cases did occur due to that vaccine because the virus was still live and therefore, rarely, did mutate.

Salk's vaccine used only dead viruses, so had no chance of that. It illustrates a difficult dilemma of ethical perspectives: do you save everyone (the world, really), knowing that some will end up getting ill or dying from that vaccine, or choose the safest vaccine, but be unable to vaccinate everybody due to cost and production time?

[kalashnikitty]

A couple of things about polio:

It was seasonal and struck mostly in the summer.

People did avoid large gatherings especially when there was an outbreak. I remember a family trip to the fair cancelled because of a polio outbreak

Unlike most diseases, polio seemed to hit the suburban, middle class (yeah we had a middle class then) neighborhoods more than the poorer, more densely populated urban areas.

Even if polio did not kill you it could leave you permanently paralyzed. I have friends that to this day can barely walk from polio they had in the 1950s.

When the vaccines came out everybody got it. The shot first then later the sugar cube. Everybody got it at school. There were no permission slips they just lined everybody up and gave them a shot. That was it. No opting out. Same with the sugar cubes.

[duenor]

I had a mild case of Polio as a 5yr. old in 1954. Spent 10 days in Children’s Hospital - San Diego.
I remember going in I was really weak and could not walk at all. Also I was given some new type of medicine by injection three times a day and that it left a foul taste afterwards. But after a week on the medicine I felt better and my legs worked. I started out walking again and was sent home after day 10.
[emoji2]

That must have been terrifying for your mother. 6 months! that's a lifetime for a 5 year old.

[duenor]

A couple of things about polio:

When the vaccines came out everybody got it. The shot first then later the sugar cube. Everybody got it at school. There were no permission slips they just lined everybody up and gave them a shot. That was it. No opting out. Same with the sugar cubes.

Do you remember how your parents reacted when they found out that you'd been given the vaccine (presumably without their permission)?

[ronlglock]

Do you remember how your parents reacted when they found out that you'd been given the vaccine (presumably without their permission)?

Kudos to the school.

[TheGood]

Polio is more insidious than Coronavirus. It attacks children and can leave lifelong complications. CV-19 -mostly- attacks the elderly/weak, and it's just a minor cold to most people. You have about as much risk of dying from the flu or any strong cold with complications than CV-19.

[cleonard]

While I'm sure that there was a fringe of anti vaxxers back in the 50's it was very small. Most everyone saw the polio and measles vaccines in the early 60's as the gifts from science that they actually are. They were well aware of the huge downsides of the disease.

Most everyone is so focused on deaths. It's those who get serious cases, but survive that can have lifelong issues. It's looking like Covid will follow the measles or polio pattern in these cases. Now it's early and we don't really know for sure yet, but it sure looks like we will be having a lot of heart disease, kidney disease, and lung functional issues are a legacy of this disease.

If you die five years later from covid induced congestive heart failure, is it still a covid death? I am more worried about those outcomes than death.

[duenor]

While I'm sure that there was a fringe of anti vaxxers back in the 50's it was very small. Most everyone saw the polio and measles vaccines in the early 60's as the gifts from science that they actually are. They were well aware of the huge downsides of the disease.

Most everyone is so focused on deaths. It's those who get serious cases, but survive that can have lifelong issues. It's looking like Covid will follow the measles or polio pattern in these cases. Now it's early and we don't really know for sure yet, but it sure looks like we will be having a lot of heart disease, kidney disease, and lung functional issues are a legacy of this disease.

If you die five years later from covid induced congestive heart failure, is it still a covid death? I am more worried about those outcomes than death.

It's starting to look like that is very much a possibility. Lack of o2 to organs causes long term damage. I'm really hoping that the reports of organ damage in children is very isolated.

[user120312]

Unlike most diseases, polio seemed to hit the suburban, middle class (yeah we had a middle class then) neighborhoods more than the poorer, more densely populated urban areas.

Back in the day Salk opined this was likely due to, ironically, increased health care and sanitation practices in middle and upper socio-economic classes, where in the poorer regions mothers often were exposed to polio and built up antibodies which were passed on to the infant in utero.

Salk was somewhat of a maverick in the scientific community and got a lot of wrath for it. Hard to argue the importance of his advances in virology though, which continued long after the vaccine he became famous for, though never was recognized by the Nobel for, one clear indicator of how the scientific community regarded him.

[mike.h]

I remember it. They put the medicine on sugar cubes, and we received 3 or 4 of them over a period of time at school.

[kalashnikitty]

Do you remember how your parents reacted when they found out that you'd been given the vaccine (presumably without their permission)?

They were overjoyed that there was a vaccine. You have to understand that in those days you got stuff and some children did not make it. I had measles, mumps, chicken pox and typhoid fever.

The typhoid almost killed me. The only thing good about it was during basic training when we got the typhoid vaccine everybody was sick the next day except for me. My immune system remembered that stuff and disposed of it promptly.

The army did not ask your permission either before they gave you the shots.