A Monumental Day in the Fight Against Polio
Neatorama: Sixty years ago today, April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis of the University of Michigan made the announcement that a polio vaccine had been created. The nation immediately celebrated the life-changing news.
3 comments:
I guess I was in first grade then. I remember them lining us up in the gym for the vaccine but that might have been a later one.
Jeff
I remember getting a sugar cube (England, early sixties) for my polio immunization. I never thought I'd see the day when misinformed idiots would endanger their children and the rest of us by refusing to vaccinate!
/Dismounting soapbox now.
One of Kitty's uncles came down with polio when he was twelve. They told his mother that he would never get out of an iron lung. After he did, she was told that he would never get out of a wheelchair, then that he would never be able to earn a living. When he died several years ago he was nearly ninety and had a long career with a high tech company, went everywhere on his two crutches (and several generations learned to walk by hitching themselves up on those crutches), drove a car modified for his disability, and could often be found on a ladder doing repairs to his house.
He had a good life and was grateful that the polio vaccine had deeloped so that so many others did not have to go through what he had.
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