The "What A Difference A Disease Makes!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading more and more about the COVID-19 coronavirus and what group my wife and I will be in when it is time to receive our inoculation.  She and I both remember the many other large scale vaccination efforts such as those aimed at eradicating polio.  Polio struck the United States in the 1950s and 1960s when Carol and I were young children in elementary school.  Polio was an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus.  Outbreaks were common around the world, much like the coronavirus is today.  And, Lancaster wasn't immune from the disease.  We were told to constantly wash our hands, don't go swimming in local swimming pools and be vigilant about pest control.  At the time, polio was much like the COVID-19 in that over half of those who had the disease recovered easily with no lasting effects, while others ended up paralyzed or dead.  Back then we also awaited a vaccine to keep us from getting the polio virus.  It was back in February of 1955 that our local newspaper ran a front-page story speculating when the new vaccine, recently developed by scientist Jonas Salk, might arrive in Lancaster.  It was late in 1954 that over one million children around the country were inoculated with the vaccine as part of a trial program and wide distribution was expected sometime in the Spring of '55.  It wasn't until the end of March that the first doses of the vaccine arrived in Lancaster County.  

Parents were sent forms so they could request a vaccination for their children.  And, luckily, most parents returned the letter.  I was in elementary school at the time and I can remember standing in line at Brecht Elementary School to get my shot.  About 95% of my classmates also received an innoculation.  We weren't happy about it, but we all did it.  The virus was slowed down, but not totally eliminated.  Similar efforts in the early 1960's, involving the Sabin vaccine, further cut the numbers to between 100 and 200 cases a year nationally.  By 1979 the state of Pennsylvania had not seen any cases for years until a 22-year-old Amish woman in Franklin County was stricken with the disease in January.  Amish people throughout the state began to worry, since they didn't believe in vaccinations for their children.  Well, when the news came from Franklin County, Amish residents agreed to be vaccinated.  It was in May that Amish leaders gave permission to vaccinate. But, on May 25, a headline in the local paper told of the arrival once again of Polio.  A 34-year-old Old Order Mennointe man was stricken with Polio.  

Eventually the vaccine was given orally

It was the first case since 1963.  Pennsylvania officials urged all residents of Lancaster County to be vaccinated, and plans were under way to set up a series of free locations for the following weekend.  Over the next few days tens of thousands of county residents were vaccinated.  43% of eligible recipients were vaccinated.  The 1979 Pennsylvania outbreak was the last appearance of polio anywhere in the United States.  Now, if only we can prepare and inoculate the citizens of the United States as fast as it was done in the past, we might be able to slow down the COVID-19 virus with hopes of eliminating it totally in a few years.  If it was done before, we should know how to do it by now.  I'm ready!  Have a shot waiting for me this morning down the road in Lancaster, PA.   It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.