Posts Tagged: Polio

A Mother’s Lessons on Vaccine Advocacy Not Hesitancy
Today’s epidemic of COVID vaccine hesitancy and resistance among mothers would be something totally baffling to my own mid-century mother. “Hesitant about what?” I imagine her asking incredulously? “Saving their child’s life? Resistant to saving neighbors? Who ever heard of

A Mother’s Lessons on Vaccine Advocacy Not Hesitancy
Today’s epidemic of COVID vaccine hesitancy and resistance among mothers would be something totally baffling to my own mid-century mother. “Hesitant about what?” I imagine her asking incredulously? “Saving their child’s life? Resistant to saving neighbors? Who ever heard of

Big Birds, Big Bees, and Big Vaccines
Thanks to an oversize cartoon bee, everyone was buzzing about a new vaccine in the early 1960s. The Sabine type II oral polio vaccine helped a lot of children in 1962 in part due to the diligence of a happy

Big Birds, Big Bees, and Big Vaccines
Thanks to an oversize cartoon bee, everyone was buzzing about a new vaccine in the early 1960s. The Sabine type II oral polio vaccine helped a lot of children in 1962 in part due to the diligence of a happy

Flies- The Fear Factor
“Listen…..Do you hear it?” “Bzzzzzzz……It’s coming back……a buzzing creeping crawling nightmare of terror…..the return of the fly” That may have been the opening trailer in the 1959 Vincent Price movie Return of the Fly but it was a real-life

Flies- The Fear Factor
“Listen…..Do you hear it?” “Bzzzzzzz……It’s coming back……a buzzing creeping crawling nightmare of terror…..the return of the fly” That may have been the opening trailer in the 1959 Vincent Price movie Return of the Fly but it was a real-life

Lessons From Polio in the Age of COVID
The coronavirus is still on the march. Somehow amidst all the protests filled with wall to wall people, that concern has receded in folks consciousness. We are still far from a vaccine, the only thing that will be a game

Lessons From Polio in the Age of COVID
The coronavirus is still on the march. Somehow amidst all the protests filled with wall to wall people, that concern has receded in folks consciousness. We are still far from a vaccine, the only thing that will be a game

The Validity of Vaccines
Voluntary vaccinations …really? The reality of vaccines is clear. They are safe. They are lifesaving. Those who are venomously opposed to vaccines are clearly relying on Mickey Mouse science. How else to explain the current outbreak of measles – that

The Validity of Vaccines
Voluntary vaccinations …really? The reality of vaccines is clear. They are safe. They are lifesaving. Those who are venomously opposed to vaccines are clearly relying on Mickey Mouse science. How else to explain the current outbreak of measles – that

Panic and Prejudice Go Viral Pt III
Americans are suffering from a serious panic attack, as panic itself has gone viral. Ebola hysteria is spreading faster than the virus itself, creating a climate of fear mongering, misinformation and intolerance. Along with frantic calls for travel restrictions and

Panic and Prejudice Go Viral Pt III
Americans are suffering from a serious panic attack, as panic itself has gone viral. Ebola hysteria is spreading faster than the virus itself, creating a climate of fear mongering, misinformation and intolerance. Along with frantic calls for travel restrictions and

Panic Gone Viral
Scarier by far than any Grimm’s Brothers fairy tale, or even an episode of the Twilight Zone, were the stories my grandmother would tell about the time a virulent polio epidemic swept through NYC in 1916. While war raged over

Panic Gone Viral
Scarier by far than any Grimm’s Brothers fairy tale, or even an episode of the Twilight Zone, were the stories my grandmother would tell about the time a virulent polio epidemic swept through NYC in 1916. While war raged over

A Paralyzing Fear
A pandemic of panic seems to have swept the nation. Ebola fear has gone viral, spreading faster than the virus itself. Fear-mongering in the face of an unknown epidemic is nothing new. The panic and the rampant distrust, the

A Paralyzing Fear
A pandemic of panic seems to have swept the nation. Ebola fear has gone viral, spreading faster than the virus itself. Fear-mongering in the face of an unknown epidemic is nothing new. The panic and the rampant distrust, the

Pools, Polio and a Mid-Century Miracle
Against the carefree fun of a 1960 summer lingered not-so-old fears of Polio. I would have been very happy spending all day in the turquoise tiled pool at my grandmothers suburban beach club splashing about till all my digits puckered.

Pools, Polio and a Mid-Century Miracle
Against the carefree fun of a 1960 summer lingered not-so-old fears of Polio. I would have been very happy spending all day in the turquoise tiled pool at my grandmothers suburban beach club splashing about till all my digits puckered.