Some time early in my elementary school years, our school installed a “Public Address System.” The new PA System enabled the principal to make announcements each morning. Sometimes (I’ve forgotten how often) there would also be announcements from kids in individual classrooms. The announcement that I remember, which was made occasionally, was the statement that a member of a particular class had been diagnosed with polio, and that the class hoped that he or she would soon recover.
Some children recovered and came back to school. Others didn’t recover, or came back much later, wearing a brace or using a crutch, after a long stay in the hospital. I remember one boy whose arm didn’t grow after this illness. I remember one girl whose legs were different lengths, and how she was in a short body-cast for months, while still attending school. In retrospect, during their long absence, these kids must have been in some sort of physical therapy, but in the classrooms, we didn’t know any details.
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| Jonas Salk, 1914-1995 |
Above all, I remember the joy with which everyone welcomed polio vaccine, and the gratitude towards the researchers who had developed this miracle.
As a preschool child, I had mumps, measles, and chickenpox. I was lucky and recovered quickly. Other kids didn’t have it so good. Vaccines meant no one had to have this experience. My mother remembered being sick with whooping cough and diphtheria as a child, and always expressed her relief at having been able to vaccinate us.
I’m thinking about this now, as our brilliant leaders are trashing public health requirements for vaccines. They have forgotten what it was like to have kids in your schoolroom disappear for weeks or for months or forever. They have forgotten my mother’s gratitude, and those other mothers’ losses. They have forgotten those crutches and body casts. We’re headed again for tragedy.
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| AI Summary of Polio Vaccine Policy |
Blog post © 2025 mae sander
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