Man, you ******* idiots are just too much. So vaccinations are bad. Ever seen a polio epidemic? I have. 1952, I was nine years old, and a family we visited regularly had 4 boys. When we last visited them, one was missing, and we were informed that he was in an iron lung with polio. We moved, and I never heard whether he survived. After the polio vaccines came into use, such epidemics were no more. And the use of the flu vaccines has also considerably lowered the death rate for that disease.
Fear of Polio in the 1950s
Many doctors resented the amount of fuss made about polio, and complained that all of this exaggerated fear diverted attention from more serious health threats. The majority of people who had polio never even knew it. Of those who were diagnosed, most recovered with little or no disability.
In 1952, the worst epidemic year, three thousand people died from polio, while in 1950, thirty-four thousand died of tuberculosis.
[4] In 1957, 62,000 people died from influenza during a notorious epidemic.
[5]Although by this time a cure for polio had been discovered, the chances of contracting and dying from influenza were much greater than the chances of contracting and dying from polio even in years prior to this epidemic. But this line of thinking misses the mark. Epidemic diseases which strike a community at one time are far more alarming than chronic diseases that kill individuals over a number of years. Diseases whose causes are 5 understood are much less frightening than diseases whose origins are unknown. Diseases which attack the young and active are more horrible than ones which strike the weak and old. To many people, there was only one thing worse than dying of paralytic poliomyelitis. One could get the disease and live.
[6]
People who recovered from influenza did so completely in three to ten days. They had no paralysis or respiratory difficulty once they had recovered. Regarding tuberculosis, recovery took much longer than with influenza. In fact, treatment with medication lasted up to a year. But with proper care and effective drug therapy, a person did fully recover. Interestingly enough, it was in 1952 that a drug called Isoniazid was used in treatment of tuberculosis.
[7] These people contracted the disease, recovered, and continued on with their lives unchanged. Some survivors of polio contracted this disease, recovered from the actual illness itself, and continued on with their lives. Only, in contrast to the survivors of influenza and tuberculosis, these polio victims lives' were forever changed due to their paralysis -- a remnant of their battle against polio. This puts people's terror of polio into perspective and makes it more understandable. It was not the disease itself that horrified people; it was what the disease left behind for its victims to cope with in their lives that was so terrifying.
[8]
"What was it like to have polio?" one may ask. Well, many cases have told a story of feeling a little badly for a day or two, but not so badly that they could not participate in their normal everyday activities. But then, a few days later, they would lose all control of their limbs and under a doctor's care were placed in casts or draped in hot packs of wet wool in order to keep their muscles from going into spasm.
[9]
Hospital treatment was still hard to come by in some areas, because not all hospitals would accept polio patients. So, many of the infected had to make do with whatever care and equipment that they could find at home. Although many people who won their battle against polio had no after-effects, there were plenty of people who were left paralyzed with little to help them deal with their new lot in life. The sparse range of braces and crutches that existed were expensive, heavy, and quite often painful to use. Even the wheelchairs at this time were difficult in which to get around. Elevators were rare and ramps did not exist nor did the idea of rights for the handicapped.
[10]
