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I was born in 1948 and was given that polio vaccine on a sugar cube in school. I think I was in 1st or 2nd grade. Young but still old enough to remember it. In HS when the measles vax came out. Nurses did not give that vax to those who already had measles. Think they should have anyway?
I remember watching all those Jerry Lewis March of Dimes Telethons showing the kids with polio, but there were no kids in my school, elementary or HS, who had polio. Don't remember seeing kids with braces on the subways. Parents did not want their kids to get pushed or shoved on the trains? Maybe their parents took them around in cabs instead? I do not know.
Obviously, I never came into contact with a child who contracted polio before that vax came out. Just more luck? My parents liked Jerry Lewis and watched that telethon all the time. They did seem scared at all to me. They laughed at his jokes. They were not in a panic over polio. Come, this was NYC with millions of people all around. LOT of potential diseases. If parents were so deathly afraid of diseases all around, they could have just moved out of NY. It comes with the territory, just like crime.
Absolutely, NOBODY was terrified of their child getting measles, chicken pox, or the FLU, back then.
The oral Sabin vaccine did not even enter trials until 1957. Perhaps your memory is just not very good at all, and how many first graders would be observant enough to pick out polio survivors in a crowd? Those who were in iron lungs were obviously not riding the subway.
"When Dr. Jonas Salk announced he had developed a new vaccine for polio that year [1954], Dr. Baumgartner arranged for the vaccine to be tested in New York City, which suffered polio outbreaks nearly every summer. More than 40,000 New York City schoolchildren received the vaccine as part of a nationwide field trial. Tests having proven the vaccine effective, by 1955 Dr. Baumgartner made polio vaccination a regular part of the school health program and initiated aggressive polio vaccination campaigns among adults. By 1960, New York had become virtually polio-free."
"The polio epidemic of 1952 is notable because serious outbreaks occurred in all of the forty-eight states, and in the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico."
"By then [1950s], polio epidemics were second only to the atomic bomb in surveys of what Americans feared most. Bomb and virus alike were terrible agents of destruction that might arrive at any moment to devastate a family, a community, or an entire nation. The disease seemed like an omnipresent threat, and its cure became a national responsibility. Epidemics struck other countries, but never as heavily as here. America was the center of polio, and the place where people knew they must work first, and fastest, to end it. They gave their time and money to help the growing swell of victims and to find a way to stem the rising tide of injury. When the call came, they even volunteered their children, millions of them, to test a new vaccine. The fear that had once driven Americans apart was now the force that pulled them together."
Yes, Jo, there was polio in NYC and it scared people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jo48
My Dad was born in 1919 which meant that my Grandma would have been young and pregnant with him during that 1918 Flu. My Uncle was a 2 year old then. My Grandpa was a Manhattan Trolley Car Conductor. Never came into contact with anyone in NYC who had the flu in 1918 with that occupation? Bring it home to his wife and kids? What are the odds? From what I have read, that flu hit the MidWest harder than the Big Cities on the East Coast.
The 1918 flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide, four to five percent of the population. No big deal, eh? About 30,000 of those were in NYC, out of a population of 5.6 million. About one in four people caught it (average years only about one or two in a hundred get it). Being exposed does not guarantee getting sick.
I was born in 1948 and was given that polio vaccine on a sugar cube in school. I think I was in 1st or 2nd grade. Young but still old enough to remember it. In HS when the measles vax came out. Nurses did not give that vax to those who already had measles. Think they should have anyway?
I remember watching all those Jerry Lewis March of Dimes Telethons showing the kids with polio, but there were no kids in my school, elementary or HS, who had polio. Don't remember seeing kids with braces on the subways. Parents did not want their kids to get pushed or shoved on the trains? Maybe their parents took them around in cabs instead? I do not know.
Obviously, I never came into contact with a child who contracted polio before that vax came out. Just more luck? My parents liked Jerry Lewis and watched that telethon all the time. They did seem scared at all to me. They laughed at his jokes. They were not in a panic over polio. Come, this was NYC with millions of people all around. LOT of potential diseases. If parents were so deathly afraid of diseases all around, they could have just moved out of NY. It comes with the territory, just like crime.
Absolutely, NOBODY was terrified of their child getting measles, chicken pox, or the FLU, back then.
Well, I was born in 1949, and my husband in 1948, so we are your contemporaries. Suzy addressed the issue of the polio on sugar cubes. The "Sabin Sundays" were in 1960, when you were 12 and I was 11. Sabin Sundays and the oral polio vaccine, University of Cincinnati
Suzy also addressed parental fears about polio. It's possible you were seeing all this from a child's perspective. After all, the biggest outbreak in the US was in 1952, when you were four. I found a letter from my mother to my grandmother from about 1950, expressing concerns about polio. Like you, I did not, as a child, know anyone who had polio. I have met a few people in later life who had childhood polio, including the president of the company DH works for. DH had a cousin who died from polio in the early 50s, possibly in that big outbreak in 1952.
There is no need to vaccinate a person who has had a documented case of measles. This has been stated many times.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jo48
My Dad was born in 1919 which meant that my Grandma would have been young and pregnant with him during that 1918 Flu. My Uncle was a 2 year old then. My Grandpa was a a Manhattan Trolley Car Conductor. Never came into contact with anyone in NYC who had the flu in 1918 with that occupation? Bring it home to his wife and kids? What are the odds? From what I have read, that flu hit the MidWest harder than the Big Cities on the East Coast.
I never heard of any family members who had the flu in 1918, either, and the way my parents liked to tell family stories, I'm sure I would have if anyone had had it. But I don't get the point? The flu epidemic of 1918 is a historical event.
My Dad was born in 1919 which meant that my Grandma would have been young and pregnant with him during that 1918 Flu. My Uncle was a 2 year old then. My Grandpa was a a Manhattan Trolley Car Conductor. Never came into contact with anyone in NYC who had the flu in 1918 with that occupation? Bring it home to his wife and kids? What are the odds? From what I have read, that flu hit the MidWest harder than the Big Cities on the East Coast.
The Great Flu of 1918-1919 had some unusual characteristics. The group that was hit the hardest by it tended to be young people from about 18 to 25. Years later, epidemiologists concluded that many died simply because at that age your immune system is particularly powerful. It was the vigorous reaction of the immune system that made the flu fatal for many. Older and younger people with weaker immune systems actually tended to survive the influenza more easily.
Most of the deaths from the Great Influenza occurred in the East in the more densely populated cities of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. For some reason, that still hasn't been explained as the virus moved West it tended to weaken. It became less and less of a threat as it moved into the mountain states and the Pacific states. Mortuaries filled up with bodies. People stopped going to funerals. In many cases, funerals were skipped entirely because of the potential for spreading the flu to other people. The flu struck before World War I ended and the director of the selective service made a decision entirely on his own authority to stop the military draft because it was serving as a mechanism to spread the disease.
The Great Influenza by John Barry.
Many people think that in these modern ages there is no potential for having an outbreak of influenza that would be anywhere near that serious. Barry pretty much proved in his book that that notion is nonsensical. Basic epidemiology was understood even back in 1918. Medicine had left the Dark Ages in the late nineteenth century and many advances against infectious disease had occurred by 1918.
The reality is that the "right" strain of flu could be extraordinarily lethal in crowded cities all around the world. Its probably more a question of when it happens than if it happens.
You can continue to tell everyone that you are Superwoman and that no one in your family needs a flu shot. However, whether or not that strategy really works for you or not, the point is that it won't work for average people.
I strongly encourage everyone who has not had their flu shot yet this year to go get it. Since I've been taking the shot, I've had influenza exactly once in the last twenty years.
Last edited by markg91359; 10-06-2015 at 08:18 PM..
The Great Flu of 1918-1919 had some unusual characteristics. The group that was hit the hardest by it tended to be young people from about 18 to 25. Years later, epidemiologists concluded that many died simply because at that age your immune system is particularly powerful. It was the vigorous reaction of the immune system that made the flu fatal for many. Older and younger people with weaker immune systems actually tended to survive the influenza more easily.
Most of the deaths from the Great Influenza occurred in the East in the more densely populated cities of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. For some reason, that still hasn't been explained as the virus moved West it tended to weaken. It became less and less of a threat as it moved into the mountain states and the Pacific states. Mortuaries filled up with bodies. People stopped going to funerals. In many cases, funerals were skipped entirely because of the potential for spreading the flu to other people. The flu struck before World War I ended and the director of the selective service made a decision entirely on his own authority to stop the military draft because it was serving as a mechanism to spread the disease.
The Great Influenza by John Barry.
Many people think that in these modern ages there is no potential for having an outbreak of influenza that would be anywhere near that serious. Barry pretty much proved in his book that that notion is nonsensical. Basic epidemiology was understood even back in 1918. Medicine had left the Dark Ages in the late nineteenth century and many advances against infectious disease had occurred by 1918.
The reality is that the "right" strain of flu could be extraordinarily lethal in crowded cities all around the world. Its probably more a question of when it happens than if it happens.
You can continue to tell everyone that you are Superwoman and that no one in your family needs a flu shot. However, whether or not that strategy really works for you or not, the point is that it won't work for average people.
I strongly encourage everyone who has not had their flu shot yet this year to go get it. Since I've been taking the shot, I've had influenza exactly once in the last twenty years.
No, not "superhuman" but something in a person's genes. Probably this would explain my ancestors not being affected by the 1918 Flu Pandemic. I mean if allergies can be passed on from one generation to the next, and they are in my family, then why not being asymptomatic to the flu? Kind of Influenza Marys and Mikes? No wonder they are pushing flu shots on EVERYONE! Are you really SURE that all of those flu shots you got over the past 20 years were effective? None of those flu vaccinations are 100%. Perhaps you yourself were asymptomatic some of those years?
No, not "superhuman" but something in a person's genes. Probably this would explain my ancestors not being affected by the 1918 Flu Pandemic. I mean if allergies can be passed on from one generation to the next, and they are in my family, then why not being asymptomatic to the flu? Kind of Influenza Marys and Mikes? No wonder they are pushing flu shots on EVERYONE! Are you really SURE that all of those flu shots you got over the past 20 years were effective? None of those flu vaccinations are 100%. Perhaps you yourself were asymptomatic some of those years?
No, not "superhuman" but something in a person's genes.
You should be aware that people who survive some major diseases have more problems then they want to deal with afterwards. This is an older article, but still relevant today.
You should be aware that people who survive some major diseases have more problems then they want to deal with afterwards. This is an older article, but still relevant today.
So you think in all my life I have NEVER had the flu? Come on now. I had it too many times to count as a child and young adult. Influenza was NOTHING in comparison to a Norovirus, where you are spending half your life over and on a damned toilet bowl. Flu with a fever and aches and chills???? One "stomach flu" was so bad when I was 22 that my Mom had to come and stay with me because I could not function. No, I did not go to the hospital. I did not even go to a doctor. Mom took care of me, and it passed. I was out of work for a week and went from 98 lbs to 90 lbs. Hello????????
Childhood? Even putting aside all those childhood diseases I had under 2 years old, I was out of school with scarlet fever for 2 MONTHS. I was very, very weak. My Dad tutored me at home. I did not go to a hospital even then. Doctor, who came to my house, put me on antibiotics, and told me to EAT to gain back my strength. I was 6 years old and remember it very, very well; including the horrific delusions I had with my 105 degree fever.
With all those diseases and illnesses I had when younger either one of two things would have happened. I would have developed a very strong immune system, or I would have DIED young.
It was the former and once I hit middle age, I just plain did not get sick including being around other people with flu and "stomach flu".
I more than paid my dues, so why can't I reap some benefits from all that latter in life? This is exactly what your "anti-vaxxers" say too, especially those who are my age and experienced the same. Mother Nature/God knows best.
So you are comparing the seasonal flu you get to the flu of 1918? And you seriously think if a flu like the 1918 one came around again you wouldn't get it because you have such a good immune system?
So you are comparing the seasonal flu you get to the flu of 1918? And you seriously think if a flu like the 1918 one came around again you wouldn't get it because you have such a good immune system?
Can I have a little of what you're smoking?
So 20%-40% of the world's population in 1918 were infected. What was different about the other 60%-80%? Why were they resistant?
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