History: Don’t forget what polio taught the world

Even if you, your friends and family aren’t sick with COVID-19 doesn’t mean you are unlikely to be a spreader. People can carry and spread bacteria or viruses that sicken or even kill other people.

Your grandparents, maybe even parents, lived through at least one virulent epidemic: polio.

Polio started spreading in the US before World War I. Epidemics arrived almost every summer, often causing 15,000 illnesses a year.

In summer 1952, there were 58,000 polio cases and over 3,000 deaths. More than 21,000 people suffered mild to disabling permanent paralysis.

Americans weren’t sissies. They didn’t want to get sick, or make others sick. Swimming pools and movie theaters were closed. Children were kept at home.

In 1955, the Salk vaccine became available. Vaccinations ended the US epidemics, and in most of the world.

Now more Americans were sickened and died from coronavirus in the past few months than were sickened or died from polio in the worst summer.

You’re not sick? Great! Quit sneering at leaders who are trying to protect your neighbors’ health.

Dead people don’t make good business customers.

This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 8:42 AM with the headline "History: Don’t forget what polio taught the world."