October 28 – Great Strides Against Polio

Posted October 28, 2017

Today is the anniversary of two important events in the history of humanity's fight against a devastating illness, polio!

First, on this date in 1914, Jonas Salk was born in New York City. He would later discover and develop one of the first successful polio vaccines.

Second, on this date in 1956, world-famous singer Elvis Presley got a polio vaccination on television. Believe it or not, this televised vaccine is credited with raising immunization levels in the U.S. from just 0.6% of the population to 80% of the population - IN JUST SIX MONTHS!!

Polio is a crippling and often deadly disease caused by a virus. It is infectious - it spreads from person to person. It can invade a person's brain and spinal chord, and that often results in paralysis - which means not being able to move parts of your body.

Before polio was eradicated in most of
the world, seeing lots of kids and adults
with wasted-away legs, crutches, and
wheelchairs was common.

Polio victims who could no longer breathe on
own often used an iron lung (below).


One of the most famous victims
of polio is President Franklin
D. Roosevelt. He often hid his
paralysis from sight and was rarely
publicly seen in his wheelchair.

The disease is preventable with the polio vaccine, and most the world is pretty much polio-free, now. Experts hope that this disease will be totally gone next year!
Unfortunately, now that many diseases
are rare in developed nations, many
parents have decided without good
evidence that vaccinations are bad
for kids, that they don't work, and that
they are just a way for "Big Pharma" to
get more money.

None of that is true, and if such anti-vax
parents convince many other parents to
skip vaccinations, we may have out-
breaks of almost eradicated illnesses.

Which would be so sad!

The answer to this question is, of course,
that science as a whole and most scientists
CAN be trusted. The methods of science
are the best way humans have ever come
up with to discover what is true.

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