Remembering the polio epidemic of the 1950s: Part I
Polio killed 3,200 Americans in 1952, and crippled more than 20,000 more. The U.S. population was only about half what it is now.
I was in high school at the time. Most of us knew somebody who'd had it. There was no cure; nobody knew how it spread. Some hospitals were swamped. People were afraid.
But before the end of the decade there was a vaccine, and today—although polio still exists in some parts of the world—there are a lot of Americans who've never even heard of it.
Today we know a lot more about how a virus spreads and how that spread might be mitigated. We know a lot more about how to treat viral diseases and about vaccines. This coronavirus episode is plenty serious but it's not forever. This too shall pass.
(Probably not on Trump's timetable, but still….)
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