In the early half of this century, Americans were frightened by a contagious, paralyzing disease. There were 1.3 cases per 100,000 in 1938, then 9.3 per 100,000 in 1943, and rates as high as 20 per 100,00 in the early 1950s. (Wilson, 2005). That disease was polio. My grandfather and great grandfather on my mother’s side contracted polio, and my grandparents on both sides vividly remember both the fear of those days as well as the way the country came together to respond to the threat to the nation and the relief that came following the availability of vaccines.
For polio, both the public health and public education campaigns were successful. Polio was an incurable disease at the time, infecting both children and adults, paralyzing and sometimes proving fatal, peaking at nearly 60,000 cases in 1952 according to the Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC). It was a very emotional time for the country. As my grandmother shared, “My mother wouldn't even, as religious as she was, would not allow me to go to vacation bible school because I might catch polio. I couldn't go to the community indoor pool because I might catch polio especially in the summer. You tried to avoid crowded places because people were really frightened." There was no known protection from this illness and no cure. People saw children in braces, in wheelchairs, and in iron lungs, afflicted with this horrific disease, and these images were made widely available to the public to escalate resentment toward a disease which caused such suffering for thousands every year. My grandmother said that she “did see a relative in an iron lung and that was just awful…I can still see that in my head.” Polio was crippling the nation. People became united for the fight against polio and even initial campaigning had wide public support.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had contracted the disease in 1921 at the age of 39, started the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (Waxman, 2018), and, through an inspiring and united fundraiser through the March of Dimes in only one month in 1938, collected 2,680,000 dimes that went directly into vaccine research. In 1954 alone the March of Dimes collected $67 million dollars (more than $500 million in today’s dollars; Barrett, 2008). People gathered around their radio heard the words: “The only way to fight infantile paralysis is with money, and so I'm asking you tonight to send a dime to President Roosevelt at the White House.” No disease received more funding during the 1950’s than polio research (British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), The Polio Story). It was small donations from the millions. Anyone would donate a dime to help a child walk again. The cause was advertised through marches and careful advertising campaigns using celebrities like comedian, Eddie Cantor, (Waxman, 2018; Barrett, 2008) and other entertainers such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney. Television campaigns showed images of Judy Garland saying, “Can I put a dime in your envelope?” and Mickey Rooney responding, “Oh, you know that you can. And that's what every good American should do. Join the March of Dimes. Send yours to Franklin Roosevelt in the White House.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74xJ__BoI9M). News anchors helped as well with spreading the news. Robert Trout, CBS News, appeared with a young polio survivor making a donation to the March of Dimes.
There had been some reluctance towards ongoing vaccine research due early vaccine failures in the mid-1930s that delayed research and haunted many. When Jonas Salk, a brilliant medical researcher and virologist, began his work toward finding a vaccine, he took a novel approach but faced serious criticism. When he had finally come up with a vaccine, he began first by testing it on children who had already had polio, and, after that proved successful, began testing the vaccine on healthy children throughout the United States. He was faced with criticism especially by the news reporter Walter Winchell who began his broadcasts saying, “Mothers and Fathers of America, they are preparing coffins for your children” (BBC). Even with Winchell’s public fame growing, as well as that of other critics of Salk’s new vaccine, it was clear that at least many Americans, behind a united educational campaign from the President and public health experts, despite some apprehension, were willing to take the risk. More than one million, eight-hundred thousand children volunteered to participate in the experiment because it offered hope for their child’s protection from this disease. As my grandfather put it, “Walter Winchell… was known not to be particularly reliable.” My grandmother said, “I got the vaccine as soon as it was available… it was a wonderful relief to have this vaccine… I would never have hesitated.” Salk went on air to confront these critics and to alleviate public concerns about his vaccine. In 1955, after a year of behind-closed-door analysis of the results of the trial, the results were presented at a major press conference at the Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At the news of the successful results, people in Ann Arbor cheered “It worked, it worked!” It was the front headline of newspapers across the country, “Kids ran out onto the streets, school was called, church bells tolled, factory bells whistled, people were crying… It was in a way as if a war had ended and, in a way, a war had ended” (BBC).
The polio vaccine has been marked as one of the greatest successes in American medical history. The 1955 MovieTone News ("Nation-wide tests prove Dr. Salks Vaccine Success: Commentary by Peter Roberts on "News of the Day") reported, "A historic victory over a dreaded disease has dramatically unfolded over the University of Michigan. Here Scientists usher in a new medical age with the monumental reports that prove the Salk vaccine against crippling polio to be a sensational success. It's a day of triumph for 40-year-old Dr. Jonas E. Salk, developer of the vaccine.” Salk became a national hero, receiving several awards. President Eisenhower invited him to the White House, and thanked him on behalf of all of America saying, “When I think of the countless thousands of American parents and grandparents who are hereafter to be spared the agonizing fears of the annual epidemic of poliomyelitis, when I think of all the agony that these people will be spared seeing their loved ones suffering in bed, I must say to you I have no words in which adequately to express the thanks of myself and all the people I know – all 164 million Americans, to say nothing of all the people in the world that will profit from your discovery” (Eisenhower Presidential Library). Immediately after the release of Salk’s vaccine, the federal government set up a plan authorizing to have the polio vaccine distributed to children throughout the nation and within a year, “deaths attributed to polio declined by 50 percent” in the United States (Eisenhower Presidential Library, CDC) and is now close to full eradication.
In 1958, President Eisenhower campaigned for the “Salk Vaccine” stating that he was “happy to join with millions of other Americans in supporting the drive for polio vaccinations this spring” and that “not to [take the vaccine] is to take unnecessary risks of lifetime disability and even death. I especially appeal to parents to take advantage of this great research discovery to protect themselves and their children against this dreaded disease. The national campaign being conducted by the Advertising Council […] has my hearty endorsement.”
There had been and continues to be opposition to vaccines. But, as my grandmother explained, “There have been certain people who have spread concerns about how vaccines can lead to major problems… we had had small pox vaccines forever, and DPT [diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus] … there was never any question about it… I don’t recall people being afraid of [the Polio vaccine]”. Not only had other vaccines been successful in the past, but my grandparents, without prompting, said that these “certain people” often provided false and unreliable information with many studies proving them wrong. And, for many, the anti-vaccination arguments did not dissuade them. Ultimately, my grandparents “had no hesitation about vaccinations” for themselves or for their children. People were willing to take the risk and had high hopes as indicated by the high rates at which people immediately began volunteering to take the polio vaccine. While there have been continued shifts in attitudes toward vaccines as individuals like Andrew Wakefield, the “father of the anti-vaccination movement” (like Walter Winchell who opposed Salk vaccines early on), shared false accusations about vaccines, overall vaccination rates have remained high in this country with, even in 2020, almost 93% of people having three or more doses of the polio vaccine (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/immunize.htm) again, as of 1996, including mandatory doses of the Salk Vaccine (NY Times, 1996).
During the primary era of polio, people were united and inspired by President’s Roosevelt and Eisenhower who pulled the country together, cared about its citizens that were dealing with a frightening, paralyzing disease, and supported and appreciated and raised money for scientific research. The people received their information through reputable sources and reliable news anchors such as Robert Trout, Edward R. Murrow, Lawrence Spivak, John Cameron Swayze, Dave Garroway, Douglas Edwards, and later Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, and Walter Kronkite (https://fiftieswebcome/tv/news; Waxman, 2018). Yes, there were naysayers, but people were still moved by scenes of fellow Americans in wheelchairs and iron lungs and were willing to join with others to care for one another through supporting scientific research and volunteering in massive numbers for vaccination. Unfortunately, today, the situation is much different and our nation is far more divided. In a November, 2020, Scientific American article, Sean Carroll writes, “Polls indicate that despite the devastating health and economic impacts of the pandemic, with respect to a potential vaccine we are nowhere near as united as Americans were in 1955.” We can only work to do our part in helping the nation come together again.
- Claire Hillier
References
Baicus, A. “History of polio vaccination.” World journal of virology vol. 1,4 (2012): 108-14. doi:10.5501/wjv.v1.i4.108. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782271/
Barrett WP. March of Dimes’ Second Act. 19 Nov 2008. Forbes. (https://www.forbes.com/2008/11/19/march-dimes-revinvention-pf-charities08-cx_wb_1119dimes.html?sh=27bb210a4074)
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), The Polio Story (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05n27mt)
Carroll SB. The denialist playbook: On vaccines, evolution and more, rejection has followed a familiar pattern. Scientific American, 8 Nov 2020.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-denialist-playbook/
CDC Immunization from the National Center for Health Statistics. (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/immunize.htm)
Eisenhower Presidential Library (https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov)
Example advertising campaign for the March of Dimes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74xJ__BoI9M)
TV News Shows (https://fiftieswebcome/tv/news)
U.S. Changes Policy on Polio Inoculation, Recommending Salk Vaccine for First Doses.” The New York Times. 20 Sept. 1996. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/20/us/us-changes-policy-on-polio-inoculation-recommending-salk-vaccine-for-first-doses.html
Waxman, O. The Inspiring Depression-Era story of how the ‘March of Dimes’ got its name. Time. 3 Jan 2018 (
https://time.com/5062520/march-of-dimes-history/)
Wilson DJ. Living with Polio: The Epidemic and Its Survivors. University of Chicago Press. 2005. Chicago.
