On this day in history, April 26, 1954, field trials of the Salk polio vaccine began at Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. It was a full year before that vaccine was proven safe and effective, becoming available for wide use in 1955. Ten years later, the more easily administered Sabin vaccine became standard prophylaxis against polio. That’s the one I took as a kid. The polio virus finally was eliminated from the U.S by 1979.
For those with a Disney-esqe faith in the magical pace of medical progress to combat COVID-19 – or for your own good fortune at having avoided it so far – let’s review that timeline once more, shall we? Over one year for a proven safe and effective vaccine. (Lysol injections and hydroxy-chloroquine you can have right now – just be sure the cure isn’t worse than the disease. Ahem.) And at least twenty-five years until virus elimination. Let me repeat. Twenty. Five. Years. Minimum.
If you expect a return to “business as usual” sometime this summer, may I suggest you meditate on those historical time-frames for just a moment? Of course, not everyone who gets COVID-19 dies from it. Just like not everyone with poliomyelitis ends up in an iron lung or a wheelchair. Still, some do. And for those who don’t learn from history? Well, you know what they say… and you know who you are. But are you listening? Aye, there’s the rub.
Ted Ziegler was an editor, author, etymologist, and polio survivor.
The vaccine came too late for him.
For you? For me? Only time will tell.
As in Spring 2021 – at the earliest.
You been warned.
That is all.