60 Seconds for Tips on Thursday: Polio and COVID and History Repeating Itself.

Hello to you listening in New London, Connecticut!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is 60 Seconds, your daily dose of hope, imagination, wisdom, stories, practical tips, and general riffing on this and that.

We interrupt our regular broadcast to bring you a blast from the past.

When I was a very young girl polio was still a crippling and potentially deadly disease. Dr. Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine in 1954. Was it hailed as a miracle? No. Were Americans thrilled? No. Did everyone turn out to get the vaccine? No. There were anti-vaxers back then. Some – like columnist Walter Winchell – spread falsehoods about the vaccine in radio broadcasts. But! Following the (Salk) polio vaccine injection in 1955 and the (Sabin) oral poliovirus vaccine in 1961, polio incidence declined rapidly! The last case of wild (not oral live virus vaccine variety) poliovirus in the US was finally eradicated in 1979, 45 years after the vaccine was discovered.

I guess COVID is just another example of history repeating itself until we get it right. I can’t make you get a vaccine or wear a mask to protect yourself; all I can say is look at history. When people got on board to beat polio, they did. This time we don’t have 45 years.

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Production Team: Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

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