Ruthlessrider

We recently had a county board meeting where a number of protesters convinced the Board to pass a resolution suggesting that government cannot impose anything on the public that interferes with an individuals right of free choice when it comes to masks or vaccinations, etc. To me, this is just another example of how our country is coming apart. We probably all remember the stories of Typhoid Mary. Today she would be free to infect as many people as she could come in contact with. I’m all for individual right, but not when it interferes with another persons rights. One woman testifying said she should be able to anything she dumb thing wants without government interference. My feeling are that if she should be able to jump off a cliff if she wants as long as she doesn’t hit some on the way down.

Tom W Loc: Lincoln Co, WA

I recall in the '50's we got lots of vaccines right in school. Polio and small pox. Some in the form of a sugar cube. I was impressed with those of course. lol... My first sidecar rig was a used Ural on consignment at Raceway Services in Salem, OR. The owner of Raceway, whose name I don't recall was a polio survivor. His disability was obvious but I didn't ask until he was ready to tell me. I bought that Ural and then had it back down to Raceway a couple times for various reasons. Good folks to deal with but it was a distance to go there. That was in 2002. It seems the owner's name was Jim. He's long gone now. The original owner of the Ural who put it on consignment was Hal Thompson. Not sure if he's still with us or not. My wife had quit riding with me. I thought perhaps she'd like the sidecar. She didn't. Turns out I did as did my dog Archie. My motorcycle habit took a turn back then and I never went back to two wheels.

One Rude Dawg Loc: Athol, ID

Back then most of us kids were happy to get the shot and the boosters, once you see one of your friends get taken down with polio. Scared the hell out of us big time.

llamb Loc: Northeast Ohio

Fifth grade, after school dance. The mothers of the PTA were there to instruct us pre-teens on the on the mechanics, joys, and duties of dancing and interacting with the opposite sex. Mrs. Gerstenberger taught me the basics of the two-step. She then suggested I ask a girl to dance. "Emm, okay I guess." She suggested that I ask Gretta, a polio survivor who wore a steel brace and a shoe with a huge heel. Before I could mutter a protest she said, "No one has asked her and you'll admired by many others besides giving her a great memory." We danced and talked over cookies and punch, and I became a different person in my outlook on life.

~Lee

Bobsphoto

I remember polio as a child. It kept us out of swimming pools another public places. I remember visiting people in iron lungs and having friends with the braces. Some still have post-polio syndrome.

In 1985 Rotary International initiated an effort to rid the world of polio by distributing vaccines to every child in the world. Originally a $250 million effort, it has ended up costing billions. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed several hundred million dollars. In highly populated places such as India and parts of Africa, Rotary would conduct immunization days where thousands of volunteers would travel to rural parts of the country and immunize millions of children in a single day. As a result today there are only a handful of new cases in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria where religious leaders claimed it was an effort to poison children. At the same time other vaccines were distributed as well.

Rotary partnered with many organizations including the World Health Organization, which often gets the bulk of the credit. The effort continues today. More information is available at https://www.endpolio.org

Rodwil

I am a polio survivor. I was born in 1950 and contracted polio in 1951 at the age of 9 months. Believe or not, I remember being in an iron lung. Yes, hard to believe anyone can have memories so vivid at that young of an age, but I remember the nurses in their white uniforms with the white hats and the row of iron lungs. My parents were counseled to put me in Shriners hospital and told them (according to my mother) that if I lived, I would a “mental invalid, confined to a wheelchair and have a very short life. Every day I think about the sacrifices my mother made to prove the doctors wrong. I first walked on crutches at 3 and went to public school from kindergarten on through earning my degrees. I began using a wheelchair after becoming a world class wheelchair athlete. Still active in sports, I am very healthy and am still enjoying the health that exercise affords me. Someone once asked me just when I will retire from playing wheelchair basketball, i told him, “they’re going to have to scrape me off the court with a spatula”!

scallihan Loc: Tigard, OR

Other countries that do not have measles vax do have frequent outbreaks. And a person is infective before symptoms appear. So they travel to the US, no vax requirement any longer, and presto, we have people getting and spreading measles! Measles in children and adults can leave lifelong disability. Or you and kids travel out of country and bring it home to work, school, church. How bad do you want it to get before bringing vax back?

scallihan Loc: Tigard, OR

👍

JBuckley

Good idea.

The media has caused a plethora of [conspiracy theorists] to come out of the woodwork.
(My wife included).
I have never had a reaction to any of the vaccines (shots), that have been prescribed by my physicians.

Schools, organized churches, etc, have a track record of having a large percentage of people that have
fallen sick and some have had to be hospitalized or had lengthy recovery periods to heal.

Those in the medical fields have had to take precautions to avoid diseases, but I have only contacted
a short term illness, (3 days), to recover from RSV that [I believe, I contacted during a dental visit.]
For myself, it's way-past time to get my flu shot, (RSV) vaccine.

Keep washing your hands.....

scallihan Loc: Tigard, OR

One of my childhood friends had polio, neither his brother nor I were infected. I remember his brace and his struggles to keep up with his school peers. He went on to advocate strongly for the ADA.

brooklyn-camera I Loc: Brooklyn, NY

My wife contracted Polio at 18 months of age. Wore a leg brace for a numbers of years and her left leg was left with no use whatsoever of her left leg. Now at age 75 she has been diagnosed post polio syndrome for years. The saying was use it or lose it, not it's save it and keep it.
She went from walking with a limp, to a cane, to crutches, to a manual wheelchair and now to now a power chair to get around. Anyone who believes that vaccinations due harm have no idea of the results of not having a vaccine to protect the masses. We went to GoldWater Memorial Hospital in NYC for testing and seen the basement which had so many iron lung machines which was used to let kids live, it's was enough to make you cry.
Vaccinations yes!

llamb Loc: Northeast Ohio

Amen to that. Wishing you and your wife a pain-free holiday season.

~Lee

Scruples Loc: Brooklyn, New York

Years ago, there was an excellent book titled, “The Man He Became,” by James Tobin. It tells of FDR who after afflicted with Polio, persevered and became our president. It’s a good read.

pendennis

There's an accumulated body of evidence which suggests FDR was likely misdiagnosed and stricken with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. FDR was a bit too old (aged 21) when he was stricken, and the symptoms he displayed are in line with Guillain-Barré rather than poliomyelitis.

Regardless, he overcame a lot of adversity to become successful, although he was probably the worst President in American history.

radiomantom Loc: Plymouth Indiana

I had the misfortune of getting Polio at the age of 11 during the epidemic year of 1941. I had bulbar paralytic polio which was almost always certain death. I was sent to Iowa University hospital and put in a ward with approx. 40 beds in it on my floor. I was totally paralyzed on my right arm and shoulder. I went through rigorous therapy treatments untill the age of 18. My father informed when I reached adulthood that when he got me to the hospital the doctors informed him I had perhaps 15 minutes to live. Well I am still here by some miracle. I also was told I was the only living survivor during the epidemic that year that survived in Iowa with the type I had.
Believe me any parent that would not vaccinate their child is a dam fool.