In the New York Times, Emma Goldberg writes “The first polio epidemic in the United States began in Vermont in 1894, an outbreak that killed 18 people and left at least 58 paralyzed. Waves of pernicious outbreaks, targeting children, would mar the next half-century. In the country’s worst single year, 1952, nearly 60,000 children were infected and more than 3,000 died. Many were paralyzed, notably including Franklin D. Roosevelt, who would become president and hide his disability. Others were consigned to life in an iron lung, a type of ventilator that encased a child’s body to ease breathing.”

“Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio). Two types are used: an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends all children be fully vaccinated against polio. The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world, and reduced the number of cases reported each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to 33 in 2018.”

From the Wikipedia

Despite this success, initial rollout of the polio vaccine reportedly didn’t go smoothly. “Within a month, six cases of polio had been linked to a vaccine manufactured a California-based laboratories due to mistakes in completely attenuating the poliovirus in some batches. That mistake caused more than 200 polio cases and 11 deaths,” writes Golberg in the Times.

Ellen Goodman, 71-year-old Boston native (then 6-yr-old), told the Times she still recalls 1955 fall & summer outbreak of polio, currently suffers post-polio syndrome, with symptoms including chronic fatigue and difficulty walking.

“I remember being in bed, and I felt this electric current going up and down my arms and legs. Then I went to move and my left leg was numb. My life has been defined by this disease. To think it could have been avoided. ”

There are many mistaken cases of polio-vaccine induced diseases bringing their old polio-era to the present.

• Vaccine Memories of Another Time and Place
• Polio vaccine – Wikipedia

Polio Vaccine Safety Incidents

According to the Wikipedia, soon after mass polio vaccination began in the US in April 1955, there were reports of patients “who contracted paralytic polio about a week after being vaccinated with Salk polio vaccine from Cutter pharmaceutical company, with the paralysis limited to the limb the vaccine was injected into”. More than 200,000 children in western and midwestern US were reportedly vaccinated with the Cutter vaccine.

“Investigations showed that the Cutter vaccine had caused 40,000 cases of polio, killing 10. In response the Surgeon General pulled all polio vaccine made by Cutter Laboratories from the market, but not before 250 cases of paralytic illness had occurred.”

‘In May 1955, the National Institutes of Health and Public Health Services established a Technical Committee on Poliomyelitis Vaccine to test and review all polio vaccine lots and advise the Public Health Service as to which lots should be released for public use’ writes the Wikipedia.

Wyeth polio vaccine was also reported to have paralyzed and killed several children. It was soon discovered that some lots of Salk polio vaccine made by Cutter and Wyeth had not been properly inactivated, allowing live poliovirus into more than 100,000 doses of vaccine. [..] These incidents reduced public confidence in polio vaccine, leading to a drop in vaccination rates.

From the Wikipedia

“For those scarred by memories of the polio epidemic, a vaccine against Covid can’t arrive soon enough. Many older Americans, particularly vulnerable to the disease, have been shut in and separated from their children and grandchildren for much of this year” writes Golberg in the Times.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID vaccination tracker page (as of Jan 2, 9 a.m.) 13,071,925 doses have been distributed and 4,225,756 doses administered.