I just finished listening to a mesmerizing podcast hosted by Jon Meacham on the battle against polio. I can recall this vividly from my youth, sitting in movie theaters and having the cup passed for our nickels and dimes, seeing a video of Margaret O’Brien, suffering from polio herself, in an iron lung, on the screen.
I almost didn’t listen to this podcast. I already knew the story, or so I thought. But I didn’t. There is so much to be drawn from it as we tackle the threat of Covid-19 today..
The importance of respecting science. The need for patience. It took decades to find the polio vaccine and have it expanded to be available to everyone in the country and the world. It took resources, it took philanthropy, it took private drug firms working together, as they are today and did later in finding penicillin. It took public/private partnership. And it took focus. And it took leadership, importantly, which I had not known or forgotten, in this case, the leadership of President Roosevelt who himself had contracted polio at the age of 39. It left him unable to walk on his own for the rest of his life.
It tells the story of the two scientists who found different paths to the vaccine: Albert Sabin and Jonah Salk. Both sons of immigrants, Salk’s parents from Russia, Sabin’s from Poland.
The March of Dimes raised more money during the late ‘40s and ‘50s than any other charity in the United States other than the Red Cross. It was rolled out officially in 1954 by President Eisenhower. Eisenhower was known for what he called “my scientists.”
We’ve lost some of this faith and facts, in science. A respect for it. President Trump has denigrated the role of scientists, disputed their findings.
The win over polio did not come easily. While Roosevelt always made fundraising for the March of Dimes his focus on his birthday, there were some Republicans who wrote they would give to the March of Dimes on any other day than the President’s birthday.
The fear of polio impacted parents and grandparents just the way the fear of Covid-19 does today. Many parents took their children away from the city during the summer, a particularly draconian period for the disease.
The scale of death from polio was small compared to what we are seeing from Covid-19, but it affected the young in a particular way that Covid-19 does not. At its height, there were 40,000+ cases a year and deaths of 3,000+.
We can’t know the future of Covid-19, the path it will take, how long it will take to have a vaccine that works the way the polio vaccine does. But we can take hope from history. And we can learn what were the key elements which led to success. Science. Resources. Everyone working together. Philanthropy. Public/private partnership.
Interestingly, the polio vaccine was never patented. When asked if he would patent it, Salk responded, “The public holds the patent.” He likened patenting the vaccine to patenting the sun.
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