I'm watching the Smithsonian HD channel (fantastic addition to the DirecTV line-up by the way!) and they just had a short segment that reminded me of recent discussion here regarding Vaccinate your children or go to Jail (sorry, I don't have time to find and link that article for now, but you can search back through the recent articles to find it...)
The segment was on the creation of the Polio vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk.
It was during that segment, and discussions about the effects of Polio by those that were striken with it, that I thought back to my days in elementary school and later in high school, to a neighbor that was just a little ahead of me in school who always used to walk with a nasty limp, basically dragging one leg behind him wherever he went. As a young child I had no idea what caused that problem, and was scolded many times by my parents and grandparents not to stare at that individual.
Later, when I went to high school and had to ride the bus the 30 minutes plus to get there, I had the fun of dealing with that individual who had decided to be a class bully and total jerk to most people. Thanks to having a father that worked in the law enforcement field, I was seen as the class narc and treated with scorn by many, including that individual. Looking back, I'm sure that a big part of the reason that individual behaved like a bully and jerk was that he was over compensating and mad at the world for what had happened to him. He couldn't participate in sports, and was always left on the bench and sidelines when other kids were playing during recess, or in physical education classes. Nothing to do but sit there, or perhaps play with the others but then struggle to run from point a to point b.
Polio, as described in the segment I just watched, and as I was able to witness thanks to that neighbor, was a dreadful disease. It did untold damage to the people that were unfortunate enough to catch it. Paralyzing many, killing many, and leaving a miserable soul behind if they were lucky enough to survive it. That anyone (as an example, FDR) was able to rise above is a true testament to their strength of character.
Anyway, I suppose that my remembrances of that individual and what an pain in the butt and disgruntled cuss he was has colored my thoughts when it comes to the importance of getting immunizations. I don't want to see people that could have avoided being stricken with dread diseases from having to be survivors of those diseases. I look at the good that has been done with the immunization programs that school systems have forced upon parents and realize that were it not for those programs many children might never be immunized because it just takes too long, costs too much, or is just such a pain to deal with getting done for children of some parents. We could still be fighting off some diseases that we consider nearly extinct now and the thoughts of that being the case aren't thoughts I like having.
I'm curious how many others that frequent this site know people that were victims of diseases we now considered gone and vanquished?
