In the 1950s, Americans rallied behind Dr. Jonas Salk’s shot to eradicate polio; COVID-19 has been a very different story
Church bells rang out. Car horns honked. Stores painted “Thank you, Dr. Salk” on their windows. Synagogues and churches held services of thanksgiving.
It was 1955 in America. Dr. Jonas Salk, the son of Jewish immigrants and the first in his family to go to college, had successfully developed a vaccine against polio. “My parents signed the permission because they wanted to protect me from polio and the iron lung and paralysis,” she remembers. “They trusted the medical profession, their government leaders, and Jonas Salk.”
After that news, children’s vaccinations went into overdrive, followed by a national mass immunization drive. The number of polio cases plummeted from 35,000 in 1953 to only 161 cases in 1961. (by Sandi Dolbee/San Diego Union-Tribune)
I never will EVER use the tattered and torn phrase of “THOSE WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS,” because the days of yours and mine, if you are over the age of 60, had their mold and mildew, lies and deception, cover-ups, and clandestine motives, but BACK IN THOSE DAYS, the madness that consumed us, somehow seemed less BLATANT, and BOTHESOME, than the outright, in your face selfish and fearful, purposeful, and maddening machinations of 2020-2021. If you were a child of a minority or poverty, life was not destined to be in your favor BACK THEN, but it was less deadly in a direct attempt to kill you. And BACK THEN, kids of Caucasian Families at least had a 9 out of 10 chance to thrive…I mean, just look at the BABY BOOMERS, and how many managed to live through the ’50s and ’60s…
The Tobacco Companies of America knew the poison cigarettes presented, as they encouraged all of America to smoke. The Oil Cartels of America knew that Climate Change was an ever-present danger, as they raped the Earth and polluted the environment. Insurance Companies of America forgot health and welfare were somehow a human right and demanded profit for being well, staying alive…None of that has changed, and even though many of the CEO’s and Board of Directors of the Tobacco/ Oil and Insurance Companies of the ’50s and early ’60s are not around, they made certain to leave a legacy of death and destruction, because somehow they must have thought when we die, we can use our paychecks to buy a House in Heaven!
(I of course can rant and rave about PROFITS BEFORE PEOPLE…BUT NOT NOW!) The really scary thing, upon which I will rale and become LOUD…Is, What The Fuck has happened to the people we call parents, you know, the grandkids or children of the Baby Boomers, who actually remained alive because vaccinations were not placed on a Parisian level, and Politicians actually decided the lives of Americans were actually more important than their pollical careers!
