“Everybody got on the bandwagon, and basically it was eradicated in the United States.” “As soon as the vaccine came out, everybody jumped on it and got it right away,” recounts Wigness, 84, a native of Harlan, Iowa. Families and schools saved coins to contribute to the “March of Dimes” to fund anti-polio efforts, he recalled, and the nation celebrated successful vaccine tests. They are sharing their memories with today’s younger people as a lesson of hope for the emergence from COVID-19.Ĭlyde Wigness, a retired University of Vermont professor active in a mentoring program, recently told 13-year-old Ferris Giroux about the history of polio during their weekly Zoom call. Again, they find themselves in what has been one of the hardest-hit age groups, just as they were as children in the polio era. Some went to hospitals to use iron lungs they needed to breathe. They had friends or classmates who became wheelchair-bound or dragged legs with braces.
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May 2023
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