The vaccine against polio proves to be a success. A day of triumph for the developer of the vaccine. He arrives with the head of the National Foundation for infantile paralysis. Hundreds of reporters and scientists from all over the nation gather for the announcement. Peopley on hand are the who receive the first injections. This gigantic experiment is symbolic of the equally great foundation, both scientific and philanthropic, without which it could not have been conceived or executed. The entire world heralded the discovery, which is assuring an end to one of the most dreadful diseases. Susan that is in april, 1955 transit announcement of the successful polio vaccine. Elena conis, you suggest there are some cautionary notes when you look at the history of the polio vaccine better relative to today. What are the largest concerns . Elena it is a really good question. I think the history of polio has a lot of lessons. The history of a number of pandemic diseases have a lot for us to keep in mind. Over the last few months, i have heard people referred to the development of the vaccine as an indication of our ability to come up with effective vaccines against current epidemic diseases. It is true in 1955 we were incredibly relieved to have the first effective polio vaccine developed using a fairly new technique. One that made a vaccine using chemicals to essentially kill the virus so that it would still be familiar to the body. The body could elicit an immune response but not be second by the viral material. Both that went were so desperate for a vaccine at the time. It is important that people across the country felt personally invested in the vaccines development. A is important that this was method once theens was vaccine was developed and approved and it was approved for use within a few hours after the test results came out, the nation had to scramble to ensure everybody who needed the vaccine most would get access. There had been planning in the works for at least a year before the vaccine was approved for market. That planning involved a National Foundation. Setting aside millions to ensure there would be a lot of vaccine purchased for Young Children who were most at risk for polio. That plan included getting manufacturers on board and ready to begin producing the vaccine once it was approved for market use. Yet, we still had distribution problems. We still had manufacturing problems. We still had Public Relations problems. People who were terrified the vaccine was going to go to shareholders of certain companies. Some of these companies actually did send letters to their shareholders saying you will get the vaccine first. Do not worry. People were afraid doctors would charge exorbitant fees or certain people would stockpile the vaccine. Many of these fears were realized. The federal government had to step in and assume a bigger role in ensuring the vaccine was distributed equitably and also that it was in effect shared in a way that did not introduce a safety problem. Fortunate they were forced into that position after some safety problems emerged. Susan we get to spend ansusan hour with you to learn about the polio pandemic and where the comparisons help us understand and where the world has changed. Let me start by asking you what was or what is it because it is still a live disease in much of the world. What is polio . Elena here in the u. S. , it is something children get vaccinated against. We do not tend to think of it terribly much. It is a viral infection. We have known that since the early 1900s it is something. 1900s. General early it is something people generally acquire after drinking food contaminated with fecal matter. The virus passes through the gastrointestinal system of humans. When you are infected with the virus, it causes disease in Young Children. Sometimes that disease is an apparent is not apparent. In older children, that virus can trigger a debilitating disease that can paralyze. It attacks the nervous system. It can leave people in some of the worst cases, essentially paralyzed from the neck down. Sometimes this is temporary. Sometimes it is permanent. In the early part of the 20th century, what we had was a number of small outbreaks of 1900s. N the early 1910s, 1920s, 1930s. And then, we had more and more outbreaks. These were terrifying outbreaks. Nobody wanted to see a young child struck with paralysis. It was one of the most frightening things people could imagine. Susan one of the quotes i found is that by the middle of the 20 century, polio was described as one of the most frightening Health Problems in the world. Was it the paralysis that was so frightening for people . Paralysis. As the it was the unpredictability of it. A town could go several years without a case of polio. All of a sudden, have an outbreak that left huge numbers of children and adults infected. Spreadas a famous photo in life magazine in 1944 where they sent photographers down to hickory, North Carolina, a relatively small and somewhat rural town that suddenly felt like a war zone. There were so many children and adults struck that it exceeded their medical capacity to provide care for the patients who in the worst cases needed to be housed in something called an iron lung, and enormous contraption that fed from the neck down that essentially breathed for the patient. Hickory, North Carolina provided a vivid snapshot to towns that had not experienced a polio epidemic. Showed hastily constructed hospitals around any green spaces available. Vehicle shuttling in supplies. It showed doctors and nurses having to call on neighboring communities to bring in whoever they could to help treat these patients and help those who were most likely to survive at least survive the worst of the disease and figure out how to rehabilitate them. In some cases, the paralysis was fleeting. In some cases, certain limbs would remain paralyzed for decades if not for life. Tents the scenes of the and assistance from the military will be very familiar to people who have been watching the last threemonth unfold. Elena absolutely. It is exactly like that. Quiet community suddenly torn to shreds and people were afraid to leave their homes. Notact, in some cases did need shelter in place orders because once the epidemic became clear, people stayed at home. They kept their kids close. Health department would put up flyers saying stay inside. Avoid gatherings. Avoid quote unquote new people or people you do not know. These places entirely shut down. At the same time, if they had a large number of patients, all that remained visible with something that looked like a war zone. Susan we have a headline from a san antonio newspaper. All san antonio schools closed as two more suspect cases reported. People were actively social distancing while the real cause of polio was unknown at that point . Elena throughout the early decades of the 20th century, people knew there was a virus involved with polios transmission. What people did not know was how that virus was transmitted from one person to another. There were a number of theories. People thought it was transmitted through contaminated food. People thought it might have been transmitted by flies picking up the virus and taking it from one place to another. Inot of blame, especially the middle decades of the first half of the 20th century, fell on immigrant communities. People felt that immigrants were bringing the disease into the u. S. This led to a variety of efforts to control the disease. Social distancing, yes although people did not call it that at the time. Some communities responded with acrosstheboard social distancing or stay in place. In other cases, they focused on children because it was children tothe early school age, five nine, who were thought to be the most vulnerable. Some communities banned gatherings and closed festivals and pools and things like that to keep children at home and away from clusters of people. Susan while this was happening caselly, the most famous had to be Franklin Delano roosevelt who contracted the disease in 1929. He was 39, which seems outside of the parameters you described. Hisdid this person, how did contraction of polio impact the amount of understanding paid to polio. Decades, andent number of people have looked back and questioned whether he actually did have polio. Heis not really matter if did or not because at the time, that was his understanding and it was the nations understanding. He contracted it the story goes after a day in the country with his family. He was swimming and playing outside. Had a long active day. Came home and was leveled. The next day, woke up and had some of the telltale signs and paralysis set in. He was older than the poster child for polio. He was an adult. He did recover. He did not die. Paralysis, lasting which he took great pains to hide as he pursued his political career. He had agreements with the press corps wherever he went that they would only photograph him in ways that his wheelchair and leg braces would not be seen. The story of his polio was one of triumph. A man who was struck down in the prime of his life overcame the disease and then went on to an absolutely unprecedented in many ways political career. Polio became a story of inspiration for many other polio patients. The other thing that roosevelt did was he started a small foundation. He started it and then handed it over to his law partner. Erred moret person up pursued as roosevelt pursued more opportunities, his partner grew the foundation before it became an enormous fell at the pre and normas philanthropy. Initially, it was called the foundation for infantile paralysis. That was because polio was known as infantile paralysis. Later, they called it the march of dimes, which may be a more familiar name to viewers. They were incredibly creative to bringing attention to the rooseveltd using to mobilize the public to donate funds and time to find a cure. Susan i am sure some people willning to this who remember march of dimes soli citations. It was really a grasp roots a grassroots movement. Elena it really was. Ideanor started with this that when roosevelt became president , he was such a beloved president that oconnor thought, lets have an annual birthday ball. People will hold these birthday balls on the president s birthday in their communities and use those birthday balls as a fundraiser for infantile paralysis or polio. These birthday balls really took off. People signed up in communities across the country, held their own birthday parties for roosevelt. Served food, danced, brought people together and raised money and donated it to this national philanthropy. What oconnor did that was incredibly brilliant for the time, he started these birthday balls in the 1930s for a country coming out of the depression. This was an incredible feat. Oconnor was savvy in thinking about how he could make everybody feel they could contribute. He sought hollywood musicians, Marilyn Munro from Louis Armstrong to record radio and tv spots to appear in posters. In time, came up with such an enormous cadre of hollywood supporters that it was hard for anybody to not have heard of the march of dimes. There is a story of how the march of dimes got its name, which probably some of your viewers have heard. One of the celebrities oconnor recruited to the cause was the comedian eddie cantor who was doing a radio appearance. He was encouraging people to donate to the cause of infantile paralysis. Oconnorsllowing vision was trying to convince people, just give whatever you can. In anrybody puts a dime envelope, we will have a march of dimes to the white house. He used this phrase, march of dimes. Apparently the radio spy was so successful that the white house mail was flooded with dimes. The idea march of dimes struck. To it paralyzed parallels to the social media we are seeing with hollywood celebrities and youtube celebrities soliciting the publics support for social distancing, use of masks and that sort of thing. Addressingty role in these epidemics and pandemics seems to be something that has been around for a while. Elena it has been around for a while. I do not think anybody had done it to the extent the march of dimes had done it. They never really let go of it. The march of dimes still exists. Their heyday was a moment in which they were first using radio heavily and then were savvy about using tv as tv started to become more common in american households. Polio research on developed, as their fund hundredsin some cases of iron lungs across the country and in to hardhit communities, they would show footage. Then they would have a spot with the celebrities, Elvis Pressley for instance, doing his part to show how important the cause was. So it was so it has been around for a long time. Susan in the mid1940s, without understanding the source of the polio virus, people were beginning to use techniques that to our 2020 ears and eyes look shocking. We have a newsreel from 1946. Talk aboute back and this method used to combat polio. With a possibility of a grave infantile paralysis epidemic, san antonio authorities attack germs on a citywide front. Are sprayedthe city with the insecticide. Every suspected spot is sprayed. The dress cleanup is ordered as polio and diseases show an increase. In the part, precautions are taken to prevent gatherings of youngsters. Ddt are useds of on this disease that attacks our young. Susan war contributes one of its discoveries to save life. You have done a lot of work on ddt. How extensive was its use in the country . Now we know it has a lot of dangers for the human body. How soon where the side effects of its use apparent . Elena that is a really good question. The clip showed ddt was developed in the Second World War. It was discovered first by a scientist at a swift drug company. , scientist and medical officers, tested it throughout the world during the war. Awaywere absolutely blown by how effective ddt was at mosquitoess like that carry diseases like malaria and yellow fever. There was this incredible enthusiasm during the war because these were diseases that in tropical and semi tropical settings had proved debilitating to troops in previous wars. Now we had a way of killing the bugs that spread them in doing so in a way that did not seem to cause any harm. If you think about it at the time, some of the common pesticides and chemicals we used to kill mosquitoes before the Second World War were chemicals that included arsenic and lead. People would purchase produce at the market and it would have residue on it. They would take it home and hopefully wash it to remove the residue. If you did not, you could end up with lead poisoning or arsenic poisoning. Ddt was an incredible discovery for the time. You could spray not only fields of mosquitoes, but you could spray orchards and send those crops to market. War,happened was after the there were so many manufacturers that had been producing ddt during the war that were eager to sell it to the American Consumer after the war. There was also this widespread knowledge. Everyone had watched the spraying ddtlain over islands in the pacific and protecting u. S. And allied troops from malaria. People were familiar with the idea that ddt killed problematic insects. War, they were left with polio epidemics in the u. S. People were struggling with these competing theories on how it spread and struggling to find ways to prevent its spread. I mentioned one of the theories about polio was it was possibly spread by flies. Put two and, people two together and thought, why dont we go ahead and kill all the flies with ddt . Now that ddt is available for americans to buy, lets spray as widely as we can and try to keep polio at bay. In fact, the National Foundation for infantile paralysis had an agreement with the army that as soon as the army no longer needed the ddt it was consuming, they would free up surplus supplies and korea some of the to emit ddtipped fog and the National Foundation would coordinate with a town that had a couple cases of polio and maybe on the case of an epidemic. It would send in these army tanks and bombers that were equipped with spray tanks strapped to their underbellys. They would coat the town with ddt to see if that kept a polio epidemic at bay. What was probably most fascinating about this was that the initial results were hard to interpret. They sprayed one town, which they divided in half. It seemed like there was less polio on one side of the town than there was on the others of the town. Then they sprayed the entire town that had the first hints of a polio epidemic and the epidemic never materialized. A lot of people were eager to believe we had a cure, that we had a way of preventing polio. Very quickly, counties and cities across the u. S. Got incredibly excited and started buying large quantities of ddt to either prepare for a polio outbreak or if they had a couple of cases. Time thegh at this National Foundation and many of the scientists that supported it were desperately asking the public to stop and wait until more scientific testing was done, the public cannot wait. Towns from san antonio to places in idaho, illinois, they would spray from top to bottom. Because the understanding was that ddt was not toxic, people thought, leave your kids outside. It smelled kind of sweet. It did not leave a sticky residue. People thought it was a safe place to be after the war. It was remarkable how a cloud of ddt suddenly became a safe place to be. Susan did it create its own Health Problem . Elena it did in time. While ddt was being tested during the war, the scientist testing it in the u. S. In georgia and florida in particular and Washington State were pointing out that if they used too much ddt or too high a concentration in the environment, they were noticing a die off of not just problematic insects but beneficial insects like bees. They were noticing fish and frogs were dying too. What they said was we need to watch out because this is a toxic chemical. We do not know what the full effects might be. Some scientists also were testing it before it was widely used and showed that when dogs or goats were fed food that had it, they or residue on had the ddt in the fat of their bodies. In the female animals, it accumulated in breastmilk. In one experiment, i think it was in the butter of milk from goats. The butter had so much ddt that the butter killed flies. These are some of the first hints that ddt was not entirely safe. It was very quickly apparent tocsin rible horrible toxin and toxic material and was damaging to a number of species and the environment and that it build up inside the human body. It took us decades. We are still trying