On this day, February 23, in 1954 a group of Pennsylvania children first received the Salk polio vaccine. Many today know little about the disease, which killed or paralyzed thousands in this country and worldwide each year. Children were often the most vulnerable, but Franklin Roosevelt contracted polio as an adult.
The story of the Salk vaccine is an inspiring one and its success, along with the later arrival of the Sabin vaccine, which could be administered orally, has saved countless lives in the seventy years that have now passed. This fact makes it immeasurably sad that vaccine denial could exist today, but I suppose if one chooses to get their news from social media they may be apt to believe anything, no matter how conspiratorial. I’ve shared thoughts about that issue before, but it never seems to go away.
The story of the polio vaccine is a modern miracle, but in thinking about it today, I am reminded of the signs of miraculous healing of cripples I saw years ago while traveling through Germany. We have the God-given ability to do medical miracles as did Jonas Salk and we should use it, but it’s also comforting to see that old-fashioned miracles can happen too. This is a poem I wrote about that experience.
