Eva Luchini’s April 11 letter, “Research contents of vaccines,” related to the polio vaccine, brought back both good and bad memories. I remember polio epidemics because my wife and I worked during one of the last severe epidemics in 1953. There were more than 10 children in iron lungs every day. When we saw young people totally unable to understand why they were there, we felt terrible for them. That was the bad part. The good part came when the director of that hospital, Dr. Fred Robbins, won the Nobel prize for being able to easily grow the polio virus for the first time and making it possible for Dr. Jonas Salk and researcher Albert Sabin to produce vaccines.
The first few years, the vaccines were used were great milestones. No longer seeing a person of any age in an iron lung was a great relief.
As with any new vaccine, there will be worries, and sometimes, no matter how many studies are done to show the good effect of the vaccine, there will be tragedies that occur that people can’t accept. And people will say the scientific studies cannot be right. I guess for me, the memories of those sick children in the iron lungs will be enough.
Lloyd Johnson
Vancouver
