catsmate
No longer the 1
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
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Sorry, I'm a day late on this.
On 23FEB1954 the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk, began clinical testing at Arsenal Elementary School and the Watson Home for Children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Five thousand children in those two schools were vaccinated against polio, which was the start of a massive clinical trial that would eventually involve 1.8 million children, in 44 US states from California to Maine.
Before the introduction of the vaccine in the mid-50s, polio outbreaks were regular occurrences everywhere. About 95% of those infected show no symptoms, but of the 5% who are symptomatic about 10% eventually progress to the paralytic version of the disease.
That's about one person in 200 infected being paralyzed.
The 1952 epidemic in the US was the worst outbreak in the country's history. Of about 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were paralysed to some degree.
But in the sixty years since the vaccine was introduced the number of worldwide polio cases has fallen hugely, and continues to fall (despite anti-vax idiots) from ~350,000 in 1988 to 223 in 2012, a drop of more than 99% in reported cases in less than 25 years. There's hope of the disease being eliminated like smallpox
All because of a vaccine that was first used just 60 years ago. By a man who refused to patent it.
Now the anti-vax nuts claim, still, that this is a small number. Except it isn’t. Out of 5 million children who might be infected every year, approximately 25,000 children would progress to the paralytic version of the disease, and some five hundred of them would die.
This is the world the loons wish to return to; the world of children condemned to machines to allow them to breathe or braces to allow them to walk. Or dead.
Jonas Salk.
Obituary (NY Times).
On 23FEB1954 the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk, began clinical testing at Arsenal Elementary School and the Watson Home for Children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Five thousand children in those two schools were vaccinated against polio, which was the start of a massive clinical trial that would eventually involve 1.8 million children, in 44 US states from California to Maine.
Before the introduction of the vaccine in the mid-50s, polio outbreaks were regular occurrences everywhere. About 95% of those infected show no symptoms, but of the 5% who are symptomatic about 10% eventually progress to the paralytic version of the disease.
That's about one person in 200 infected being paralyzed.
The 1952 epidemic in the US was the worst outbreak in the country's history. Of about 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were paralysed to some degree.
But in the sixty years since the vaccine was introduced the number of worldwide polio cases has fallen hugely, and continues to fall (despite anti-vax idiots) from ~350,000 in 1988 to 223 in 2012, a drop of more than 99% in reported cases in less than 25 years. There's hope of the disease being eliminated like smallpox
All because of a vaccine that was first used just 60 years ago. By a man who refused to patent it.
Now the anti-vax nuts claim, still, that this is a small number. Except it isn’t. Out of 5 million children who might be infected every year, approximately 25,000 children would progress to the paralytic version of the disease, and some five hundred of them would die.
This is the world the loons wish to return to; the world of children condemned to machines to allow them to breathe or braces to allow them to walk. Or dead.
Jonas Salk.
Obituary (NY Times).
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