I remember another epidemic in the early 1950s. It was polio. Summers were spent mainly at home: no swimming pool, no movies, no even going downtown. Too dangerous as the numbers mounted even though they were a fraction of today's count for COVID-19. I also remember school being postponed.
In the 1952 U.S. epidemic, 3,145 people died. 21,269 were left
with paralysis, most of which were children.
An acquaintance of my mother's ended up in an iron lung (photo above). In 2009, one of the last patients to use one died at 72. She'd spent 60 years in an iron lung.
Dr. Jonas Salk (1914-1995) developed a vaccine.
When asked, "Who owns this patent?," he said "Well, the people I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" Had it been patented it would have earned an estimated seven billion dollars.
Polio was eliminated as one of the world's most dangerous infections.
As a child I had chicken pox, mumps, measles and whooping cough as did my brother and most of my classmates. None died. We had already been vaccinated against smallpox as part of the requirement to attend school. I was proud of the scar on my upper right arm. Today, it is invisible.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was exposed to German measles, which had I come down with the disease could have led to birth defects. I didn't catch the disease.
During pregnancy I was also given a flu vaccine, caught the flu and nearly died. The other two times I've been given a flu vaccine, I've had the flu and been seriously, seriously ill. The years I didn't get a shot, I didn't get the flu.
The flu mutates so I could have been given the wrong vaccine for the type I had.
I did do the basic vaccines with my daughter. Today there are many more.
I am not saying I don't believe in shots, but I don't trust big pharma.
There is the CEO of one of the big companies who claimed he wasn't in the business of saving lives but making money.
There have been medicine and vaccine failures. Thalidomide is one of the biggest mistakes. It's original use did solve a problem, but only when it was given to pregnant women, was it discovered it caused birth defects.
Diethylstilbestrol (DES) between 1940-1970 relieved potential miscarriage problems. Only in the 1970s did a number of the women's daughters developed cancer of the cervix as well as hormone disruption. Being fair, no vaccine can wait two generations before being used.
America is suffering a opioid crisis from a company that oversold its product.
Hormone replacement therapy was given to almost every postmenopausal woman for years, problems or not, almost a rite of passage. For severe cases, it was helpful. Most others could have been treated nutritional. From personal experience, adding tofu to my diet eliminated problems. Other friends reported the same results. We were a cash cow to big pharma.
Other medicines have been discovered to have adverse side effects after use. Sometimes big pharma has withdrawn the drug immediately -- other times, they have not.
Now we are faced with a global pandemic and labs in countries all over the world are racing to find a vaccine. It is needed.
- How safe will it be?
- How good will the quality control be?
- How expensive? I doubt if big pharma will have Salk's attitude.
There is no doubt that pandemic did not have to be as bad as it is. There were ways to slow and stop it. Government officials have not been willing to conduct the necessary steps to stop it.
People have not been willing to follow the steps that would stop it.
I hate to admit a certain pleasure when someone who had opened themselves and others to danger, have come down with the disease. I've never been a fan of stupid, but I feel guilty thinking I told you so and wishing anyone bad. I feel even more guilty when I think how innocent people, those who are doing what is recommended have been made victims of the inconsideration and stupidity of others.
Will I get the vaccination? I can't say one way or another. I'm leaning not to, but it depends on the country and the company.
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