Dana Houle wrote on Twitter (which I read via Balloon Juice, my favorite blog and the first thing I read every morning of my life), “Longterm for my kids and for the world nothing matters more than climate change.  But for this moment, nothing will matter more for my life & my children’s lives than this,”  Breaking news NYT–F.D.A. regulators said the Pfizer vaccine’s benefits outweigh its risks for 5- to 11-year-olds.

My attention went right to the word”risks” and I asked (Yes, I do talk to myself and ask myself questions), “What were the risks of the polio vaccine for me, vaccinated in 1956 in the auditorium of my high school?”  I didn’t have a reaction and I don’t recall that any of my friends did either.  I do recall a cousin having polio in the late 1940s and I recall a friend in my grade who was crippled by polio, wearing a leg brace in order to walk.

I just read some history of the polio vaccine and there were reactions in some children and some deaths.  Also, in 1953, before vaccinations, there were 35,000 recorded cases of polio.  By 1957 half the population of this country had received at least one dose of the vaccine.  Like now, they were recommending three doses.

So, by 1957 approximately 86 million people had received at least on shot.  The epidemic was stopped IN THE AMERICAS a few years later.  Back then, enough Americans got shots that we stopped having cases of polio in this country.

Do not misunderstand me.  There ARE (why does WordPress not provide a way to underline? FFS) risks and for those whose children died or had reactions leaving them with long term illness or damage, the risks turned out to have tragic results.  When I imagine myself being the parent of such a child I can feel the agony, the anger, the permanent “if only I…” in my thoughts.  No one wants to be the exception and this is certainly one of those times.  And we have never had a year since when 35,000 people died of polio.

I wonder if we will ever be able to say that about COVID?