Abstract
In 1955, a vaccine emerged in America for the severe disease, polio. In 2021, a vaccine was approved to treat the viral infection COVID-19. Despite the nearly 70-year gap between the two diseases, many doctors and health experts compare these two diseases due to the large vaccination gap and similar societal effects such as city closures and quarantines. Vaccination responses to a health crisis are dramatically influenced by different social and political contexts, and America was facing very different contexts between 1955 and 2021. A successful polio campaign leaves many takeaways for more effective handling and execution of the covid vaccination campaign. It urges a careful analysis of these contexts, which this article provides. Results of the study showed that most prominently, different presiding presidents created this vaccination divide most strongly, through molding the country’s views and attitudes and dealing with polarization. Polio vaccination campaigns were also more expansive than covid. As America remains in the midst of the coronavirus, it is important to look back on history and ask, what can we change to keep viruses under control? And most of all, how can we prevent this from happening again in the future?
KEY WORDS: polio, covid, America, vaccine, vaccination, contexts, Trump, FDR, health, NFIP
KEY WORDS: polio, covid, America, vaccine, vaccination, contexts, Trump, FDR, health, NFIP