Understanding Vaccination Rates in America: Comparing Polio and Covid
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
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
1. INTRODUCTION
In early 2020, the rapid spread of the coronavirus left the entire world scrambling, the United States included. From the onset of the virus to November 2022, there have been over one million deaths from the virus and nearly 100 million confirmed cases total in America alone (CDC). Covid is not the first large-scale viral infection America has faced before. One particular epidemic stands out: polio. The worst polio outbreak in 1952 had over 57,000 cases, 21,000 of those resulting in paralysis and 3,000 deaths (Larsen).
The covid pandemic in America has been notorious for the debate over vaccinations. From the emergence of the vaccine to November 2022, 80.4% of individuals have received at least one dose of the vaccine. 68.6% of individuals have received all doses of the vaccine (CDC). However, there was a lot of pushback against immunizations early on. Surveys conducted in 2020 showed that between May and November 2020, the percentage of respondents who were willing to be vaccinated shifted from 72% to 51% to 60% (Wood). In contrast, 92.5% of children before the age of two have received the full polio vaccine dosage today (“Immunization”). Through comparisons between the recent covid pandemic to the historical polio epidemics in America, this article aims to show how social and political contexts and vaccination responses affected polio and covid vaccination rates in America. Vaccine resistance and lower vaccination rates are dangerous because it leaves a community more exposed to diseases. Both polio and covid have shown to be severe and potentially fatal–it is crucial to keep the community safe.
In early 2020, the rapid spread of the coronavirus left the entire world scrambling, the United States included. From the onset of the virus to November 2022, there have been over one million deaths from the virus and nearly 100 million confirmed cases total in America alone (CDC). Covid is not the first large-scale viral infection America has faced before. One particular epidemic stands out: polio. The worst polio outbreak in 1952 had over 57,000 cases, 21,000 of those resulting in paralysis and 3,000 deaths (Larsen).
The covid pandemic in America has been notorious for the debate over vaccinations. From the emergence of the vaccine to November 2022, 80.4% of individuals have received at least one dose of the vaccine. 68.6% of individuals have received all doses of the vaccine (CDC). However, there was a lot of pushback against immunizations early on. Surveys conducted in 2020 showed that between May and November 2020, the percentage of respondents who were willing to be vaccinated shifted from 72% to 51% to 60% (Wood). In contrast, 92.5% of children before the age of two have received the full polio vaccine dosage today (“Immunization”). Through comparisons between the recent covid pandemic to the historical polio epidemics in America, this article aims to show how social and political contexts and vaccination responses affected polio and covid vaccination rates in America. Vaccine resistance and lower vaccination rates are dangerous because it leaves a community more exposed to diseases. Both polio and covid have shown to be severe and potentially fatal–it is crucial to keep the community safe.
2. SOCIAL CONTEXTS OF POLIO AND COVID
Social contexts play an important role in shaping a population’s attitude. With the rise of polio, the American public’s views on polio were highly affected by fear for the at-risk population. Children had the highest chance of contracting polio, and parents were so desperate to protect their children that many parents were very willing to get their children vaccinated, according to Emory University historian Elena Conis (Conis). As a result of this desperation, it was much less likely that parents would listen to the voices of anti-vaccine movement leaders. There was a true desperation and fear, according to Walter Orenstein, Emory professor of medicine. In an NPR article, he said that "people were genuinely scared about polio and the annual epidemics–which during the early 1950s paralyzed more than 15,000 people each year in the U.S. [The vaccine] was viewed as a miracle…I remember my mother saying to me 'Better you should cry, than I should cry.' That's how much appreciated the vaccine was" (Weeks). Even with misinformation and vaccine skepticism about the dangers of the polio vaccine, fear led parents to rush towards vaccinations anyways. Regardless of the desperation, it was also important that parents would feel reassured about the vaccine, and the NFIP did just that–particularly during the vaccine trials (Larsen). In David Oshinksky’s book Polio: An American Story, he elaborated that the NFIP explained to parents how the vaccine had already been proved to be safe on over 5,000 volunteers, with none-to-minimal side effects (Oshinsky). Thus, from efforts to calm questioning parents to the parental desire to protect their children, the social environment guided the population towards vaccinations, muffling the anti-vaccination cries.
Social contexts play an important role in shaping a population’s attitude. With the rise of polio, the American public’s views on polio were highly affected by fear for the at-risk population. Children had the highest chance of contracting polio, and parents were so desperate to protect their children that many parents were very willing to get their children vaccinated, according to Emory University historian Elena Conis (Conis). As a result of this desperation, it was much less likely that parents would listen to the voices of anti-vaccine movement leaders. There was a true desperation and fear, according to Walter Orenstein, Emory professor of medicine. In an NPR article, he said that "people were genuinely scared about polio and the annual epidemics–which during the early 1950s paralyzed more than 15,000 people each year in the U.S. [The vaccine] was viewed as a miracle…I remember my mother saying to me 'Better you should cry, than I should cry.' That's how much appreciated the vaccine was" (Weeks). Even with misinformation and vaccine skepticism about the dangers of the polio vaccine, fear led parents to rush towards vaccinations anyways. Regardless of the desperation, it was also important that parents would feel reassured about the vaccine, and the NFIP did just that–particularly during the vaccine trials (Larsen). In David Oshinksky’s book Polio: An American Story, he elaborated that the NFIP explained to parents how the vaccine had already been proved to be safe on over 5,000 volunteers, with none-to-minimal side effects (Oshinsky). Thus, from efforts to calm questioning parents to the parental desire to protect their children, the social environment guided the population towards vaccinations, muffling the anti-vaccination cries.
For the covid pandemic, misinformation and the at-risk population shaped the social landscape, which ultimately hindered immunization rates. An article published in the “Microbes and Infection” journal articulates some of the outrageous claims that anti-vaccine voices have raised, including ones such as “Bill Gates created the virus”, or “covid viruses contain microchips to track individuals” and “5G networks in China weakened immune systems so that citizens would become infected”. Other protests include lobbying against social distancing, contact tracing, and masks (Hotez). One reason for the abundance of conspiracy theories emerging from covid is due to the internet and the availability of misinformation. Professors at the University of Iowa explain in an article published in “Wiley Public Health Emergency Collection” how in spring of 2020, around half of the American population encountered false information about covid, and many people unsurprisingly bought into it (Wang). Spreading false information only fueled the movements against vaccines. A Youtube video by Vice News (below) interviewed three people whose stories and lives were taken out of context to spread conspiracies about covid online, showcasing how easily the internet can spiral out of control. Another factor that the population faces is the at-risk group for the covid virus. The majority of deaths from covid fall under people age 50 and older, according to data from the CDC. As a result, vaccination rates are among the lowest in young adults ages 24 and under (CDC). In one abcnews article, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security scholar Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana states that the reason for the low rates among young adults is because of their “‘lingering perception that ‘I am young, I am strong, I can fight this thing off’…So there's that youthful sense of invincibility that was reinforced early on’” (Deliso). The result of the low vaccination rates relates to social pressures: if teenagers and young adults do not feel the need to get vaccinated, they are less likely to encourage their peers to vaccinate as well. These opinions may be strong enough to influence personal vaccination decisions or beliefs in misinformation and conspiracy theories.
3. POLITICAL CONTEXTS OF POLIO AND COVID
Another important area of context that should be understood when analyzing differences between polio and covid are the political contexts, specifically regarding figures in power. Political leaders of a country are often looked to during times of crisis, and it is their responses and actions that can unite its citizens or divide them. For polio, the political contexts largely aimed to unite the people of America and encourage them. This was done by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was a polio victim and thus able to empathize with others who contracted the disease. Roosevelt focused on the chase to find a treatment for polio when he became president in 1933. According to Robert Dorfman, a surgeon at Northwestern, and his article published in “Canadian Bulletin of Medical History”, Roosevelt was the “first American president to make a disease "his disease." His advisors made much of his transformation from polio victim to polio patron and featured his name, voice, and body in fundraising” (Dorfman). This framing of polio that Roosevelt presented was a key attitude in shaping the public’s views towards polio. Not only did Roosevelt start a rehabilitation foundation center in Warm Springs, Georgia, but he also founded the NFIP to fund research for a polio cure (Dorfman). Roosevelt’s efforts to spread awareness and actively battle the disease showed the public that he not only took polio and the safety of American citizens very seriously, but that polio could be treated and overcome. Roosevelt served to be a beacon of hope for the American public in this way. By the time the first vaccine emerged, then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower released a statement in May 1955 announcing the safety of the vaccine along with a distribution plan, encouragement for children to receive all three doses of the vaccine, legislation for states to provide free vaccinations, and his personal hope for polio eradication (Eisenhower). Just two months after Eisenhower’s statement, four million children received their shots (Abramson). Both Eisenhower and Roosevelt set examples of compassionate presidents that took care in addressing the national crisis beginning with action from the government. Their encouragement united the American people more than it divided them.
The political context of covid, on the other hand, was filled with division. A March 2021 survey in an article published in “The Lancet”, spearheaded by Yale School of Medicine Professor Saad Omer, concluded that 49% of males affiliated with the Republican party said they would not vaccinate, while only 6% of males affiliated with the Democratic party would choose not to vaccinate. Other research studies have concluded that this political polarization has damaged the potential of America’s response to the health crisis (Omer). These statistics demonstrate a divide of personal vaccination choices based on political identity. What is contributing to this divide? An article by The Atlantic holds some of the answers: former President Donald Trump’s dishonesty about the virus. Starting from the beginning of 2020 up to November 2020, the article tracks each false claim that Trump made about the coronavirus. These include quotes such as when he claimed the virus was “going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle–it will disappear.” He made other similar fake claims downplaying the severity and rise in covid cases, making general statements about covid cases dropping extremely low and how 99% of covid cases were harmless. Trump also falsely cited a CDC study and claimed that 85% of mask-wearers would still catch the virus. The list goes on (Paz). His continuous neglect to treat covid as a national health crisis and undermining the virus severity led to many of Trump’s supporters echoing his attitude and refusing to vaccinate. Langdon Distinguished University Professor of Marketing at NC State University Stacy Wood’s journal article in “New England Journal of Medicine” explains how a main factor in choosing to wear facemasks was associated with political affiliation (Wood). Given Wood’s claim along with the aforementioned poll cited by Dr. Omer, the evidence presents itself that political affiliation does play into vaccine decisions. Other political explanations for the division surrounding covid vaccinations is government mistrust. Senior scientist Frank Newport with data company Gallup writes that the low levels of trust in the government could have impacted the effects of covid. This was backed up by a CNBC poll and Census Bureau data which showed that low levels of trust in the government was one of the top reasons for vaccine refusal. Even states may have distrust of the federal government–many states run by democratic governors lifted their state mask mandate while the federal government still recommended masks (Newport). Given the assumption that democrats are more in favor of supporting vaccinations and health guidelines, the significance of the actions of these democratic governors speaks volumes–the federal government must have earned this low trust, through failing to meet demands or respond quickly to different emergencies and responsibilities. As a result, the public is less inclined to trust the government, and some people may even actively turn against their recommendations. This means that health recommendations will be met with resistance from citizens who don’t trust the government’s decision making. This distrust, paired with flawed administration, creates a general negative attitude for its citizens and dissuades them from receiving their shot.
4. VACCINES AND VACCINATION RESPONSES TO POLIO AND COVID
Alongside political and social contexts, vaccine promotion strategies are essential for ensuring a strong community response. With polio, organizations had been promoting polio awareness and treatments for years before the first vaccine by Jonas Salk came to light. The NFIP was founded in 1938, and has now become one of the largest voluntary nonprofit organizations in history, with the goals of treating polio victims, raising awareness, and sponsoring research to discover a cure. Because of the organization’s infamous dime-sized donations, the NFIP became better known as the March of Dimes (Larsen). Research for the polio vaccine had started even earlier in the 1930s, so when Salk’s vaccine was ready for trial, the NFIP was heavily involved in promoting the trial to parents, which became the largest vaccine field trial in history involving over 1.8 million children, and 200k teachers and volunteers (Larsen, Ujifusa). Within two years of Salk’s vaccine being approved in 1955, polio rates dropped by 80% (Larsen). Despite this success, vaccinations still fell short among teenagers, whose promising cultural influences could lead to great positive shifts in vaccinations. Ann Johnston Research Fellow Steven Mawdsley dove into teen health activism in his article published in “The Journal of the Social History Society” with the NFIP’s creation of its youth chapter in 1954, called Teens Against Polio (TAP). TAP reached out to schools and extracurricular groups to recruit teenagers to help fundraise and promote vaccinations for polio. Teens in TAP hosted fundraisers, appeared on television to talk about the vaccine, and helped create pamphlets to distribute to peers. These efforts were ultimately successful in reducing the vaccination gap (Mawdsley). Another campaign to increase immunization among youth was to use celebrities, such as Elvis Presley. Scientific American article states how Presley was vaccinated for polio on live television, and vaccination rates among the youth increased to 80% within six months. Presley’s impactful actions helped to change the social norms for young American viewers (Hershfield). The polio vaccination effort was truly a community effort–parents, teenagers, children, teachers, and even celebrities willingly supported the vaccine.
Alongside political and social contexts, vaccine promotion strategies are essential for ensuring a strong community response. With polio, organizations had been promoting polio awareness and treatments for years before the first vaccine by Jonas Salk came to light. The NFIP was founded in 1938, and has now become one of the largest voluntary nonprofit organizations in history, with the goals of treating polio victims, raising awareness, and sponsoring research to discover a cure. Because of the organization’s infamous dime-sized donations, the NFIP became better known as the March of Dimes (Larsen). Research for the polio vaccine had started even earlier in the 1930s, so when Salk’s vaccine was ready for trial, the NFIP was heavily involved in promoting the trial to parents, which became the largest vaccine field trial in history involving over 1.8 million children, and 200k teachers and volunteers (Larsen, Ujifusa). Within two years of Salk’s vaccine being approved in 1955, polio rates dropped by 80% (Larsen). Despite this success, vaccinations still fell short among teenagers, whose promising cultural influences could lead to great positive shifts in vaccinations. Ann Johnston Research Fellow Steven Mawdsley dove into teen health activism in his article published in “The Journal of the Social History Society” with the NFIP’s creation of its youth chapter in 1954, called Teens Against Polio (TAP). TAP reached out to schools and extracurricular groups to recruit teenagers to help fundraise and promote vaccinations for polio. Teens in TAP hosted fundraisers, appeared on television to talk about the vaccine, and helped create pamphlets to distribute to peers. These efforts were ultimately successful in reducing the vaccination gap (Mawdsley). Another campaign to increase immunization among youth was to use celebrities, such as Elvis Presley. Scientific American article states how Presley was vaccinated for polio on live television, and vaccination rates among the youth increased to 80% within six months. Presley’s impactful actions helped to change the social norms for young American viewers (Hershfield). The polio vaccination effort was truly a community effort–parents, teenagers, children, teachers, and even celebrities willingly supported the vaccine.
While the polio vaccine took over 20 years of research to develop, the advanced technology around the emergence of covid resulted in vaccine production and distribution within 12 to 18 months–an extraordinarily fast vaccine turnaround. Despite the government’s rapid action towards developing a vaccine, the public was still hesitant to vaccinate. According to an article on Council on Foreign Relations, executive director Georges C. Benjamin of the American Public Health Association said that “‘We’ve not done a really good job of saying, ‘Here’s what happens if you get this vaccination and here’s what happens if you don’t,’. We’ve not married those two stories…for a lot of people who are fundamentally hesitant’” (Klobucista). The cause of vaccine hesitancy, according to Benjamin, is that the government or other organizations have not convinced enough people of the importance of vaccinations. Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, with USAToday suggests that this pandemic needs a March of Dimes of its own: non-partisan, direct communication to the public, and most of all–no political influence (Gupta). Other suggestions for how to promote vaccinations have included creating more on-site vaccination locations at work or school, increasing observability through ‘walking vaccination advertisements’ with stickers and buttons, or offering free incentives to get vaccinated such as food, work days off, etc (Omer; Wood). From personal experience, many schools and workplaces have implemented mandatory vaccinations, stores and supermarkets require masks for unvaccinated customers, and college campuses are plastered with posters and signs encouraging vaccinations and masks. The CDC offers specific examples of how people and organizations have reached members in their communities to increase vaccinations through various outreach strategies to promote community conversations, and provides an online guide for how to promote vaccinations in different community spaces (CDC). These stories show how small-scale efforts have been successful, but larger organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) face criticism on a global scale for their response to covid. An article by Lidia Kuznetsova, faculty of medicine at University of Barcelona, published in “Frontiers of Medical Health” explains that the most popular criticisms of the WHO include both the over and underestimation of the threat of covid, allowing political biases to conflict with interests and agenda, lacking preparedness and responding too slowly (Kuznetsova). Without a strong, nationwide, organized effort to promote vaccinations and battle the vaccine hesitancy, America’s vaccine rates lag behind.
5. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION
Despite this paper’s differentiation between sociopolitical contexts and vaccination responses, the reality of a society’s response over vaccinations is the deep intertwining of all three components, and even more. Thus, overlaps between these three sections exist, for both covid and polio. In the context of polio, for example, FDR’s presidency set the tone for attitudes towards polio because he was a victim of the disease himself. FDR cared deeply about treating polio and aiding victims, leading to the American people taking more urgency to vaccinate their children. His founding of the NFIP/March of Dimes meant that the organization would be able to reach people on a national scale and have significant funding and resources to produce and promote vaccines to the public. The organization had also been around for over a decade before the vaccine was released, thus it had been gaining traction and gathering support for many years. America’s leadership during the start of covid, in contrast, made it difficult for a vaccination campaign to lift off the ground. The virus hit instantly and unexpectedly–America was not prepared. Trump’s initial downplaying of the severity of the virus aimed to put the public more at ease and prevent panic, but according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, numerous health experts have criticized Trump’s decision to downplay the facts and claim that being straightforward would be the best way to minimize panic (Harvard). Trump’s reaction to the virus was reflected on a national level, and conspiracy theories and anti-covid protection movements arose because there was no perceived urgency to accompany the rising pandemic until later on. The disorganization from the federal government meant that preventative measures were left up to the states and local cities while the federal level pushed urgently towards developing a vaccine at an extremely accelerated rate. Although the vaccine was quickly developed, the government was left with an unwilling population.
Currently, the United States does not have the same luxury as it did with polio–having an organization to raise over a decade of awareness before the emergence of the vaccine–thanks to developments in immunology today; perhaps both a blessing and a curse. A possible solution for the vaccination awareness issue would be to have a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization as Dr. Rahul Gupta suggested, aimed more generally towards vaccine promotion for all different kinds of viruses and offering a variety of vaccination programs. At the community level, we should educate ourselves and others about vaccines, take preventative measures to stop the spread of misinformation, encourage our communities and peers to inoculate, and volunteer with community organizations to increase open conversations surrounding immunizations. Most of all however, the country needs a compassionate leader to take action and rally the public together against the enemy of the disease, not each other.
Despite this paper’s differentiation between sociopolitical contexts and vaccination responses, the reality of a society’s response over vaccinations is the deep intertwining of all three components, and even more. Thus, overlaps between these three sections exist, for both covid and polio. In the context of polio, for example, FDR’s presidency set the tone for attitudes towards polio because he was a victim of the disease himself. FDR cared deeply about treating polio and aiding victims, leading to the American people taking more urgency to vaccinate their children. His founding of the NFIP/March of Dimes meant that the organization would be able to reach people on a national scale and have significant funding and resources to produce and promote vaccines to the public. The organization had also been around for over a decade before the vaccine was released, thus it had been gaining traction and gathering support for many years. America’s leadership during the start of covid, in contrast, made it difficult for a vaccination campaign to lift off the ground. The virus hit instantly and unexpectedly–America was not prepared. Trump’s initial downplaying of the severity of the virus aimed to put the public more at ease and prevent panic, but according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, numerous health experts have criticized Trump’s decision to downplay the facts and claim that being straightforward would be the best way to minimize panic (Harvard). Trump’s reaction to the virus was reflected on a national level, and conspiracy theories and anti-covid protection movements arose because there was no perceived urgency to accompany the rising pandemic until later on. The disorganization from the federal government meant that preventative measures were left up to the states and local cities while the federal level pushed urgently towards developing a vaccine at an extremely accelerated rate. Although the vaccine was quickly developed, the government was left with an unwilling population.
Currently, the United States does not have the same luxury as it did with polio–having an organization to raise over a decade of awareness before the emergence of the vaccine–thanks to developments in immunology today; perhaps both a blessing and a curse. A possible solution for the vaccination awareness issue would be to have a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization as Dr. Rahul Gupta suggested, aimed more generally towards vaccine promotion for all different kinds of viruses and offering a variety of vaccination programs. At the community level, we should educate ourselves and others about vaccines, take preventative measures to stop the spread of misinformation, encourage our communities and peers to inoculate, and volunteer with community organizations to increase open conversations surrounding immunizations. Most of all however, the country needs a compassionate leader to take action and rally the public together against the enemy of the disease, not each other.
Annotated Bibliography
Brink, Susan. "Can't Help Falling In Love With A Vaccine: How Polio Campaign Beat Vaccine Hesitancy." NPR.org, 3 May 2021, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/03/988756973/cant-help-falling-in-love-with-a-vaccine-how-polio-campaign-beat-vaccine-hesitan.
- Susan Brink, an author and co-author of two books, is the writer of this NPR source. She interviews David Oshinsky, a historian at NYU and an author of Polio: An American Story, as well as Stacey Stewart, the current president of the March of Dimes organization. The focus of the article is about what Stewart and Oshinsky have to say–Stewart talks about the March for Dimes and their effort in spreading polio awareness and the trust that people had in the vaccine. She also talks about the role that President Roosevelt had in encouraging the public and raising awareness for polio. Oshinsky mentions a factor of racism that surrounded the vaccinations. There are also some comparisons between polio and covid, and a general timeline of polio and the vaccine.
- This source is quite reliable because the people who speak on this topic in the paper are both recognized experts in this area. Stewart holds immense credibility as the president of March for Dimes, and Oshinsky is the author of a well-known published book. I did not end up using this source in my paper, but it helped me in discovering Oshinsky’s book and using that as a source in my paper instead. Stewart’s claims about the March for Dimes I was also able to find in other sources as well.
- Lidia Kuznetsova is a faculty of medicine at University of Barcelona and has written multiple articles on cancer research. The World Health Organization (WHO) is considered one of the main organizations that contributed to fighting the covid battle on the international scale. This article covers some of the covid responses of the WHO, such as fundraising millions of dollars towards covid prevention but also discusses criticisms that the organization faced due to their underestimation of the covid threat and slow response. Under Donald Trump’s presidency, Trump also suspended the US financing of the WHO.
- While the WHO did gather a lot of funding and contribute to fighting against covid , the criticisms of the WHO also present arguments for comparison against polio. Particularly, Trump’s involvement in withdrawing from the WHO contributed to the anti-vaccination movement and fueling international tensions. I ended up using this source in the body paragraph about vaccination responses as a criticism of initiatives taken on the global scale in handling covid.
- Dawn Larsen is a professor of health sciences at Minnesota State University Mankato and published in the American Journal of Health Education. This article gives thorough background information on the rise of polio, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the March for Dimes, background on vaccine development and implementation, and the fight against anti-vaccine protests. This source is very informational and has a slight bias at the end towards a pro-vaccination status.
- Since there is so much background information within this journal article, I used this source throughout my essay, to provide background information about polio and statistics. There is also a fair amount of information about the March of Dimes organization which I used to talk about the NFIP’s role in funding research, promoting vaccinations, and raising awareness.
- The author of this article is Padraig Moran, a writer with the CBC news, but the main focus of the article is an interview with Jill Lepore, a Harvard professor. Lepore talks about the anti-vaccination movement and the resistance against ‘socialist’ ideals of the federal government distributing vaccines. She compares the polio response to the covid response, and explains why anti-vaccination sentiments still exist. Moran seems to have a bias towards pro-vaccination since she gives a slight negative tone towards anti-vaccination supporters when she talks about their protests even before the emergence of the covid vaccine.
- I did not directly use this source, but I did vaguely discuss the effect of the ‘socialist’ ideals that Lepore mentions. It helped me understand that because of America’s fear of socialized medicine and government authoritarianism, it resulted in vaccine legislation to be given to state powers instead, which I talked about in the political contexts paragraph with Dwight Eisenhower’s statement.
- The Lancet is one of the oldest high-impact general medical journals. This article in particular is written by many authors, headed by Saad Omer, an epidemiologist. The issue discusses the reasoning behind the vaccination debate, mainly political polarization and anti-vaccine movements heading the spread of misinformation. Other parts of the article list different strategies to promote vaccine acceptance, such as making vaccination appointments easier, providing equal access to vaccines, and fighting against anti-vaccine groups.
- This source was helpful for me and I used it to talk about political polarization and how the poll cited in Omer’s journal was likely due to false claims made by trump. Especially regarding partisan divide, the data from this source showed how self-identity with political parties is associated with vaccination attitudes. I also mentioned some of the vaccine promotion tactics discussed by Omer in my vaccination responses section as well.
Works Cited
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Brink, Susan. "Can't Help Falling In Love With A Vaccine: How Polio Campaign Beat Vaccine Hesitancy." NPR.org, 3 May 2021, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/03/988756973/cant-help-falling-in-love-with-a-vaccine-how-polio-campaign-beat-vaccine-hesitan.
CDC. "COVID Data Tracker." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 Mar. 2020, covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics.
CDC. "COVID Data Tracker." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 Mar. 2020, covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics. (Figure 3)
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CDC. "Cumulative Count of People with at least One Dose of Vaccine Administration, United States." Graph. CDC, covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_totaldeaths_select_00. (Figure 1)
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Conis, Elena. "Vaccination Resistance in Historical Perspective." Organization of American Historians, www.oah.org/tah/issues/2015/august/vaccination-resistance/.
Deliso, Meredith. "What's Fueling COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Young Adults?" ABC News, 16 July 2021, abcnews.go.com/Health/young-adults-remain-hesitant-covid-19-vaccine/story?id=78828317.
Dorfman, Robert G., et al. "Dr. Polio: Revisiting FDR's Medical Legacy." Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, vol. 35 no. 1, 2018, p. 160-192. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/695810.
Eisenhower, Dwight. "Statement by the President on the Polio Vaccine Situation." The American Presidency Project, 31 May 1955, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-president-the-polio-vaccine-situation
Gupta, Rahul. "Polio Campaign of the 1950s is a Sound Model for What America Needs for COVID-19." USA TODAY, 9 Oct. 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/10/09/covid-19-and-polio-vaccines-what-1950-could-teach-us-today-column/3586538001/.
Harvard. "Trump Shouldn’t Have Downplayed Coronavirus, Say Experts." Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 17 Sept. 2020, www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/trump-shouldnt-have-downplayed-coronavirus-say-experts/.
Hershfield, Hal, and Ilana Brody. "How Elvis Got Americans to Accept the Polio Vaccine." Scientific American, 18 Jan. 2021, www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-elvis-got-americans-to-accept-the-polio-vaccine
Hotez, Peter J. "COVID19 meets the antivaccine movement." Microbes and Infection, vol. 22, no. 4-5, 2020, pp. 162-164.
Klobucista, Claire. "A Guide to Global COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts." Council on Foreign Relations, 19 July 2022, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/guide-global-covid-19-vaccine-efforts.
Kuznetsova L. COVID-19: The World Community Expects the World Health Organization to Play a Stronger Leadership and Coordination Role in Pandemics Control. Front Public Health. 2020 Sep 8;8:470. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00470. PMID: 33014970; PMCID: PMC7505920.
Larsen, Dawn. "The March of Dimes and Polio: Lessons in Vaccine Advocacy for Health Educators." American Journal of Health Education, vol. 43, no. 1, Jan. 2012, pp. 47-54, eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ978264. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ978264.pdf
Lee, Bruce Y. "Did Marjorie Taylor Greene Compare Polio And Covid-19 Vaccines? Here’s The Problem." Forbes, 21 Dec. 2021, www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2021/12/21/did-marjorie-taylor-greene-compare-polio-and-covid-19-vaccines-heres-the-problem/?sh=57caa4551033.
Meyers, K., Thomasson, M.A. Can pandemics affect educational attainment? Evidence from the polio epidemic of 1916. Cliometrica 15, 231–265 (2021). https://doi-org.libproxy.berkeley.edu/10.1007/s11698-020-00212-3
Moran, Padraig. "Polio Vaccine Set off Wave of Relief, and a Wave of Resistance. COVID-19 Era May Be Similar, Says Jill Lepore." CBC, 15 Dec. 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-june-9-2020-1.5604421/polio-vaccine-set-off-wave-of-relief-and-a-wave-of-resistance-covid-19-era-may-be-similar-says-jill-lepore-1.5604925
NFIP. "National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, March of Dimes." Poster. Public Domain, 1940. (Figure 5)
Omer, Saad B., et al. "Promoting COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: recommendations from the Lancet Commission on Vaccine Refusal, Acceptance, and Demand in the USA." The Lancet, vol. 398, no. 10317, 2021, pp. 2186-2192. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02507-1
Oshinsky, David M.. Polio : An American Story, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/berkeley-ebooks/detail.action?docID=279565.
Paz, Christian. "All the President’s Lies About the Coronavirus." The Atlantic, 23 Feb. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/11/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/.
Schupmann, Will D. "Human Experimentation in Public Schools: How Schools Served as Sites of Vaccine Trials in the 20th Century." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 108, no. 8, 2018, pp. 1015-1022. https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1084&context=phr
Scientific American. "Paranoid Gossip About Polio Vaccine." Scientific American, 13 Apr. 2020, www.scientificamerican.com/article/paranoid-gossip-about-polio-vaccine/.
Steinberg, Neil. "Americans Were Scared of Polio Vaccines Too." Chicago Sun-Times, 31 Aug. 2021, chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/8/31/22626790/coronavirus-vaccine-anti-vaxxers-polio-winchell-steinberg.
Stephen E. Mawdsley (2016) ‘Salk Hops’: Teen Health Activism and the Fight against Polio, 1955 – 1960, Cultural and Social History, 13:2, 249-265, DOI: 10.1080/14780038.2016.1145393
Suckley, Margaret. President Roosevelt in his wheelchair on the porch at Top Cottage in Hyde Park, NY. Photograph. 1941. FDR Presidential Library & Museum. (Figure 4)
Teter, Cloyd. Nurse Cuca Martinez (Left) does her best to soothe Elizabeth Tarrant, 7, of 881 S. Umatilla St., Dr. Rosalind Ting (right) readies the needle for child's first polio injection. Photograph. 1956. The Denver Post. (Figure 2)
UC Berkeley. "Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information." College of Chemistry, chemistry.berkeley.edu/coronavirus. (Figure 6)
Ujifusa, Andrew. "Schools Helped Defeat Polio and Diphtheria With Vaccine Efforts. Can They Do It With COVID?" Education Week, 19 Oct. 2021, www.edweek.org/leadership/schools-helped-defeat-polio-and-diphtheria-with-vaccine-efforts-can-they-do-it-with-covid/2021/10.
Wang, Xiangyu et al. “Understanding the spread of COVID-19 misinformation on social media: The effects of topics and a political leader's nudge.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology vol. 73,5 (2022): 726-737. doi:10.1002/asi.24576
Weeks, Linton. "Defeating Polio, The Disease That Paralyzed America." NPR.org, 10 Apr. 2015, www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/04/10/398515228/defeating-the-disease-that-paralyzed-america.
Wood, Stacy, and Kevin Schulman. "Beyond Politics — Promoting Covid-19 Vaccination in the United States." New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 384, no. 7, 2021, p. e23. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmms2033790
Yeracaris, Constantine A. “The Acceptance of Polio Vaccine: An Hypothesis.” The American Catholic Sociological Review, vol. 22, no. 4, 1961, pp. 299–305. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3708037.
Zhang, Alicia. Triple Venn Diagram. Graph. (Figure 7)
Brink, Susan. "Can't Help Falling In Love With A Vaccine: How Polio Campaign Beat Vaccine Hesitancy." NPR.org, 3 May 2021, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/03/988756973/cant-help-falling-in-love-with-a-vaccine-how-polio-campaign-beat-vaccine-hesitan.
CDC. "COVID Data Tracker." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 Mar. 2020, covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics.
CDC. "COVID Data Tracker." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 Mar. 2020, covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics. (Figure 3)
CDC. "COVID Data Tracker." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 Mar. 2020, covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_totalcases_select_00.
CDC. "Cumulative Count of People with at least One Dose of Vaccine Administration, United States." Graph. CDC, covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_totaldeaths_select_00. (Figure 1)
CDC. "How Health Departments Can Increase COVID-19 Vaccinations." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 June 2022, https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/vaccinate-with-confidence/community.html
CDC. "Immunization." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 Oct. 2022, www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/immunize.htm#:~:text=Polio%20(3%2B%20doses)%3A%2092.5,(1%2B%20doses)%3A%2090.8%25.
Conis, Elena. "Vaccination Resistance in Historical Perspective." Organization of American Historians, www.oah.org/tah/issues/2015/august/vaccination-resistance/.
Deliso, Meredith. "What's Fueling COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Young Adults?" ABC News, 16 July 2021, abcnews.go.com/Health/young-adults-remain-hesitant-covid-19-vaccine/story?id=78828317.
Dorfman, Robert G., et al. "Dr. Polio: Revisiting FDR's Medical Legacy." Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, vol. 35 no. 1, 2018, p. 160-192. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/695810.
Eisenhower, Dwight. "Statement by the President on the Polio Vaccine Situation." The American Presidency Project, 31 May 1955, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-president-the-polio-vaccine-situation
Gupta, Rahul. "Polio Campaign of the 1950s is a Sound Model for What America Needs for COVID-19." USA TODAY, 9 Oct. 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/10/09/covid-19-and-polio-vaccines-what-1950-could-teach-us-today-column/3586538001/.
Harvard. "Trump Shouldn’t Have Downplayed Coronavirus, Say Experts." Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 17 Sept. 2020, www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/trump-shouldnt-have-downplayed-coronavirus-say-experts/.
Hershfield, Hal, and Ilana Brody. "How Elvis Got Americans to Accept the Polio Vaccine." Scientific American, 18 Jan. 2021, www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-elvis-got-americans-to-accept-the-polio-vaccine
Hotez, Peter J. "COVID19 meets the antivaccine movement." Microbes and Infection, vol. 22, no. 4-5, 2020, pp. 162-164.
Klobucista, Claire. "A Guide to Global COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts." Council on Foreign Relations, 19 July 2022, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/guide-global-covid-19-vaccine-efforts.
Kuznetsova L. COVID-19: The World Community Expects the World Health Organization to Play a Stronger Leadership and Coordination Role in Pandemics Control. Front Public Health. 2020 Sep 8;8:470. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00470. PMID: 33014970; PMCID: PMC7505920.
Larsen, Dawn. "The March of Dimes and Polio: Lessons in Vaccine Advocacy for Health Educators." American Journal of Health Education, vol. 43, no. 1, Jan. 2012, pp. 47-54, eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ978264. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ978264.pdf
Lee, Bruce Y. "Did Marjorie Taylor Greene Compare Polio And Covid-19 Vaccines? Here’s The Problem." Forbes, 21 Dec. 2021, www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2021/12/21/did-marjorie-taylor-greene-compare-polio-and-covid-19-vaccines-heres-the-problem/?sh=57caa4551033.
Meyers, K., Thomasson, M.A. Can pandemics affect educational attainment? Evidence from the polio epidemic of 1916. Cliometrica 15, 231–265 (2021). https://doi-org.libproxy.berkeley.edu/10.1007/s11698-020-00212-3
Moran, Padraig. "Polio Vaccine Set off Wave of Relief, and a Wave of Resistance. COVID-19 Era May Be Similar, Says Jill Lepore." CBC, 15 Dec. 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-june-9-2020-1.5604421/polio-vaccine-set-off-wave-of-relief-and-a-wave-of-resistance-covid-19-era-may-be-similar-says-jill-lepore-1.5604925
NFIP. "National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, March of Dimes." Poster. Public Domain, 1940. (Figure 5)
Omer, Saad B., et al. "Promoting COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: recommendations from the Lancet Commission on Vaccine Refusal, Acceptance, and Demand in the USA." The Lancet, vol. 398, no. 10317, 2021, pp. 2186-2192. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02507-1
Oshinsky, David M.. Polio : An American Story, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/berkeley-ebooks/detail.action?docID=279565.
Paz, Christian. "All the President’s Lies About the Coronavirus." The Atlantic, 23 Feb. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/11/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/.
Schupmann, Will D. "Human Experimentation in Public Schools: How Schools Served as Sites of Vaccine Trials in the 20th Century." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 108, no. 8, 2018, pp. 1015-1022. https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1084&context=phr
Scientific American. "Paranoid Gossip About Polio Vaccine." Scientific American, 13 Apr. 2020, www.scientificamerican.com/article/paranoid-gossip-about-polio-vaccine/.
Steinberg, Neil. "Americans Were Scared of Polio Vaccines Too." Chicago Sun-Times, 31 Aug. 2021, chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/8/31/22626790/coronavirus-vaccine-anti-vaxxers-polio-winchell-steinberg.
Stephen E. Mawdsley (2016) ‘Salk Hops’: Teen Health Activism and the Fight against Polio, 1955 – 1960, Cultural and Social History, 13:2, 249-265, DOI: 10.1080/14780038.2016.1145393
Suckley, Margaret. President Roosevelt in his wheelchair on the porch at Top Cottage in Hyde Park, NY. Photograph. 1941. FDR Presidential Library & Museum. (Figure 4)
Teter, Cloyd. Nurse Cuca Martinez (Left) does her best to soothe Elizabeth Tarrant, 7, of 881 S. Umatilla St., Dr. Rosalind Ting (right) readies the needle for child's first polio injection. Photograph. 1956. The Denver Post. (Figure 2)
UC Berkeley. "Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information." College of Chemistry, chemistry.berkeley.edu/coronavirus. (Figure 6)
Ujifusa, Andrew. "Schools Helped Defeat Polio and Diphtheria With Vaccine Efforts. Can They Do It With COVID?" Education Week, 19 Oct. 2021, www.edweek.org/leadership/schools-helped-defeat-polio-and-diphtheria-with-vaccine-efforts-can-they-do-it-with-covid/2021/10.
Wang, Xiangyu et al. “Understanding the spread of COVID-19 misinformation on social media: The effects of topics and a political leader's nudge.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology vol. 73,5 (2022): 726-737. doi:10.1002/asi.24576
Weeks, Linton. "Defeating Polio, The Disease That Paralyzed America." NPR.org, 10 Apr. 2015, www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/04/10/398515228/defeating-the-disease-that-paralyzed-america.
Wood, Stacy, and Kevin Schulman. "Beyond Politics — Promoting Covid-19 Vaccination in the United States." New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 384, no. 7, 2021, p. e23. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmms2033790
Yeracaris, Constantine A. “The Acceptance of Polio Vaccine: An Hypothesis.” The American Catholic Sociological Review, vol. 22, no. 4, 1961, pp. 299–305. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3708037.
Zhang, Alicia. Triple Venn Diagram. Graph. (Figure 7)