SO WHAT DOES SPRING RAIN HAVE TO DO WITH A PANDEMIC?
I recently encountered a friend who has attended my memoir classes on Orcas Island since I spoke at the Library last June. She pulled up next to Rich and me at Island Market. We rolled down our car windows to say “hello.” The Market now asks us to form a line with space between each person until we reach the grocery store’s front doors where we are directed to wash our hands (warm water!) and then given a sanitized grocery cart. This store is usually on the crowded side and is also under reconstruction, so I find the extra space refreshing. The wait is usually about 15 to 20 minutes to get inside.
The next morning my first thought was “How much I miss working with writers!” Since we are under shelter-in-place rules in Washington State, I am unable to hold any in-person classes and two writing conferences I’d planned to attend in April were cancelled. Even the library and bookstores are closed! Washington State was the first state affected by this virus when it appeared here in January. Today (March 28, 2020) we have recorded 4,310 cases with 189 deaths. Fortunately, once health officials, government representatives, and scientists in our state universities realized what was happening and how fast the virus could spread, the response from everyone continues to be outstanding in our state! (Notice the low death rate compared to other states.)
Outside this morning, rain washes our deck and the weather forecast predicts these rains will persist for a week to ten days. Daffodils have appeared along the beach path and in pots around the house. I can almost feel the bulbs rejoice to stretch and find the sky after their long winter beneath the soil! Ah! The cool wetness of rain must feel great on their new green leaves.
I look outside at the water and tall fir trees for inspiration as I search my mind computer for anything I’ve ever experienced like this plague. Suddenly, there it is--POLIO! This disease grabbed my attention in the l950s but polio had been around many years by that time. Google research showed me there was a large outbreak in Vermont in 1894 with 132 cases. In 1908-9 poliomyelitis was recognized as an infectious virus. I was ten when polio vaccines became available to the general public (1955). That vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk but there had been earlier attempts.
I learned that Egyptians in ancient times may have experienced polio because mummies have been found to have shortened limbs and other human deformities to reflect this theory. The word poliomyelitis comes from the Greek words polios (gray matter) and myelos (spinal cord).
Scientists struggled years to discover how the polio virus spread. I recall my parents being terrified to let us outside. Some suspected the outbreaks were caused by insects and this caused widespread spraying of DDT, a highly toxic bug killer. Some thought the virus could be spread by Italian immigrants, car exhausts or even cats. A 1952 survey of Americans showed they feared only nuclear annihilation more than polio.
After rabies and smallpox, polio was only the third viral disease scientists had discovered.
In 1921, polio struck President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who spent most of his adult life in a wheelchair. FDR’s affliction led to further recognition of polio and development of the Iron Lung to help those whose lungs became paralyzed from the polio virus. The March of Dimes was organized to help FDR and became a fundraiser for polio research.
When I first met polio in the 1950s, my father was an internal medicine physician and in the thick of all of it. My father always became distressed when he lost a patient and I remember him being constantly under stress by those dying from polio. I suspect this disease may have influenced his later decision a few years later to specialize in neurology. My brother and I were especially upset because our parents and our Aunt Charlotte and Grandmother Glenn would not let us outside to walk barefoot in rain puddles. They believed we could catch the polio virus this way. My research shows that about this time, feces and sewer water were suspected as virus carriers. Also, as our society became more sophisticated (and sanitized) researchers found that the polio virus attacks were more severe. Previously, infants were nursed longer and gained earlier immunization from both their mothers and the environment.
Today, scientists and doctors understand that the polio virus enters the human body through the mouth, reproduces in the intestines, then travels through the bloodstream and infects the brain and spinal cord, replicates and attacks the nervous system. They still believe it is carried by feces and water droplets in the air.
For me, as a child on the edge of puberty, one of the worst problems of polio came when a vaccine was developed. By this time, scientists realized there were several strains of poliomyelitis and vaccines had been developed by Hilary Kaprowski (died 1913), who had tested his on children and himself. Then in 1952-3, Jonas Salk developed a vaccine and became a public figure. Later the Sabin vaccine would lead to better immunization.
I believe I received the Salk vaccine in the 1950s. I recall being herded into the auditorium at the middle school where we waited until our names were called. Then we went into the school (Woodrow Wilson Junior High School in Decatur, Illinois) gymnasium/cafeteria filled with medical beds. We were told to remove lower clothing, then climbed onto a bed and received a shot. I was glad to have the shot to help me survive this horrible and scary plague but mortified to show my naked lower self to anyone much less a crowd of people. I remember children crying everywhere in that room. As the daughter of a doctor, I didn’t dare cry!
No one in our family got polio in the 50s but throughout my life I met people who had been affected by this plague.
Polio vaccines developed over time and in stages. In the early 1960s, Dr. A.B. Sabin licensed a vaccine given orally (OPV). The earlier IPV version was phased out. In the mid-1980s, the World Health Organization (WHO) set goals to eradicate polio, which was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 1994. Oral vaccines were given in the U.S. for many years but since 2000, IPV is the only vaccine for polio given in the U.S. and is given as a shot in the arm or leg. Unfortunately, the polio virus has not been eradicated in the world, so it remains only a plane ride away from anyone not vaccinated.
SO WHAT DO SPRING RAINS HAVE TO DO WITH VIRUSES? Viruses often appear in winter, although polio usually struck in summer. Nature seems oblivious to the novel coronavirus. She insists on presenting her winter dreams of finery in flowers and trees and bushes. At 74, I have lived long enough to know that Mother Nature frequently presents situations and challenges that force us to adapt, to explore. In the Midwest, a spring tornado can wipe out an entire town. Nature is always challenging us with questions such as those in the Pacific Northwest about why the Tufted Puffins keep disappearing from the coastal areas of Washington and Oregon and where are the Orca whales going? Answers may require patience and scientific data and precision. Adaptation can open pathways to a new consciousness or reveal new cures that expand human lifetimes. I notice that being homebound has provided me with the gift of time, time to reflect, to write, to read, time to take a new look at myself and my life. If this were my last day to live, how would I live it, I ask myself each morning before I go out to walk through the woods. In this new world, moments seem more valued. I pause to celebrate the day and to notice the daffodils struggling to open in the pots on my porch.
RESEARCH NOTES:
I did research about the polio virus through Google by looking up “polio virus.” The best source I found was “The History of Vaccines Educational Resource of Physicians of Philadelphia” and “Information from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Center.” I also gathered information from The History Channel.
If you’d like to comment on my BLOG or share your own experiences with polio with me, contact me at parsingwithsusan@gmail.com.