Saturday, July 14, 2018

Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky




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For the past two weeks,  my fb contacts have been inundated by my posts related to this book.  I listened to it on my commute each day to and from work and often I would have to google for more information different topics that spurred an interest in me for more information.  Not that the book didn't have great in depth information because it did.  But it made me hungry for more.  The topic of polio has always fascinated me for several reasons.  One is my age.  The first polio vaccine only went on the market two years before my birth so I barely dodged the bullet of being at risk for polio.  Another reason is my mother's interest.  She was an RN who received her training at a time when caring for polio victims was a large part of her education and work.  And she had an aunt who was a polio survivor.  Although I never knew my great aunt,  as we moved around the midwest when I was growing up,  my mother always found a polio survivor shut in, in each new community we lived,  to visit on a regular basis.  As a child she often brought me with her.  But back to Oshinsky's book.  It covers so many of the interesting and important topics related to polio.  FDR,  Warm Springs,  The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis,  The March of Dimes,  Sister Kenny, Dr Salk,  Dr Sabin,  along with more recent questions in relation to the long range effects of the various vaccines that have been used to immunize against polio.  I loved this book!  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows





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