Cline, Mary Beth - Hancock County

Describe what you remember about the fear surrounding polio epidemics:

In 1954, polio was a word that caused dread everywhere. Victims of the disease were left with lifelong paralysis resulting in severe and permanent disabilities. I can remember going to the Jones County Fair and seeing a girl in an iron lung on display almost like a sideshow attraction. She was there to urge people to contribute to the March of Dimes which was begun to fund the fight against polio.

I was a second grader at Cedar Rapids Lincoln Elementary School in 1954 and became a Polio Pioneer against my will. I really hated shots and had needed to be held down for them at the doctor's office. I had been telling my mother I was the smartest kid in my room and when she was asked to help in giving the test shots, she told me that, if that was really true, I needed to be brave because if I acted up I would surely scare the other kids to death. I did manage to suck it up and take my shots like a little soldier.

As luck would have it, I received the placebo and, in all, had seven shots before I completed the real vaccination. In retrospect, I can't imagine the government ever allowing such a program to happen--American school children as guinea pigs in a huge experiment. The legal ramifications would be mind boggling today. The desperation at the time must have been overwhelming for it to have happened then.

Long after the fact, I am proud to have been a Polio Pioneer. I still keep the little lapel pin I earned in 1954 from the National Fund for Infantile Paralysis and I'm happy to have played a small part in the approval of the Salk vaccine.