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> Such resistance is not unprecedented. When Gallup in 1954 asked U.S. adults who had heard or read about the then-new polio vaccine, "Would you like to take this new polio vaccine (to keep people from getting polio) yourself?" just 60% said they would, while 31% said they would not. So far, willingness to adopt a new vaccine looks similar today. Interesting that attitudes haven't changed. I read a bit more about the history of the polio vaccine. In 1938, FDR founded the March of Dimes, a nonprofit to help people with polio. Incidentally, this is why the US 10 cent coin has FDR's face on it. That nonprofit funded Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, the researchers who developed two different kinds of Polio vaccines in the 50s. Salk published in 1953, and large scale trials began in '54 and concluded in '55. Note, the Gallup poll was made in 1954, when the vaccine was still in trials. The successful vaccine was then licensed, and promoted by March of Dimes. "The annual number of polio cases fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,600 by 1957. By 1961 only 161 cases were recorded in the United States."[1] In 1955, a manufacturer of the Salk polio vaccine had failed to properly inactivate the virus, leading to the deaths of 11 children, and 250 cases of paralysis. This led to a temporary drop in vaccine confidence, and the adoption of Sabin's less dangerous oral vaccine across the USSR and other non-US countries. Despite opposition from the March of Dimes, Sabin's vaccine replaced Salk's vaccine in the 60s. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine#1935 |
Then the cold war started to wrap up. And the anti-vaxxers came on the scene. And now everything about vaccinations is political. So we've seen a drastic change again.
Consider the CDC's data on pertussis over the last century to see an illustration of the outcomes. Note that death rates are still down, these are reported infections:
https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/surv-reporting/cases-by-year.h...