In the mid-20th century, community spaces like swimming pools and sporting events became a source of anxiety for parents who were frightened by the rampant spread of poliovirus. Their concerns weren’t ...

Before vaccines and public health triumphs, polio was the thing that kept parents up at night. During its peak from 1948 to 1955, the disease swept through towns across America, hitting children the ...

Any of us around in the 1950s remember how scary the thought of contracting polio was. Mothers would insist their children rest in the summer afternoons. I remember pictures of large hospital rooms ...

I’ve written about polio several times before, but as one who was afflicted with this devastating disease in August 1955, I can’t express enough my horror that there is any conversation going on ...

I’ll warn you now, this story does not have a happy ending. Wanda Lynn Ellis was born Nov. 27, 1946, in Caruthersville, the daughter of Harry Douglas and Mary S. Beasley Ellis. At the age of 2, ...

Wanda Ellis, 3 (seen in the mirror), in an iron lung that helped her breathe. Nurses Jane Kolbay (left) and Adah Morse had to hand pump bellows when two generators failed. A November 1949 ...

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Suppose Robert F Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as the next U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. In that case, we stand at the brink of polio, measles, and other deadly ...