Polio: The Blessings of … ?

Sometimes cant harms no one but those who speak it; sometimes, as the wretched mishandling of the polio problem by the Eisenhower administration shows, it can endanger thousands of people. No one who remembers the hopes of April 12 when the vaccine discovery was officially announced, can look at the summer’s record of polio cases without dismay. Admittedly, even during the big build-up in April, there were those who warned that polio would not be completely under control in 1955. However, a record number of cases in Massachusetts-2,841 on September 16 as against 521 on the same day last year—does not speak well for the way the vaccine was handled. In the nation, 16,182 were reported by September; some 3,023 fewer than the 19,205 ...