The 1950's represented the cold war era, symbolized by the red scare, anti-communism, potential nuclear war, and McCarthyism. Patriotic loyalty and conformity demonstrated an allegiance to our country. Citizens who spoke out against US government policies experienced surveillance, being black listed, and labeled communists. The sensationalized conviction and execution of the Rosenberg's for spying, jeopardized our countries' national security and reinforced anti-communism propaganda. Moreover, students practiced emergency ducking under their desk drills to prepare for a nuclear fallout and families purchased bomb shelter for protection. The hyper-vigilance, fear, paranoia, and post - traumatic stress that permeated our country's landscape of being under siege, intensified with the polio epidemic.
Verbally expressing the word “POLIO” brings forth anxiety, trepidation, and thoughts of mortality, crippled bodies, and iron lungs. Once the first shock wears off that you-- in fact, have the disease than the fight for your life begins. This highly contagious illness was unknowingly transmitted by close contact and in fecal matter. Unfortunately, many poor and middle class families' contracted this viral disease, which rapidly destroyed motor-neurons to arms, legs, and diaphragm muscles. Ironically, improved twentieth- century sanitation practices like enclosed sewers and indoor plumbing were cited for this delayed childhood disease. Younger breastfeeding toddlers received maternal antibodies that protected them from the virus. However, older children did not have this immune advantage, they suffered more debilitative disabilities. Sadly, children under fifteen years old, experienced the highest rates of contracting infantile pa...
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...ease, be open to explore alternative ways in handling medical crisis, look to our neighboring countries to learn how they resolved epidemic, encourage practice primary health care that contains immunization and vaccines against the major childhood.
Works Cited
1. Rogers, N. Dirt and Disease: Polio before FDR (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers
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History of Medicine 72.3 (1998) 464-495
3. Oshinsky, D. M. Polio: an aerican story oxford university press (2005) 350
4. Foertsch, J. Bracing accounts, the literature and culture of polio in post war america
. Associated university press (2008) 223.
5. Bocker, A. and Brandt, V. Living in fear: northeast wisconsin's polio epidemics.
Voyager Winter/Spring (2007) 10-25.
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Doherty profiles the 1950's Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism, and its vast effect on
The sixties was a decade filled with major political debates that affected the entire country. By the time the sixties came around we were in the most turbulent part of the Cold War, an era of military and political tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. As Dwight Eisenhower brought the fifties to a close it was time for a new president to take hold of the reigns. As the country closed in on one of the closest elections in history it was up to Democratic candidate, John F. Kennedy to compete agains...
After reading The Panic Virus, it became evident that this book can in fact be extremely useful. Perhaps people prefer not to educate themselves about vaccination on the grounds that medical language can be dry, confusing, and uninteresting. Perhaps they don’t wish to listen to medical professionals due to the fact that they feel that they have an agenda to protect themselves. Whatever the reason, the need for Mnookin’s The Panic Virus is to provide a strong argument for pro-vaccination that is given by a member of the reader’s peers. Mnookin is not a medical professional, and has no personal gain from defending the medical field; therefore, his argument is ‘by the people, for the people’. Mnookin’s tone throughout the novel also makes The Panic Virus a page-turner. Mnookin uses a tone that is at times formal and factual and at other times snide and informal, engaging the reader with every
As World War Two came to a close, a new American culture was developing all across the United States. Families were moving away from crowded cities into spacious suburban towns to help create a better life for them during and after the baby boom of the post-war era. Teenagers were starting to become independent by listing to their own music and not wearing the same style of clothing as their parents. Aside from the progress of society that was made during this time period, many people still did not discuss controversial issues such as divorce and sexual relations between young people. While many historians regard the 1950s as a time of true conservatism at its finest, it could really be considered a time of true progression in the American way of life.
Through the rise of technological advances in medicine, the vaccine has changed the world for the greater good of the human race. Making a great triumph and virtually eliminating an array of life-threatening diseases, from smallpox to diphtheria, thus adding approximately thirty years to many humans’ life spans. Although, a new complication has arisen, possibly linking neurological digression with this rise of new vaccines. Such a digression has forced parents to exempt their children from receiving vaccinations and brought forth mental anguish affecting the minds of many.
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