And yet a recent poll by Angus Reid suggested that 13 per cent of British Columbians did not intend to get vaccinated, and 41 per cent intended to wait for others to be vaccinated first. Vaccine hesitancy is as old as vaccines, but current forces work to make it especially strong. For some people, a negative view of vaccination aligns with beliefs concerning intrusive governments, for-profit medicine or elitist scientific institutions. For others, the breakneck pace of COVID-19 vaccine development gives rise to safety concerns, especially concerning possible long-term side effects. Social media can work to amplify such sentiments and create a climate of uncertainty.
Before the coronavirus, hereâs how Tampa Bay fought polio with vaccines
Thousands of children received polio vaccines in schools, while one Florida man was arrested for spreading anti-science propaganda.
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Dixie Lee Heckel, then 3, receives her polio shot at the Leon County Health Unit in Tallahassee, Florida, on June 23, 1957. [ State Library and Archives of Florida ]
Updated Dec. 16, 2020
As we wait we can learn from Tampa Bayâs vaccine past, starting with the polio vaccine. These lifesaving vaccinations emerged in the 1950s as researchers crusaded to stop a virus that attacked the nervous system.
While the populations most vulnerable to the coronavirus skew older, poliomyelitis was largely identified as a childrenâs disease, said Naomi Rogers, a professor of the history of medicine at Yale University. Younger children were most likely to experience paralysis and other severe symptoms later.
Stateside s conversation with Dr. Howard Markel
Crowds cheered this weekend as the first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine rolled out of the production plant in Portage, Michigan. It was an emotional moment for some health care workers, too, as they became the first in the state to receive vaccinations. This historic step brings a cautious hope at the end of a devastating year. It also highlights how vaccine production has changed amid shifts in American science, medicine, and culture over the past several decades.
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“There has never been a faster process, from discovering a newly emerging infectious disease and getting it all the way to a workable and usable vaccine in basically under a year,” said
By GABRIELLE CALISE | Tampa Bay Times | Published: December 16, 2020
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. TAMPA, Fla. (Tribune News Service) History was made in Tampa Bay Monday as the first dose of coronavirus vaccine was given locally to a nurse at Tampa General Hospital. It was a long-awaited moment of hope for many, even those whose shots are months away. As we wait we can learn from Tampa Bay’s vaccine past, starting with the polio vaccine. These lifesaving vaccinations emerged in the 1950s as researchers crusaded to stop a virus that attacked the nervous system.