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(CNN Spanish) -
This week the most important vaccination campaign of this century began in the United States.
In this episode we recall how Elvis Presley's vaccination in front of the media helped incentivize Americans - especially teenagers - to get vaccinated against polio.
You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform, or read the transcript below.
Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your daily dose of information on the new coronavirus.
Information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.
The long-awaited vaccine against covid-19 is a reality.
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Polio vaccination
With the vaccination of intensive care nurse Sandra Lindsay, on Monday, December 14 in New York, the most important vaccination campaign of this century began in the United States.
Today, by way of comparison, we will review the successful campaign to eradicate polio in that country, a campaign that undoubtedly had the same sense of urgency.
On Tuesday, February 23, 1954, a group of children at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received - as part of a clinical study - the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.
The havoc polio caused
Poliomyelitis is an infectious disease caused by the polio virus, which is transmitted by mouth.
During the first half of the last century, the disease was produced by outbreaks throughout the world, leaving thousands of children with severe paralysis in its wake, hence the disease was given the name of infantile paralysis.
The polio virus attacks neurons or nerve cells in the spinal cord, and sometimes the brain, causing permanent muscle paralysis and even death.
At that time, it was not uncommon to see children with polio sequelae, walking with the help of canes and bulky metal orthopedic devices.
Despite the fact that only 1% of children affected by polio developed paralysis, it is estimated that in the United States each year about 15,000 people, including adolescents, youth and adults, are permanently affected.
Roosevelt, one of those affected by polio
One of those victims was the future president of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who contracted polio in 1921, when he was already a young politician of 39 years.
The disease left him with both legs permanently paralyzed.
It was precisely President Roosevelt who, with the help of his adviser Basil O'Connor, established the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938, which raised funds with the very successful March of Dimes.
The money raised, which was very large, was directed - among other purposes - to help the investigations of a young doctor named Jonas Salk, who manipulating the polio virus with formaldehyde managed to deactivate it and produced the first injectable vaccine against polio, the which required three doses.
The polio vaccine: how it was found
In April 1955, the clinical trial of the vaccine - like the current Covid-19 vaccines - proved 90% effective and received authorization for its use.
The vaccination campaign was successful in children, as parents quickly understood that the benefits of the vaccine were much greater than the risks that could occur.
Unfortunately, the same did not happen with the adolescents, who in their natural rebellion and sense of invincibility, did not allow themselves to be vaccinated like children.
That made the foundation start with the initiative called Teens Against Polio (TAP), or Adolescents Against Polio, which managed to convince - in part - that adolescents accept the vaccine.
Elvis Presley's role in the polio vaccination campaign
But it wasn't until Elvis Presley intervened that things began to change.
It was so on October 28, 1956, just before appearing on the most important television program of the time, the Ed Sullivan Show, Elvis Presley was vaccinated by the New York health commissioner in front of reporters and photographers.
The effect was immediate.
Thousands of teenagers imitated their idol and in 1963 no case of polio was reported in New York.
After that, Elvis Presley was very active in helping the March of Dimes campaign.
«Hey guys, if you think that polio has been defeated, I want you to hear the voice of disabled children who suffer from it.
The Salk vaccine is very important, ”said the singer during the 1957 campaign.
The results of the Elvis campaign
Polio cases in the US fell from 14,647 in 1955 to 5,894 in 1956, and in 1979, after a long 25 years, the disease was officially eradicated from the United States.
Aware that 32% of Americans have expressed a desire not to get vaccinated against COVID-19, many public health officials are wondering which celebrities could help convince Americans to accept the vaccine.
At a global level, after smallpox became the first and only disease eradicated on the planet in 1980, in 1988 the campaign began to do the same with polio, that is, to eradicate it completely.
At the beginning of the initiative, approximately 350,000 children a year were paralyzed worldwide by polio.
In 2016, that number dropped to 42 cases.
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and the rejection of the Taliban to distribute the vaccine in the territories they control, this year 800 cases of polio caused by the wild virus or virus derived from the vaccine have been documented, mainly in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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