Anyone here remember the mass polio vaccination?

I was born in 1951 and remember the polio vaccination campaign in 1957, we were among the first children to be given the sugar lumps instead of a jab.

I was vaccinated against smallpox before going to school in 1956, I thought all children in Scotland were, but perhaps Daddy was just cautious being a doctor.

A girl at school who was three years older than me had had polio and wore calipers.

BCG was done at school, but when I moved to Denmark in 1975 you had to have a chest X ray every year if you studied,, worked with children or were a medical professional. Workers in large firms were checked for TB yearly too, and in smaller firms every second year.

I was re-vaccinated twice, as tests for TB always come back positive on me for some reason that no-one has ever satisfactorily explained.

I haven't had TB, nor had any of my parents or grandparents.

I was born 1945 and had no vaccinations in childhood at all until I was 20 and went overseas to live so there couldn’t have been any mandatory rulings
My parents never had any vaccinations until in their 70 s they started having the annual flu vaccine
I m sure I ll have the Covid injection at some point but don’t want it as yet I m not at all convinced we ve bought the best vaccine

Yes, I remember the polio vaccination. It came on a sugar lump.

There was a vaccination centre about a mile from the school and we were walked down there, class by class in a rigidly maintained croccodile

I can't remember having any jabs as a child in the 50s but I know I had every available immunisation. I remember, vaguely, the smallpox outbreak in the 60s but have no scar to show I had the vaccine. I remember, very vividly, the earlier polio outbreaks that worried my parents so much, with the pictures of calipers, wheelchairs and iron lungs.

I had the BCG jab in school when I was about 13 years old. There's some rumour of that jab offering some protection against Covid-19 but I don't know what happened to that theory. TB is still endemic in many countries, and visitors from some of them are required to provide a certificate to show they don't have it. TB is endemic in some EU countries but I think freedom of movement has allowed people to visit here without certification. Bulgaria and Romania are EU countries with active TB levels.

My sisters and I all had the usual childhood diseases including chicken pox and measles but I didn't get mumps. I was glad when the MMR catch up was offered for my older two. The youngest had the jabs as a baby.

Remembering the fairly recent outbreaks of meningitis among students, it's great that vaccines are available against many strains of that dangerous disease too.

I'll be having the Covid-19 jabs as soon as I'm called, unless they are reluctant to give it to me. I recently had a nasty reaction to the pneumonia jab but I'm guessing the covid one will be more akin to the flu jab, which I've never reacted to.

I'm needle phobic and faint when I have to have one. But will have the Covid one (just wish it was one jab instead of two).

For anyone interested in the 1961 mass vaccination in Hull here's the Pathe news broadcast www.youtube.com/watch?v=W88DcouLijY

This current vaccine will capture the imagination all because of William Shakespeare! I'm afraid Margaret Keenan's name may be less memorable. She looked amazing I thought.

I think I had the first polio vaccine by injection and then boosters by sugar lump. My mother would never let us play in the paddling pools in parks as she said they were a polio risk.
One neighbour's little boy had polio and wore callipers. His mother did not have it easy as his sister started school in my class and after a few weeks was sent away to a special school (I think we called them backward schools then) so bother her children had a disability.
I worked with someone in the 90s who had had polio and he had to give up work as he developed post polio syndrome. Prior to that he had had years of being perfectly fit.

My uncle had polio and wore a caliper all his life. He'd been very ill though. I well remember my Granny telling me about the first time she noticed something wrong with him. She was a tough old thing but I'll never forget the look in her eyes and the wobble in her voice as she talked about it. He did live to a good old age after an active life but, at the time, finding her wee boy had this dread disease must have been awful for poor Granny.

I once stood up to my GP who thought my DD should not have the Whooping Cough vaccine.
My X is a Grand Mal epileptic, and it was thought wrongly that the vaccine caused Autism, and epilepsy could make the reaction worse.
I pointed out that X's Epilepsy was the result of a minor spinal accident when he was a child so irrelevant.
The GP was stroppy with me for months but DD was fine.
I will be getting the Covid jab on the 11th of January, a district nurse is coming at 14.00pm.

felice my GP dad once gave a whooping cough vaccination to a young patient who went on to develop fits and was never the same again. He was quite haunted by it and didn't want us to give our children the whooping cough vaccine.
DS had the MMR but went on to catch measles, mumps and rubella over the next year. Must have been a dud batch!!

I remember the frightening pictures of iron lungs and being warned not to play near water. What happened to all those poor youngsters - we had one girl at school with calipers on her leg but I was never aware of others.

I hope the anitvacc people see these pictures and realise how things are,in a different way, but ventilators instead of iron lungs

I think I had the sugar lump and possibly a booster a few years later?

I remember a sugar cube which i pretended to swallow and promptly put it in my pocket,i`ve never liked sugar.
Naughty in hindsight.

I remember it too; but especially the smallpox vaccination. We had this because my father had to go on and off oil tankers at the nearby dock - they had come from the east and it was thought they put anyone on board in danger.

Both my brother and I caught cowpox, which is the bug they use to vaccinate for smallpox. We were off school for weeks and were very poorly.

Thank goodness vaccines have become more sophisticated now.

If people are suggesting that anyone who has decided that for the present they do not want the Covid vaccine, has never seen disease, they are wrong. I'm of the generation where smallpox still existed, my Mum had polio, and TB, we all had measles, German measles, mumps and chicken pox.

What is so annoying is that those of us who have decided not to have the vaccine are no problem for the vaccinated. Most of us have compelling reasons for not wanting it. In my case, I'm not happy about injecting a drug which may interact with the 20+ drugs that I take every day. My medication is very finely balanced its so easy to knock it off course and make it harm rather than help. In addition it seems to me very odd that the countries in which the vaccine was developed are not using it first. Why us?

That said, my husband and I have discussed his having the jab, though older, he is not on any significant meds, andand is healthy. He has decided to have it and I'm behind him all the way.

There’s nothing sinister in the fact that we are the first country in the world to have the Pfizer vaccine.

It’s simply because our regulators were the first to sign it off as safe for use.

We are therefore getting off to a flying start. It’s a momentous day today!

daftbsg I totally agree I m not anti vax at all but it seems
you ve got to be completely for or completely against you are not allowed to have a different opinion without being called derogatory names
There are many unknowns about this particular vaccine ....how long it helps for 3 months 6 months ? it doesn’t stop you getting CoviD but stops you getting it badly ? it doesn’t stop you passing it on but will you pass on the weakened form or the Covid we now know ? Why is the US selling to us first and not using it on their own prople ?
I truly hope some vaccine becomes the answer to our needs and I particularly hope it will be able to be given to developing countries which with the needs to be kept so low in temperature I can’t see this one being suitable to be sold to poorer hot countries
I am interested in learning more about the Oxford vaccine so will not jump for joy yet but keep a fingers crossed interest and I won’t get jabbed in the first year

I had only just started school in 1953 when I caught polio and was in the iron lung. I wasn’t allowed any visitors, not even my parents as I was totally isolated. Very scary for a 5 year old. My elder brothers and sister had to quarantine for 2 weeks. I lost almost a year of school as even after I left hospital i was so poorly I caught a very bad case of measles then whooping cough! I only remember getting the sugar lump a few years later so wonder why, if there was a vaccine around I didn’t get that sooner. Thankfully I wasn’t completely paralysed but my GP thinks I now have Post Polio Syndrome as I have a lot of pain in my bones and leg muscles. I will definitely take this COVID vaccine.

Oh dear jennifereccles do you really truly believe that America who bless their hearts love to be first and best in everything would let us jump the queue unless .............

My best friend at high school caught polio. We were about 12 at the time, I think it was 1950 or 51. We didn't meet in the holidays, but she didn't appear in September, and we found out that she had polio. When she came back at about half term, her leg was in a caliper, and she had difficulty walking, she had been an athletic child. She had years of physiotherapy, but her experiences made her determined to study to be a doctor, which I believe she did. I had the polio vaccination as soon as it became available.

Professor Van Tam has endorsed it. Said he’s more than happy for his mum to have it. That’ll do for me!

I was born in 1936 but can't remember having the polio vaccine. I'm sure my Mum would have taken me.
A friend in the next street caught polio and had to wear calipers.
I do remember the TB one though. 2 of my classmates in 6th form had to take a year out in a sanitorium. TB is still around .
A few years ago I was going to visit India and went for a TB injection , but they said I was still immune.

I remember the polio vaccine and also the diptheria one. As I was brought up in Africa we had to have a round of injections every year. I seem to remember Yellow Fever, Typhoid and others as well. We were always poorly for a few days afterwards.