Anyone here remember the mass polio vaccination?

annifrance

I don't think I had the German measles vaccine and had it mildly when I was 12. I sailed through two pregnancies happy in the knowledge that I would be immune according to received wisdom. My daughter then caught it aged 3 and I caught it from her! The doctor decided I was one of the few that didn't become immune. It horrified me at the thought of what could have happened to either of my DCs.

I had German measles as a child and then again when I was au pairing aged 19. There are 2 kinds. So I was definitely immune. My youngest DS came out in a rash when he was about 3 months and the paediatrician was amazed to find it was German measles. I don't understand that to this day!

I remember the polio vaccination.also when all the swimming pools were closed. I was at school with a very pretty girl who had a withered leg due to polio.Tne worst vaccination I had was small pox,it was really painful.
That said I am a firm advocate ofvaccinations

I don't think I had the German measles vaccine and had it mildly when I was 12. I sailed through two pregnancies happy in the knowledge that I would be immune according to received wisdom. My daughter then caught it aged 3 and I caught it from her! The doctor decided I was one of the few that didn't become immune. It horrified me at the thought of what could have happened to either of my DCs.

My Dad was an anti-vaxxer - purely out of ignorance I think. So we weren't vaccinated for anything. We did have the polio vaccine, though, because, I think, it was compulsory. I remember queuing at the village hall and getting the lump of sugar. That must have been about 1962/63.

Then in the 3rd year (so about 1967) all girls had to have a "Heaf test". We waited outside the Senior Mistress's office and when we went in we were jabbed with this little circle of blunt pins on the inside of our forearm. If that came up red we were immune against TB, but nearly all of us had no reaction and had to queue outside the Senior Mistress's office again 10 days later for a TB jab.

In 1974 there was a case of smallpox in the UK and my mother smuggled me into the queue with the kids going on an exchange trip to France, as I was due to go to Germany and everyone who left the country had to have the jab. It wasn't the one that left a mark on your arm, though.

I think I'm too young to remember the mass injections against polio though.

Granny23 I was also going to post about Rotary's amazing work in helping to eradicate polio from around the world. It is down to the last two countries now.

I don't remember it because I was a baby but I received the sugar cube version in Hull in 1961. It was still controversial at that point because, unlike the first vaccine, it contained live virus but Hull was in a desperate situation. A massive outbreak was on the cards and parents queued for hours to get their children vaccinated. Mass vaccination worked.

Also sugar cube in the 60's

My Mum didn't want me to have the TB vaccine for some reason (we had all the others). However, I insisted on having it and I'm glad I did. My first job was in a hospital and I looked after a lady who unbeknown to us, had TB. It was discovered at her post mortem. It took the authorities months to trace all her contacts. If I hadn't had the jab, I could have caught it and passed it on to many other people..

I don’t remember having the polio vaccine but I vaguely remember there was a scare about polio and parents were taking precautions. There was a paddling pool in the park near our house and I remember my Mum not wanting me to go in it one summer. A friend at primary school wore a leg iron which was a result of polio and so did one of our primary school teachers. I do have a very clear memory of the TB vaccine which was given soon after I started grammar school. I had a terrible reaction to it, puss was coming out of the area for weeks and the whole if my upper arm was extremely painful, I still have the scar.

The fact so many here have memories of having polio or knowing someone who’d had it tells a story, doesn’t it? I had polio jabs and I recall being taken for a smallpox jab in the 60’s, I think. My Dh is a bit older than me and he recalls that because they started with younger children first, his sister had the polio jab but he didn’t. It didn’t stop him from going to play in the busy river, though, despite the dire warnings given by his parents and school.

I vividly remember getting my sugar cube vaccine against polio.I was so happy that I wouldn’t die, or be in an iron lung, or get callipers. My daughter hesitated about vacuuming her children, she has lots of anti vax friends. Her children were vaccinated thank goodness.

I too remember the iron lungs on Emergency Ward 10. Awful. I think I had the vaccine at school.

Does anyone remember the mobile chest X-ray units? I had to have a chest X-ray before going to teacher training college in the late 1960s.

I had every jab there was going. My best friend had polio. Like you 4allweknow, I seem to remember there being a course of 3 painful jabs over a few months for polioand each one got bigger - the last one, well the needle 'was at least 3ft long!!!'.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 .............

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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