Synopsis
For the greater part of the twentieth century, polio spread panic throughout the Western world and caused paralysis in its victims, who were encased in iron lungs and fitted with callipers to support their weakened limbs. The story of these years is explored through the memories of patients, medical staff, and policymakers, and asks whether or not the government was too cautious in its introduction of the polio vaccine. The vaccine had been discovered in 1954 and was enthusiastically welcomed in the United States, but in Britain, the authorities hesitated in establishing a universal immunization program.
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