Does this sound familiar?“The cinemas and swimming pools were the first buildings to shut down. Then, the bars. People were asked to social distance and to stay safe.
Preventive measures were imposed to arrest the outbreak of a virus without a cure as the cases swelled rapidly across the United States.
Without a vaccine, the overwhelmed healthcare machine struggled to keep up with the pace of the illness.
Patients got hoarded in the corridors of overcrowded hospitals, left to wait as more people - mainly children under five years of age - fell ill.”
If you’re thinking “Yeah- 2020 and covid”, continue reading--
“It was the summer of 1952, a horrible year of polio in Texas.
In the July of that year, Paul Alexander was six, and he had no idea at the time that he’d end up spending decades living inside an iron lung.”
Paul Richard (born January 10, 1946) is an American lawyer and paralytic polio survivor. He is the last person living in an iron lung after he contracted polio in 1952.”
To most in this country, polio is a distant memory that only and Rotary is local folks raising money for local charities. But to millions of people in countries around the world, ROTARY is who has vaccinated children against polio since 1988, preventing 2.5 BILLION cases of polio.
Rotary is us. Rotary is YOU. Paul Alexander and I thank you for your generosity in the continued fight to eradicate polio.
