The 1950's represented the cold war era, symbolized by the red scare, anti-communism, potential nuclear war, and McCarthyism. Patriotic loyalty and conformity demonstrated an allegiance to our country. Citizens who spoke out against US government policies experienced surveillance, being black listed, and labeled communists. The sensationalized conviction and execution of the Rosenberg's for spying, jeopardized our countries' national security and reinforced anti-communism propaganda. Moreover, students practiced emergency ducking under their desk drills to prepare for a nuclear fallout and families purchased bomb shelter for protection. The hyper-vigilance, fear, paranoia, and post - traumatic stress that permeated our country's landscape of being under siege, intensified with the polio epidemic.
Verbally expressing the word “POLIO” brings forth anxiety, trepidation, and thoughts of mortality, crippled bodies, and iron lungs. Once the first shock wears off that you-- in fact, have the disease than the fight for your life begins. This highly contagious illness was unknowingly transmitted by close contact and in fecal matter. Unfortunately, many poor and middle class families' contracted this viral disease, which rapidly destroyed motor-neurons to arms, legs, and diaphragm muscles. Ironically, improved twentieth- century sanitation practices like enclosed sewers and indoor plumbing were cited for this delayed childhood disease. Younger breastfeeding toddlers received maternal antibodies that protected them from the virus. However, older children did not have this immune advantage, they suffered more debilitative disabilities. Sadly, children under fifteen years old, experienced the highest rates of contracting infantile pa...
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...ease, be open to explore alternative ways in handling medical crisis, look to our neighboring countries to learn how they resolved epidemic, encourage practice primary health care that contains immunization and vaccines against the major childhood.
Works Cited
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4. Foertsch, J. Bracing accounts, the literature and culture of polio in post war america
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Voyager Winter/Spring (2007) 10-25.
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Critical occurrences in1949 brought American communist fears to an extreme level. The Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Airlift, followed by Mao Zedong's triumph over Chiang Kai-Shek's Chinese Nationalist forces, and the successful atomic bomb tests of the USSR all contributed to the hysteria. America was gripped by paranoia, embodied by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy Communist witch hunts.
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Doherty profiles the 1950's Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism, and its vast effect on
The sixties was a decade filled with major political debates that affected the entire country. By the time the sixties came around we were in the most turbulent part of the Cold War, an era of military and political tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. As Dwight Eisenhower brought the fifties to a close it was time for a new president to take hold of the reigns. As the country closed in on one of the closest elections in history it was up to Democratic candidate, John F. Kennedy to compete agains...
After reading The Panic Virus, it became evident that this book can in fact be extremely useful. Perhaps people prefer not to educate themselves about vaccination on the grounds that medical language can be dry, confusing, and uninteresting. Perhaps they don’t wish to listen to medical professionals due to the fact that they feel that they have an agenda to protect themselves. Whatever the reason, the need for Mnookin’s The Panic Virus is to provide a strong argument for pro-vaccination that is given by a member of the reader’s peers. Mnookin is not a medical professional, and has no personal gain from defending the medical field; therefore, his argument is ‘by the people, for the people’. Mnookin’s tone throughout the novel also makes The Panic Virus a page-turner. Mnookin uses a tone that is at times formal and factual and at other times snide and informal, engaging the reader with every
The 1950’s have received a reputation as an age of political, social and cultural conformity. This reputation is rightfully given, as with almost every aspect of life people were encouraged to conform to society. Conforming is not necessarily a negative thing for society, and the aspects of which people were encouraged to conform in the 1950’s have both negative and positive connotations.
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The world can also start helping by having camps in the rural areas and injecting new born babies with vaccinations for no cost. By implementing the above measures, it would cost some money and will take some time, although it would result in a world, free of the infectious disease, poliomyelitis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed immunizations as the number one greatest public health achievement in the 20th century. This attainment towards the goal of health and safety is a huge success for not only our country but from the global perspective as well. Immunizations help to prevent illness and death from vaccine-preventable diseases. The World Health Organization states that global vaccination coverage has remained consistent for the past few years; for example, the percentage of infants fully vaccinated against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis has held secure at 83%. Programs for population-wide vaccinations have helped with the annihilation of polio in America since the late 1970’s, the eradication of smallpox, and the control of numerous other infectious diseases in the United States and other parts of the world.
During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under the presidency of Truman and Eisenhower. America underwent another era of good feelings as they thought themselves undefeatable and superior over the rest of the world. Communism was the American enemy and American sought to rid the world of it. Because of the extreme paranoia caused by Communism, conformity became an ideal way to distinguish American Culture from the rest. Conformity became a part of every American Life to a large extent. It became evident through the medium of culture, society and politics throughout the era of the 50s.
For innumerable centuries, unrelenting strains of disease have ravaged society. From the polio epidemic in the twentieth century to the measles cases in the latter half of the century, such an adverse component of nature has taken the lives of many. In 1796, Edward Jenner discovered that exposure to cowpox could foster immunity against smallpox; through injecting the cowpox into another person’s arm, he founded the revolutionary concept known as a vaccination. While many attribute the eradication of various diseases to vaccines, many United States citizens are progressively beginning to oppose them. Many deludedly thought that Measles had been completely terminated throughout the United States; however, many children have been patronized by
The whole world has heard about smallpox and polio but not of any recent cases, the dramatic ended of these diseases is from the use of vaccinations. Illnesses that were once deadly now can be completely avoided by being vaccinated, if the world stopped vaccinating the illness might return. Society has used vaccines for generations, however recently the effectiveness and side effects of vaccines have come under question. The value of vaccines is that they are essential to the survival of the human race, by preventing major epidemics of reoccurring viruses. This paper will expound on why people should be vaccinated, the benefits of herd immunity, the history of vaccines, how safe it is to be vaccinated, the cost effectiveness, and the benefits of vaccines eliminating deadly virus.