Mike Barnhill
Ashland
Dear Editor:
Comparisons have been made between the 1918 flu pandemic and today's COVID-19, but a more apt one should be the polio outbreaks starting in 1916 and continuing until 1955, when Dr. Jonas Salk developed a successful killed-virus vaccine. Prior to 1955, it wasn't unusual to hear of remedies such as hanging mothballs around your child's neck to prevent the scourge popularly known as infantile paralysis. This nonsense remedy compares to taking hydroxychloroquine, designed to battle malaria and not recommended for COVID-19. But people will try anything to combat a disease with no known cure.
Prior to Dr. Salk's research and test proven efficacy, two field trials were conducted in 1935 by Dr. Maurice Brodie and Dr. William Park, of the New York City department of health, conducted one test and the other by Dr. John Kolmer, of Temple University in Philadelphia. Nine thousand children were injected with the Park-Brodie vaccine that summer, and 10,000 with Kolmer's version. Both were disasters, in some cases causing the very polio they were intended to prevent, in others leading to infections and inflammations. Six children died of vaccine-caused polio.
Kolmer and Brodie were summoned to the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association for an open shaming delivered in two reports. One of which ended with the damning conclusion that Kolmer might as well be guilty of murder. "Gentlemen," Kolmer said in response, "this is one time I wish the floor would open up and swallow me."
In our current search for a cure for COVID-19, we must be patient and vigilant so a repeat of the disasters mentioned do not repeat themselves. It is my personal belief that an early opening of the nation's businesses and general economy will not help but could very well be a catastrophe in the very near future. Until a proven and well-tested vaccine can be developed, I'm afraid America is playing a deadly version of Russian roulette.