Is Covid Our Generation’s Polio?

Can history help us deal with this disease?

When I was a kid, my family was vacationing in Philadelphia during the first outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease. July 1976 was the bicentennial, and the city where the declaration of independence was signed should have been thronged with tourists.

Instead, the streets were eerily empty. If you glimpsed anyone who was forced to be outside, they kept their head down and hurried as fast as they could through the exposed space.

At the time, people were getting sick, some dying, and no one knew why. People were staying home and trying to stay safe.

I’d never seen anything like it, and compared it to a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. My parents looked at each other knowingly.

“This is what it used to be like when someone got Polio,” my mom explained, her voice dropping to whisper the last word. It was a reflex, similar to how many people refer to cancer. An unwillingness to speak the name of a capricious and implacable killer, lest you attract its attention.

Both my parents were born in the 1920s, and they remembered life before the Polio vaccine. Their description was sufficiently harrowing that 40-odd years later, I recall it vividly.

Similarities of disease

There are many similarities between Polio and Covid.

Both diseases have multiple variations. Polio had three distinct strains. Covid has 5 distinct variants (so far).

According to the Mayo Clinic, the majority of people who contract Polio never realize it. Similarly, asymptomatic Covid patients may never know that they’ve been ill.

For those who do have symptoms, they start as mild, flu-like symptoms. Then, about a week later, you either get better, or all Hell breaks loose. For Covid, this could mean Covid pneumonia and being on a respirator. For Polio, this could mean muscle weakness or even paralysis.

Both diseases have a low fatality rate. But those who have serious cases have lingering health issues. Polio victims had life-long symptoms ranging from muscle weakness, to full paralysis of one or more limbs, to needing an iron lung to breath. Additionally, Post-Polio Syndrome can affect victims with new symptoms 15–40 years after they think they’re recovered.

Details are still emerging about the extent of “long Covid”, and whether it will be life-long or not. The disease hasn’t been around long enough to know. But it clearly has debilitating symptoms that can last for months after the disease. Some of these symptoms include fatigue, strokes and temporary paralysis, and scarred lung tissue requiring being on oxygen or a respirator.

Similarities of vaccines

You may have learned in school that Jonas Salk invented a Polio vaccine in the 1950s, and now Polio has been eradicated from the US and Europe. (It is still present in other areas of the world, primarily Asia and Africa.) But that’s an oversimplification.

Jonas Salk did invent the first Polio vaccine, in 1954, with large-scale trials in 1955. The US rushed the vaccine into production, without adequate manufacturing safeguards. The vaccine relied upon dead Polio virus cells, and one of the first producers did not kill the virus correctly. As a result, over 100,000 people were injected with a live Polio virus. Around 250 people became ill, including a number of children, some of whom died, prompting a recall of the vaccine and a full investigation. The vaccine has continued to be manufactured, with better safety controls, and is still in use today.

A subsequent oral vaccine, invented in 1957 by Albert Sabin and Hilary Koprowski, did not have the problems of the early Salk vaccine. Because the US was committed to the Salk vaccine, the oral vaccine was tested in Russia. It was a huge success, and replaced the Salk vaccine in much of the world in 1961, since it was easier to administer.

In 1955, there were approximately 29,000 documented cases of poliomyelitis in the US. Just two years after mass production and implementation of the Salk vaccine, the infection rate plummeted to less than 6,000. The vaccine worked.

The first injected Covid vaccines were developed in 2020, with mass production in 2021. The vaccines were highly effective against the initial Alpha variant of Covid, and progressively less effective against newer variants. Even if they fail to prevent all Covid variant infections, the vaccines appear to prevent severe cases.

Similar to the public opinion reaction to the Salk recall, many people do not trust the injected Covid vaccines. They worry that they were rushed into production, and the long term side effects are unknown.

Also similar to the Polio vaccine story, a new type of oral Covid vaccine has been developed and is being tested in Israel. Other companies are also testing oral and nasal vaccines. It is possible that, as with the Polio vaccine, the oral vaccine will take off in popularity as people perceive it as addressing their fears about a vaccine injection.

Crucial differences in diseases

There is one crucial difference in the two diseases.

Polio is a stable virus, currently still active in Pakistan and Afghanistan. While the rest of the world has enough vaccination to prevent an epidemic, there is still the potential for transmission to isolated people. The most recent US case of Polio was an unvaccinated traveler who contracted the disease in 2005.

Covid, on the other hand, mutates rapidly. As the variants continue to proliferate, even those who have been vaccinated already can be infected by a new variant. While the Delta variant is making news for its increased severity and transmission rate, the Lambda variant, already present in the US, has been wreaking havoc on South America. Of particular concern is that Lambda is ravaging Chile, which had a 60% vaccination rate, prompting worries that Lambda has found a way around the vaccines.

Does history offer any suggestions?

Since the diseases have so many similarities, it stands to reason that we can learn something about how to fight Covid by studying the fight against Polio.

First of all, both diseases have no cure once someone is ill. The best thing is to prevent becoming ill — through a combination of vaccination, sanitation, and protection (such as masks and social distancing). After that, treatment is limited to treatment of symptoms, such as providing artificial respiration for severely ill patients.

In 1949, President Harry Truman declared that America must fight an all-out war against Polio. He further stated that it needed to be a national effort, in every city, town, and village across the United States, because anything less than a unified front was doomed to failure. While there were no national mandates, state and local government took the advice of national scientists, implementing their recommendations as made sense for their populations.

The response to Covid, on the other hand, has been left up to the states, with varying degrees of success. While some states have attempted to follow national science advice, others have blatantly disregarded it. Because of the speed at which the pandemic spread throughout the world, best practices have often been contradictory as new information becomes known.

Perhaps there would be more support for Covid responses if they were left up to the local municipalities following stable national guidelines. Local municipalities could then make rulings based on that evidence, taking into account their local situations.

Potential treatments from the past

Polio survivors tried many treatments to improve their health after their illnesses.

Physical therapy treatments focused on preventing muscle loss and regaining muscle strength after Polio. The March of Dimes paid for physical therapy treatment for approximately 80% of Polio victims, who were unable to afford the expensive treatments on their own. Sometimes, they even created Polio hospitals. Founded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, their fund-raising was second only to the Red Cross. It is possible that a similar charity may be established by a wealthy individual who contracts Covid, and used to fund treatment for long-Covid sufferers. After establishment, contributions to that charity could come in small amounts from a wide range of donors.

Nutritional treatments focused on eating fresh fruit, vegetables, and protein, and avoiding starches and sugar. It’s well known that such a diet reduces the body’s inflammation response. We may soon see a “long Covid diet” being advertised that focuses on similar principles.

Conclusion

There are many similarities between Covid and Polio.

The diseases themselves have many parallels. Most people who contract them show no symptoms, or only mild flu-like symptoms. Severe cases can lead to long-lasting, debilitating symptoms.

There are also many parallels between vaccine developments for the two diseases. The first widely available Polio vaccine was an injection, followed by an oral vaccine. The first widely available Covid vaccines were injections, and oral vaccines are now being tested.

Finally, we can perhaps learn something from history when it comes to dealing with Covid.

Vaccination, sanitation, and protection work. A single, trusted source of health information, implemented locally, is both sensitive to a population’s needs and able to most rapidly adjust to changing circumstances.

A national charitable organization (with widespread public and political support) is capable of underwriting the expenses of those who become ill. It can also create specialized health care facilities in a short period of time, that can be dismantled or revert to other functions when they are no longer needed.

An anti-inflammatory diet may prove to help those suffering from long-Covid alleviate some of their symptoms.

Get my free guide to increasing your confidence here!