1. How did polio spread? What were its symptoms and effects?

 It spread through eating or

drinking anything that has been contaminated with the fecal matter of someone who has
Polio already. In older children, teens, and sometimes adults, it can cause someone to become
paralyzed.

2. How were people treated for polio in the early 1900s? Some people had to use the iron lung to
help them breathe

3. How did the polio epidemic affect how people behaved and socialized? They all stayed inside to
keep themselves safe

4. What actions were taken to prevent polio from spreading? People under age of 21 quarentined
themselves

5. When was the worst outbreak of polio in the US? Which age bracket of the population was
greatly impacted? In 1952 57000 people were infected with polio. About 4000 died. This
mostly impacted children under the age of 21 in which the infection aralyzed.

6. What did Salk create in 1955? Salk created a vaccine.

7. How did the American people respond to the vaccine trial in 1954? Did they support it or try to
hinder it? They supported it by allowing trial vaccines to be done on them.

8. What was one issue that occurred as the government started to roll out the polio vaccine?
There weren’t any vaccines left.

9. How did Sabin's vaccine differ from Salk's? (You have more than likely been vaccinated with the
Sabin vaccine when you were 2-6 months old) Sabins vaccine held herd immunity. It’s a small
tablet taken only once and it cures the body from the inside out.

10. How did the Sabin vaccine relate to the Cold War with the Soviet Union/Russia? Americans
started to wonder why Russians were being treated with an American Vaccine.

11. What was the "vaccine gap" referring to? The missile gap

12. Reflection Question: Please respond with a one paragraph answer. How is the rollout of the
polio vaccine similar to the current rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines in this country? Are there
similar problems? If so, what? Currently, 3.2% of the US population has been fully vaccinated,
10% have received their first dose of the vaccine. By 1979, the US had been completely
eradicated of polio. When do you think the US will achieve herd immunity (this will occur when
65-70% of the population has been vaccinated)? How do you think the COVID-19 vaccine is
going? Have you paid attention? I don’t watch a lot of news I like to stay a little bit less than
pleasantly ignorant. Most of the news I hear is from all of the people around me talking. And
by people, I mean my mom and my sister. I think it will take at least another year to achieve
herd immunity. I think the scientists are probably doing the best they can but it seems like it’s
taken forever for them to find a vaccine.