I'm sure I've done this several times in the last 20 years (since I retired)--condensing and throwing away files, especially those related to work. Now I'm into personal things. Considering the news about the vaccines, it was interesting to find a copy of a letter I wrote in 1983 to Dr. Albert Sabin who developed the oral polio vaccine which was much easier for school children. (I had the Salk vaccine given at school).
"I will always be grateful that as a parent I didn't have to go through the worry my parents' generation suffered. In 1949, my cousin Jimmy died of polio and 3 weeks later my sister became ill with polio. Although she lived, now in middle age she is suffering many after affects of deterioration.
Thank you for your contribution to the health of the world."
I had seen a newspaper column by Bob Greene who reported that Dr. Sabin was paralyzed in a lot of pain and unable to walk and was confined to a hospital bed at the National Institutes of Health. Green thought letters from the public could cheer the 77 year old.
Maybe it worked, because he lived another decade. I read a NYT obituary for him today and was surprised to see many parallels to other viral diseases, and how he continued to work on this problem. He also worked on Sandfly fever, dengue fever, toxoplasmosis and encephalitis. He and Dr. Salk (credited for the polio vaccine injection with booster shots) had a rivalry.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0826.html
He denounced the Federal policy of vaccinating all adults against the Swine flu virus in 1976, which bore a strong chemical resemblance to the virus of 1918-1919. He spoke the truth as he saw it without diplomatic considerations and thus many government doors were closed to him even though he was a hero.
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