OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Humanity has been down this road before. Not so long ago, polio was a terrifying virus with no available vaccine. Parents lived in fear of a disease that could permanently disable or even kill their children. President Franklin Roosevelt was diagnosed with the paralytic disease as a young adult and founded the charity, March of Dimes, in response to the poliomyelitis virus. Then, in the 1950s, Dr. Jonas Salk developed an effective polio vaccine that could be administered with in an injection.
Thanks to Bill Kelly at NET, we've discovered some extraordinary footage of KMTV and its coverage of a mass polio vaccination effort in 1962. By that time, Dr. Albert Sabin had developed a vaccine that could be taken by eating a sugar cube; no jabs with needles needed. The station reported live during baseball game as the vaccine was distributed and Dr. Sabin joined the broadcast from Ohio to promote the event. They called it Sabin Oral Sunday and covered it like an election because the sugar cube version of the vaccine was considered that important.
Read more or watch the video on the NET website: 1962 Polio Vaccine Drive Relevant For Today's Push To Immunize