Be responsible, hopeful | LETTERS - Daytona Beach News-Journal

Be responsible, hopeful | LETTERS - Daytona Beach News-Journal

Be responsible, hopeful | LETTERS - Daytona Beach News-Journal

Posted: 28 Apr 2020 12:00 AM PDT

As a paralytic polio survivor of 1953 at age six, just a little over a year before the Salk vaccine was approved, I have closely watched the progress of a vaccine for COVID-19.

The first major outbreak of poliomyelitis in the US was the summer of 1916 when 6,000 people, mainly children, died and 27,000 suffered permanent paralysis. This terrible paralyzing virus returned every summer and in 1952, there were 57,000 cases. Fear gripped our nation.

Thankfully, Dr. Jonas Salk was hired in 1952 by the Medical Center of the University of Pittsburgh to start intense research on discovering a polio vaccine. On April 12, 1955, the Salk vaccine was declared safe and the polio virus was eradicated in the U.S. within the next few years.

Fast forward to 1978 when Rotary International took on a major project of eradicating polio throughout the world. Today, only three countries in the world report minimal numbers of polio cases annually. In 2019, only eight cases were reported worldwide.

My purpose for sharing this history is to point out that it took medical/scientific researchers almost 40 years to discover a polio vaccine, and here we are in 2020 and it is estimated that a COVID-19 vaccine will be approved within one year.

Peggy Farmer, Ormond Beach

Harry Burney's loss

I can close my eyes and hear him now as he slowly walks the aisle from the back to the front singing "Amazing Grace." I was counting on him doing that for my own funeral.

I worked with his father raising money for the United Negro College Fund. Great family, the Burneys.

"Gator" Bert Reames, Daytona Beach

Gone too far?

Going forward, where do we draw the line concerning shutting down our country and economy due to seasonal illnesses? While even one death is too many, it is simply a fact of life that people die every day. According to the 2018 CDC report, about 2.8 million died that year in the U.S. alone from all causes. That's more than 7,500 a day, each and every day! Fortunately 3.8 million babies were born, once again in the U.S. alone.

The sad reality is that we don't routinely dwell on any of these numbers. If we did, one would suspect we'd all be more concerned about heart disease (650,000), cancer (600,000), accidents (170,000) and even the common "seasonal flu" 55,000! We generally don't dwell on these statistics for the sake of our own sanity, but that doesn't change the fact that a lot of good people die every day in our country.

Granted we have no vaccine for COVID-19, but even if we did, what about COVID-20, 21, 22? Not to mention things like HIV/AIDs which has now been around for generations. Plus our annual flu shots are not 100 percent effective and it's a real chore to get people to take them, although that probably won't be the case for 2021. So my question remains, how do we get back to "normal?"

We made this political and that isn't right.

Our government can't just keep printing money while we keep the American economy locked down. We've got to get back to work and fortunately it's beginning to look like lots of folks across the country are telling their governors just that.

David M Davidson, Edgewater

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