A powerful Zoom Café that celebrates Jonas Salk
- The British Polio Fellowship
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
On 23 October, the British Polio Fellowship (BPF) hosted one of its most popular Zoom Café events, featuring guest speaker Susan Schoenbeck, MSN, RN, in celebration of Jonas Salk, the developer of the first successful polio vaccine.
Attendees responded extremely positively, congratulating Susan on her insightful presentation. The event was recorded and can be watched here: https://vimeo.com/1130237197/a2f160cf7e?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
During the Zoom Cafe Susan also spoke about her own experience of contracting polio and encouraged others to speak out and raise awareness. She shared a powerful and poignant declaration (below) co-authored with Marny Eulberg, MD, and Karla Stromberger, PT. All three authors, childhood polio survivors themselves, want the declaration to be widely shared to raise awareness and make a meaningful impact.
WORLD POLIO DAY 2025 DECLARATION
We don’t talk about what it is like to raise a polio kid. Since some folks can make the decision to get the polio vaccine or refuse it, maybe it’s time we should. Polio remains a threat.
Raising a child with polio changes the life of a child, siblings, their parents, and extended families’ lives forever.
In 1946, the United States recorded more than 28,000 cases of polio with 1800 deaths.
In 1946, there were 2,527 reported polio cases in Canada with an estimated 300-400 polio deaths. England and Wales experienced 1746 cases with 41 deaths in 1946.
Polio is spread from person to person. You won’t see it coming. Mild infections may go unreported because polio was considered a disease of poor and dirty living conditions. If a child could “pass” as unaffected, parents often chose to do so. How many other children suffered because of one parent’s choice not to tell that their child had polio is unknown as the virus easily spread in communal settings such as schools and camps.
Poliovirus is sneaky. It is most actively spread 7-14 days before and after symptoms develop. Parents may expose their child to polio without knowing the source or time of exposure.
Polio is scary. Spinal polio (79% of cases) involved paralysis of the legs/arms and as later learned, innervated many body systems leading to lifelong polio symptoms. Bulbospinal polio (19% of cases) caused disturbed breathing and swallowing and often led to encasement in an iron lung (breathing machine) and many invasive, hurtful treatments. Parents of polio kids can never erase how they cried uncontrollably while holding their screaming child when doctors performed a lumbar puncture.
Polio is a divider. Look around you. People segregate themselves from those who are different. Friends back away. Families often fracture. Fear of catching polio drives people away from each other. Communities quarantine polio victims.
Polio costs financial security. Mothers are often forced into the labor force at times working the night shift and catching sleep when their polio kids do. Fathers work multiple jobs to keep up with the financial burdens. In some countries, polio survivors can live and die with dignity. Those would be countries with good government healthcare. But in developing countries, there is essentially no care and no assistance.
We don’t talk about what it is like to be or raise a polio kid. But maybe we should. Current decisions make this time fertile for a discussion about what poliovirus does. Sneaky. Scary. A divider. Costly.
Other documents she wanted shared with polio survivors across the UK
Further information Dr Jonas Salk: In the 1950s, Dr. Jonas Salk created the first successful polio vaccine, ending one of the century’s most feared diseases. Born in 1914 to a modest New York family, he devoted his life to medicine and research. When asked who owned the patent, Salk replied, “Could you patent the sun?”—refusing profit so the vaccine could reach everyone.
Tested on 1.8 million “Polio Pioneers,” the vaccine was declared safe in 1955 and helped eliminate polio in the UK by 2003. Salk saw vaccination as a moral duty, believing science must serve humanity.
His legacy endures as a reminder that true progress comes not from wealth or fame, but from compassion and the will to heal the world.