miraculous...
as horrible as it sounds, when I was a very young child, and one of us kids in the neighborhood got a "general" illness, like measles, chicken pox, mumps,(not just colds and influenza), things that today aren't seen like what was common in the 50's and 60's... our mothers would arrange a "party", a dozen or so kids, along with brothers and sisters, would all become "immunized by proxy" while eating cake, drinking soda pop, sharing handfulls of Cracker-Jack and Peanuts, and sharing ropes of licorice, and candy...
This was VERY common, nobody will admit to it, but Mom's were pretty smart...
Getting all the kids at one time actually helped prevent the long lingering re-infections that would ruin a complete summer, being passed slowly between us goobers.
This was done at a time, way back, when a Doctor would actually know your name, and he would "pack up his black doctor bag" and show up on your porch, and help you... and in return, Momma would hand him $10, and an apple pie, and he would smile and go back to his office on the corner...
I know it sounds totally crazy, but just because i decided to share that, I went and looked around... seems it actually was a pretty well and diverse spread of this occurring.. mind you, my experiences were from 1960-1965...
but it seems to have been regularly done... I guess my Mom was a trendsetter..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pox_partyImmunizations as we know them today, were not common place way back.
Doctors like mine, tried to stay on the cutting edge of discovery, and anytime a vaccine was developed, he would make a point of calling, and having us come in... he cared about children, and their health..It had nothing to do with $, that was the least of his cares, he would see every kid in my neighborhood, black, white, Asian, Oriental, didn't matter, and if you didn't have $ he would say pay me when you can... and never bat an eye about giving. He would also make it a point, to attend every one of those "parties", which I assume he actually suggested at that time period, and physically check each and every kid, and know which ones were to be watched closely (and made sure to tell those parents what to watch for, and if something changes to get him there a.s.a.p.), or which ones seemed to have more resistance to "the bug",
Luckily, the Salk and Sabin vaccines were developed at this very time, so we got that protection from the get go... Massive immunizations took place here in my home town, as we were the largest city in Ohio, and adjacent to Pittsburgh where the first vaccines were administered.
My brother is older than me, and unfortunately he actually got Polio in his teens, he recovered very well, and did not suffer from related issues unlike many kids back then.
I worry today, that as we consider that disease completely non existent today, it could resurface, and as we no longer immunize for it, things could get out of hand..
I think I have one of these posters somewhere, and one from the times we went and ate a sugar cube each week... for a month.