Talking to my spouse this morning about an older woman I know and I mentioned that she had a mild case of polio as a child. And he said, "I didn't know people could have mild polio."

April 11, 2026 - 11:40 UTC

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In fact, cases of paralytic polio were small. But that number adds up. For example, in 1952, the US experienced its worst polio epidemic in history, with @ 60k reported cases. Of those cases, over 3,000 people died and around 21k people experienced varying degrees of paralysis.
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It’s that denominator that’s the problem with things like this.
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I think we've kind of memory holed this (not me...lol). But I think it's amazing that we, as a country, rallied around a national vaccine campaign to try and eradicate this terrible, shitty disease, even though the paralysis rate was not 100%. There are lessons to be learned!
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Yes, like many viral diseases, some people get it and barely know it, others end up in an iron lung or dead
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Wouldn't Mitch McConnell be an example?
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Nope. Because he experienced paralysis. I'm talking about the tens of thousands of people who caught polio and only experienced a fever or flu like symptoms!
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I used to know a lot of people who had mild polio as a child. A horrible example is Mitch McConnell, who gained no sympathy from his experience
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But he still had mild paralysis. Thousands of others contracted polio and didn't even have that symptom.
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I've recently met somebody in her 50's with a fairly severe case. But for example, Mitch McConnell's was fairly mild.
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But he still experienced slight paralysis! Thousands of people didn't even have that!
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The mother of a childhood friend of mine had to walk with a cane because of a mild case of polio as a child. It definitely is a thing!
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People really don't comprehend how mild is mild. Just walking around infectious with a little fever. It's why I still mask in certain situations, definitely from Halloween through Valentine's.

I don't know at what age, but a cousin didn't get it mild. Had a leg brace for decades, walks with a cane.
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I hadn't thought about that, but of course there were. My uncle had it, was left with a limp, so I guess a moderate case.
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Right! If you had paralysis, that was not mild!
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Joni Mitchell had polio as a kid. It weakened her left arm, wrist, and hand. All of those beautiful open tunings and chord voicings were to make the fretting of the chords easier for the weakened hand.
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