Young Eyes on the Past

Bring a Spoon

A CINCINNATI STORY OF SABIN SUNDAYS AND THE POLIO VACCINE

YOUNG EYES ON THE PAST BY CORINNE ADAMS

I chose to research the introduction of Dr. Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine in Cincinnati for my National History Day project. I was

interested by this local story and had heard that tens of thousands of children were vaccinated in a single week; I could not fathom how that could be done!

In my initial research, I discovered extensive coverage of the oral polio vaccine program in newspapers, which became one of my mostused sources. I relied heavily on The Enquirer and The Cincinnati Post. Advertisements, informational articles, pictures and even thank-you letters appeared in these newspapers. GREAT PRIMARY SOURCES

In addition to newspaper articles, I employed a large range of essays, books and other articles relating to the vaccine and Dr. Sabin. I found especially great value in interviews with many older citizens of Cincinnati who remembered personal experiences about polio in the 1950s and ‘60s or even remembered receiving the vaccine. These Cincinnatians were great primary sources because they shared real tales. I also had the privilege of going to the Albert Sabin Archives at the University of Cincinnati, which provided dozens of essential documents including letters, manuscripts, laboratory notebooks, telegrams, advertisements and more.

For my exhibit, I displayed a multitude of pictures and newspaper articles. I incorporated threedimensional components like 3-D printed polio viruses, a map with labeled vaccination clinics and printed letters, pamphlets and interview quotes. I added multiple spoons to the display to remind the viewer of the vaccine advertising campaign slogan, Bring a Spoon.

My board was divided into four main sections. The first was the background context, including information on Albert Sabin, his creation of a vaccine, his rivalry with Jonas Salk and the polio virus. SABIN SUNDAYS

The second was Sabin Sundays, detailing the activities and process of vaccinating all the children of Cincinnati. The third was Cincinnati Working Together, explaining the use of free advertising and the ways the citizens of Cincinnati collaborated to achieve their vaccination goal. The final section, Impacts, consisted of information about the decrease in polio, the rise of public service announcements and the gratitude of Cincinnatians.

Albert Sabin and the citizens of Cincinnati broke barriers in medicine and technology and the barrier of public awareness in Cincinnati to provide protection from polio throughout the city. These barriers were broken by means of a new oral vaccine, an information campaign with free advertising and news coverage and community commitment.

The rivalry between Sabin and Salk fueled the race for a vaccine and colored the debate around vaccine safety and herd immunity. Before the introduction of the Sabin vaccine, the citizens of Cincinnati lived in fear of polio, but they felt free to live their lives after their children were vaccinated. Now, 60 years since the first Sabin Sundays, polio is little more than a historical curiosity in most of the world, a perfect example of the 2020 National History Day theme, Breaking Barriers.

When I chose this topic, I, like the rest of the world, had no knowledge of the impending pandemic that would upend day-to-day life in the coming months (including eventually preventing me from competing in person at the Ohio and National History Day events) and resulting in many deaths and economic repercussions. CURRENT EVENTS THROUGH A NEW LENS

Now, as the world scrambles to produce an effective vaccine for COVID-19, I have a new lens to look at current events. In the 1950s, people were scared for their children and didn’t know the best ways to protect them, leading to the massive cry for a vaccine.

While some Americans are equally terrified of COVID-19, others don’t recognize a threat and are reluctant to be vaccinated. Nearly 60 years after the first Sabin Sundays, our communities are less unified and less compassionate when it comes to public health efforts. Therefore, despite the advances in vaccine science since Dr. Sabin’s day, the struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic may be even harder than the battle against polio.

Corinne Adams is a freshman at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati. She enjoys participating on the school softball team, playing the viola in the orchestra and doing improv comedy in her free time. Corinne reports that her History Day project was definitely a highlight of her eighth-grade year, rivaled only by the science fair experiment where she gave her dad poison ivy!

LEARN MORE LEARN MORE

David M. Oshinsky’s Polio: An American Story “tells the gripping story of the polio terror and of the intense effort to find a cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines and beyond.”

Read more about Dr. Albert Sabin in the July & August 2020 issue of Echoes Magazine or at ohiohistorycentral.org, our online encyclopedia of Ohio history.

See an online exhibit and digital collection from the University of Cincinnati’s Dr. Albert B. Sabin Archives at digital.libraries.uc.edu/ collections/sabin.

All photographs courtesy of the Hauck Center for the Albert B. Sabin Archives, Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions, University of Cincinnati Libraries Sabin's vaccine helped eradicate polio and made him a recognized figure worldwide.