So this is incredible.

My dad, as a child in Pittsburgh, was in the first field trial to receive the Polio vaccine - from Jonas Salk personally.

Today he dug up these letters, requesting follow up blood draws to test for antibodies.

I’ve never seen these before today

Some of you have heard this story before. My grandfather grew up in Pittsburgh; his brother died of the 1918 flu at the age of eight (Pittsburgh refused to impose social distancing measures). https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/brian-oneill/2020/03/19/Pittsburgh-1918-flu-epidemic-Spanish-flu-COVID-19-coronavirus/stories/202003190021

My grandfather, who saw family and friends ravaged by 1918 flu, polio, diphtheria, etc. didn’t hesitate when he saw an advertisement for an experimental vaccine for Polio. He signed up my dad and my aunt immediately.

It was a formative experience for my dad, & the reason he became an MD (classmate of Fauci at Cornell). He was a flight surgeon (VN 1967-8) and radiologist in Wheat Ridge, CO. After 3 terms in the CO House of Reps, he now teaches in the PA program at Red Rocks Community College.

My sister and I often joked that our dinner table discussions growing up were unusually focused on grim topics like epidemics and tropical diseases ... but now I know why.

This is also a lesson that epidemics have intergenerational effects.

We’re living through history.