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This wasn't in infants, children of age to play in the streets.

MichaelCollins 4y ago
No, it's only in infants. If a child old enough to walk around is exposed to polio for the first time (no vaccination or exposure as an infant), they'll have no protection and have a serious risk of being crippled. The sanitary conditions in which infants were kept in the decades preceding polio vaccination prevented them from being exposed to polio during their short window of protection, and as soon as they left the crib they were at serious risk. It's specifically the sanitation of the living condition of infants that had the effect, not the general sanitation level of society. Polio was still circulating through the population outside during this time period, but infants were shielded from it during their short window of protection.
- mush_room 4y ago
  ok, but the observation I was referring to was talking about those children, and how they tended do to much better when exposed to polio; maybe that's a complete fabrication, I don't have a reference on hand
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    I think you probably heard a corruption of the truth through a game of telephone. Playing outside never gave children any protection from polio, but unsanitary living conditions for infants did.
    - mush_room 4y ago
      You're right, after researching, mentions of the hygiene hypothesis all attribute the epidemic to decreases in exposure in infancy, and possibly decreases in exposure in the mother as well. But I did find where I got that from, for whatever it's worth, George Carlin: > When I was a little boy in New York City in the 1940s, we swam in the Hudson River, and it was filled with raw sewage. OK? We swam in raw sewage — you know, to cool off. And at that time, the big fear was polio. Thousands of kids died from polio every year. But you know something? In my neighborhood, no one ever got polio. No one. Ever. You know why? 'Cause we swam in raw sewage. (from https://www.businessinsider.com/george-carlin-why-we-need-to-get-dirty-2015-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/george-carlin-why-we-need-to...) [edit]: I do wonder if, because I have no reason to doubt it's true, what being exposed to sewage-infested water did is provide some sort of vaccination, by means of exposure to very low levels - insufficient for infection - of pathogens including polio. After all, that kind of analogue process is what early vaccination was. [edit 2]: that might still be completely off, I mean, reading about it I understand that at the time, 10x as many children would die by accidents, and 3x from cancer.

No, it's only in infants. If a child old enough to walk around is exposed to polio for the first time (no vaccination or exposure as an infant), they'll have no protection and have a serious risk of being crippled. The sanitary conditions in which infants were kept in the decades preceding polio vaccination prevented them from being exposed to polio during their short window of protection, and as soon as they left the crib they were at serious risk. It's specifically the sanitation of the living condition of infants that had the effect, not the general sanitation level of society. Polio was still circulating through the population outside during this time period, but infants were shielded from it during their short window of protection.

mush_room 4y ago
ok, but the observation I was referring to was talking about those children, and how they tended do to much better when exposed to polio; maybe that's a complete fabrication, I don't have a reference on hand
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  I think you probably heard a corruption of the truth through a game of telephone. Playing outside never gave children any protection from polio, but unsanitary living conditions for infants did.
  - mush_room 4y ago
    You're right, after researching, mentions of the hygiene hypothesis all attribute the epidemic to decreases in exposure in infancy, and possibly decreases in exposure in the mother as well. But I did find where I got that from, for whatever it's worth, George Carlin: > When I was a little boy in New York City in the 1940s, we swam in the Hudson River, and it was filled with raw sewage. OK? We swam in raw sewage — you know, to cool off. And at that time, the big fear was polio. Thousands of kids died from polio every year. But you know something? In my neighborhood, no one ever got polio. No one. Ever. You know why? 'Cause we swam in raw sewage. (from https://www.businessinsider.com/george-carlin-why-we-need-to-get-dirty-2015-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/george-carlin-why-we-need-to...) [edit]: I do wonder if, because I have no reason to doubt it's true, what being exposed to sewage-infested water did is provide some sort of vaccination, by means of exposure to very low levels - insufficient for infection - of pathogens including polio. After all, that kind of analogue process is what early vaccination was. [edit 2]: that might still be completely off, I mean, reading about it I understand that at the time, 10x as many children would die by accidents, and 3x from cancer.