"A Summer Without Children": Polio outbreak in the 1950's

In the 1950's Wytheville, VA was thrust into the national spotlight for having the highest per capita ratio of the polio pandemic. It was running at twice the national average. Wytheville, then a tourist destination, had to shut down and put up a sign to warn travelers away. 

We can find a lot of similarities in how we handled that outbreak in Appalachia and how we are handling COVID-19. "We've been to this rodeo before," as one elderly man recently told me. 

#Appalachia #pandemic #polio #Wytheville #SummerWithoutChildren