Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Catherine HERE. Thank you, Catherine for hosting! Be sure to stop by to see what she has for us this week.
What is Poetry Friday? Find out more about it HERE.
The hesitancy surrounding the Corona Virus vaccine is discouraging as is the lack of understanding and respect towards our public health officials who are trying to get America well and out of our hospitals. No one wants to be in the ICU, but too many people end up there when they could have been vaccinated and out and about living their lives.
Trees wave in a breeze, sunshine, blue sky, stars at night-- viewed from ICUs. Nurses put in overtime. Sick patients lay bewildered. © Janice Scully 2021
So now is a good time to ponder the past.
In the October issue of Smithsonian Magazine is an article entitled “The Plague Among Children” by Dr. Perri Klass, who recently wrote a book entitled HOW SCIENCE AND PUBLIC HEALTH GAVE CHILDREN A FUTURE.
No one today remembers when Diphtheria was a plague in the United States. But in 1735, Noah Webster wrote, that from a town in New Hampshire, the disease “Gradually travelled southward, almost stripping the country of children . . . Many families lost three or four children–many lost all.”
Children quiet, hands still, whole families playing no more-- Diphtheria struck. © Janice Scully 2021
“Throat Distemper” as Diphtheria was called, created a thick crust in the throat of children and slowly suffocated them as parents watched.
Having seen this horror, one day in 1894, there was shouting and applause, hats tossed in the air at a convention of Doctors in Budapest. Dr. Roux had presented certain research findings: the discovery of an antitoxin that could save the lives of children with Diphtheria! It wasn’t a vaccine, but a treatment that saved a high percentage of children.
A vaccine was later developed that would stimulate in children antibody formation against the disease toxin and totally prevent the disease.
Diphtheria was essentially eradicated in America and those who created it were celebrated. Most doctors today have never seen a patient with diphtheria, but as of 2017, children in war-torn countries such as Yemen who are who not are getting preventive health care and vaccination, die from this disease.
The scientists who, through painstaking work, developed vaccines that prevent horrible suffering and death, need to be remembered. They need to be thanked. Gratitude for those to those who risked their own lives fighting disease is appropriate. Dr. Fauci lived through several epidemics and should be listened to.
Young people today have been educated by the pandemic. I hope they might be inspired by their experience to study science and public health. I know some will.
We eat sleep and work as if the past never was-- Leaves fall then winter. © Janice Scully 2021
Have a great day. Stay well. May everyone get vaccinated.
I. Love. This. Post!
What a neat combination of commentary, book review, and new poems. Your poems really do show the feeling of each stage of ignorance. Fall and then winter. Bam! Well done. I wish I had written this.
Janice, thank you for offering such vital information on an eradicated disease and one that needs a vaccine for children. My toddler granddaughter was rushed to the children’s hospital emergency room at 2 months old because she showed signs of a rash and an extremely high fever. At that time 18 months ago, four children were hospitalized in ICU for similar issues. We were blessed that the emergency passed but others did not fare the same fate. Your poems are awareness poems, not to be treated lightly.
Oooh, I like this post: public health and poetry. Very nice, Janice!
Janice, what an informative and fascinating post. Your smattering of poems within make it that much better. I love your tanka. You matter-of-factly lay out the beauty of nature and then the sadness of it having to be viewed from ICUs by bewildered patients. The overworked nurses don’t have time to even notice the beauty. This poem in particular gave me a lot of emotions tonight. So thankful for vaccine developers and other scientists, and yes, this will lead some people into science and public health. Thank you for this post.
Public health should be a no-brainer, but alas it is not. Your poem ‘viewed from the ICU’ is sadly too common. Thanks for the introduction to Klass’ book. 🙂
I love how you mixed poetry into your information. It made me stop and think and feel. Well done!
Amen to that! I think a big part of the problem IS that people don’t remember the days when young children routinely died of childhood diseases. I live in a place where they still do, though, and still there is vaccine hesitancy. Thanks for your informative and also lovely post.
Thank you for your poems and for introducing me to Perri Klass’s new book. I love her work and will look for this book.
I enjoyed your succinct poetry reflections/summations, Janice. We have so much to be thankful for!
Here’s to remembering the past and bringing it forward, and your strong and moving poems that do tribute to it, thanks Janice!