From Polio to COVID-19: Reflections
Having survived polio and other illnesses in their childhood, some of our participants reflect on experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic measures as older adults in the fall of 2020.
"Something as simple as wearing a mask. I mean, way back, you know, if there had been something like that, nobody would have ever questioned it. If you had to wear a mask, everybody wore a mask, it was just that simple...We were very compliant, went along with authority and all that. But today, people seem to think everything's a -what's the word- made up, false news, conspiracy. That’s nonsense." -Andy
“I’m hoping that children will be able to play together again like they normally do. It seems strange that a little baby has to look at her grandparents wearing a mask. I hope that I will be able to give my family hugs again. We won’t be getting together as a family at Thanksgiving and at this point not for Christmas. I hope that a reliable vaccine comes soon just like the Salk vaccine did in 1955. I was so thankful that my child was going to receive it. That’s my final thought.” - Marguerite
"First we got the anti-vaxxers and now we've got the anti-maskers. I kid you not! There's a whole group of people who won’t believe the scientists and the health experts. This would be less of a problem if the only people they endangered were themselves, but by demanding the right to refuse to follow the rules, they put others at risk. I remember a one-liner that stayed with me, and fits this situation: Your right to swing your fist stops at the end of my nose!" - Ruth
"I think that with this Covid now, it is getting, it’s starting to stir up again, because people won’t listen and wear the masks like they’re told or do anything that they're told. I think we're going to see a messy Christmas, I think." - Marian
"My husband and I feel it is important for us that we follow the rules set out. And then, from what my parents told me, from way back when, the rules were very similar. And they felt the same way about it, that they needed to abide by those rules to keep the virus at bay. When think of Covid now, it is somewhat similar to polio in that nobody exactly knew what to do. It came kind of sudden and then it kept coming back." - Sylvia
"Well, I just wanted to say, talk about the after effect because there certainly was with polio and we don’t know what’s coming yet with COVID-19. And polio really has, I guess become my life because of polio. And I still deal with the after effects of polio and I always will. And this may happen with COVID as well. And we don’t know that, and I don’t know that people have thought that far into COVID." - Stephanie
"Simplest way I could put is it has taken the social out of our social life. We are now hermits. We haven’t had any prolonged social contact with our friends and neighbours since March. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t seen them from a distance or waved or said hello, but we have been, my wife and I being in our late 70s, were prime targets for this disease. So, not only have we been scared by it, as we were with polio, were now taking extreme measures to avoid it... So, the interesting thing is that like polio this virus has scared the wits out of us. And more than Polio, has certainly changed our behaviour even though we don’t know anybody who has had it. We don’t know anyone who has tested positive." - Viv
“Would you compare the experience COVID-19 to something other than Polio?" "I say yes, TB and World War II. We were frightened in World War II. That was completely different but you have that feeling of oh what’s going to happen...You know we were children in the wartime and you worried because the submarines were actually getting up the St. Lawrence River. We were worried that we would get bombed or something would happen we had to have everything in darkness at night and no lights on outside. That feeling of fear we had as kids that’s sort of like that.” - Marguerite