My mother, an MD in her 90s who saw some of the last polio cases in #Canada as an intern in the 50s, notes that many compare #COVID19 to #SpanishFlu but not to polio epidemics before/after WW2, eg she remembers a lockdown in ’37. I googled and found this:
cpha.ca/story-polio
cpha.ca/story-polio
Ofc, it is because #COVID19 is a flu-like infection, but other relevant similarities. Also very infectious, most #polio cases were minor gastrointestinal illness, whereas minority more serious. Higher CFR, e.g. peak in ’53 in Canada had 9000 cases and 500 deaths, CFR = 5.6%. 2/3
And then there was the devastating paralysis, eg "estimated 11,000 people in Canada were left paralyzed by polio between 1949 and 1954… The last major polio epidemic in Canada occurred in 1959, with nearly 2,000 paralytic cases.” 3/3
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