[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 42 (Tuesday, April 12, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3448-S3449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   50TH ANNIVERSARY OF POLIO VACCINE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today we celebrate the 50th anniversary 
of the polio vaccine. The people of my generation, who were youngsters 
at that time, remember full well the exciting development. Now polio is 
virtually eradicated.
  The Committee on Foreign Operations, which I have had the privilege 
to either chair or be ranking member for the last decade or so, has 
appropriated about $160 million toward that fight over the last 6 
years.
  Of course, the Rotary International, a private organization, deserves 
the lion's share of the credit for almost total eradication of polio. 
This private civic group with international chapters made this a 
project some 20 years ago and have collected and spent about $600 
million and delivered the vaccine in all parts of the world. So because 
of this, today we can celebrate, essentially, the complete eradication 
of this disease from the Earth. Rotary deserves a big part of the 
credit for that.
  I rise to talk about this for another reason. It had an enormous 
impact on me personally. I was struck with polio when I was 2 years 
old. My dad was overseas fighting in World War II. Polio was similar to 
having the flu--you felt sick all over. Except when polio went away 
there were residual effects. In my case, when my flu-like symptoms went 
away, I had a quadricep in my left leg that was dramatically affected.
  My mother was, of course, like many mothers of young polio victims, 
perplexed about what to do, anxious about whether I would be disabled 
for the rest of my life. But we were fortunate. While my dad was 
overseas my mother was living with her sister in east central Alabama, 
only about 40 or 50 miles from Warm Springs. As everyone knows, 
President Roosevelt established Warm Springs, where he went to engage 
in his own physical therapy, as a center to treat other polio victims. 
So my mother was able to put me in the car, go over to Warm Springs, 
and actually learn, from those marvelous physical therapists who were 
there, what to do.
  They told my mother she needed to keep me from walking. Now, imagine 
this. You are the mother of a 2-year-old boy. And we all know how 
anxious little boys are to get up and get around and get into trouble. 
So my mother convinced me that I could walk, but I couldn't walk--a 
pretty subtle concept to try to convey to a 2-year-old. In other words, 
she wanted me to think I could walk, but she wanted me to also 
understand I should not walk.
  Now, obviously, the only way to enforce that with a 2-year-old is to 
watch them like a hawk all the time. So I was under intense observation 
by my mother for 2 years. She administered this physical therapy 
regiment at least three times a day--all of this really before my 
recollection. But we now know the things that happened to us in the 
first 5 years of our lives have an enormous impact on us for the rest 
of our lives.
  So this example of incredible discipline that she was teaching me 
during this period I always felt had an impact on the rest of my life 
in terms of whatever discipline I may have been able to bring to bear 
on things I have been involved in. I really have felt my mother taught 
me that before I was even old enough to remember.
  So this went on for 2 years. My first memory in life was stopping at 
a shoe store in LaGrange, GA. We had left Warm Springs for the last 
time, and the physical therapist there had told my mother: Your son can 
walk now. We think he is going to have a normal childhood and a normal 
life. We stopped at a shoe store in LaGrange, GA, and bought a pair of 
saddle oxfords, which are low-top shoes--my first recollection in life.
  Thanks to my mother, I had a normal childhood. I was not able to run 
all that well, but I played baseball and have had a normal life. The 
only impact of that early childhood experience with polio is that I 
have a little difficulty going down stairs. Most people do not want to 
go up stairs and do not mind walking down stairs. I like to walk up 
stairs and take an elevator down because an effected quadricep impacts 
your ability to descend stairs.
  So I am particularly moved by the fact that we can stand here today 
and say that polio is essentially eradicated from the face of the 
Earth. When I was a youngster, the fear of polio was enormous. Mothers, 
every summer, lived in fear that their children would come down with 
polio, and many did, many died. Many had much more serious aftereffects 
than I did, certainly.
  But it is with great gratitude that I commend Rotary International 
today for this extraordinary accomplishment of getting this vaccine out 
all over the world so that we can essentially say, in 2005, that polio 
has been eradicated from the face of the Earth.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article from the Wall 
Street Journal entitled ``Polio and Rotary'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Apr. 12, 2005]

                            Polio and Rotary

       Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine. 
     Poliomyelitis, also know as infantile paralysis, used to be 
     one of childhood's most feared diseases. A few years after 
     Dr. Jonas Salk announced his vaccine on April 12, 1955, 
     nearly every child in the U.S. was protected. Today polio has 
     disappeared from the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific 
     and is nearly gone from the rest of the world.
       A too-little known part of this feat is the role played by 
     Rotary, the international businessman's club, which 20 years 
     ago adopted the goal of wiping out the disease. Rotary 
     understood that medical breakthroughs are worthless unless 
     people aren't afraid to immunize their children and efficient 
     delivery systems exist to get the vaccine to them. And so it 
     mobilized its members in 30,100 clubs in 166 countries to 
     make it happen.

[[Page S3449]]

       In 1985, when Rotary launched its eradication program, 
     there were an estimated 350,000 new cases of polio in 125 
     countries. Last year, 1,263 cases were reported. More than 
     one million Rotary members have volunteered their time or 
     donated money to immunize two billion children in 122 
     countries. In 1988, Rotary money and its example were the 
     catalyst for a global eradication drive joined by the World 
     Health Organization, Unicef and the U.S. Centers for Disease 
     Control. In 2000 Rotary teamed up with the United Nations 
     Foundation to raise $100 million in private money for the 
     program. By the time the world is certified as polio-free--
     probably in 2008--Rotary will have contributed $600 million 
     to its eradication effort.
       An economist of our acquaintance calls Rotary's effort the 
     most successful private health-care initiative ever. A 
     vaccine-company CEO recently volunteered to us that the work 
     of Rotary and the Gates Foundation, both private groups, has 
     been more effective than any government in promoting vaccines 
     to save lives. It's become fashionable in some quarters to 
     deride civic volunteerism, but Rotary's unsung polio effort 
     deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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