When Mary Poppins sang about ‘a spoon full of sugar’, it kind of rang true for the children of my generation.
Bear with me, as this relates to our current situation of nationwide mass immunisation and parallels to the past.
Having recently received my vaccination against COVID-19, I’m reminded of a similar polio vaccine program which took place back in the late Sixties.
In the 1960’s Americans lined up for the polio vaccine, on ‘Sabin Sunday’
As it happened, my family and I trekked up to our local town hall to receive the much anticipated dose of vaccine, which was intended to (and eventually did) halt the dreaded polio virus.
At the time, this was more an ‘epidemic’ as opposed to a ‘pandemic,’ and the situation was a lot less fearful. There was, however, around 1000 deaths from polio in Australia between 1944 and 1954.
Meanwhile, thousand of people died in the United States, making some eerie similarities to today’s current situation.
Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Buildings is one of many local vaccination centres, but one hundred years ago, the site housed patients of the Spanish Flu
There’s no doubting that after a rocky start, we’ve actually done much better than the rest of the world, even through many disruptive lock-downs along the way.
The polio vaccine, known as ‘Sabin’, had been developed in 1961 by Dr Albert Sabin and Australia, as with the rest of the world, set up a national roll out through community centres. Sound familiar?
So my parents, sisters and I, along with other neighbourhood families, queued up to get our spoonful of sugar – well that’s how I remember it! There were no sharp looming needles, no masks and anti-vaxers were a thing of the future.
Lines like this were also a familiar sight in the Sixties, with vaccinations for polio
In fact, the whole set up was pretty well organised. The vaccine was a pink oral medicine, laid out in hundreds of little white ice-cream spoons on tables. The experience was seemless and we were back home in time to watch Nanny and the Professor (for younger readers, that was a sitcom not unlike Mary Poppins).
Interestingly, Australia has now been completely polio-free since 2000, and the disease is rarely found anywhere else in the world.
But we do often hear the phrase ‘history repeats,’ and while COVID-19 came exactly 100 years after the Spanish Flu, it has resulted in massive unemployment, social distancing, lockdowns, hoarding, an economic downfall and conspiracy theories.
I never felt a thing – except the satisfaction in knowing that I’m vaccinated against COVID-19
Mind you, given the boom periods that followed other world crises, the future may still be good yet. Despite the random lockdowns, the economy has picked up, entertainment and sport are back, jobs have returned, masks are disappearing and I suspect there will be a whole new creative era of technology, politics, arts, culture and social interaction. Let’s hope I’m right!
I had my vaccination (AstraZeneca) at the iconic Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton. It was quite historic and poignant, considering that 100 years ago this was a temporary hospital site for victims of the Spanish Flu.
And just like the polio vaccinations of the 1960’s, the vaccination centres of 2021 are run like well oiled machines. The process and staff were great and as for the actual injection, I never felt anything, except the satisfaction of knowing that I’m now immunised against COVID-19!
As for my earlier reference to Mary Poppins, there’s an interesting story there.
Back in the Swinging Sixties, American schoolboy Jeffrey Sherman also experienced the Sabin vaccine, and when asked, explained to his father that it came in the form of a sugar cube. Young Jeffrey’s father happened to be the popular songwriter Robert Sherman, who along with brother Richard, were penning a song for a new film called Mary Poppins.
So, after hearing those immortal words from his son, A Spoon Full of Sugar was born and became one of the most popular Disney songs of all time!
Watch the below short video on the introduction of the Sabin vaccine – amazing parallels to today!
