3. FDR and polio
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, outbreaks of polio grew into frightening numbers in the United States and Europe. Caused by a virus, polio became a feared disease when outbreaks in crowded areas of cities reached biblical proportions, often in the summer months. Caused by contact with water contaminated by fecal matter, it became a serious health problem as America’s waters became dumping grounds for raw sewage. In 1921, FDR vacationed in Campobello. While there, he developed symptoms consistent with polio, including high fever and paralysis which moved slowly up his legs. The doctors diagnosed him with polio, and he remained paralyzed from his waist down for the rest of his life, relegated to a wheelchair.
More recently doctors diagnosed FDR with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, rather than polio, but FDR didn’t know that; his doctors never considered such a diagnosis. For the rest of his life, he battled polio, both personally by swimming and taking the waters at Warm Springs, Georgia, and from his eventual office in the White House. It was FDR who founded, in 1938, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, known colloquially as the March of Dimes. The name March of Dimes, suggested by entertainer Eddie Cantor, referred to a national fundraising campaign, sending dimes to the White House. Eventually, $85,000 was raised in the first of many such campaigns. The March of Dimes funded the work of Jonas Salk, and by the end of the 20th century, the feared disease of polio was all but erased from the list of the world’s woes.