I never knew my grandmother. She died in the 1918 flu pandemic. It has been reported that deaths from the covid pandemic have now surpassed the 1918 pandemic. When my grandmother died, my grandfather, an immigrant, was unable to care for their children. So, he had to put my father and his two brothers in a Catholic orphanage in Providence R.I. My Dad was around 5 years old. He left the orphanage at 15 and spent the next year living mostly on the streets. I remember him sadly saying that he never had his mother. I know he would have wanted her to get a vaccine and I am sure she would have wanted one. I would have wanted her to get the vaccine. However, no vaccine existed at that time.
When I was a little boy growing up in Pittsburgh, my parents took me to get the first ever polio vaccine. There was a long line. Everyone wanted the vaccine. Thank God for Dr. Jonas Salk, the hometown hero.
Years ago, if you were talking about a serious illness that was hard to treat, people would often say they wish they had a pill for that.
How times have changed!