Elvis Presley was among the most famous citizenry of the 20th hundred , if not the entirety of human cosmos . The recording artist who had stumble songs like " leery Minds " and " Jailhouse Rock " expend much of the 1950s , 1960s , and 1970s as a cultural criterion .
His celebrity was such that whenPresleybecame the human face of a cause to immunise the early days of America against polio , mass take it gravely .
In a new clause forPolitico , Joanne Kenen details Presley ’s unlikely advocacy for thevaccineand why it mattered . Shortly after the acute anterior poliomyelitis vaccinum start to be mete out in the U.S. in 1954 , it suffered a round of damaging publicity as a resolution of a manufacturing error . One flock of the vaccine contained the live virus , inadvertently infect 220,000 people , with 70,000 developing muscular tissue weakness and 164 being paralyzed . Of those infect , 10 pop off .
It was a annihilating blow to the vaccinum effort , which suffered from public distrust over its safety .
To help regain the public ’s reliance , the March of Dimes arranged forPresleyto be vaccinated just before he appeared onThe Ed Sullivan Showon October 28 , 1956 . With journalists keep an eye on , New York City Health Commissioner Leona Baumgartner hold Presley ’s arm while assistant commissioner Harold Fuerst deliver the injection .
Presley also recorded a public serve annunciation for the March of Dimes reminding people that the fight against acute anterior poliomyelitis was not yet over .
DidPresleysinglehandedly stamp down the polio epidemic ? No . But his influence was accredit with swaying hesitant teens into getting immunize . There were other movements at the fourth dimension , include “ Salk Hops , ” dances named after polio vaccinum developer Jonas Salk , and even a spot of social - dishonor that encourage girls to avoid dating unvaccinated boys .
contain out the full story — including what come about to a yacht Presley corrupt for the March of Dimes — atPolitico .
[ h / tPolitico ]
