Polio Outbreak: The Illicit Lemonade Stand

Okay – this happened outside of Chicago. Western Springs, Illinois. And it’s true. It happened. Here’s a newspaper article from the Kerrville Times in 1941. The headline reads: “Girl’s Lemonade Stand Gives Hot Tip on Paralysis.” Before we talk about it, we should probably talk about Polio itself. 

We have record of Polio, short for Poliomyelitis, all the way back in ancient Egypt. People suffering from unexplained paralysis and atrophied muscles are depicted in ancient drawings. But in 1916 and again in the early 1950s, Polio outbreaks ran rampant throughout the world. It peaked in 1952. Polio is caused by Poliovirus and is a viral disease that spreads through direct contact with people who have the infection. It’s a disease that mostly affects the nervous system, causing paralysis. When you hear about “Iron Lungs,” these were giant metal tubes that a patient would lay inside. It would simulate the muscle movement needed to draw and expel breath by changing the air pressure inside the tube. As the paralysis would keep patients from being able to move their diaphragm on their own, this kept them breathing. 

Thankfully, we no longer see these contraptions. Partly because doctors and scientists have developed other ventilation machines, but mostly because we’ve nearly eradicated Polio thanks to vaccines. 

Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was first tested in 1952, but announced to the world in 1955. It worked by injecting a dose of killed Poliovirus into the patient. When the trials for Salk’s vaccine were conducted, it was the largest ever medical experiment conducted.

Once the vaccine was introduced to the public, it was promoted and largely funded by the March of Dimes – a non-profit organization that had existed since FDR founded it in 1938. FDR suffered from a paralytic disease and founded the March of Dimes as the National Organization for Infantile Paralysis. The March of Dimes spent $223 Million Dollars by 1955 on Polio patient care – treating 80% of people affected.

But before that vaccine, parents in America were absolutely terrified of polio. It was causing infantile paralysis and as I stated earlier, there had been 57,000 cases in 1952. And while more than 3,000 of those patients died, almost half of all patients were left with some form of paralysis. I was talking about my grandfather in the iron lung earlier. This is the same man who, if you listened to my episode about Chuck Yeager, I talked about him. He worked to develop airplane lighting. I remember growing up, when grandpa would eat a meal, he would turn his head to the side with every swallow. And as a kid, I remember asking my mom about this, and she told me that it was a lasting effect from the Polio he had as a young man. 

Polio spread fairly easily. And one of the biggest culprits was swimming pools. This is one of the reasons that it would see a rise in cases over the summer months. It’s one of the reasons that chlorine use in public pools became so widespread. Prior to that, the most popular way for a pool to keep its water clean was just refiltering and recycling the water – often completely emptying and refilling the pool. Since saliva, or anything coming from your nose or mouth could also cause the spread, there were places where a strict “no spitting order” was enforced. 

So now you can understand why – if someone isn’t careful with serving someone else lemonade – say at a sidewalk lemonade stand – that person could unknowingly be transmitting polio to everyone who drinks lemonade from a dirty cup.

I told you about this newspaper article I found from 1941. Let’s get into what that news report said.

“Because a little girl kept a lemonade stand in suburban Western Springs and four of her playmates came down with infantile paralysis, scientists have struck the hottest trail of the deadly disease virus in the history of epidemiology. Because of the small size of the community, it was possible to examine everyone who came in contact with the little lemonade vendor. That she was the prime source was established early in the investigation. One hot afternoon in July, she did a lively business in front of her home. What did it matter if, as the day wore on, the glasses weren’t rinsed after every using? Then she and four customers came down with the disease.”

This case ended up being a great case study for epidemiologists of the time because the cases were very insulated to this one particular incident and the exposure was easy to trace. Contact tracing was easy in this case. Sadly, we don’t have much more information on this particular story. Of course the children’s names weren’t included in the account and we also don’t have any record of how the kids ended up. But we know that four cases of paralysis were caused from this one lemonade stand. 

So maybe this is an extreme case, but it could be seen as an argument for setting up some sort of regulations for children looking to make a few extra bucks with their lemonade stand. Others might say that’s ridiculous and we should just allow kids to learn about economy and capitalism through selling lemonade on the corner. After all – the free market folks would say that if you want to keep doing business, don’t paralyze yourself and friends, right? After all, people won’t patronize the lemonade stand of the little girl who gave people Polio.

I think that when you look at lemonade stands these days, it’s much more common for people to use disposable cups, so maybe this isn’t something we need to worry about anymore. We do still see these stories about lemonade stands getting shut down every once in awhile. I found an interesting one from 1997. A little boy in Indiana was shut down by health officials for not having a permit for his stand. He didn’t have the required permits. So instead, he opened a sidewalk stand that sold items for which he didn’t need permits. He sold squirt guns, balloons, magic tricks and hats. And for every sale, the customer received a complimentary cup…of lemonade.

When we look at 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a lot of people step forward and donate their money and time to fighting the virus. And back in the 50s, people did the same. They may have done it a nickel at a time, but they also did things on their own – separate from the March of Dimes organization to raise money to help fund the eradication of Polio. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a column in her syndicated newspaper called “My Day.” In it, she talks about the efforts of everyday people to fight polio. And some of the efforts she cites are teens selling baked goods and….this is true….lemonade.

See the original newspaper article by clicking here.

Bonus content is available at http://Patreon.com/MichaelKent

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