Sixty One Years Ago Tonight, Elvis Presley Was Vaccinated On National TV...

Earlier in the week, we were marking milestones in the sciences of vaccines -- including the eradication of human-borne smallpox, forty years ago the past week.

An erstwhile commenter led me to this, with her mention of the US polio vaccination successes. So it is that I marvel here -- almost miraculously -- what an adroit use of a relatively new medium, and a new star's endorsement did -- they took US vaccination rates from below one per cent to over 80 per cent, in the space of six months, in 1956. The power of ubiquitous modern visual media was just beginning to be seen and understood, by most Americans. . .

So -- thank you, Tee-Vee and thank you, Elvis -- but most of all. . . sincere thanks go to the tireless health care workers who vaccinated all of our children over this more than half-century. . . mostly due to your good work, America simply will never again experience the scourge of polio.

And for that, once again, we may thank. . . real life science -- and really brilliant immigrants (as Anon. reminds us!), like Dr. Albert Sabin.

Spooky fun playing the late 19^th/early 20^th Century Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, at a dress-up night ahead -- part of a museum-organized dinner mystery. Should be a hoot!

नमस्ते