Sarah Gibbard Cook
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Rough Draft of History

10/22/2018

5 Comments

 
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“The newspapers are making morning after morning the rough draft of history. Later, the historian will come, take down the old files, and transform the crude but sincere and accurate annals of editors and reporters into history, into literature.”
           - “The Educational Value of ‘News’,” The State [Columbia, S.C.], Dec. 5, 1905

In writing polio eradication history as it happens, I draw heavily on what journalists write. I interview some of the same participants. To say journalists cover the present, while historians treat the past, is only partly true. Six weeks after an event, both the magazine or website journalist and I may write accurate accounts, but they will differ in focus and perspective. Beyond past versus present, the difference is also about the future. Journalists ask, what matters to readers today? Writers of current history ask, which of today’s events will readers five years from now care about, looking back?

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative began thirty years ago, in 1988. This year's World Polio Day event will be livestreamed in Philadelphia this Wednesday, Oct. 24, with a recording posted soon afterward. Journalists will watch for the latest news on efforts to end polio. As a historian, I’ll also be looking for clues to major turning points in the polio story—developments that will still stand out when we read about them long after the world is free of polio.
5 Comments
Walter Hassenpflug
10/24/2018 08:33:08 am

Polio eradication has been a challenge for years. Many school districts across the US have required proof of vaccination before children are allowed to enter the local school. How we treat history re polio will be interesting.

My wife, Director of Marion County, WV Health Department, just attended a training seminar for TB which has never been eradicated. Also, any would-be teacher in WV must show proof that he/she is TB free, or no employment! How history treats this subject may parallel polio.

Just some of my thoughts.

Sarah, your take on the history of polio is indeed thought provoking. As are all of your blogs.

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Sarah link
10/24/2018 03:16:50 pm

TB and polio have lots of parallels in the challenge of eradication. In both diseases, someone with no symptoms can still infect others. TB can progress in an individual over a long period, making it still harder. Drug-resistant TB strains keep developing. The World Health Organization has set a goal to eradicate TB by 2035, but whether this is possible still looks controversial. Polio causes permanent paralysis but the infection itself (and ability to pass it on) is over in a matter of weeks. With polio, eradication means wiping the virus off the face of the earth, as happened with smallpox and one or two of the three strains of poliovirus. With TB bacteria, which can also survive inside certain other animals, I don't know if that is realistic. I'd value your wife's opinion on this.

Whether or not it is technically eradicable, bringing TB under control would be a tremendous gift to the world. It's currently the top global killer among preventable infectious diseases.

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Rebecca link
10/24/2018 04:12:11 pm

Thanks for the link - today's the day. Going to click and see if the video is up. Good work. Rebecca

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Sarah link
10/24/2018 06:08:59 pm

Rebecca, were you able to get on? I admit to finding the live-stream instructions a little intimidating (I'm not a techie) and decided clicking on the WHO site for a recording afterward was more at my comfort level, so I'm hoping to watch it tomorrow.

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Sarah link
10/24/2018 06:46:44 pm

The after-the-fact recording is up! Action starts about about 18 minutes in.




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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

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