\u201cThe whole block was sick and some of us got crippled. And that was just the way it was,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She was hospitalized for six weeks with a fever when she was 5 years old. And the virus attacked her spine. \u201cNone of my limbs worked immediately afterwards,\u201d Boigon said.<\/p>\n
Her right arm never fully recovered. She showed me it’s smaller, skinnier, weaker than the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m a one-armed person basically,\u201d she said, noting she had to adapt to many aspects of everyday living, like reaching out to shake hands with her left hand.<\/p>\n
The next year, 1954, polio vaccines arrived, becoming available to the general population.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 1954, it was a new world,\u201d Boigon said.<\/p>\n
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Kevin J. Beaty\/DenveriteA photo of former Denver City Council member Carol Boigon, in the Detroit Times, as a child in 1953 in treatment for polio. Jan. 13, 2026.New group steps up to try to fill the void<\/p>\n
Boigon has joined a new group called Colorado Chooses Vaccines<\/a>, which held a meeting recently in Denver.\u00a0<\/p>\n With federal health leadership and agencies seemingly steering the country away from broad vaccine coverage, the coalition<\/a> aims to fill the gap in Colorado with policy proposals, plus science-based information and communication.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cIt was in direct response to the federal threats,\u201d said former state lawmaker Susan Lontine, who leads Immunize Colorado. \u201cA couple of us had gotten together and felt like we needed to assemble a group of folks to talk about what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n At this point, funding is scarce, she said, so the coalition also aims to raise money.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘An historic victory over a dread disease’<\/p>\n \u201cPolio was once one of the most feared diseases in the United States. Thanks to the polio vaccine, wild poliovirus has been eliminated in this country,\u201d states the website for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n Epidemics of poliomyelitis<\/a> hit frequently<\/a> in the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to the World Health Organization. In 1916, a major outbreak in New York City killed more than 2000 people; in 1952, the worst recorded outbreak in the U.S. killed more than 3000. By mid-century, the disease was paralyzing or killing more than half a million people globally.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hallmarks of the Polio Era were children on crutches and in iron lungs, shuttered swimming pools, theaters warning moviegoers to not sit too close to one another,\u201d NPR explained<\/a> in a story on the 60th anniversary of the development of a vaccine.<\/p>\n But scientists were working on a solution.<\/p>\n U.S. physician Jonas Salk<\/a>, working at the University of Michigan, in the same state where Carol Boigon was growing up, created the first safe and effective vaccine. He tested it on himself and his family in 1953. A year later, 1.6 million children in the U.S. Canada, and Finland were vaccinated.<\/p>\n Grainy newsreel footage<\/a> link from April of 1955 hailed the development of the polio vaccine as \u201can historic victory over a dread disease.\u201d Headlines read \u201cPolio Test 90% Effective\u201d and \u201cSalk Vaccine Beats Scourge of Childhood,\u201d as a narrator heralds \u201cthe monumental reports that prove the Salk vaccine against crippling polio to be a sensational success.\u201d<\/p>\n Within a couple years of the announcement of the vaccine, U.S. polio cases dropped 85% to 90%<\/a>.<\/p>\n Preventable illnesses surge<\/p>\n Colorado Chooses Vaccines<\/a>‘s formation comes as the nation and the state have been battling surges in vaccine-preventable illnesses. That includes flu<\/a>, which hit a record<\/a> in Colorado hospitalizations in recent weeks, and measles<\/a>, which saw a dramatic spike in the state in 2025, recording some three dozen cases. For the first time in a quarter century, the U.S. could lose its measles-free status<\/a>.<\/p>\n Colorado pediatrician Sean O’Leary is part of the new group. He’s been speaking out nationally in his role as chair of an infectious disease committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat our experience has been, it’s like the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie. It’s just one thing after another,\u201d said O\u2019Leary, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.<\/p>\n Health agencies led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been a longtime vaccine skeptic, have upended a system of vaccine research and decision-making that’s been in place for decades. Most recently they limited the number of vaccines routinely recommended for children.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, people should know we’re not taking vaccines away from anybody. If you want to get the vaccine, you could get it. It’s gonna be fully covered by insurance just like it was before,\u201d Kennedy recently told CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n A reporter asked if the steps the administration has taken will result in fewer people getting a vaccine for flu. \u201cWell, that may be, and maybe that’s a better thing,\u201d Kennedy responded.<\/p>\n Research doesn\u2019t support policy<\/p>\n When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced changes to the childhood immunization schedule, it said President Donald Trump directed it to examine how other developed nations protect their children and to take action if they are doing better.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAfter an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent,\u201d Kennedy said in a press release. \u201cThis decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health.\u201d<\/p>\n But major medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has been making vaccine recommendations for decades before the federal government, maintain that’s definitely not a better thing. The AAP president called changes to the vaccine schedule \u201cdangerous and unnecessary<\/a>.” The AAP will continue to publish its own childhood vaccination recommendations. The group says research shows fewer people getting vaccines will mean more people get sick, some with serious illness, some dying.\u00a0<\/p>\n O’Leary said the new coalition aims to join forces with others who believe in vaccines.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what we’re doing here with this coalition is really creating a broader tent,\u201d he said. That means reaching beyond other advocates, local public health officials and professional societies to \u201cthe folks who don’t really think about immunizations all that often.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Scary and uncertain\u2019<\/p>\n One member is Denver mom Sam Hochman, with the group Colorado Families for Vaccines<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s scary and it’s uncertain. And I think Colorado did a really good job last year of trying to prevent some of the fallout,\u201d said Hockman.<\/p>\n Colorado diverged from the federal recommendations on several fronts. That includes changing its vaccine guidance<\/a> to take into account not just federal recommendations but the views of key medical groups that review vaccines.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/540723-IRON-LUNG-HEALTHCARE-DENVER-HEALTH-DPL-01.jpg\"\/)
Lloyd Rule\/Denver Public Library\/Digital Collections\/Z-10278A Red Cross nurse talks to a girl in an iron lung at Denver General Hospital. July 23, 1954.<\/p>\n
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Kevin J. Beaty\/DenveriteFormer Denver City Council member Carol Boigon holds a 1950s-era photo of her (left) and her sisters, Elizabeth and Cathy, in her home in the city’s South Park Hill neighborhood. Jan. 13, 2026.<\/p>\n