Name: Racine man remembers nearly dying from polio in 1951. Now, he couldn't wait to get a COVID vaccine
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Racine man remembers nearly dying from polio in 1951. Now, he couldn't wait to get a COVID vaccine

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Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisRacine man remembers nearly dying from polio in 1951. Now, he couldn't wait to get a COVID vaccineShare thisRACINE — As a youngster, Larry Bannister was one of about 28,000 Americans who contracted polio in 1951.Like about at the time who caught fell ill with the poliovirus, Bannister survived; the fatality rate for adults was about five times higher.Bannister’s body still carries the effects of fighting the virus. He usually walks with crutches. If he goes shopping or knows he needs to be more mobile, he uses a wheelchair.“Somebody asked me one time ‘Why didn’t your parents get you vaccinated?’ I had polio in ’51. The vaccine came out in ’56. I didn’t have an option,” said Bannister, who is retired and living in Racine.The eradication of polio from the U.S. — having claimed the lives of between 200 and 7,130 Americans — is credited as one of the largest successful immunization efforts ever. Jonas Salk’s breakthrough vaccine was even less effective against polio than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are against COVID-19.Bannister wishes polio vaccines had arrived just a few years earlier.So when the COVID-19 vaccination effort began — an even more widescale and faster-paced effort than the one that has — Bannister was ready for the shots.Like polio, the long-lasting effects of COVID-19 can be serious. , survivors who experienced “only mild COVID-19 symptoms” may still face:Racine’s own , a pastor and organizer for the Racine Interfaith Coalition, has been told he only has 3 to 5 years to live without a transplant. That’s despite technically beating COVID-19, because of how scarred his lungs now are.The Mayo Clinic reported that: “Simply surviving this experience (of having COVID-19) can make a person more likely to later develop post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression and anxiety.” On top of that, since COVID-19 is still so new, “much is still unknown about how COVID-19 will affect people over time.”To those who don’t want to get the vaccine, Bannister said: “Don’t be stupid. We’re talking about protecting your life.”“I was a victim of polio in 1951. Just the idea (some people have) that ‘Well, it won’t get me; I’m not going to take it; the whole community is going to be safe’ is baloney. Forget it. Take the shots …“To just take a chance in screwing up the rest of your life if you’re any age — but especially if you’re in your 20s or 30s — why would you want to spend 40 years crippled by something? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not scientific and it’s not logical. It’s just stupid.”On Friday, as he rolled out of the City of Racine’s mass vaccination clinic at Festival Hall after getting his second dose, he said: “I’m tickled to death.”It was all smiles in Festival Hall as firefighters, physicians and nurses-in-training from Gateway Technical College, nursing students from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, city employees, and others got shots in the arms of dozens of people who had long been waiting for the end of the pandemic.“I’m so excited! I can go camping!” Roxanne Shuebel cheered moments after Huyen Le, a UW-Parkside nursing student, removed the needle from her arm.Shuebel, a hotel worker who lives in Racine, said she lost several loved ones to COVID-19. Those losses “hit home” for her. After getting her second shot on Friday, she said “I feel a sense of relief. I’m really, really relieved. I’ve been pretty scared, I just didn’t want to get it.”After Cindy Evans saw her sister get the vaccine with “no issues at all” she was excited to get it, also receiving her second shot on Friday.“I want life to be back to whatever normal will be,” she said. “I’m really happy. Now the second one is done. It’s going to be good.”Racine's Health Care Network pushes for 'systemic change' one vaccine at a time. Local, Page A8.Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Larry Bannister, a retiree now living in Racine, leaves Festival Hall on Friday after receiving his second COVID-19 vaccine dose. Bannister made use of a wheelchair, which he said he uses when he knows he'll be moving extensively due to the long-term effects from polio, which Bannister survived as a boy.Roxanne Shuebel receives her second COVID-19 vaccine dose from&nbsp;Huyen Le, a University of Wisconsin-Parkside nursing student, on Friday, April 26, at Festival Hall.At right, Huyen Le, a University of Wisconsin-Parkside nursing student, cleans the arm of Cindy Evans of Racine before giving Evans her second COVID-19 vaccine shot on Friday at Festival Hall.{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisRacine man remembers nearly dying from polio in 1951. Now, he couldn't wait to get a COVID vaccineShare thisRACINE — As a youngster,...

Racine man remembers nearly dying from polio in 1951. Now, he couldn't wait to get a COVID vaccine

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