Ina Pinkney Shares Her Incredible Polio Story (Video)

A generation ago, most people in the U.S. knew a polio survivor. Today, there are so few left, there are very few so many people can’t name an acquaintance, let alone family member, who has been afflicted.

Ina Pinkney was infected in 1944, during World War II, more than a decade before the Salk Vaccine became available, stemming the annual summer epidemics that paralyzed communities almost like it paralyzed children.

Because parents didn’t know how the virus spread or why it did only in summer months, parents avoided many summer activities from ice cream to swimming pools.

Ina shared her touching story with me on World Polio Day, an annual event hosted by Rotary and the other members of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. You can watch it in the video player at the top of this article.