A virtual program on the polio epidemic is scheduled at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 24.
The program, “We’ve Been Here Before: the Polio Epidemic,” is offered through the Bonner Springs Library, in partnership with the Northeast Kansas Library System and six neighboring libraries.
The program is the second in a series of programs that examine historical events that have lessons to teach in the midst of the pandemic.
Interested persons may register for the program at https://bit.ly/2PgymSV.
The program on March 24 is a moderated discussion about the polio vaccine.
Mass vaccinations in the 1950s helped eradicate polio from the United States. The panel of experts for the polio discussion includes:
• René F. Najera, Dr.PH, editor, History of Vaccines, College of Physicians of Philadelphia
• Chris Crenner, M.D., Ph.D., Hudson-Major professor and chair at the University of Kansas Medical Center
• Carl Chinnery, a past district governor from District 6040 and member of the Lee’s Summit Rotary Club
• Jim Arnett, Rotary District 5710 polio chairman and spouse of a polio survivor of Kansas City’s 1946 polio epidemic
This program series is a partnership of the public libraries in Atchison, Basehor, Bonner Springs, Lansing, Leavenworth, Linwood, and Tonganoxie, as well as NEKLS.
The first program in this series, in February, was on the 1918 flu pandemic. That program was in partnership with the National World War I Museum and Memorial, and almost 3,000 people tuned in to it. C-SPAN has contacted the museum for permission to air it.