As the COVID-19 pandemic strains the economy and creates widespread anxiety, a New Brunswick crafter who lived through the polio epidemic is calling on people to remain vigilant, just like her mother taught her decades ago.
“We were in isolation together she had me do physio. She was a knitter and she taught me to knit and I gained some muscle strength there,” said Kathy Berry.
The 76-year-old from Grande-Digue, N.B., said she contracted the polio virus in 1947 when she was only four years old and still lives with the lingering neurological damage caused by the virus.
“I can’t lift my arm. That is the thing that I can’t do, so I learn tricks,” She said.
Those “tricks,” like using her right arm to help lift her left one up for work at her sewing table, enable her to sew purses while she self-isolates at home amid COVID-19.
Now living through a pandemic, Berry said she hopes that Canadians will learn from the past and continue to practice physical distancing until a vaccine is developed.
“There is one person who didn’t obey the rules, and guess what, 150 other people are suffering the consequences,” she said.
According to information published by the Canadian Public Health Association, the polio epidemic peaked in Canada in the mid 1950s.
Much like with COVID-19, that provincial public health departments tried to quarantine the virus by closing schools and restricting children from traveling or going to movie theatres.
But the virus caused neurological damage in tens of thousands of Canadians and thousands of deaths until a vaccine was introduced in 1955. That’s why Berry believes that once a COVID-19 vaccination is developed, it should be made mandatory.
“What has seeped into the public consciousness is that vaccinations cause certain things, so people don’t get vaccinated and there have been pockets of reoccurrence of polio,” she said.
Canada was declared polio-free in 1994. The dramatic reduction in case numbers worldwide in recent decades has been largely due to intense national and regional immunization campaigns in babies and children
Berry hopes that people will inoculate themselves against COVID-19 if and when a vaccine is discovered.
Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.
To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out. In situations where you can’t keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend the use of a non-medical face mask or covering to prevent spreading the respiratory droplets that can carry the virus.
For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.
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