Women polio leg braces
Epidemics are typically accompanied by panic and rapid reaction. Polio struck terror in the hearts of parents 50,000 Americans were crippled or killed by polio in 1952.
When Salk’s polio vaccine was declared safe in 1955, communities, and government agencies pulled together to make it cheap and accessible. By 1957, the incidence of polio in the U.S. had fallen by 85 percent.
Yet no such drive has occurred in the name of obesity, a much greater social tragedy. Part of the problem is the creeping nature of harm from obesity.
Unlike polio, which struck children suddenly, almost as if they had been hit by a car, the harm from obesity occurs slowly. That makes it easier to ignore.
Then there’s our cultural reluctance to be judgmental — who are we to judge these people who are “differently-sized?” Are we biased against fat people?
Obesity also has hit minority populations disproportionately — for instance, black women are 38 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than white women, putting a racial tinge on efforts to change lifestyles. Women polio leg braces
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