Moore Woman Recounts Polio Epidemic As Coronavirus (COVID-19) Spreads

It's often said that history repeats itself though the details may differ from time to time.

One Oklahoma family from Moore told News 9 that the current COVID-19 pandemic took them back to the 1950s when the polio virus was rampant.

“All at once, it became lonesome. The kids, Betty and Dan, were diagnosed. The doctor sent them to the children’s hospital,” said Frankie McBride.

Betty and Dan were Frankie's siblings, and afflicted with polio, they were in the hospital. She said she had heard of an "iron lung," and thought of it as the metaphoric monster of the times.

Likewise, Frankie experienced the loneliness of self-isolation and confinement. In the 1950s, it was due to others keeping their distance, not knowing precisely how polio was transmitted.

“We lived on a big corner, but if we walked out, the neighbors would look at me and say, ‘We can’t talk to you. We can’t play with you.’ So that was my saddest day, and I realized then (that) I was in confinement,” she said.

Just like today in America, families were put under a great amount of stress, not knowing when all of this would come to an end. But they banded together as Oklahomans do and held onto faith. The epidemic eventually passed.

Frankie prays for Oklahoma knowing that during our fight against COVID-19, medicine and science have transformed over the decades.