Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Journal
This photo originally appeared in the Aug 30, 1944 edition of the Milwaukee Journal. Children rigged up a pulley system to send notes to their friends down the street on Diversey Blvd.
As Wisconsin’s “Stay at Home” order is set to enter its second month, people across the state are still coming to terms with life under virtual quarantine. As a number of commentators have noted, the COVID-19 pandemic brings back memories of the 1918 influenza epidemic, a moment when millions of Americans—including thousands of Milwaukee residents—were ordered by government officials to remain in their homes to avoid spreading the deadly disease.
In Milwaukee, such 20th-century “Stay at Home” policies saved countless lives.
Such narratives can ultimately provide direction, and perhaps even some comfort, as we collectively confront the coronavirus. We may even want to return to a more recent history of successful quarantine policy for further guidance, one related to the struggle against poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio. For much of the 20th century, polio—a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that attacks the nervous system—terrorized cities like Milwaukee. But today? We no longer consider it any sort of threat. The battle against polio suggests that public health crises can be overcome.
Deaths Reach a Fever Pitch
Such a conclusion, though, was far from preordained. Across the nation, the polio epidemic reached a fever pitch from the 1940s through the mid-1950s. There were more than 57,000 cases reported in 1952 alone, and the disease killed an average of close to 1900 people each year between 1951 to 1954. In Milwaukee County, at least 11 children died from polio in 1944 alone. In 1948, there were 216 reported polio cases across the metropolitan region and 32 deaths.
Such numbers compelled officials to put in place policies to protect certain residents, namely children and pregnant women. Numerous municipalities, including the City of Milwaukee, initiated a polio quarantine for children younger than 12 during August and September 1944. Nearby suburbs followed suit. The Greendale Board of Health, for example, established a similar quarantine on Aug. 30, 1944. Children were relegated to their homes and backyards. In a strategy that sounds familiar to those living through the current public health crisis, businesses like Schuster’s department store began allowing Milwaukee resident to “shop by phone” for such things as children’s toys, books and records.
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Authorities went to great lengths to make sure children stayed inside the quarantine. In Greendale, police officer Arthur Krueger was charged to patrol the town, making sure no young person dared leave their home. Yet Krueger understood how difficult this time was for all Greendale residents, so he approached his job with great compassion. Going by the nickname “Polio Romeo,” Krueger would sing songs and read stories over his patrol car’s loudspeaker as he sought to comfort children throughout Greendale. Children in other municipalities found their own ways to communicate. In Whitefish Bay, for example, the children of two neighboring families on North Diversey Boulevard connected a pulley system between their homes, allowing them to send notes without violating the quarantine order.
Kids Stay Indoors!
By 1948, such limited quarantines had become standard practice to deal with polio outbreaks across the United States. In September of that year the city of Milwaukee called for a temporary quarantine not only for children under 12, but also for pregnant women. “Observe Polio Quarantine, Mothers-to-be Warned” announced the Milwaukee Sentinel on Sept. 3, 1948. Dr. Max Fox—director of the South View Isolation (today the Milwaukee Health Department’s Southside Health Center, 1639 S. 23rd St.)—informed readers that pregnancy increased one’s susceptibility to the disease. Such women should remain indoors as much as possible during their pregnancy.
Such drastic measures as quarantines became less necessary as work progressed on the development of a vaccine for the disease. On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announced that he had successfully tested a vaccine against polio. Just one year later, clinical trials conducted on over two million schoolchildren suggested the vaccine was both safe and effective. In April 1955, a nationwide inoculation campaign began in earnest.
Yet in May 1960 the Milwaukee Sentinel was still running such headlines as “Polio Epidemic Feared This Year.” Why? Because people were not taking the steps to avoid getting the disease. By the end of the 1950s, 49 percent of Americans had not yet received the polio vaccine. And there was a geography to such statistics. States with the highest polio rates in 1959 were Arkansas, Iowa, Alaska, and Missouri. Two of these states—Arkansas and Iowa—have yet to issue “Stay at Home” orders to address the current pandemic.
Thankfully, more and more Americans decided to get the vaccine during the early 1960s. The Polio Vaccine Assistance Act of 1955 provided federal grants to the states for the purchase of the polio vaccine, as well as to cover the costs of planning and conducting vaccination programs. By 1962, the average number of yearly polio cases across the country had dropped to 910. Remained below 100 cases after that year. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) declared the United States to be polio free in 1979. Such statistics were achieved through widespread—and well-funded—public education campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels.
