To Finish the Job: The Story of Two Pandemics in Portsmouth Virginia

Abstract

My grandmother, Louise Rose, helped organize some of the nation's first free vaccination clinics for adults when her community was in the midst of a polio pandemic in the 1950s. Her success in convincing an apathetic and uncertain public to get vaccinated is now more relevant than ever. Today, healthcare workers serving the same communities are fighting a lack of equitable access and deeply entrenched skepticism, putting our ability to fight disease in the future in question.