The COVID-19 global pandemic will likely go down in history as being one of the most devastating and divisive pandemics in the world. From the origins of the disease to the global spread and the alarming number of deaths (and unpredictable lifelong symptoms for survivors), COVID-19 has made an impact in our once-again changing society. Of course, one of the tools that made the pandemic so divisive among people has been the decades-long debate of prevention: vaccines.
Vaccines, despite their gratuitous and life-saving technology, have been the centre of controversy for much of Western society since the late 1990s, mostly due to propaganda and misinformation. Pandemics are not new, and unfortunately, resurgence of old diseases isn’t either.
The history of vaccines is an arduous and contested one, so we may dive into how one vaccine – the polio vaccine – became popular thanks to mainstream media.
A Spoonful of Sugar: Vaccines
Mary Poppins is a well known Disney classic from everyone’s childhood, with a fun plot line and an amazing protagonist and characters, and the oh-so-unique Disney magic. However, most people do not know the interesting origins of a song from the movie. On December 1, 2020, Jeffrey Sherman, the son and nephew of Robert and Richard Sherman, a songwriting duo who made classics for Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocrats, to name a few, discussed how the Poppins song A Spoonful of Sugar came about on Facebook:
“Joyce and my three children, Laurie, Tracy and Jeff (Robbie had not yet been born) greeted me as I arrived. I asked the kids how their days had been. Joyce informed me: “Jody got the Salk Vaccine today.” I looked down at my five year old son and asked him: “Did it hurt?” He replied: “No. They just put it on a cube of sugar and we swallowed it down.” And that was it! I realized at the moment that I had the spark of a winning song. I couldn’t sleep all night. The lyric mulled around in my mind. The next day, at work, I showed up half an hour earlier than usual so that I could pop the idea on my brother. As he walked into our shared office, I must have spooked him a little. I don’t think he expected me to be so plosive. I said: “Dick! A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down!””
(Source: Snopes)
This story was verified by Robert Sherman’s autobiography Moose: Chapters From My Life, in which he talks about brainstorming song ideas for Julie Andrews to sing.
Background History
The Salk vaccine was the first official polio vaccine developed in the early 1950s by virologist Jonas Salk, and it was also the first one to be administered through injection by needle. An article from McGill University’s Office for Science and Society had stated that the oral vaccine received by Sherman’s son was developed by Polish-American medical researcher Albert Sabin. It was introduced in 1961, largely replacing the injectable vaccine.
Sugar helped reduce the pain from the injectable vaccine, as a few drops of sucrose on the infant’s tongue before injection would prevent pain from being felt in the areas for injection.