West Virginia University - Monticola Yearbook (Morgantown, WV)

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COMMENT The program was successful because had there been an epidemic breakout we would have had enough protected to keep it from spread- ing rampantly. It was difficult to mount a full scale campaign and also take care of 220 patients a day in health services. Part of the time, it was a major problem. The students were probably less susceptible than older people to the heart attack scares. The scares were primarily heart attacks and the older people were more frightened. We haven ' t had a breakout of the flu ... a lot of the experts are calling the whole thing a ' Medical Bay of Pigs ' . The Arts and Crafts festival attracted many of the innoculations we gave at the Lair. We could have gotten more at a Rock concert. Dr. E.J. Morgan, Director Student Health Dr. I. A. Wiles, Director Counr Health Dept. Wc hoped to innoculate 40,000 but what we did was about all we could handle. But if there hadn ' t been so much adverse publicity, about the pro- gram, we would have reached our goal. After the heart attack scare in Pittsburgh, we got a call about an attack that occurred after the shot was given. It turned out, the guy didn ' t tell us he had already had a stroke rw-o days before he was innocuiated. 27

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SWINE FLU WAS THE ISSUE Everyone knew what it was called. Others wondered whether you really contracted it from pigs. Scientists questioned whether its cure could paralyze or kill you. Swine flu was the issue. And from mid-November through December the university community joined Monongalia County and the rest of the United States in a mass immunization program to combat the new virus. Nationally, the program cost was $135 million dollars. Locally, the County Health Department innocTilated 17,815 at the Federal government ' s expense. West Virginia University staff and students innoculated totalled to 5,300. Controversy, however, hindered the program from the start. First, many disagreed that an epidemic would occur. Others, didn ' t feel this type of flu was linked, as many said, to a 1918 breakout that caused half a million deaths. Later, heart attacks that killed several elderly people in Pittsburgh immediately after immunization and other cases of polio were linked with the innoculations. Ultimately, the program was cancelled, but speculation continues. Three officials involved with the local program in the Morgantown area gave their views on the program. 26

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TOWING IS A DIRTY WORD EVERYWHERE 28