Introduction
50 years ago, a polio outbreak spread through a private boarding school (one I attended) of mostly non-vaccinated students in the NYC suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut. At least 11 children of the Christian Science faith contracted a form of partial paralysis. For many, the impact was permanent. Some claim to have witnessed recovery through prayer.
During quarantine, the Daycroft School student body of approximately 130 students was blocked off from the rest of the world while health authorities administered vaccines to the entire school’s community against the wishes of some students, some parents, and the religious core of the school.
Infected students were all minors without today’s social media megaphone. The school administrators and religious authorities virtually swept it under the rug. These stories were hardly discussed even among families and have never been widely shared…until now.
What follows from September 29 - October 16, 2022 are four main stories posted loosely in sync with the 1972 timeline of the outbreak as it unfolded.