Product Review

{Emmy Award Winner!}
{Erik Barnouw Prize for Best Historical Film of the Year}
{Golden Apple Award, National Education Media Network}
{Golden Hugo Award, International Film & Video Communications}
{International Monitor Award, International Tele Production Society}
{Peer Award, Washington Film and Video Council}

Seldom has society come full circle in the cycle of a disease-- from illness, to epidemic, to cure. Polio is the 20th century's most notable exception.

First appearing in the United States in 1916, the disease crippled tens of thousands of children every summer until it was finally eradicated by the Salk vaccine beginning in 1954. Every baby boomer remembers the terror of the polio epidemic and the thrill when the vaccine was discovered.

A PARALYZING FEAR is not only about the disease itself, but also about the effects it had on society as the epidemic struck and people began to fear and shun each other. Polio was blamed on immigrants, called a curse from God, and even thought of as the result of choosing the wrong types of friends. The film also portrays how the same society converged to meet the challenge of this epidemic and triumph over it. It brings to life an America that was both brave and innocent--when one of the greatest private fundraising campaigns of all times led millions of youngsters to collected dimes, to support scientific research, and a President became the poster child for acceptance of a disease.