DES MOINES, Iowa — There's a lot of excitement and confusion with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine finally being authorized for emergency use.
Many haven't experienced anything like this before— quarantining, shutdowns, uncontrollable deaths— but others who lived through the polio pandemic recall the day the polio vaccine was delivered in the 1950s.
Dave Merrill, of Polk City, said he wishes he could forget how he felt while he was in the hospital.
"I mean, here's a picture of me in an iron lung. It was horrible," Merrill told Local 5's Eva Andersen.
The now 73-year-old man contracted the virus when he was 7 years old. He remembers it like it was yesterday.
Half of his body was paralyzed from polio, which is why he was put in the infamous iron lung. He has the newpaper clippings to prove it.
At one point, staff thought he succumbed to the deadly illness.
"They told my dad I had gone," Merrill recalled.
Carol Duncan, of Urbandale, is another polio survivor. She remembers her parents driving her from her hometown of Leon, Iowa, to Blank Children's hospital in 1954.
"I remember my dad burying his head in his hands," Duncan said, "That was scary for me."
Duncan was diagnosed with polio and hospitalized for six weeks. She still has the admission papers, 66 years later.
"It was $12 a day," Duncan recalled.
Duncan said her illness was a painful blur, but she remembers missing her parents and siblings. She also remembers a visit from the priest.
The priest asked her if she wanted to receive communion or go to confession.
"I said, 'Uh, no. What do I have to confess? I'm seven years old in a hospital room!" said Duncan.
Even without looking at the admission papers or newspaper clippings, both survivors said 2020 has been a painful reminder of their past.
"It brought back a lot of fear," Merrill admitted.
Fear, loneliness, and separation. Merrill said the isolation is also a painful reminder of his time in the hospital.
"My parents would come to the window and look in. And that was very similar to now. I have a picture of my wife when we hadn't seen our grandkids, touching hands with them, through the window," Merrill said.
The most recent development of the COVID-19 pandemic is the authorization of the Pfizer vaccine, bringing light to the dark times we've all experienced throughout these last 10 months.
"I remember when the vaccine came out and my mom said 'you need to go take this vaccine,'" Duncan said.
Both Duncan and Merrill have a choice coming up in the near future: Will they take the COVID-19 vaccine?
"Absolutely," Duncan said.
Merrill attempted to sign up for a trial of the COVID-19 vaccine, but he didn't get in. He hopes his 98-year-old mother will get a chance to take it first.
"I'm in line. I'm ready to go. Bring it on," Merrill said.