Polio and the president

The briefing

A Spokesman-Review graphic feature marks 105 years since Franklin D. Roosevelt first felt the symptoms of what was diagnosed as poliomyelitis in August 1921. Roosevelt was left paralyzed from the chest down at 39, designed his own wheelchair from a household chair and bicycle wheels, and went on to be elected governor of New York in 1928 and president in 1932. Some researchers have since argued his symptoms better match Guillain-Barré syndrome, and his diagnosis spurred the vaccine effort and the March of Dimes.