2026年2月22日 / 美国东部时间上午9:15 / CBS新闻
1958年，13岁的音乐天才伊扎克·帕尔曼（Itzhak Perlman）在《埃德·沙利文秀》（The Ed Sullivan Show）上表演时，观众们能看到他非凡的才华。但他们看不到的是，他行走时需要的支架和拐杖。
帕尔曼4岁时感染了脊髓灰质炎。“我那时已经会跑会走，记得有一天早上起床后，我突然站不起来了，”他回忆道。“我通常会在床上坐起来，然后下床穿衣等等。突然之间，一切都停了——我再也做不到了。”
帕尔曼和全球其他数十万儿童一样，在1955年第一种脊髓灰质炎疫苗问世前就感染了脊髓灰质炎病毒。他比疫苗早出现约6年。“是的，我要告诉你们，这就是未接种疫苗的后果，”帕尔曼说。“我的人生永远改变了。我的父母非常难过，唉，他们非常难过。”
年轻的伊扎克·帕尔曼于1958年11月2日在纽约市参加《埃德·沙利文秀》演出。 Steve Oroz/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
脊髓灰质炎病毒可能导致严重瘫痪，有些儿童甚至需要呼吸机维持生命。在疫情高峰期（20世纪40年代末至50年代初），数千名儿童依靠铁肺（iron lungs）维持生命。
“当时没有任何防护措施，也没有治疗方法，”纽约大学格罗斯曼医学院教授、普利策奖得主《脊髓灰质炎：美国故事》（Polio: An American Story）的作者大卫·奥辛斯基（David Oshinsky）说。“无论你是细心还是疏忽的父母，都无法保护孩子不感染脊髓灰质炎。”
镜子让巴尔的摩儿童医院的年轻患者能观看电视。 Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
脊髓灰质炎病毒通过水、食物和与感染者密切接触传播。目前尚无治愈方法，也没有美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）批准的抗病毒治疗药物。
牛津大学出版社
奥辛斯基回忆起自己在20世纪50年代童年时的经历：“你必须远离人群，不能去保龄球馆，不能看电影，不能游泳。海滩关闭，游泳池也关闭。我记得父母每周都会给我做脊髓灰质炎检查：我能否把下巴碰到胸口？能否够到脚趾？哪怕有一点僵硬都会引起恐慌。”
但那种恐惧后来怎么样了？“那种恐惧消失的原因是疫苗，”奥辛斯基说。
第一种脊髓灰质炎疫苗由乔纳斯·索尔克（Jonas Salk）博士于1954年研制。在正式发布前，它在近200万儿童身上进行了测试，其中一些接受疫苗，另一些接受安慰剂。“试着想想，今天如果有一种实验性疫苗，父母会带着两百万孩子排队接种吗？”奥辛斯基说。“这在今天是闻所未闻的。”
该疫苗被证实安全有效，瘫痪性脊髓灰质炎病例急剧下降。父母们纷纷带孩子接种疫苗。
那么奥辛斯基的母亲做了什么？“把我推到接种队伍里！”他笑着说。
1955年4月16日，圣地亚哥Kit Carson学校的一二年级学生排队接种索尔克脊髓灰质炎疫苗。 Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
1961年，阿尔伯特·萨宾（Albert Sabin）博士研发的口服脊髓灰质炎疫苗（本质上是用糖块送服的疫苗滴剂）在美国及全球广泛推广。
然而，今天这种病毒仍在世界某些地区传播。
CBS新闻/WHO
奥辛斯基表示：“如果这种病毒传入美国，而我们有相当比例的人口未接种疫苗，脊髓灰质炎就会卷土重来。它只需一次飞机旅行就能抵达。”
如果一个脊髓灰质炎患者接触到足够多对该病毒免疫的人，病毒就会失去传播途径。这种所谓的“群体免疫”有助于保护未接种疫苗者，以及美国估计2000万或更多免疫系统较弱的人群。
美国所有50个州都要求儿童入学必须接种脊髓灰质炎疫苗。但近年来，越来越多的家长利用豁免权避免给孩子接种，这引发了脊髓灰质炎可能卷土重来的担忧。
在最近的一次播客采访中，美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）免疫实践咨询委员会负责人柯克·米尔豪恩（Kirk Milhoan）博士暗示，或许是时候让脊髓灰质炎疫苗成为可选项目了：
“如果看看脊髓灰质炎，”米尔豪恩说，“我们需要意识到，现在的情况与过去不同了。我们的卫生条件不同，疾病风险也不同。这些因素都会影响我们对是否值得冒接种风险的评估。”
米尔豪恩拒绝了《周日早晨》（Sunday Morning）就本文对他进行采访的请求。
奥辛斯基表示：“在我看来，这是一个儿童生命受到威胁的情况，这改变了整个局面。”
当被问及为什么有些父母认为脊髓灰质炎疫苗没有必要时，奥辛斯基回答道：“大多数人认为脊髓灰质炎已经消失了，他们真的没有意识到它仍然在世界某些地区传播。”
就在四年之前，一名国际旅行者将脊髓灰质炎病毒带入了纽约州一个接种率较低的社区。由于缺乏群体免疫保护，一名20岁的未接种疫苗男子瘫痪了。
对于伊扎克·帕尔曼来说，选择接种导致他瘫痪的疾病疫苗的决定很明确：“70年来，我们做得非常好，几乎根除了脊髓灰质炎。为什么要冒险？不要冒险。相信我，这真的不值得。真的不值得。”
小提琴家伊扎克·帕尔曼在1995年11月7日纽约卡内基音乐厅的演出结束后离开舞台，演出是为纪念遇刺的以色列总理伊扎克·拉宾而举办的。 Jon Naso/N.Y. Daily News Archive via Getty Images
【网络独家内容：伊扎克·帕尔曼采访实录（视频）】 这位著名小提琴家与乔纳森·拉波克（Jonathan LaPook）博士谈到了他童年感染脊髓灰质炎后（在脊髓灰质炎疫苗研制成功前数年）的经历，以及因残疾而不得不调整的生活障碍。他还给出了对质疑接种疫苗者的建议。此外，他还谈到了音乐对大脑的影响，以及他希望被如何铭记。
[完整采访：伊扎克·帕尔曼 17:49]
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/extended-interview-itzhak-perlman/
How safe is America from polio?
February 22, 2026 / 9:15 AM EST / CBS News
When 13-year-old music prodigy Itzhak Perlman performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1958, viewers could see his extraordinary talent. What they couldn’t see were the braces and crutches he needed to walk.
Perlman was four when he contracted polio. “I was already running and walking, and I remember one morning when I got up and I couldn’t stand,” he said. “I usually would stand up in the bed. And then I would go out and get dressed and so on. All of a sudden it was like, Stop. Can’t do that anymore.“
Perlman, like hundreds of thousands of other children around the world, was infected by the polio virus before the first vaccine against the disease became available in 1955. He missed the vaccine by about six years. “Yeah, I’m here to tell you that’s what happens when you’re not vaccinated,” Perlman said. “My life was changed forever. My parents were upset. Ugh, they were so upset.”
Young Itzhak Perlman performs on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on November 2, 1958 in New York City. Steve Oroz/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The polio virus could cause paralysis so severe, some children needed machines to breathe. At the height of the pandemic, in the late 1940s and early ’50s, thousands of children were kept alive by iron lungs.
“There was no protection, and there was no cure,” said historian David Oshinsky, a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winner “Polio: An American Story.” “You could be a hands-on parent, a hands-off parent. It didn’t matter. You could not protect your child from polio.”
Mirrors allow young patients in iron lungs at Baltimore’s Children’s Hospital to watch television. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Polio virus is spread through water, food, and close contact with an infected person. There’s no cure or FDA-approved antiviral treatment.
Oxford University Press
Oshinsky remembers the toll it took on his childhood in the 1950s: “You had to stay out of crowds. You couldn’t go bowling. You couldn’t go to the movies. You couldn’t go swimming. Beaches would close. Swimming pools were closed. I remember my parents every week giving me a polio test: Could I touch my chin to my chest? Could I touch my toes? And the slightest stiffness would bring a panic.”
But what happened to that fear? “What happened to that fear was vaccines,” Oshinsky said.
The first polio vaccine was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1954. Before it was released, it was tested on nearly two million children, with some getting the vaccine, and some getting a placebo. “Try to think of an instance today where they would have an experimental vaccine, and you’d have parents rush two million kids into line,” Oshinsky said. “It’s unheard of today.”
The vaccine was found to be safe and effective, and cases of paralytic polio plummeted. Parents rushed to get their kids vaccinated.
And what did Oshinsky’s mother do? “Push me into line!” he laughed.
First and second graders at the Kit Carson School in San Diego line up for Salk Polio vaccine shots, April 16, 1955. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
In 1961, an oral polio vaccine developed by Dr. Albert Sabin, essentially vaccine drops given with a cube of sugar, was widely adopted in the United States and abroad.
However, today the virus still circulates in certain parts of the world.
CBS News/WHO
Oshinsky said, “If that virus comes to the United States and we have a significant percentage of the population unvaccinated, polio is going to come back. It is only a plane ride away.”
If a person with polio comes in contact with enough people who are immune to it, the virus hits a dead end. That so-called “herd immunity” helps protect the unvaccinated, and the estimated 20 million or more Americans with weakened immune systems.
All 50 states require polio vaccination for school attendance. But in recent years, more and more parents have used exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children, raising concerns polio could return.
During a recent podcast interview, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, head of the CDC’s advisory committee for immunization practices, implied it might be time for the polio vaccine to become optional:
“If you look at polio,” Milhoan said, “we need to not be afraid to consider that we are in a different time now than we were then. Our sanitation is different. Our risk of disease is different. And so those all play into the evaluation of whether this is worthwhile of taking a risk for a vaccine or not.”
Milhoan declined a request by “Sunday Morning” to be interviewed for this story.
Oshinsky said, “This seems to me to be a situation where children’s lives are at risk, and that changes the dynamic.”
Asked why some parents are under the belief the polio vaccine is not necessary, Oshinsky replied, “Most people think polio is gone. They really don’t have a sense that it’s still percolating in parts of the world.”
Just four years ago, an international traveler brought the polio virus to an under-vaccinated community in New York State. Without herd immunity to protect him, a 20-year-old unvaccinated man became paralyzed.
For Itzhak Perlman, the choice to vaccinate against the disease that left him paralyzed is clear: “For 70 years, we have been doing very, very well and almost eradicating polio. Why take a chance? Don’t take a chance. Believe me, it’s not worth it. It’s really not worth it.”
Violinist Itzhak Perlman leaves the stage at Carnegie Hall, following a tribute to the slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Nov. 7, 1995. Jon Naso/N.Y. Daily News Archive via Getty Images
WEB EXCLUSIVE: [Extended interview with Itzhak Perlman (Video)]The famed violinist talks with Dr. Jonathan LaPook about his experience after contracting polio as a child, several years before the development of a polio vaccine, and the obstacles in life to which he has had to adjust because of his disability. He has advice for those who question taking the vaccine. He also talks about the effect of music on the brain, and how he wishes to be remembered.
[Extended interview: Itzhak Perlman 17:49]
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/extended-interview-itzhak-perlman/