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106
sent the same poliomyelitis posters which were displayed
at the beginning of a week's campaign. In
addition posters were sent to youth clubs, post
offices, council notice boards, council vans, schools
and evening institutes. The three main cinemas in
Ilford displayed poliomyelitis posters and also showed
screen flashes. A recorded appeal by the well-known
radio personality, Eamonn Andrews, was sent to
jazz clubs, dance band leaders, and to the local
football ground. Small leaflets were sent to factories
to enclose in pay packets. We also hired a broadcasting
van which toured the streets of Ilford and
advertised the campaign in the press.
Since I did not know what the response would be
to this campaign I asked all the chemists in Ilford
if they would act as registration centres, sending
them at the same time request forms. The idea in
this was that people would merely have to go into the
chemists to ask for a request form. They were told
by broadcast that the chemists were acting as registration
centres.
After this campaign there was no increase in requests
for poliomyelitis immunisation and there can
be only three possible reasons for this:-
1. That the campaign was inefficiently run.
2. That the figures we have are incorrect.
3. That the people are apathetic.
To comment on the first, that the campaign was
inefficiently run. We made use of all the modern
means of publicising and I do not think we could have
improved upon our efforts.
The second point, that the figures we have are
incorrect, is not without moment because some of
the Ilford residents have been immunised by the
London County Council. However, we have now made
allowance for this and there are still 60% of people
between the ages 15 and 25 who are not immunised.
The third point, that the public are apathetic,
seems to be the correct one. Apathy of the general
public is not novel, and health educators can only