2 April

Sometimes remembering what people had to endure in earlier epidemics helps. All those people who ended up in iron lungs to help them breathe in the polio epidemic, including little kids. Some spent the rest of their lives in them. I don't understand the expression 'couldn't work in an iron lung' - who could? I'm also interested, with the shortage of ventilators at the moment (which use positive pressure to force air into you), whether negative pressure devices like iron lungs could be used as well. Doubt there are many iron lungs left though.