Polio reached its apex in the United States in 1952, with roughly 58,000 new cases of the disease reported. People spent their summers, also called "Polio Season," hiding inside, staying away from public swimming pools, movie theaters, and other communal spaces. Parents were so fearful of polio that they even purchased Infantile Paralysis insurance, the name for polio at the time, to protect themselves and their children. As a disease that afflicted thousands of children, adolescents, and adults each year, polio was devastating and incurable. Polio led to paralysis and, in many cases, death. With no cure available, vaccination was the only real hope.