DALLAS — Whether it is the flu, COVID, RSV or some other virus, the season of sickness is here.
The ways we try and stay healthy and beat the bug have changed over the decades as evidenced by many archived WFAA stories in the SMU Jones Film Library.
Like the 1976 story on nurses receiving training for the new “jet injector” device used to administer vaccines without a needle. The injector shot a spray of vaccine beneath the patient’s skin at an air pressure of 1200 PSI.
Though innovative at the time, the jet injector did not last due to concerns about contamination and spreading the virus rather than preventing it.
That same year, Tarrant County was experimenting with a new “Tel-Med” system. While we have online doctors ready to diagnose sickness with quick convenience today, Tel-Med was a call center armed with volunteers ready to cue up more than 200 tapes on a variety of different illnesses and health concerns for callers.
The topics ranged the spectrum from family planning to “fears of the over 40 man.”
But patients at a children’s hospital we getting medical attention from a different kind of automation. Roger the Robot was a motorized computer bot who roamed the halls of the hospital, poking his head into rooms to deliver comic routines, horoscope readings and other conversations to put a smile on a child’s face.
In a 1976 WFAA story, he also seemed to have a wandering eye as he asked the female reporter whether she’d like to have dinner at his place or hers.
Editor's Note: The following report was uploaded on Jan. 2, 2024.