- Person
- Jonas Salk
- Lived
- 1914–1995
- Field
- Medicine
- From
- American
The story
By 1954 Jonas Salk's killed-virus polio vaccine had shown promise in small tests. In 1952 he had injected 43 children at the D.T. Watson Home near Pittsburgh, and in March 1953 he reported a successful test on a small group of adults and children on CBS radio. The next step was to prove it worked across a whole nation. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, known through its March of Dimes campaign, organised what was described at the time as the most elaborate programme of its kind in history.
The trial was designed and led by Salk's mentor Thomas Francis Jr. of the University of Michigan, at a cost of $17.5 million. It began with about 4,000 children at Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia, and grew to include children in 44 states, as well as Canada and Finland. It involved 20,000 physicians and public health officers, 64,000 school staff and 220,000 volunteers, with more than 1.8 million schoolchildren taking part. Roughly 440,000 children received the vaccine, about 210,000 received a harmless placebo, and some 1.2 million were observed as an unvaccinated comparison group. The children, most aged six to nine, became known as the Polio Pioneers.
The effort was funded by some 100 million contributors to the March of Dimes. A 1954 Gallup poll found that more Americans knew about the polio field trials than could give the president's full name. The foundation was so committed that it allowed itself to go into debt to finance the final research.
On 12 April 1955 the results were announced at the University of Michigan: the vaccine was safe and effective, 60 to 70 percent effective against type 1 poliovirus, more than 90 percent against types 2 and 3, and 94 percent effective against the bulbar form of the disease.
The scale of public involvement turned a scientific experiment into a national cause, and it was the largest medical experiment in history at that time.
Why it matters
The trial set a model for large-scale, carefully evaluated vaccine testing and gave the world proof that polio could be prevented.
About Jonas Salk
Virologist who developed the first successful polio vaccine; refused to patent it, calling the breakthrough a gift to the world.
More about Jonas Salk
- Jonas Salk chose not to patent the polio vaccineAsked who owned the patent on his polio vaccine, Jonas Salk answered: 'Well, the people I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?'
- Jonas Salk founded the Salk Institute in 1963In 1963 Jonas Salk opened the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, a research centre designed by architect Louis Kahn.
- Salk helped develop a flu vaccine for the US ArmyBefore polio, Jonas Salk worked with Thomas Francis Jr. at the University of Michigan on an army-commissioned influenza vaccine that was soon widely used at army bases.
- Salk spent his final years seeking an AIDS vaccineFrom the mid-1980s until his death in 1995, Jonas Salk worked on a vaccine and immune therapy against HIV, applying the killed-virus approach he had used against polio.
- Salk tested his polio vaccine on himself and his familyBefore the national trial, Jonas Salk gave his killed-virus polio vaccine to volunteers including himself, his wife and their children. All developed antibodies with no ill effects.
- Salk called vaccinating every child a moral commitmentFor the rest of his life Jonas Salk campaigned for the vaccination of all children against disease, which he described as a moral commitment.
- Salk's vaccine cut US polio cases from 45,000 to 910On 12 April 1955 Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was declared safe and effective. US polio cases fell from an average of over 45,000 a year to 910 by 1962.
Sources
- Jonas Salk Wikipedia
- About Jonas Salk Salk Institute for Biological Studies
- Polio vaccine Wikipedia
- Thomas Francis Jr. Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.