Jonas Salk

Assured analyser

In 1947 Salk was appointed director of the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine in the US. Here Salk worked on a vaccine for the much feared polio virus. Salk decided that it was safest to work with harmless polio viruses. This was contrary to the era’s prevailing scientific opinion, which believed vaccines could only be developed with weakened viruses. However, Salk believed that his vaccine containing dead strands of polio virus could make his patients immune. On top of that, experimenting with a dead virus meant that there was less risk of accidental infection. Salk gave the vaccine to polio free volunteers, including himself, his wife and his children. All of them developed anti-polio antibodies and experienced no negative reactions to his vaccine.

Polio Pioneers

In 1954 national testing began on one million children who became known as the Polio Pioneers. In 1955, the results were announced: the vaccine was safe and effective. In the two years before the vaccine was available the number of polio cases in the U.S. was more than 45,000. By 1962 this number had decreased to 910. Hailed as a miracle worker by many, Salk never patented the vaccine or earned any money from his discovery. He preferred it to be distributed as widely as possible over the world.