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The Salk Polio Vaccine: 'Greatest Public Health Experiment in History'

Part two of a two-part series

TUESDAY, Dec. 2, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- A nationwide trial of an experimental vaccine using school children as virtual guinea pigs would be unthinkable in the United States today.

But that's exactly what happened in 1954 when frantic American parents -- looking for anything that could beat back the horror of polio -- offered up more than 1.8 million children to serve as test subjects. They included 600,000 kids who would be injected with either a new polio vaccine or a placebo.

Equally remarkable, the Salk polio vaccine trial stands as the largest peacetime mobilization of volunteers in American history, requiring the efforts of 325,000 doctors, nurses, educators and private citizens -- with no money from federal grants or pharmaceutical companies. The results were tracked by volunteers using pencils and paper.

And it lasted just one year, with officials hopeful at the outset that they would be able to begin giving the vaccine to children within weeks of the final results.

"I can't imagine what the disease would be today that could get that many parents to sign up their children for an experimental vaccine trial," said Daniel Wilson, a history professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., who has written three books on the history of polio in the United States and is himself a polio survivor. "I think it's a measure of how much people feared polio that mothers and fathers were willing to accept the word of researchers that the vaccine was safe."

Financing for the trial came from donations made to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis -- the forerunner of the March of Dimes. The foundation was created in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his law partner, Basil O'Connor.

Roosevelt had a profoundly personal interest in defeating polio -- the disease left him crippled in 1921 at age 39, and he spent his entire presidency in leg braces, confined to a wheelchair, unable to even get up by himself.

The National Foundation spent $7.5 million in donations -- $66.3 million in today's dollars -- to initiate, organize and run the vaccine trial, with little participation from the federal government.

"That's what makes it the greatest public health experiment in history," said David Oshinsky, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Polio: An American Story . "It's not just the success of the trials. It's the incredible organization involved, with tens of thousands of mothers and families coming together to save their children. And it was all done privately. That's what makes this so incredible."

There was enormous pressure to get the field trial under way in advance of the 1954 polio season. Polio epidemics took place during the summer, with the number of cases rising through June and July and peaking in August.

"We realized we wanted to get it accomplished in 1954, early enough that it could possibly have an impact on that year's polio season," said David Rose, archivist for the March of Dimes.

A grass-roots movement without precedent

The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis already had a nationwide network of health officials, medical professionals, elementary educators and volunteers in place to help respond to polio outbreaks. These were the same people who would form the workforce needed for the clinical trial. In addition, the foundation's annual "Mother's March" raised millions in dimes and dollars each year, which was used for polio research and aid to communities enduring polio epidemics.

Some of that money had funded Dr. Jonas Salk's creation in 1952 of an experimental "killed-virus" polio vaccine, and his subsequent experiments that proved the vaccine's safety in humans.

Basil O'Connor and the National Foundation's scientific advisors had taken a keen interest in Salk's vaccine, especially when his early experiments suggested that it increased the level of polio antibodies in a person's blood without any ill effects. So plans were made for the national trial.

O'Connor announced in November 1953 that the field trial would begin the following spring, and would be based on an "observed-control" design. That meant one group of children would receive the vaccine, and another group of kids in the same age range would be observed but not injected with either the vaccine or a placebo.

There were, of course, major concerns. Some questioned whether the National Foundation could perform an impartial evaluation of a vaccine that it had had a hand in creating. They also expressed doubts about the "observed control" design of the trial.

The problem with the "observed-control" approach was that middle- and upper-class neighborhoods were more likely to suffer a polio outbreak than poorer areas. The reason: better sanitation, which meant less exposure to germs and resulting immunity, said Dr. Peter Salk, Jonas Salk's son and president of the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation.

"The concern was that the children who would end up receiving the real vaccine would be from a different social cut from those who would serve as observed controls," Salk said. "It was the wealthier neighborhoods that had more polio. If you took kids from the wealthier areas, they would have a higher risk of polio, and those kids would be expected to have a higher incidence than controls."

To counter potential charges of scientific bias, the National Foundation turned the polio vaccine field trial over to Jonas Salk's mentor, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr., a virologist at the University of Michigan who had worked with Salk years before on an influenza vaccine.

Francis established the Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center at the University of Michigan, which would guide the trial and independently analyze the results.

Soon after taking charge, Francis announced that the trial would be conducted using two separate "arms." One arm would follow the "observed-control" design originally proposed by the National Foundation. The second arm would utilize a "placebo-control" design, with half the children getting the vaccine and the other half a placebo.

Salk himself, who had only a supporting role in the massive undertaking, initially resisted the idea of a "placebo-control" trial, arguing that doctors shouldn't be giving kids something that deliberately would not protect them against polio, his son recalled.

"Very fortunately, my father ended up yielding to the forces at work, which was that the only way it would be possible to convince anyone and to understand the effectiveness of the vaccine would be to use a placebo-controlled design," said Peter Salk.

Legions of proud 'Polio Pioneers'

Between April 26 and July 10, 1954, volunteers distributed Salk's series of three polio shots. In all, more than 443,000 children received at least one polio inoculation, while more than 210,000 received a placebo, according to the March of Dimes.

"There were three shots and it was a double-blind study," Oshinsky said. "Neither the child nor the caregiver knew who was receiving the vaccine or a placebo, so the paperwork was enormous."

All the kids in the trials became known as the "Polio Pioneers," and each received what would become a much-treasured Polio Pioneer metal pin and certificate of membership signed by O'Connor himself.

Bonnie Yarry of Maitland, Fla., still had her Polio Pioneer pin and certificate in 2005 when she wrote a personal remembrance for the non-profit group Post-Polio Health International.

Calling herself a "tiny peg in Dr. Salk's success story," Yarry recalled how her New York City second grade class at monthly intervals "traipsed down to P.S. 148's makeshift infirmary, a kindergarten classroom filled with New York Health Department doctors and nurses prepared to inoculate us."

"With butterflies in my stomach, I stuck out my arm, never looked at the needle, waited for the prick and then the pain," Yarry wrote. "I heard others cry, but I didn't."

The Salk vaccine trial also served as one of the earliest and largest examples of informed consent, the process by which researchers get permission to experiment on human subjects, Oshinsky said.

"Parents actually signed a piece of paper saying, 'I give my consent to have my child participate in this experiment,' " he said.

Researchers spent the rest of 1954 following the health of all the children, and taking blood samples from 40,000 kids in the study to examine their antibody response.

Through three months of winter and the early spring of 1955, the researchers analyzed and evaluated the data gathered on inoculation, blood samples, and resulting cases of polio. Much of the work was done by hand, although some computations were performed using punch cards that were fed into a primitive computer the size of a room, Oshinsky said.

People were on pins and needles waiting for the results of the trial. Even Salk himself knew nothing about how the analysis was proceeding, his son said.

'An instant hero'

Then, just one year after the trial started, the National Foundation announced the results: The Salk vaccine proved 80 to 90 percent effective in preventing polio.

"The vaccine works. It is safe, effective and potent," stated the press release issued by the National Foundation on Tuesday, April 12, 1955. It concluded, "There can be no doubt now that children can be inoculated successfully against polio."

The New York Times blared the news with a banner headline: "SALK POLIO VACCINE PROVES SUCCESS; MILLIONS WILL BE IMMUNIZED SOON; CITY SCHOOLS BEGIN SHOTS APRIL 25."

"Salk became sort of an instant hero," said Muhlenberg College's Wilson. "He appeared on the cover of Time magazine. He really was celebrated. [President Dwight] Eisenhower entertained him at the White House."

For some children, however, the vaccine came too late. Wilson contracted polio at age 5 in September 1955, months after the vaccine's success had been announced.

"The vaccine was out and available in the fall of 1955, but it was in short supply at that time in rural Wisconsin," said Wilson, who lived in Wausau back then. "I was a year short of going to school, and so I didn't get the vaccine." Now 64, he has had lifelong health problems due to his childhood polio.

Once Salk's vaccine became widely available, Oshinsky said, it saved the lives of tens of thousands of children in the United States and Canada.

And by 1961, the rate of polio had dropped by 96 percent in the United States, thanks to the Salk vaccine, according to the March of Dimes.

Salk's legacy, however, extends far beyond his vaccine. Oshinsky contends that Salk's true contribution to science was his demonstration that a killed virus vaccine could be as effective as using a live virus. The flu shot people receive every year is a killed virus vaccine, as are modern vaccines that protect against typhoid, cholera and whooping cough, he said.

"Jonas Salk showed that a killed virus vaccine would work and would be damned effective in fighting disease," Oshinsky said. "This was something that virologists of the day pooh-poohed. And Salk proved them wrong."

But Salk's vaccine, still available and the primary polio vaccine for the United States, isn't as widely used across the globe today as the live virus polio vaccine developed by his rival, Dr. Albert Sabin.

Sabin, a Polish medical researcher who become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1930, tested the effectiveness of his oral vaccine on at least 100 million people in the USSR and other countries between 1955 and 1961.

His vaccine proved even better at preventing polio, and much easier to deliver.

"You can give it in drops, you can put the drops on sugar cubes," Wilson said. "You don't need to have an expert doctor or nurse to give the vaccine. Sabin's vaccine was the vaccine to bring polio to the edge of eradication."

However, Sabin's vaccine doesn't completely eradicate polio, because a minute number of children given the live virus vaccine will actually contract polio, Oshinsky said.

"When you get the numbers way, way down, you have to come in with the Salk vaccine to finish it off," Oshinsky noted.

He added, "I don't think the irony would be lost on Sabin or Salk, two scientific rivals who truly did not like each other. We need both their vaccines to end polio forever. We can't do it with just one of them."

More information

The fight against polio continues to this day in many countries. To learn more, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

To read about the lasting legacy of Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, click here .

To read part one of HealthDay's two-part series on Dr. Salk's revolutionary vaccine for polio, click here .

Paul Alexander, of Dallas, has spent 61 of his 67 years imprisoned in an iron lung. But that's just a part of his remarkable life. To read his story, click here .

1955 Polio Vaccine Trial Announcement

"Safe, effective, and potent."

With these words on April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis Jr., director of the Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, announced to the world that the Salk polio vaccine was up to 90% effective in preventing paralytic polio.

Dr. Francis made the announcement to a crowd of scientists and reporters at the University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium, concluding his two-year national field trials of the poliomyelitis vaccine developed by his former student, Jonas Salk. Francis was chair of the School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology where Salk did postgraduate training.

Over 1,800,000 children participated in the field trials, which were unprecedented in magnitude.

The First Press Release on Polio Vaccine Evaluation Results

The University of Michigan Information and News Service 3564 Administration Building, Normandy 3-1511, ext. 2623 April 12, 1955 POLIO VACCINE EVALUATION RESULTS -- FOR RELEASE AT 10:20 E.S.T.

ANN ARBOR: The vaccine works. It is safe, effective, and potent.

Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr., UM Director of the Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center, told an anxious world of parents that the Salk vaccine has been proved to be up to 80-90 percent effective in preventing paralytic polio.

At a meeting of over 500 scientists and physicians and before the penetrating eyes of cameras and powerful spotlights, Dr. Francis spoke on the effectiveness of the Salk vaccine. The meeting was held at the Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor under the joint sponsorship of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the University of Michigan.

Dr. Francis declared the vaccine had produced "an extremely successful effect" among bulbar-patients in the areas where vaccine and an inert substance had been tried interchangeably.

Financed by nearly one million dollars worth of dimes which have been donated to the National Foundation, the Francis Report may slow down what has become a double-time march of disease to a snail's pace.

In strong statistical language the historic trial of a vaccine and its subsequent analysis was revealed. Over 113 pages in length, the Report at long last called a halt to speculations and finally re-enforced laboratory findings with concrete field evidence. There can be no doubt now that children can be inoculated successfully against polio.

There can be no doubt that humanity can pull itself up from its own bootstraps and protect its children from the insidious invasion of ultramicroscopic disease.

For one thing what was feared turned out to be unfounded -- the vaccine proved incredibly safe. Reactions were nearly negligible. Only 0.4 percent of the vaccinated children suffered minor reactions. An even smaller percent (0.004-0.006) suffered so-called "major reactions."

And the persistence of protection appears reasonably good. When good antibody responses were obtained from vaccination, the report said "the effect was maintained with but moderate decline after five months."

Distribution of antibody levels among vaccinated persons was much higher than that in the control population from the same areas.

Out of a total population of 1,829,916 children a total of 1013 cases of polio developed during the study period and were reported to the Center.

In placebo control areas, where vaccine was interchanged with an inert substance, 428 out of 749,236 children contracted the disease.

In the observed control areas where only second graders were inoculated, 585 cases out of 1,080,680 children developed.

Percentages in the placebo areas were: 67.5 paralytic, 17.6 non-paralytic, 7.2 doubtful, and 7.6 not polio. Specifically, 33 inoculated children receaving the complete vaccination series became paralyzed in the placebo areas. This is opposed to 115 uninoculated children. Similarly, in the observed areas there were 38 such children who became paralyzed, as opposed to 330 uninoculated children.

There were four deaths among children who received placebo; none among the vaccinated. In observed areas there were 11 fatalities; none among children receiving the vaccine.

Only one child who had been inoculated with the vaccine died of polio, and this death followed a tonsillectomy two days after the second injection of the vaccine in an area where polio was already prevalent.

The Report also stated that in no area did Type II virus prevail. There was, however, prevalence in certain areas of Types I and III.

Marked sociological differences were noted by the U-M's Survey Research Center among the participating and non-participating children in the study. For example, there was a higher proportion of children participating who had been vaccinated against small-pox, diphtheria, and whooping cough than among the non-participants. Significant auxiliary findings were:

The vaccine's effectiveness was more clearly seen when measured against the more severe cases of the disease;
Although data were limited, findings in Canada and Finland support the Report in showing a significant effect of the vaccine among cases from whom virus was isolated
Vaccination protected against family exposure. Only 1 out of 233 inoculated children developed the disease, while 8 out of 244 children receiving placebo contracted the disease from family contact.
In picking the field trial areas, the National Foundation scored a major victory. Although in placebo areas cases were 27 per cent under the 1949-53 average, and 12 per cent less in the observed control areas, it was found that there had been a 26 per cent increase per 100,000 in trial areas as a non-trial areas. This meant that trial areas were appropriately selected for the best testing conditions for the vaccine.

The field trials and the evaluation were made possible by grants totalling $7,500,000 in March of Dimes Funds from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

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NPR History Dept.

Defeating polio, the disease that paralyzed america.

Linton Weeks

Iron lungs in a polio ward, undated. Corbis hide caption

Iron lungs in a polio ward, undated.

Tens of thousands of Americans — in the first half of the 20th century — were stricken by poliomyelitis. Polio, as it's known, is a disease that attacks the central nervous system and often leaves its victims partially or fully paralyzed.

The hallmarks of the Polio Era were children on crutches and in iron lungs, shuttered swimming pools, theaters warning moviegoers to not sit too close to one another.

On April 12, 2015, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of a vaccine developed by Jonas Salk that prevented the disease and eventually led to its remarkable decline. The introduction of that vaccine in 1955 was one of the biggest medical advances in American history.

A nurse prepares children for a polio vaccine shot as part of citywide testing of the vaccine on elementary school students in Pittsburgh in 1954. Bettmann/CORBIS hide caption

A nurse prepares children for a polio vaccine shot as part of citywide testing of the vaccine on elementary school students in Pittsburgh in 1954.

Think of it: Between 1937 and 1997, Post-Polio Health International estimates in one table, more than 457,000 people in the U.S. — and hundreds of thousands more around the world — suffered from some form of polio. Thousands and thousands were paralyzed in this country alone.

Within two years of the 1955 announcement, U.S. polio cases dropped 85 to 90 percent, Joe Palca of NPR reported .

But, as is often the case, the statistics — even dramatic statistics — don't tell the complete story. So let's listen to a couple of contemporary Americans who lived through the horror talk about the disease — and about its defeat.

David M. Oshinsky , 70, is a history professor at New York University and director of the Division of Medical Humanities at the NYU-Langone Medical Center. His book, Polio: An American Story, won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for History. Walter A. Orenstein , 67, is a professor of medicine, pediatrics and global health at Emory University. He is also associate director of the Emory Vaccine Center.

1) When was the polio epidemic at its worst in the United States? "Polio was at its height in the early 1950s," says Oshinsky, "just as the Salk vaccine was tested and found to be 'safe, effective and potent.' "

2) How was the public responding — what precautions were people taking, what myths were being circulated? "The public was horribly and understandably frightened by polio," says Oshinsky, who grew up in Queens, N.Y. "There was no prevention and no cure. Everyone was at risk, especially children. There was nothing a parent could do to protect the family. I grew up in this era. Each summer, polio would come like The Plague. Beaches and pools would close — because of the fear that the poliovirus was waterborne. Children had to say away from crowds, so they often were banned from movie theaters, bowling alleys, and the like. My mother gave us all a 'polio test' each day: Could we touch our toes and put our chins to our chest? Every stomach ache or stiffness caused a panic. Was it polio? I remember the awful photos of children on crutches, in wheelchairs and iron lungs. And coming back to school in September to see the empty desks where the children hadn't returned."

A nurse assists a 27-year-old patient in an iron lung in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1954. AP hide caption

A nurse assists a 27-year-old patient in an iron lung in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1954.

3) What cultural changes occurred in America as a result of the polio outbreaks and as a result of its cure? "Rumors spread that soft drinks were responsible — or too much rain or heat," Oshinsky says. "In some places people stopped handling paper money and refused to shake hands. But mostly people mobilized to fight the disease by raising money for the March of Dimes, which promised us a life-saving protective vaccine. And, in the end, it gave us two vaccines — the injected killed-virus version of Jonas Salk and the oral live-virus version of Albert Sabin."

4) How was the country different before — and after — the polio scares? "Word that the Salk vaccine was successful set off one of the greatest celebrations in modern American history," Oshinsky remembers. "The date was April 12, 1955 — the announcement came from Ann Arbor, Mich. Church bells tolled, factory whistles blew. People ran into the streets weeping. President Eisenhower invited Jonas Salk to the White House, where he choked up while thanking Salk for saving the world's children — an iconic moment, the height of America's faith in research and science. Vaccines became a natural part of pediatric care."

5) When and what was the process for Jonas Salk and his vaccine and when was his ah-ha moment? "Salk's 'Eureka Moment' came when he realized that his killed-virus vaccine produced high antibody levels in children, following a series of experiments in the early 1950s," Oshinsky says. "And his vaccine was validated in 1955, following the largest public health experiment in American history, involving close to 2 million schoolchildren, some getting the real vaccine, the others a look-alike placebo. It took a year to tabulate the results, which were extraordinary."

6) What did Albert Sabin contribute to eradication of the disease? "Sabin couldn't test his oral live-virus vaccine in the U.S. because so many kids were already vaccinated with the Salk vaccine," Oshinky explains. "So, in one of the great stories of the Cold War era, he was allowed to go to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to test there. They lined up close to 70 million children — the glories of repressive police states — and the results were fantastic. The Sabin vaccine was extremely effective, giving the world two terrific vaccines against polio."

7) What are the chances that polio will return to the U.S. or that something as serious will reach such critical epidemic levels? "The chances of a return of polio to the U.S. are slim although not zero," says Walter A. Orenstein. "The main reason is the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). When it began in 1988, there were an estimated 350,000 persons paralyzed by polio in that year alone. In contrast, in 2014, there were only 359 cases, a greater than 99 percent reduction. In 1988, there were 125 countries considered endemic for polio. In other words, these countries had continuous circulation of polioviruses. In 2014, only three countries are considered endemic: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. What would put the U.S. at greatest risk is failure to complete eradication and, even worse, a backing-off of the efforts to contain the virus, in which case there would likely be a global resurgence. Working in partnership with the GPEI is the best way to eliminate the risk for a return of polio to the U.S."

Dr. Albert B. Sabin (right) and Dr. Jonas Salk in Washington in 1955. Henry Griffin/AP hide caption

Dr. Albert B. Sabin (right) and Dr. Jonas Salk in Washington in 1955.

8) How can we prevent it? "As long as polioviruses circulate anywhere," Orenstein says, "there is the potential that the virus can be exported to the U.S. The best way to reduce that risk is to ensure our population is fully immunized in accordance with recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and in addition, travelers to areas where polio is endemic or epidemic should receive at least one additional dose of vaccine. Long-term residents of 'polio exporting countries' — that is, countries which have exported poliovirus in recent years — should receive a dose of polio vaccine at least four weeks prior to travel outside of the country and no more than 12 months prior to travel."

9) How did Jonas Salk — and other vaccine creators — deal with people who did not believe in the vaccine? "During the period when Jonas Salk developed the inactivated polio vaccine, or IPV, there was not much opposition to vaccines," says Orenstein, who grew up in the Bronx. "People were genuinely scared about polio and the annual epidemics — which during the early 1950s paralyzed more than 15,000 people each year in the U.S. IPV was viewed as a miracle. I remember being in second grade when the Salk polio vaccine was licensed and there was to be a vaccination campaign in my school. I was none too thrilled about getting 'a shot' for something I knew nothing about. I remember my mother saying to me 'Better you should cry, than I should cry.' That's how much appreciated the vaccine was."

Children's Health

Salk polio vaccine conquered terrifying disease.

Polio Pioneer Helps Survivors Hold On To Strength

These days, Orenstein says, "Vaccines are in a sense victims of their own success. Diseases which caused so much fear years ago cause little fear today because today's parents have never seen such cases. They are artifacts of history to them. But because all of the infections prevented by vaccines still circulate somewhere in the world, there is the potential of major resurgences should the pathogens be reintroduced into populations with low vaccination coverage."

He adds: "It is incumbent for all of us who know something about vaccines to better educate our population regarding the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases, the benefits of the vaccines which prevent them, the risks of the vaccines and how they compare with the benefits, and the system in place to assure the vaccines we use are safe and effective."

(This post has been updated.)

Follow me @NPRHistoryDept ; lead me by writing [email protected]

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8 Things You May Not Know About Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine

By: Christopher Klein

Updated: August 22, 2023 | Original: October 28, 2014

View of American scientist and physician Jonas Salk (1914 - 1995), developer of the polio vaccine, wearing a white lab coat, and smiling while holding up a bottle in the laboratory, mid twentieth century. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

1. Although polio was the most feared disease of the 20th century, it was hardly the deadliest.

“Polio was never the raging epidemic portrayed in the media, not even at its height in the 1940s and 1950s,” writes David M. Oshinsky in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Polio: An American Story.” During those decades, 10 times as many children died in accidents and three times as many succumbed to cancer. Oshinsky notes that polio inspired such fear because it struck without warning and researchers were unsure of how it spread from person to person. In the years following World War II, polls found the only thing Americans feared more than polio was nuclear war.

2. Franklin D. Roosevelt proved instrumental in the vaccine’s development.

A year after his nomination as a Democratic vice presidential candidate, rising political star Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio while vacationing at his summer home on Campobello Island in 1921. The disease left the legs of the 39-year-old future president permanently paralyzed. In 1938, five years after entering the White House, Roosevelt helped to create the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, later renamed the March of Dimes Foundation, which became the primary funding source for Salk’s vaccine trials. Employing “poster children” and enlisting the star power of celebrities from Mickey Rooney to Mickey Mouse, the grassroots organization run by Roosevelt’s former Wall Street law partner Basil O’Connor was raising more than $20 million per year by the late 1940s.

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3. Salk challenged prevailing scientific orthodoxy in his vaccine development. Elvis Presley makes an appearance in support of the March of Dimes, 1950s.

While most scientists believed that effective vaccines could only be developed with live viruses, Salk developed a “killed-virus” vaccine by growing samples of the virus and then deactivating them by adding formaldehyde so that they could no longer reproduce. By injecting the benign strains into the bloodstream, the vaccine tricked the immune system into manufacturing protective antibodies without the need to introduce a weakened form of the virus into healthy patients. Many researchers such as Polish-born virologist Albert Sabin, who was developing an oral “live-virus” polio vaccine, called Salk’s approach dangerous. Sabin even belittled Salk as “a mere kitchen chemist.” The hard-charging O’Connor, however, had grown impatient at the time-consuming process of developing a live-virus vaccine and put the resources of the March of Dimes behind Salk.

4. Salk tested the vaccine on himself and his family.

After successfully inoculating thousands of monkeys, Salk began the risky step of testing the vaccine on humans in 1952. In addition to administering the vaccine to children at two Pittsburgh-area institutions, Salk injected himself, his wife and his three sons in his kitchen after boiling the needles and syringes on his stovetop. Salk announced the success of the initial human tests to a national radio audience on March 26, 1953.

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5. The clinical trial was the biggest public health experiment in American history.

On April 26, 1954, six-year-old Randy Kerr was injected with the Salk vaccine at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. By the end of June, an unprecedented 1.8 million people, including hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren, joined him in becoming “polio pioneers.” For the first time, researchers used the double-blind method, now standard, in which neither the patient nor person administering the inoculation knew if it was a vaccine or placebo. Although no one was certain that the vaccine was perfectly safe—in fact, Sabin argued it would cause more cases of polio than it would prevent—there was no shortage of volunteers.

6. Salk did not patent his vaccine.

On April 12, 1955, the day the Salk vaccine was declared “safe, effective and potent,” legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Morrow interviewed its creator and asked who owned the patent. “Well, the people, I would say,” said Salk in light of the millions of charitable donations raised by the March of Dimes that funded the vaccine’s research and field testing. “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” Lawyers for the foundation had investigated the possibility of patenting the vaccine but did not pursue it, in part because of Salk’s reluctance.

7. Although a tainted batch of the Salk vaccine killed 11 people, Americans continued vaccinating their children.

Dr. Albert Bruce Sabin, of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, holds a vial containing a newly developed oral polio vaccine. Dr. Sabin, developer of the vaccine, attends a live-virus vaccine conference in Washington, DC.

Just weeks after the Salk vaccine had been declared safe, more than 200 polio cases were traced to lots contaminated with virulent live polio strains manufactured by the Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, California. Most taken ill became severely paralyzed. Eleven died. In the haste to rush the vaccine to the public, the federal government had not provided proper supervision of the major drug companies contracted by the March of Dimes to produce 9 million doses of vaccine for 1955. Although the United States surgeon general ordered all inoculations temporarily halted, Americans continued to vaccinate themselves and their children. Outside of the “Cutter Incident,” not a single case of polio attributed to the Salk vaccine was ever contracted in the United States.

8. A rival vaccine supplanted Salk’s in the 1960s.

Once Sabin’s oral vaccine finally became available in 1962, it quickly supplanted Salk’s injected vaccine because it was cheaper to produce and easier to administer. Ultimately, both vaccines produced by the bitter rivals nearly eradicated the disease from the planet. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were only 416 reported cases of polio worldwide in 2013, mostly confined to a handful of Asian and African countries. Since Sabin’s live-virus vaccine, which is responsible for about a dozen cases of polio each year, is seen as the final obstacle to eliminating the disease in most of the world, the WHO has urged polio-free countries to return to Salk’s killed-virus vaccine.

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The Salk Polio Vaccine: 'Greatest Public Health Experiment in History'

And it lasted just one year, with officials hopeful at the outset that they would be able to begin giving the vaccine to children within weeks of the final results.

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The National Foundation spent $7.5 million in donations -- $66.3 million in today's dollars -- to initiate, organize and run the vaccine trial, with little participation from the federal government.

Almost 2 million American kids stuck out their arms for an unheard-of test as Jonas Salk set out to prove his vaccine worked Credit: HealthDay