The polio vaccine
Church bells rang when the results were announced
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The field trial covered 1.8 million children and remains one of the largest medical trials ever run. It was funded by small public donations through the March of Dimes, not by government or industry. Salk took no patent; asked who owned the vaccine, he replied: “The people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” Polio is today eliminated everywhere but two countries.
For children
Polio paralysed tens of thousands of children every summer, and parents kept them from swimming pools and cinemas in fear. When the trial of Jonas Salk's vaccine was announced successful on 12 April 1955, church bells rang across the United States and people wept in the streets.
Sources
- Francis m.fl., American Journal of Public Health 45 (1955) — feltforsøket
- Oshinsky, Polio: An American Story (2005)
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