Polio: Vaccine


Figure 1.--Here Dr. Dr. Jonas Salk administers hs polio vaccine (April 1955). The vaccine had not yet been proven when mass innoculations began in America. Salk's vaccine proved to be both safe and effective. Eventully the Sabin vaccine, which had to be tested in the Soviet Union, proved even safer and more effective. Source: Albert Fenn/Life.

Many scientists worked on polio. A major step in identifying the cause of polio was made by Austrian and German scientists (1909). Austrian researcher Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943) prosector at the Royal-Imperial Wilhelminen Hospital in Vienna (who later emigrated to America) and German pathologist Erwin Popper were able to enduce signs of polio in a rhesus monkey, using a homogenate from the brain and spinal cord from a child who had been aflicted by the disease. Researchers disagreed on wether polio could be prevented by a vaccine. Some thought polio to virulent to addressed by innoculation. Finally after decadeds of research, success was achieved. The final stages of the research was conducted in the United States, financed with the massive funding made available from the March of Dimes. The leading researchers were Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Albert Sabin. The two were rivals persuing different approaches. Salk worked with the killed polio virus. Sabin set out to developed a weakend or atenuated forn of the virus. One note here is that early work on the vacines used children in orphanages and mental health facilities--practices which would not be acceptable today. Salk was the first to develop a vaccine that was ready to test (1954). This was in part becasuse it was easier to kill the virus than developed a safe, atenuated form of it. Salk as the Federal Government began to be more involved in public health had to undergo a security investigation. Like many New York City Jews, he was involved in left-wing groups during the 1930s. He almost did not get his clearance as the invetigation took place in the Red Scare era of the late 1940s. (Salk thus wound up with an enormous FBI file and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover advised President Eisenhower not to invite Salk to a White House ceremony after the success f his vaccine.) The March of Dimes began the largest public health experiment in American history. [Oshinsky] Two million Americans children were innoculated in a double-blind test using Salk's still unproven vaccine. This is also unimaginable today in a society that questions vacines which have a very low rate of adverse reactions. The fact that such a large number of parents would have their children innoculated in this test is an indicator of the fear at the time over polio. Salk, who was convinced of the efficacy of his vaccine, was opposed to the double bline test because it left half of the children unprotected. It took a year for the results to be determind. The test was an enormous success. The Salk vaccine was found to be safe, potent, and effective. The rate of polio by 1956 was dropping dramatically in America. With so many children innoclated in America, Sabin whose vaccine ulimately proved even safer and more effective, had to go to the Soviet Union. Salk was never admitted to the National Accademy of Sciences, essentially black-balled by Sabin and his supporters. [Oshinsky]

Austrian-German Research

Many scientists worked on polio. A major step in identifying the cause of polio was made by Austrian and German scientists (1909). Austrian researcher Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943) prosector at the Royal-Imperial Wilhelminen Hospital in Vienna and German pathologist Erwin Popper were able to enduce signs of polio in a rhesus monkey, using a homogenate from the brain and spinal cord from a child who had been aflicted by the disease. Landsteiner later emigrated to America where he played a major role in blood research and won a Nobel prize. European immigrants like Landsteiner played arole in the shift of scientific preminance from Europe to America during the early 20th century.

Scientific Disagreement

Researchers disagreed on wether polio could be prevented by a vaccine. Some thought polio to virulent to addressed by innoculation. This basic split had the affect of disapating the limited funding available. Finally after decadeds of research, success was achieved.

America: The March of Dimes

The final stages of the research was conducted in the United States, financed with the massive funding made available from the March of Dimes. The March of Dimes was for a time the best known charity in the United States. It played a crucial role at a time that government did not fund medcal research, even research in major public health threats like polio. The story began in Warm Sprngs, Georgia. FDR was desperately seeking ways of curing the diease which paralized his legs. He came to Warm Springs because of the warm water which he believed might have theraputic value (1924). He purchased the property (1926) and made it available to others. He then with the assstnce of Basil O'Connor, his former law partner, founded the nonprofit Warm Springs Foundation. This was the genesis of the March of Dimes. President Franklin Roosevelt eventually concluded that fighting polio was a much larger task than he could accomplish with his own private Foundation at Warm Springs. He founded the March of Dimes with the considerable publicity afforded by the presidency (January 1938).

Leading Researchers

Two researchers emerged in America to lead lead the scientific effort--Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Albert Sabin. The two were rivals persued different approaches. Salk worked with the killed polio virus. Sabin set out to developed a weakend or atenuated forn of the virus. One note here is that early work on the vacines used children in orphanages and mental health facilities--practices which would not be acceptable today. Salk was the first to develop a vaccine that was ready to test (1954). This was in part becasuse it was easier to kill the virus than developed a safe, atenuated form of it. Salk as the Federal Government began to be more involved in public health had to undergo a security investigation. Like many New York City Jews, he was involved in left-wing groups during the 1930s. He almost did not get his clearance as the invetigation took place in the Red Scare era of the late 1940s. (Salk thus wound up with an enormous FBI file and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover advised President Eisenhower not to invite him to a White House ceremony after the success of his vaccine.)

Salk: American Public Health Experiment

The March of Dimes began the largest public health experiment in American history. [Oshinsky] Two million Americans children were innoculated in a double-blind test using Salk's still unproven vaccine. This is also unimaginable today in a society that questions vacines which have a very low rate of adverse reactions. The fact that such a large number of parents would have their children innoculated in this test is an indicator of the fear at the time over polio. Salk, who was convinced of the efficacy of his vaccine, was opposed to the double-bline test because it left half of the children unprotected. It took a year for the results to be determind. The test was an enormous success. The Salk vaccine was found to be safe, potent, and effective. The rate of polio by 1956 was dropping dramatically in America.

Sabin: Soviet Tests

With so many children innoclated in America, Sabin whose vaccine ulimately proved even safer and more effective, had to go to the Soviet Union. Salk was never admitted to the National Accademy of Sciences, essentially black-balled by Sabin and his supporters. [Oshinsky]

Reader Comment

A reader writes, "What is your point in noting that a number of polio researchers and scientists were Jewish? And some of them linked to left wing politics. Those are odd connections, at best." Actually HBC couldn't disagree more. The connections are not odd. They are in fact fascinating. I think actually that the fact that Jews are represented in the sciences and medicine far beyond their percentage of the population is very interesting. Of course one of the old calumnies about Jews was that they killed Christian children. Yet the scientists who found the cure for the great crippler of children in our modern age were two Jewish doctors. Of course the edcated reader will see those charges as long disproved antiSemetic lies. But you would not believe the eMails that we receive. Large numbers of people in the Middle East accept unbelievable lies and rumors as fact. We wonder if the mindless Muslim doctors who carried out the 20007 terror attacks in Britain even knew this or ever wondered why Muslims have played virtually no role in the advance of modern medicine or other sciences. We think it important for Muslim readers to know tha millions of Muslim chikldren are alive today because of the work of Jewish doctors. Does our reader think that this should not be mentioned? Why is that? As to involvement in left wing politics. This is another phenomenon that also is true. The great majority of American Jews arrived in America from Russia and Eastern Europe and experienced the slums and poverty of the large American cities at the time. Not suprisingly many turned to Solcialism and sometimes radical politics. Some were quite radical while most developed more moderate liberal political leanings. The same occurred in Russia and Europe, especially France and Germany. Zionism alsp grew out of the oprression of Tsarist authorities in Europe. Does our reader think this should not be mentioned or that it is odd? Perhaps it is not politically correct to mention such things. But HBC does not pretend to be politically correct. We will not decline to mention facts because they do not fit into our or readrs mindset. Our website tries to tie various developments together. We have begun a page on Judiasm: http://histclo.com/act/rel/faith/rf-jew.html Eventually I want to tie these developments together, but our site has only begun to develop.

Sources

Butwin, Butwin. E-mail message, July 3, 2007.

Oshinsky, David. Polio: An American Story.






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Created: 6:37 PM 11/24/2006
Last updated: 2:55 AM 7/28/2017