On April 12, 1955, Jonas Salk became an international hero. On this day, the success of his new vaccine for polio was announced, and it was approved for hospital use! It marked the beginning of the end of perhaps the most devastating epidemic in the U.S. (and a major one worldwide) during the 20th century.
A 21st century PBS documentary reflected that "Apart from the atomic bomb, America's greatest fear was polio." Imagine the overwhelming relief that swept over the nation as newspaper headlines read “VACCINE ‘TRIUMPH’ ENDS POLIO THREAT”!
Even though Jonas Salk came from a poor family in New York City, his parents valued their children’s education and wanted young Jonas and his two siblings to succeed. Salk once said, "As a child I was not interested in science. I was merely interested in things human, the human side of nature, if you like, and I continue to be interested in that." He excelled in school and studied at the City College of New York and New York University.
In 1947, he was given a lab in the University of Pittsburgh, and the next year, the March of Dimes contacted him, asking him to join the fight against polio. Salk said yes and began his polio research. It took him 7 years of laborious study and testing before he finally developed his vaccine, a killed polio virus rendering one immune to polio. By 1954, America had its fingers crossed hoping that it would work. In fact, several months before the University declared that it was “safe and effective,” the government had already put together an enormous fund to purchase enough of the medicine to vaccinate 9 million people.
When the news finally did get out the next year, Salk was seen as a miracle worker. When asked if he would patent his vaccine and make millions, his response was “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”
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The Entrance of Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine
The Iron Lung
In the early 20th century, there was little a doctor could do to keep polio patients alive if the infection paralyzed their breathing muscles. Luckily, in 1939, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, later known as the March of Dimes, began the mass distribution of a new invention developed at Harvard University. It was called the tank respirator, but it was more commonly known as the iron lung. When a patient lay in an iron lung, only their head was exposed, their body encased in a metal tube with a pressure pump that changed the pressure of the surrounding air, forcing air in and out of the lungs. This device allowed patients to artificially breathe until they had recovered enough to breathe on their own.
The iron lung is one of the most recognized icons of the American polio epidemic. Thankfully, like the epidemic, it too has faded into the history of our country.
"Could you patent the sun?"
Jonas Salk on the Cover of TIME Magazine