Six months later, 80 percent of American boys and girls are immunized against polio
In the 1940s and 1950s, a polio epidemic raged in the United States and around the world. In the late 1940s, the disease paralyzed an average of 35,000 people a year, most of them children. In 1952 alone, there were 58,000 deaths.
Tens of thousands of children are disabled for life every year, and hospitals are overcrowded with young patients who can’t even breathe on their own because their fragile bodies are paralyzed and subjected to iron-lung ventilation.
The United States is in a state of panic, and scientists are frantically looking for salvation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself was diagnosed with polio when he was 39, and remained paralyzed from the waist down due to the sinister disease.
In 1951, Dr. Jonas Solk, head of the viral research laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, was able to distinguish three different types of polio-causing viruses, which allowed him to develop a “dead” vaccine to inject into a child. to produce antibodies. Preliminary tests of the polio vaccine began in 1952, with Dr. Solk administering experimental doses to himself, his wife and three sons.
Two years later, the New York Department of Health launched a massive campaign to vaccinate against polio. “But the cost of the drug, apathy and ignorance have become serious obstacles to efforts to eradicate the serious disease,” wrote historian Stephen Moadsley.
Influential journalist Walter Winchel made matters worse after saying to his 50 million-strong radio and television audience on April 4, 1954, “Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. America and everyone else. Please pay attention! tell me about the new polio vaccine that is said to cure. But it could be a killer! “
An even bigger blow to the authorities’ efforts to persuade parents to vaccinate their children follows. In April 1955, more than 200,000 children from five US states were immunized, but the batch turned out to be defective – the polio virus was not killed. The investigation shows that the batch of the vaccine, produced by the California family company Cutter Laboratories, infected 40,000 children, 200 of whom were paralyzed and 10 lost their lives.
In the following months, the number of immunized children fell sharply and the authorities took a surprising but, as it turned out, particularly profitable move.
On October 28, 1956, America’s biggest star, King of Rock Elvis Presley, went to the CBS studio to participate in The Ed Sullivan Show and publicly received his polio vaccine in front of photographers. At that time, the percentage of vaccinated teenagers in the United States, who are the most at risk group, was only 0.6 percent.
New York Health Commissioner Leona Baumgartner and her deputy, Harold Fürst, vaccinated Elvis, and photos of the event flooded the press across the country. Six months later, 80 percent of American boys and girls are immunized against polio.
In just 5 years, the number of patients decreased by 96 percent, and Dr. Jonas Salk became a national hero.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower paid special attention to him during a ceremony at the Rose Garden in the White House. However, what impresses and leaves people speechless is Dr. Solk’s refusal to patent his discovery, although estimates released by journalists and experts would make him the richest man in the world with a revenue of $ 7 billion.
Photo: Department of Health Collection, NYC Municipal Archives
