Jonas
Edward Salk spent a lot of his time researching and inventing the polio
vaccine. Salk
first began working on the polio vaccine in Pittsburgh using “killed” or inactive viruses. There
was a genuine fear and skepticism about his killed-virus vaccine. “In
1949, as a research professor, Salk began a three-year project sponsored by the
National Foundation for Infertile Paralysis (polio), an organization also known
as the March of Dimes.” It
took a series of three or four injections with the killed virus vaccine to
complete the immunity process. “He
conducted the first human trials on former polio patients and on himself and
his family, ant then in 1954 Clinical trials began on some 1.8 million U.S.
School children.” Salk
figured out that a dead cell added to the body will serve as an agent that will
get the body to produce antibodies that will attack the bad organisms. Salk
had a rival named Sabin. Salk
and Sabin both wanted credit and fame for who got the credit for making the
polio vaccine. “Jonas
Salk had dedicated his life to finding the cure for war—in his words, “Finding
a cure for the cancer of the World.”
