BBeM: Science & Technology Item

Science & Technology

Polio vaccine introduced
Salk injected vaccine, 1955
Sabin oral vaccine, 1962

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Posted by HenryM at 2:53 pm (PDT) on Wed August 4, 2010

The quite understandable fear of polio is one of my most vivid memories of the 1950s. We weren't allowed to go swimming in the town pond at one point because my parents had heard that polio was transmitted through the water in such places. (A not unreasonable fear, as one of the ways polio is transmitted is, in fact, through contaminated water.)

Then, in 1955, came the Salk vaccine, which my classmates and I had by injection -- the oral vaccine developed by Dr. Sabin came along three or so years later. We later got booster shots. And all of a sudden, this terrible childhood fear was lifted from my family and millions of others. It truly was a medical miracle.

In 1954, before the Salk vaccine came out, my classmates and I were given little buttons reading, "Polio Pioneer." Apparently -- unbeknown to us -- we were part of a control group that received no vaccine when the Salk formula was being tested. Well, every experiment needs a control!

All I can say is -- thank God for Salk, Sabin, and the others who finally eradicated this terrible menace.

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