Polio Vaccine History

For nearly all of human history, contagious diseases were the major killer of people, especially of children. These diseases came in waves across the population, spurring fear in societies who did not yet understand how epidemics occurred (Cassedy 46). Some remained endemic in populations, causing high childhood mortality rates that cultures became accustomed to. With the advent of inoculation and vaccination, scientists and medical professionals offered the opportunity to escape these terrifying diseases. However, the public and personal acceptance of vaccination as a way to protect the public has historically been tightly tied to the general population’s understanding of how disease and vaccination work. Although smallpox is the only human

Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was the product of a highly studied germ. The discoveries about the polio virus were communicated to the public as they occurred and the public was interested in funding more research into the virus. When the Salk vaccine went to trial across America in 1954, the public was many times more knowledgeable about disease than they could have been before the discovery of the germ theory. The workings of the vaccine were made known to all, through media articles about scientists typing the three strains of polio to the loud arguments made between Salk and Albert Sabin about whether the mechanisms of a killed or live-attenuated vaccine would be more beneficial. When Salk gave his on-air discussion of his vaccine to the entire United States, he gave information directly to those who would be- or would offer their children to be- vaccinated (Kluger 274), therefore increasing their understanding of the vaccine and creating widespread acceptance of

These are 16 diseases that science has found a way to prevent. In fact, the medical community did so well at preventing one disease – smallpox- that the average citizen no longer requires a vaccine against it because it has been eradicated. This high level of vaccination corresponds to the public knowledge of science. Biology and the workings of disease are taught to students in school and the mechanisms behind vaccines have been proven many times over. Through the efforts of many working towards public safety, children can be protected against the diseases that used to kill so many, and those who cannot be vaccinated are protected by the low levels of disease in the community. Only time will tell what diseases the public could be protected from in the