Salk Vaccine Tested: 1.8 Million Children Unite
Jonas Salk's polio vaccine field trial began on April 26, 1954, eventually enrolling 1.8 million children in the largest public health experiment in American history. The trial was funded entirely by public donations through the March of Dimes, which had been raising money for polio research since Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. Children were divided into vaccinated and placebo groups, with hundreds of thousands more serving as observed controls. The results, announced on April 12, 1955, showed the vaccine was 80 to 90 percent effective against paralytic polio. Church bells rang across the country. Salk became an instant hero and was asked whether he had patented the vaccine. His response, 'Could you patent the sun?', meant he forfeited an estimated seven billion dollars in personal earnings. Mass vaccination campaigns followed immediately, and polio cases in the US dropped from 35,000 per year to fewer than 100 within a decade.
February 23, 1954
72 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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