Community Chat

[CamilleP]

Amen, Oznell!  My mother was in the state hospital when she was a little girl with osteomylitis, all of her friends there were in with polio.  She lost friends, some of her friends were in iron lungs, or they would have died.  From what she saw, when my brother and I were little we not only had the Salk vaccine, we got the Sabin vaccine as well!  And every other vaccine that was available, too.  Had I had children, they'd have been vaccinated for everything there was a vaccine for, too.  Pretty soon, I'll be eligible for the shingles vaccine, and I'll get that one asap.  Needles, schmeedles, gimme that shot, doc!

[Oznell]

Thank you, @Carmie, @Lindsays Grandma, @CamilleP, and everyone who shared personal experiences of, and perspectives of polio and its effects.  This makes it so real.   

[rrpell]

Thank you @Oznell .   He is my all time hero.  After working seven years,  in 1953, Dr. Salk tested his vaccine on his own family.  In 1955, it was deemed safe for us.

He did not patent the vaccine.  

From Wiki Quotes:

• Edward R. Murrow: Who owns the patent on this vaccine?
  Jonas Salk: Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?
  • CBS Television interview, on See It Now (12 April 1955); quoted in Shots in the Dark : The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine (2001) by Jon Cohen