Doctor who developed fi rst polio vaccine has Queens roots
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM |OCT. 22 - OCT. 28, 2021 13
QUEENSLINE
In conjunction with the Greater
Astoria Historcal Society, TimesLedger Newspapers
presents noteworthy events in the borough’s
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history.
Jonas Salk, whose family lived at 439 Beach
69th St, in Arverne, developed the first successful
polio vaccine, and by doing so, was hailed as
a “miracle worker” for stopping the spread of a
highly contagious disease that, at its peak in the
1940s and 1950s, paralyzed or killed over half a
million people worldwide every year.
The future Dr. Salk was born in New York
City. When he was 13, Salk entered the rigorous
Townsend Harris High School, which was, wrote
his biographer, Dr. David Oshinsky, “a launching
pad for the talented sons of immigrant parents
who lacked the money—and pedigree—to attend a
top private school.”
He continued his studies at City College of New
York, from which he earned a Bachelor of Science
degree in chemistry in 1934. Oshinsky writes that
“for working-class immigrant families, City College
represented the apex of public higher education.
Getting in was tough, but tuition was free.
Competition was intense, but the rules were fairly
applied. No one got an advantage based on an accident
of birth.”
Next was a stint at the New York University
School of Medicine. Salk has said: “My intention
was to go to medical school, and then become a
medical scientist. I did not intend to practice medicine,
although in medical school, and in my internship,
I did all the things that were necessary
to qualify me in that regard. I had opportunities
along the way to drop the idea of medicine and go
into science.
He continues, “At one point at the end of my
first year of medical school, I received an opportunity
to spend a year in research and teaching in
biochemistry, which I did. And at the end of that
year, I was told that I could, if I wished, switch and
get a Ph.D. in biochemistry, but my preference was
to stay with medicine. And, I believe that this is all
linked to my original ambition, or desire, which
was to be of some help to humankind, so to speak,
in a larger sense than just on a one-to-one basis.”
In 1947, Salk accepted a professorship in the
School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh
where he embarked on an ambitious effort to develop
a vaccine against polio. The trial period
lasted from 1952 to 1955. An account later stated
that it was “the most elaborate program of its kind
in history, involving 20,000 physicians and public
health officers, 64,000 school personnel, and
220,000 volunteers,” with over 1.8 million school
children participating.
Although Salk was immediately hailed as a
“miracle worker” in April 1955 when the vaccine’s
success was first made public, ironically he would
never directly profit from his discovery as his attorneys
determined that techniques applied were
“not novel” enough to warrant a patent.
By 1959, the Salk vaccine had reached about
90 countries. By 1979 it was eliminated from the
United States. Salk campaigned vigorously for
mandatory vaccination throughout the rest of his
life, calling the universal vaccination of children
against disease a “moral commitment.”
Today, polio exists in parts of Asia (slightly
more than 400 cases were reported each year) but,
according to Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs, a professor
emerita at the Stanford University School of
Medicine and biographer of Salk, “because of recent
anti-vaccination trends, it’s not unreasonable
to worry that a resurgence of polio might afflict
Americans again.”
As a personal note, Bob Singleton, executive
director at the Greater Astoria Historical Society,
grew up near Pittsburgh and remembers vividly
the fear of polio especially after a young neighbor
caught it and remained disabled for decades. His
family’s physician, Dr. Milton Bosse, as an intern
on Dr. Salk’s team, was detailed to retrieve a culture
from a lab in Connecticut that later proved to be the
base for the successful serum.
For further info, call the Greater Astoria
Historical Society at 718-278-0700 or
www.astorialic.org.
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