Who remembers the Polio Pioneers?

[Sancho]

All of us who grew up in the 50's remember the warnings about swimming in lakes, seeing cases of polio, and the introduction of the polio vaccine. In the 60's, we all got used to childhood vaccines for measles, mumps, whooping cough, tetanus, etc. It seemed to me we got a shot every week or two! I began teaching in the 70's, and I was very happy to see the mandatory vaccinations for kids in school, and I don't remember anyone questioning the requirements.

https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/sixtieth-anniversary-polio-pioneers

Sixtieth Anniversary for Polio Pioneers

Sixty years ago tomorrow the largest clinical trial in history began. On April 26, 1954, thousands of U.S. schoolchildren rolled up their sleeves to take Jonas Salk’s inactivated poliovirus vaccine. Newspapers reported that Randall Kerr of McClean, Virginia, was the first child in the trial to get the shot. (Thousands of others in earlier stages of research had received the vaccine, including Salk’s wife and children.)

The 1954 trial was blinded, meaning that the children didn’t know whether they received the vaccine or a saline placebo injection. Regardless, most viewed themselves if not exactly as test subjects (which they certainly were) but as Polio Pioneers, as they and their parents were encouraged to think of them. About 1.3 million first- second- and third-graders participated in the trial as vaccine recipients (about 422,000), placebo recipients (about 201,000), and observed control subjects (about 725,000) (see the official report on the trial for details on the study design). About nine months after the trial ended, Thomas Francis, MD, announced in April 1955 that the vaccine group had significantly fewer cases of polio than the control groups, and the vaccine was licensed.

Over the past few years, scores of participants in the 1954 vaccine trials have posted comments on this blog. Many participants recall being afraid both of getting the shots and of getting polio, and many remember friends and family members who became ill with polio. Memory can be tricky: several people remembered getting the polio “drops” in this trial – though the oral vaccine, in liquid form, would not be used for several more years. They were probably revaccinated with the oral vaccine later because of its better immunogenicity.

Most of the participants I’ve corresponded with take pride in their role in the trial. But some of them question the methods used to enroll children in the trial and remark on the changes we’ve seen since the 1950s in the ethical considerations that guide medical research.

[packman]

1. Different times, different men - Salk could have run for God and been elected

You had to live in those days when polio was feared to appreciate the vaccine

[Xoan]

2. I was one 💉

[BlueIdaho]

3. Thank You!

I was one of the kids standing in line at my elementary school to get my jab. At the time - my folks kept us away from the beach and park to keep us safe. So thank you for pioneering something that made a huge difference in my young life.

[DelMar dem]

4. Pioneer here

I was one too. Still have my official Polio Pioneer card.

[Laurelin]

5. Thank you Pioneers!

My mother was a polio nurse and my father was a medical student, then an intern, during the last polio epidemic. I just had the luxury of getting a safe and effective vaccine and never fearing polio. You are heros!

[crickets]

6. K&R for visibility.