Jonas Salk

Jonas Edward Salk (/sɔːlk/; October 28, 1914  June 23, 1995) was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed the first successful polio vaccine. Born in New York City, he attended New York University School of Medicine, later choosing to do medical research instead of becoming a practicing physician.

Until 1955, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered one of the most frightening public health problems in the world. In the postwar United States, annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 U.S. epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis, with most of its victims being children. The "public reaction was to a plague", said historian Bill O'Neal. "Citizens of urban areas were to be terrified every summer when this frightful visitor returned." According to a 2009 PBS documentary, "Apart from the atomic bomb, America's greatest fear was polio." As a result, scientists were in a frantic race to find a way to prevent or cure the disease. In 1938, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the world's most recognized victim of the disease, had founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (known as March of Dimes Foundation since 2007), an organization that would fund the development of a vaccine.

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Famous quotes by Jonas Salk:

"I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more."
"The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more."
"Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next."
"Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors"
"There is hope in dreams, imagination, and in the courage of those who wish to make those dreams a reality."
"I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams"
"It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It's my partner."
"It is courage based on confidence, not daring, and it is confidence based on experience"
"Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process, and nature in marking man's papers will grade him for wisdom as measured both by survival and by the quality of life of those who survive."
"I pictured myself as a virus or a cancer cell and tried to sense what it would be like."
"The worst tragedy that could have befallen me was my success. I knew right away that I was through - cast out."
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Latest News for: jonas salk

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American Pravda: RFK Jr. and Our Public Health Disasters, by Ron Unz

The Unz Review 17 Feb 2025
Jonas Salk and his vaccine to secular sainthood ... They suggest that this might explain the sharp decline of apparent polio cases during the years prior to introduction of the Salk vaccine ... Jonas Salk and Dr.
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Senate confirms Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services

Daily Press Victorville 13 Feb 2025
RFK Jr. passes Senate committee vote, moves to full chamber. Robert F. Kennedy Jr ... Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who survived polio before Jonas Salk's breakthrough prevention, voted against Kennedy after raising concerns about his position on vaccines.
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RFK Jr. confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary in Senate vote

Pawhuska Journal-Capital 13 Feb 2025
RFK Jr. passes Senate committee vote, moves to full chamber. Robert F. Kennedy Jr ... Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who survived polio before Jonas Salk's breakthrough prevention, voted against Kennedy after raising concerns about his position on vaccines.
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RFK Jr. confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services passed by Senate

Salina Journal 13 Feb 2025
RFK Jr. passes Senate committee vote, moves to full chamber. Robert F. Kennedy Jr ... Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who survived polio before Jonas Salk's breakthrough prevention, voted against Kennedy after raising concerns about his position on vaccines.
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Is a prominent vaccine denier the best pick for Health \u0026 Human Services? | Letters

jacksonville.com 12 Feb 2025
Leaders must commit to proven science. President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech promoted a healthy America ... The horror of polio converted the skeptics ... Desperate parents clamored for the new polio vaccines developed by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin.
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RFK Jr. says vaccines aren’t tested enough. Experts say that’s baseless.

Detroit news 11 Feb 2025
In 1954, a polio vaccine created by Jonas Salk was tested against a placebo group of hundreds of thousands of children against his wishes, as Salk believed it was probably effective against the ...
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Trump revives plans for statue garden featuring 250 'American Heroes': Who would be included?

The Hill 07 Feb 2025
The initial plan, as outlined in a June 2020 executive order, was to open the statue garden by the nation’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026 ... These remarks came only months after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis ... Jonas Salk.
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Central Mass. by the Numbers

The Gardner News 02 Feb 2025
93. Ronald J. Abdow was headed toward a career in the scrap business ... 22. He was 93. 245 ... 150 ... On Jan ... 209 ... 96. In 1953 Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to scale Mount Everest, and Joseph Stalin died.
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What to know about polio vaccines, in 4 charts

CNN 02 Feb 2025
While Robert F ... the polio vaccine. Kennedy, the son of former US attorney general, senator and presidential candidate Robert F ... Jesse L ... Jonas Salk and approved for use throughout the US in 1955 ... In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dr ... .
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Opinion: Jim Mittelman: Wake up boulder: A source of our vitality is under attack

Daily Camera 30 Jan 2025
Boulder is a wellspring of ground-breaking research. Our city should be proud of its achievements in producing new knowledge ... Bear in mind that when Jonas Salk introduced the polio vaccine, he was asked who owned the patent. Dr. Salk responded ... .
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