PHOTOS: Dr. Jonas Salk develops vaccine for polio

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Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. Dr. Jonas K. Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine, poses in his laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 7, 1955. Poliomyelitis, known as polio, causing paralysis and death, was a virus that swept the United States from 1942-1953. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was left partially paralyzed when he contracted the disease as an adult. The epidemic peaked in 1950 when over 33,000 cases were reported, and the virus spread to Asia and Europe. The Salk Institute was established in California in 1963 asa research center for immunology, virology and geneology, with Salk as its president. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. Dr. Jonas Salk with Percival (Val) Bazeley, one of the polio team's senior scientists. Bazeley was already a noted scientist prior to joining Salk's team, having worked on large-scale production of penicillin in his native Australia, ultimately earning him a C. B. E. for his work. (Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System)

Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine which was pronounced effective, listens to a reporter's question, at a news conference in in Pittsburgh, April 18, 1955. Dr. Salk has returned from Ann Arbor to renew his work at the Municipal Hospital where the vaccine was developed. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis) (Paul Vathis/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. Basil O'Connor, left, holds a bottle of vaccine as he and Dr. Jonas Salk, right, announce in Washington, , April 25, 1954, that the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis has given the final go-ahead for the start of nationwide tests of a new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Salk. Standing, from left to right, are: Dr. Thomas Rivers, director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and Dr. Hart van Riper, medical director of the foundation. (AP Photo/Charles Gorry) (Charles Gorry/AP)

Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. At the podium, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, left, from the Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Dr. Jonas Salk, second from left, of the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Pittsburgh, Pa., attend a session of the third International Polio Congress at Rome University in Italy, Sept. 8, 1954. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower stands with them, second from right. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo) (AP)

Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. Dr. Jonas E. Salk displays a citation handed to him by Pres. Eisenhower, calling the doctor's polio vaccine research an "historic contribution to human welfare," April 22, 1955, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Gorry) (Charles Gorry/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. Dr. Albert B. Sabin, right, a leading polio expert, seen June 22, 1955 in Washington with Dr. Jonas Salk, answers questions after recommending that inoculations be suspended and the manufacture of the Salk vaccine be discontinued until, as he put it, a less dangerous preparation can be perfected. He made the recommendations before a House Commerce Subcommittee. (AP Photo/Henry Griffin) (Henry Griffin/AP)

Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. Dr. Albert Sabin, left, of the Children's Hospital Research Foundation of Cincinnati, and Dr. Jonas Salk, of the University of Pittsburgh, chat during a break in a hearing by a House Commerce Subcommittee on polio vaccine in Washington, D.C., March 17, 1961. Dr. Sabin testified in support of his oral vaccine, which, he said, could be produced at a cost of one to two cents a dose. Dr. Salk discussed the polio vaccine which bears his name and which has been in use for the last several years. The Salk vaccine is used by injection. (AP Photo/Charles Gorry) (Charles Gorry/AP)

Dr. Jonas Salk personally inoculated the first 137 schoolchildren to receive his polio vaccine at Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville on Feb. 23, 1954. A cardboard standup of Dr. Jonas Salk, who, while a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, developed one of the first successful Polio vaccines in 1955, stands in the Petersen Events Center on the Pitt campus during a COVID-19 vaccination clinic hosted by the University of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny County Health Department in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. The clinic, staffed by Pitt faculty and students from Pharmacy, Nursing, Medicine, and Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, will vaccinate some 800 personnel, over two days, who are work in healthcare roles, including students from Chatham College, Community College of Allegheny County, Duquesne University, LaRoche University, Pittsburgh Technical College and Pitt who work with patients. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

February 09, 2021 at 10:01 am EST

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