ON THIS DAY: February 23, 1954, Dr. Jonas Salk begins first mass polio vaccination in Pittsburgh
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By Matt Simmons
PITTSBURGH — A group of children rolled up their sleeves for their place in history on Feb. 23, 1954, at a mass inoculation held at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh. The new polio vaccine they received was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk at the Virus Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh.
Poliomyelitis was a highly contagious disease that terrorized communities with sudden outbreaks that would leave paralysis and death in its wake. It affected children most of all, leaving scores with lifelong disabilities.
The 137 students from Arsenal Elementary were the first of about 5,000 public school students in Pittsburgh to be inoculated in the first doses of the new vaccine, which would consist of three doses in total.
Dr. Salk performed every shot personally in the school’s gymnasium, a process that took two hours. The boys and girls, all under the age of 9, were in the first through third grades at the school. The children largely took their vaccines without drama, partly due the variety of distractions presented before them. Television and still cameras joined reporters, school officials and medical staff to document the makeshift clinic. Salk was smiling and frequently joking with the students to keep them at ease.
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, is shown in his lab in Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct. 7, 1954. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Salk Dr. Jonas E. Salk, 38, professor of research bacteriology at the University of Pittsburgh, Pa., is shown in a laboratory on March 27, 1954. Dr. Salk announced the successful use of a new polio vaccine on 90 children and adults. An assistant, Ethel J. Bailey, works on a step in the vaccine's production. (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 E. Salk is shown in the Municipal Hospital laboratory after announcement of his successful vaccine against poliomyelitis in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 18, 1955. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Salk At Work Dr Jonas Salk, who discovered the first vaccine against poliomyelitis, at work in the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images) (Keystone Features/Getty Images)
Dr. Jonas Salk Medical researcher Dr Jonas Salk studying slides in his laboratory, following the invention of his pioneering polio vaccine, circa 1957. (Photo by Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) (Three Lions/Getty Images)
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)
Salk In Lab Dr Jonas Salk, developer of the first polio vaccine, with a laboratory technician in the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images) (Keystone Features/Getty Images)
SALK Dr. Jonas Salk, Pittsburgh scientist who discovered the Polio vaccine, administers an injection to an unidentified boy at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsbrugh, Pa., Feb. 23, 1954. (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 and a nurse administer the polio vaccine to a young girl. (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. Children seated on a bench waiting to receive the Salk polio vaccine. (1955) (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's polio vaccine is shown in April, 1955. (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. Francis W. Yurochko, one of the lab technicians, prepares polio vaccinations during vaccine human trials at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial. (1955) (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 and Ethel Bailey in the lab with equipment. Elsie Ward is visible in the background. (1954-1955) (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 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. Dr. Jonas Salk, left, developer of the polio vaccine, gives a layman's description of how the vaccine is made and tested in his laboratory, at the University of Pittsburgh in Penn., April 8, 1955. (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. Portrait of Dr. Jonas Salk (1954-1955) (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. 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 Salk Microbiologist Dr Jonas Salk, who discovered the anti-polio vaccine, pictured on a visit to England. (Photo by Derek Berwin/Getty Images) (Derek Berwin/Getty Images)
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)
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jonas Salk President Dwight D. Eisenhower talks in his White House office, April 29, 1960 with Dr. Jonas Salk, discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine bearing his name. (AP Photo/Bill Allen) (Bill Allen/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. Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine, shows the medal awarded to him by Congress for his successful polio research, in Washington, Jan. 26, 1956. (AP Photo/Byron Rollins) (Byron Rollins/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, discoverer of the polio vaccine, is seen at the National Institutes of Health after a conference with medical experts on dosage, May 20, 1955, in Washington. (AP Photo/William J. Smith) (William J. Smith/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 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 displays a vial of his new live-virus polio vaccine as distributed in Russia, June 24, 1959, in Washington. Unlike the Salk vaccine, Sabin's vaccine is taken orally. (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. 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)
Françoise Gilot and Jonas Salk French painter, critic, and bestselling author Françoise Gilot and her husband, American medical researcher and virologist Jonas Salk (1914 - 1995), UK, 27th November 1968. (Photo by Reg Lancaster/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) (Reg Lancaster/Getty Images)
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)
Among the first recipients was a girl who had already survived one type of polio. She walked into the gym wearing a brace on one leg, hoping the vaccine would give her immunity against the two other types of the virus. Students and parents who had already given consent for the injections did not know when, or if, they would be selected until the children were summoned from their classrooms.
Similar mass vaccinations were held at 18 other schools in the district, with Salk and his team circulating back through all of them two more times to administer the second and third doses and conduct tests to verify polio antibodies have been built up in the students’ bloodstreams.
Salk had discovered that polio had as many as 125 strains from three main types. For a vaccine to be effective, all three had to be successfully treated. Bucking traditional thinking at the time, Salk’s vaccine used a killed-virus instead of a live one to trick the body’s immune system into manufacturing protective antibodies without risk of infection.
The clinical trials of the vaccine on 1.8 million schoolchildren, called “polio pioneers,” that had begun in Pittsburgh in 1954, were completed by April 12, 1955, when the vaccine was announced as safe and effective. A nationwide inoculation campaign was immediately launched, though it was briefly suspended after more than 200,000 people were injected with a bad batch of the vaccine from a California lab. Thousands of polio cases were reported, 200 children were paralyzed and 10 died. Standards for manufacturing the vaccine were tightened and the campaign resumed.
For his contributions to medical science, Salk received many awards, including a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and a Congressional Gold Medal in 1955, which is currently on display at The State Museum of Pennsylvania.
According to the World Health Organization, polio has been largely eradicated worldwide thanks to the vaccines, and survives only in the world’s poorest and most marginalized communities.