HERITAGE

“We are no longer our own niche. We must see ourselves

as part of the ecosystem.” So said Jonas Salk, the physician and researcher who led the development of the polio vaccine, at the 1992 Nobel Conference on Immunity: The Battle Within. Polio was a scourge in the first half of the 20th century. In 1952 alone, more than 57,000 Americans contracted it. More than 3,100 people died, mostly children. The parallels to this summer and the summers of the worst polio outbreaks are eerie: Swimming pools, movie theaters, even the 1946 Minnesota State Fair were all closed. Folks avoided playgrounds, stores, and birthday parties. Salk refused to patent his polio vaccine; he believed it belonged to the world. As a result, polio has been effectively eliminated, and Salk’s research has ushered in other life-saving vaccines. “I have discovered here in this little corner of Minnesota a place of great intellectual curiosity reaching into the future,” Salk said of Gustavus. He was forever changed by the flu pandemic of his childhood. How will today’s pandemic influence a generation of Gusties to change things for the betterment of all?

Dr. Jonas Salk