Reflecti ons from History and Faith: Salk - Victory over polio and ourselves

By Jeff Olson

One of the strengths of America has been the individual freedom and the opportunities and incentives she has provided for men and women to utilize their intellect, abilities, faith and determination for the good of society, and in doing so often fulfilled their own ambitions and destiny.

This concept was most famously and effectively discussed by Alex de Tocqueville in his seminal work “Democracy in America.” No field or vocation has demonstrated this more than through the creative and innovative advances in the field of medicine.

Case in point: Poliomyelitis, better known as polio, is a serious infection caused by a virus which may attack the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord. It is known also as infantile paralysis because it often would strike infants or children and lead to paralysis.

Although major epidemics of polio were unknown prior to the 20th century, the disease has caused paralysis and death throughout much of human history. In the 1880s some epidemics began to occur in Europe and soon after in the United States, beginning around 1900. At its peak, in the 1940s and 1950s, polio would paralyze or kill hundreds of thousands of people worldwide yearly. The fear and public reaction to these epidemics gave rise to mobilization in research and development of new methods to prevent and treat the disease.

At the forefront of this effort was Dr. Jonas E. Salk, an American research scientist. Salk was born in 1914 in New York City, the oldest of a garment industry worker’s three sons. He helped pay for his education by working after school and earning scholarships. He graduated from the New York University School of Medicine in 1939, where he did research with viruses in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Francis Jr.

In 1942, he went to the University of Michigan on a research fellowship, and advanced to the position of assistant professor of epidemiology. There, Salk worked again with Dr. Francis (then head of Michigan’s School of Public Health) to develop influenza vaccines.

In 1947, Salk began teaching at the University of Pittsburgh and in 1948 he undertook a project funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) to determine the number of different types of polio viruses. This gave him an opportunity to extend this project towards developing a vaccine against polio.

Seventy years ago this Sunday, March 26, 1953, Dr. Salk announced that he had successfully tested a trial vaccine against polio. Among the first to re- ceive it were Salk, his wife, and their three sons.

Having found the vaccine safe, it was further tested in 1954 during a mass trial on 1,830,000 schoolchildren. The trial was sponsored by the NFIP (later becoming the March of Dimes). The vaccine was announced safe and effective in April 1955. In countries where Salk’s vaccine has remained in use, polio has been virtually eradicated.

Salk received many honors, including a citation from President Dwight Eisenhower and a Congressional gold medal for “great achievement in the field of medicine.” He refused all cash awards and when asked in an interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied, “There is no patent. Could you patent the Sun?”

In 1963, the Salk Institute for Biolog- ical Studies was established in La Jolla, California. Dr. Salk spent his last years searching for a vaccine against HIV. He died of heart failure in 1995 at age 80.

I cannot end this article without returning to my opening paragraph and comment about the creative and innovative advances in medicine in the United States and elsewhere where freedom has fostered incentive and opportunity for such. Like the polio vaccine, some other viruses have since been subjected to the highest intensity of research by some of the best medical minds on the planet in seeking vaccines. Some others have not.

However, medical solutions alone could not solve these epidemics and pandemics, just as they couldn’t for polio. In other words, it also comes down to how many of us will understand and be willing to serve together in groups and institutions within community to sustain a self-governing nation, one where individual freedom and care and love for our neighbors are paramount — what Edmund Burke called the “Little Platoons.”

In such a nation, a vaccine with sufficient research and clinical trials will have a reasonable chance to treat and save as many lives as possible, especially the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

Finally, let us be inspired by Dr. Jonas Salk and others in the successful work in the victory over polio. If that victory can be achieved, and 70 years ago at that, then it is well within the possibilities of 21st century medicine to win such victories in the future.

Again, what modern medicine cannot fix is perhaps the biggest hurdle and likely even a more consequential pandemic in the long run: surrender of personal responsibility and individual freedom.

Submitted by Ann Glenn

The cheery yellow daffodils blooming everywhere now are weeks earlier than “normal”; have they jump-started your thoughts of gardening? They are a promise that spring is surely on the way. Let’s look at some ideas for additions to your garden and landscape.

Trees and shrubs

Trees and shrubs are the backbone of your landscape. The large trees provide shade, filter air pollution, absorb carbon dioxide, and produce oxygen. Properly placed, they can cut your electricity bill in summer, act as a windbreak, and buffer street noise.

Among the deciduous trees (those that lose their leaves in winter), any of the 27 varieties of oak growing in Arkansas are wonderful choices, along with hickories and sweet gums. You might also consider tulip poplars, with their outstanding blooms, and don’t forget the evergreens like holly.

The most popular understory trees in Arkansas home landscapes have long been dogwoods and redbuds. Others include Japanese maples, and flowering cherries and crabapples for springtime color. Bradford pears, however, are not recommended, as they are considered invasive in Arkansas.

There are many ornamental shrubs able to thrive in Arkansas’ hot summer.

Abelias have small white blooms all summer long.

Altheas, (Rose of Sharons), are very easy to grow, with both single and double blooms in a variety of colors—white, red, and blue.

Crape Myrtles come in a wide variety of sizes, from 2 feet to 32 feet. They have blooms in shades of red, pink, and purple, and the variegated colors on the trunks provide interest in winter. Some of the newer varieties have foliage that is almost black, a striking contrast to other foliage in