Latest news with #Salk
Time of India
10-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
What would Jonas Salk say in RFK Jr.'s America? A vaccine legacy reimagined
Picture this: It's the 1950s. Polio is terrifying families across the globe. Kids are getting paralyzed, hospitals are overflowing, and playgrounds feel like danger zones. Enter Jonas Salk—a quiet, brilliant guy with a game-changing idea: a vaccine that could stop polio in its tracks. And when he finally succeeds? He gives it away. No patent, no billion-dollar payout. When asked why, he famously replied, 'Could you patent the sun?' That was the mindset back then—science was about saving lives, not making money. Fast forward to today, and it feels like we've entered a different universe. The COVID-19 pandemic hit, and science scrambled—again—for answers. Vaccines were developed faster than ever before. But instead of a global celebration, what followed was a storm of skepticism, conspiracy theories, and a whole lot of noise. And right in the middle of it all? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Once known for his environmental activism, RFK Jr. is now one of the loudest anti-vaccine voices in America. During the height of the pandemic, his social media feed became a firehose of vaccine misinformation. In fact, one study found that a small group of 'superspreaders'—including Kennedy—was responsible for most of the vaccine lies circulating online in 2021. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 오스템 임플란트 받아가세요 임플란터 더 알아보기 Undo Think about that. A few loud voices managed to drown out an entire global scientific effort. It makes you wonder: What would Jonas Salk say about all this? How did we get here—from a time when people lined up for vaccines to now, where some folks would rather take horse dewormer than trust a doctor? The roots go deep. Back in the '90s, a fraudulent study claimed vaccines caused autism—and even though it was debunked and retracted, the damage was done. That lie planted a seed of fear that's only grown thanks to social media, which tends to reward loud opinions more than accurate ones. Platforms like X (formerly Twitter) gave Kennedy Jr. a megaphone—and people listened. Salk would probably be heartbroken. A man who believed in science as a tool for the common good would have a hard time wrapping his head around today's landscape, where personal beliefs often outweigh scientific facts, and public health becomes a political battleground. But he might also see a glimmer of hope. Because polio didn't disappear thanks to one guy—it was millions of parents, nurses, teachers, scientists, and everyday people who got on board and made it happen. That same spirit still exists. We see it in healthcare workers, in vaccine advocates, in communities pushing back against misinformation with facts and empathy. Maybe Salk would remind us that this isn't just about shots in arms. It's about trust. About choosing to believe in something bigger than yourself. About remembering that public health means everyone's health—not just yours. So as we stand in this weird, chaotic moment in history, we've got a choice to make. Do we let misinformation win? Or do we fight for facts, for science, and for the idea that saving lives is still something worth believing in? Because the question isn't just 'What would Jonas Salk say?' The real question is: What do we want our legacy to be? One step to a healthier you—join Times Health+ Yoga and feel the change
The Citizen
21-04-2025
- Health
- The Citizen
Measles outbreak in US highlights vaccine importance
Vaccines are one of humanity's greatest achievements. Since 1974, they have prevented 154 million deaths – averaging over three million each year, or six every minute for 50 years. These statistics were shared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) ahead of World Immunisation Week, which starts on Thursday and ends on April 30. According to WHO, widespread immunisation has also 'driven down infant mortality by 40%'. It says the measles vaccine accounts for 60% of these saved lives. Caxton Network News spoke to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Prof Shabir A Madhi, the dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and director of the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit (Wits-VIDA), to find out more about immunisation in South Africa. Vaccines defeat deadly diseases It is thanks to vaccines and ongoing research and development that diseases once considered deadly are now controlled. When South Africa added the rotavirus vaccine to the national childhood immunisation programme in August 2009, there was a 'massive decrease in hospitalisation for gastroenteritis', says Madhi. A significant example of the power of vaccines is the eradication of smallpox, a severe disease that had been around for centuries and caused painful illness, with 'up to 45% mortality in severe cases', says the NICD. The NICD explains that in 1796, Dr Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids who had had cowpox did not develop smallpox. He took material from a cowpox sore and inoculated it into the arm of a young boy. Although the boy was regularly exposed to smallpox, he never developed the disease. This groundbreaking experiment led to the development of the smallpox vaccine and, eventually, to the eradication of the disease. The last known case occurred in 1977. Then there is polio. A major outbreak in the United States left 2 000 people dead in 1916. Thirty-six years later, another outbreak claimed 3 000 lives. The NICD says thousands of children were paralysed, had deformed limbs and required interventions to help them breathe, including iron lungs, a coffin-like cabinet respirator. The development of two vaccines in 1955 and 1961, respectively – by Jonas Salk (injectable inactivated polio vaccine) and Albert Sabin (a weakened live virus given orally) – kickstarted a nationwide immunisation campaign in the United States. Both Salk and Sabin initially tested the vaccines on themselves. In South Africa, polio epidemics occurred in the 1940s. In 1948, the Polio Research Foundation (PRF) was established, and South Africa became one of the first countries in the world to widely administer the Salk vaccine. The NICD says the Salk vaccine was made at the PRF (in parallel with the US). Could polio make a comeback? 'Global vaccination efforts have almost eradicated this disease, with only two countries having wild-type poliovirus,' says the NICD. They are Pakistan and Afghanistan. 'Areas of war and strife where vaccinations are not given and areas where vaccination coverage remains poor can cause polio to become a threat again.' Vaccine myths There are many vaccine sceptics around, especially since Covid-19. The spread of vaccine mis- and disinformation promotes vaccine hesitancy, and this was worsened by the anti-vaxx movement that became prevalent during the epidemic. Madhi cites the current measles outbreak in the United States as a 'good example of why we cannot be complacent about immunising our children'. In 2000, measles was declared eliminated in the country, largely due to the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine and widespread vaccination coverage. However, there has been a resurgence of the disease in the United States, which has already recorded more than 700 cases of measles this year, including two fatalities – a hefty increase from the 285 cases in 2024. Madhi and the NICD unpack several vaccine myths: Myth: Vaccines weaken the immune system. Madhi: Vaccines prepare the immune system to control the infection when a person is exposed to a virus or bacteria. Myth: The measles (or any vaccine) causes autism. Madhi: The doctor responsible for fabricating the data used to spread this misinformation was deregistered in the UK. NICD: The study linking autism to the measles vaccine was flawed, disproved and retracted, and many newer studies have shown no relationship between autism and vaccines. Myth: It is better to get immunity from infection than from a vaccine. Madhi: Use that strategy if you are willing to gamble on the health and life of your child. Myth: Getting a vaccine will make me/my child sick. NICD: Vaccines can make you/your child slightly ill, but these symptoms are usually mild and do not last long. Myth: Vaccines contain pork products, and my belief/culture doesn't allow me to have porcine products. NICD: Few vaccines use porcine gelatine as a stabiliser, and none of these are in South Africa's expanded programme on immunisation. Myth: If you missed a vaccine, it is too late to catch up. NICD: This is not true. A catch-up immunisation schedule is available and used by healthcare workers to help people get up to date on their vaccines safely and effectively. FAQs Where are vaccines available, and are there any costs involved? NICD: Key vaccines that are on the public sector's expanded programme on immunisation schedule are free at community clinics. Madhi: Some GPs, pharmacies and private hospitals also provide vaccines, although costs may vary and could include the costs of the vaccines and their administration. Which vaccinations are important for adults in South Africa, especially those in high-risk groups (such as the elderly and immunocompromised)? NICD: Flu, Covid, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (highest valency that is available) and the combination tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis vaccine. How does the immune system respond to vaccines, and how does this protect us from disease? NICD: Vaccines contain harmless parts of a virus or bacteria. When we get a vaccine, antigens from the weakened pathogen (virus or bacterium) or tiny bits of the pathogen can trigger the immune cells to fight off these foreign substances and protect the body from disease. The immune response also produces 'memory cells' that remember what the foreign substance or invader looks like, so when the real bacterium or virus attacks, the immune system is ready to fight it off. How did Covid affect vaccinations, and what were the consequences? NICD: The epidemic negatively impacted the coverage of routine vaccines. This is because during the lockdowns, health services were disrupted and children couldn't access vaccination. This means that we have an immunity gap that is likely contributing to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria and measles. Children who have missed any vaccine doses must be taken to the clinic to catch up on those missed doses to ensure that they are protected against all the vaccine-preventable diseases. How does widespread vaccination protect not just individuals, but entire populations? Madhi: Widespread vaccination protects individuals who may not be able to be vaccinated because of medical conditions. As an example, children who are immunocompromised should not get some live attenuated vaccines such as measles or oral polio. However, if a sufficient percentage of the childhood population is vaccinated, vaccination can interrupt transmission of the virus in the community, and even children who have not been vaccinated will be protected from being infected. Public healthcare's vaccine schedule The NICD says a hepatitis B vaccine is now given at birth to babies whose mothers tested positive during pregnancy for the hepatitis B surface antigen. In addition, the rubella vaccine (at six months and 12 months) has been added to the measles vaccine as a combination dose. Here is the schedule: Birth: (BCG, Oral polio vaccine and Hepatitis B vaccine at birth for those babies whose mothers tested HBsAg positive during pregnancy). Six,10 and 14 weeks: Hexaxim (6-in-1 vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, inactivated polio, haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B). Also at six and 14 weeks: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and rotavirus vaccine (RV). Six months: Measles, rubella vaccine. Nine months: PCV. 12 months: Measles, rubella vaccine (MR). 18 months: Hexaxim. Six years: Tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis (TdaP). 12 years: TdaP. Breaking news at your fingertips… Follow Caxton Network News on Facebook and join our WhatsApp channel. Nuus wat saakmaak. Volg Caxton Netwerk-nuus op Facebook en sluit aan by ons WhatsApp-kanaal. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Wall Street Journal
14-04-2025
- Health
- Wall Street Journal
A Souvenir From Dr. Jonas Salk, Circa 1955
In 'When Salvation Rode the Rails' (op-ed, April 2), Bob Greene uses a polio patient's harrowing cross-country train ride with a malfunctioning chest respirator to pay tribute to those who stepped forward to help save the woman's life. Of them and myriad other Americans, Mr. Greene writes: 'They are able to accomplish something quietly profound: to give people they have never met a chance to breathe another day.' This sentiment applies to an untold number of Americans but also to Dr. Jonas Salk, the virologist whose injectable polio vaccine Mr. Greene also mentions. I contracted polio in August 1955 after receiving two of the three then-prescribed Salk polio-vaccine doses. After undergoing two weeks of hospital treatment and two months of bed rest, I learned I was the only patient in that hospital's polio ward not developing any paralysis. The vaccine allowed me a life of physical activity, including in high-school and college sports and other forms of recreation.
USA Today
12-04-2025
- Health
- USA Today
America once feared polio nearly as much as nuclear war. Then came the vaccine.
America once feared polio nearly as much as nuclear war. Then came the vaccine. | Opinion Together, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths and saved millions of children from paralysis. Show Caption Hide Caption COVID-19 vaccine skepticism familiar to polio vaccine developer's son Dr. Peter Salk was one of the first children to receive his dad's polio vaccine in 1953. Here's what he thinks could happen with the COVID-19 vaccines. Staff video, USA TODAY With rising measles outbreaks and what Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says about vaccines making daily headlines, it is timely to recognize that April 12 is the 70th anniversary of the most anticipated medical moment of the 20th century ‒ the polio vaccine. For decades, polio had terrified parents and transfixed the nation. Each summer, polio outbreaks forced closures of swimming pools and movie theaters. A 1916 epidemic caused 27,000 cases of paralysis and 6,000 deaths. A 1950s survey showed that Americans feared polio more than any other calamity except nuclear war. In 1947, a 33-year-old researcher named Jonas Salk became the director of a new virology lab at the University of Pittsburgh. Salk believed a killed-virus vaccine was the best approach to combat polio. Most other virologists disagreed with him. They favored a weakened live-virus vaccine that was predicted to be more effective and long-lasting. A contest between these two opposing vaccine strategies would soon emerge from the setting of stuffy, academic conferences into public view. Below the surface, it was a rivalry between two brilliant men, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. 'Like being kicked in the teeth' Sabin was the more experienced researcher. Eight years older than Salk, he was the head of pediatric research at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio. At conferences, Sabin failed to veil his dim view of Salk as an overly ambitious, excessively striving neophyte. In one telling episode in 1948, Sabin humiliated Salk at a conference by responding to one of Salk's questions with: 'Now, Dr. Salk, you should know better than to ask a question like that.' Salk recalled the interaction was 'like being kicked in the teeth.' Whereas Salk argued a killed-virus vaccine would be safer and easier to make, Sabin believed a live-virus vaccine would be superior in the long run. He felt that there was still much to learn about the poliovirus, and that the science could not be rushed. Against the prevailing advice of his peers, Salk forged ahead with plans to develop a killed-virus vaccine. He neutralized cultures of the virus by immersing them in formaldehyde. It was a delicate balance. Too high a concentration of formaldehyde might diminish the vaccine's ability to produce an immune response against the disease. But too little might inadequately kill the virus and leave an unsafe, live vaccine that could actually cause polio ‒ a horrendous thought. Opinion: Her medical file read 'death imminent.' His treatment plan changed cancer forever. When Salk grew confident enough in his vaccine to test it on humans, he and his lab team first tried it on themselves. Salk also inoculated his wife and children. He then obtained approval to solicit volunteers at two institutions, the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children and the Polk State School, established for 'feeble-minded' children. With consent from parents, testing began in 1952. 'When you inoculate children with a polio vaccine for the first time,' Salk later admitted in an interview, 'you don't sleep well for two or three months.' 'The vaccine works' To his relief, the vaccine produced a significant, protective antibody response against poliovirus. In January 1953, Salk reported his results at a conference of prominent virologists. His peers expressed surprise and incredulity, but the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis decided to embark on a national trial of Salk's vaccine. It was a momentous decision. An experimental vaccine previously tested in only a couple hundred people would now be given to hundreds of thousands of children across America. The vaccine trial of 1954 was among the largest medical studies in history, conducted at 14,000 schools in 44 states and Canada. Opinion: Vaccine skepticism isn't new, but its terrifying place in politics is In the United States, more than 600,000 first, second and third graders received three shots, each a month apart, of either vaccine or placebo. Not everyone supported the vaccine. Some parents refused to subject their children to an 'experimental' treatment. On April 4, 1954, radio celebrity Walter Winchell publicly derided the vaccine in a monologue that included, 'Attention everyone! In a few moments I will report on a new polio vaccine ‒ it may be a killer!' The study results were scheduled to be announced on April 12, 1955, at the University of Michigan. The nation held its breath. The first three words of the press release were, 'The vaccine works.' It was safe and 80-90% effective. This news was immediately broadcast across the nation and around the world. A generation of Americans would remember what they were doing the moment they heard the news. Jonas Salk became the most famous doctor on earth. He would never earn a dime from the vaccine he pioneered. Albert Sabin later developed a live, attenuated-virus vaccine that could be given orally and in only one dose. In 1961, Sabin's oral vaccine supplanted Salk's shots nationwide. Later, in 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention switched the recommended vaccine back to the Salk version, hoping this might help eradicate polio worldwide. The rivalry between Salk and Sabin ultimately served to benefit mankind. Because of them, American summers ceased to be shrouded by pervasive fear. Together, they prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths and saved millions of children from paralysis. Seven decades later, vaccines remain our best weapon against viral disease and one of medicine's greatest gifts to humanity. Dr. Andrew Lam is a retina surgeon and an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is author of 'The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity's Deadliest Diseases.'
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Deseret News archives: Salk and brave ‘pioneers' beat polio with vaccine in 1955
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. On April 12, 1955, the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk was declared safe and effective following nearly a year of field trials undertaken by about 1.8 million American child volunteers dubbed 'polio pioneers.' The front page of the Deseret News heralded the triumph, and noted Utah's participation in the pioneering effort. Knocking down polio was the biggest medical experiment ever, the national field test of the vaccine that defeated polio. In the early 1950s, polio would strike more than 50,000 people during a single peak epidemic year. Thousands of children were paralyzed. Many died. Many more were unable to breathe without an iron lung. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a polio victim, established the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, with a goal to care for polio victims and help overcome the disease. Children participated in the annual March of Dimes to collect money for polio research. In April 1954, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis began vaccinating the 1.8 million schoolchildren with a polio vaccine developed by Dr. Salk. Delivered by syringe, the Salk vaccine — plus an oral compound later concocted by Dr. Albert B. Sabin — eventually all but eliminated polio. Field trials were carried out early in 1954. Altogether, 1.8 million children in first, second and third grade were given a series of three shots. Typically, the vaccinations were spaced a month apart. In 1960, Salk established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, a San Diego suburb. The institute became a leading biomedical research center. Salk conducted research on multiple sclerosis and cancer before retiring from his own laboratory in 1984. He continued to maintain offices at the institute and, in 1987, co-founded Immune Response Corp. in Carlsbad to search for an AIDS vaccine. He died in 1995. Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about eradicating polio, what it took from the American public and how we have dealt with disease and vaccinations since: 'Utahns recall polio's impact' '`Polio pioneers' began quest to conquer illness 40 years ago' 'Vaccine years away for AIDS, but efforts are showing promise' 'A miracle, or a scientific feat? Vaccines can be both' 'One step at a time: Salt Lake City researcher records post-polio syndrome' 'Support group validates polio survivors' 'Salk honored 40 years after banishing fear' 'Jonas Salk, eradicator of polio, dies' 'Here's why Utah is looking at monitoring wastewater for polio' ''Polio' is important history of disease'
