{"id":518,"date":"2014-06-27T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=518"},"modified":"2015-01-06T18:57:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T18:57:37","slug":"jonas-salk-and-the-polio-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/06\/27\/jonas-salk-and-the-polio-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"April <\/a>
April 7, 1955: J. Salk with flasks in which monkey kidney cells are incubated before virus is allowed to grow in them. (Credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dr. <\/a>
Dr. Jonas E. Salk and Arthur Donahoo of Washington, Pa. (Credit: The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 23, 1955: Dr. Jonas Salk. (Credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Feb. <\/a>
Feb. 13, 1966: Salk in the lab. (Credit: The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Jonas <\/a>
Jonas Salk in his later years. He died in 1995. (Credit: Darrell Sapp\/Post-Gazete) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Jan. <\/a>
Jan. 30, 1956: Dr. Lev J. Lukin, Prof. Anatoli A. Smorodimtseo, Dr. Marina K. Vorshilova, Prof. Mikhail P. Chumakov and Dr. Jonas Salk. (Credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

On the afternoon of April 16, 1955, there was noticeable buzz at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport. Why? \u00a0Pittsburgh\u2019s newest international star, Dr. Jonas Salk, was coming home. A crowd of 500 proud locals, many of them children, anxiously waited for the doctor\u2019s plane to land.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo public reception is planned, but County and City police will be assigned to the Airport to handle the people who may wish to cheer his victory,\u201d said a Pittsburgh Press article that day.<\/p>\n

Salk arrived in Pittsburgh on the heels of his most notable accomplishment: the successful application of a vaccine to cure polio. After seven years of experimentation and testing, largely conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, the scientist\u2019s team reported the vaccine a success.<\/p>\n

Salk-related headlines sprang up all over the country; he quickly became known as the miraculous man who cured a disease that had affected more than half a million Americans in the preceding 40 years.<\/p>\n

Salk, though, was not well-liked by his peers.<\/p>\n

While some scientists were purely petty, others argued Salk had \u201cnot played fair\u201d by using unconventional means of creating a vaccine.<\/p>\n

A few in his field thought it was \u201cunthinkable\u201d that Salk should receive all the credit for the polio vaccination. Scientists who came before Salk set the foundation for the work he did, but despite their research and experimentation, they were not as widely recognized.<\/p>\n

Through the success and criticism, Salk knew he still had work to do. Unsatisfied with a vaccine that was only 80 to 90 percent effective, the New York native set his sights on perfecting the shot by returning to his Pittsburgh lab for further research.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, starting in late April 1955, thousands of Pittsburgh children were vaccinated in local schools. The first mass inoculation in Allegheny County occurred the Monday after Salk\u2019s return, and city school children did not receive shots until 10 days later.<\/p>\n

Pittsburghers warmly welcomed home their \u201cadopted local boy\u201d after the initial invention, and the happiness and gratefulness spread across the country. People hung up \u201cTHANK YOU SALK\u201d posters in store windows, held celebrations, and commemorated the day the invention broke through.<\/p>\n

Ten years after the vaccine\u2019s initial success, the United States no longer claimed polio as a major health concern. And the public loved Salk for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the afternoon of April 16, 1955, there was noticeable buzz at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport. <\/p>\n

Look at the picturesJonas Salk and the polio vaccine<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1066],"tags":[961,980,1001,1035,1050],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tumblr_n7spq7PUjJ1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C1345&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6151,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/12\/02\/bright-lights-and-holiday-cheer-at-penn-and-stanwix\/","url_meta":{"origin":518,"position":0},"title":"Bright lights and holiday cheer at Penn and Stanwix","date":"December 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Horne's Tree has evolved from an elegant string of lights to a more traditional green tree","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Digs.DigsHornesTree012.jpg?fit=747%2C936&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6011,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/10\/21\/who-wouldnt-want-to-take-a-chopper-from-pittsburgh-downtown-to-airport\/","url_meta":{"origin":518,"position":1},"title":"Who wouldn’t want to take a chopper from downtown Pittsburgh to the airport?","date":"October 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Both companies called Pittsburgh Airways were doomed to fail, for different reasons.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"Celebration of the opening of the heliport on the Mon at the foot of Wood Street. (Post-Gazette)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Pittsburgh-Airways-Inc-6.jpg?fit=1200%2C701&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5085,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/03\/11\/john-gruber-pittsburghs-pioneering-sports-editor-and-scorekeeper\/","url_meta":{"origin":518,"position":2},"title":"John Gruber, Pittsburgh’s pioneering sports editor and scorekeeper","date":"March 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Gruber spent nearly 40 years as the Pirates' scorekeeper and many of those as sports editor for Pittsburgh newspapers.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/John-Gruber045-e1425667662748.jpg?fit=1200%2C629&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6478,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/02\/03\/theres-nothing-like-it-in-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":518,"position":3},"title":"“There’s nothing like it in the world”","date":"February 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Pittsburghers couldn't get enough of the new Greater Pittsburgh Airport in 1952.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Web.1952DigsAirport020.jpg?fit=1200%2C781&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2404,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/10\/18\/president-gerald-ford-meets-tony-dorsett-and-johnny-majors\/","url_meta":{"origin":518,"position":4},"title":"President Gerald Ford meets Tony Dorsett and Johnny Majors","date":"October 18, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"On his visit to Pittsburgh, President Ford campaigned for re-election, having completed the unfinished term of Richard Nixon, who resigned the presidency in 1974.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/tumblr_mc27e0FsyV1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=904%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2521,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/14\/oct-10-1956-president-eisenhower-riding-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":518,"position":5},"title":"President Eisenhower, riding up Fifth, greets Pittsburghers","date":"September 14, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"\u201c150,000 Cheer Ike in Roaring Welcome,\u201d read the Pittsburgh Press headline.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/tumblr_ma9g8epjaU1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1152%2C918&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3918,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions\/3918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}