On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk On March 26, 1953. Dr. Jonas Salk announced that he had successfully tested a vaccine against polio. Coronavirus COVID-19 and polio are very different viruses. However, they both are deadly. In 1952, the worst year of the polio epidemic, there were 58,000 cases in the US, 21,259, mostly children, were paralyzed and 3145 deaths occurred. In 1955 the vaccine became widely available. (Baby Boomers can remember this.) I’m optimistic that we can also discover a vaccine for COVID-19 without delay. The photo below is of children participating in clinical trials for the polio vaccine in 1954.
