On April 12th, 1955, scientists announced that they had developed a vaccine against polio. After a trial involving 2 million children, it was declared "safe, effective, and potent." We look back at the terror of polio in the early 1950s, the quest for a cure, and current efforts to stop polio worldwide.
Guests:
Bruce Aylward, M.D., coordinator, Global Polio Eradication Initiative World Health Organization
Paul Offit, M.D., author, The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to Today's Vaccine Crisis. Chief, infectious diseases, professor, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Henle professor of immunologic and infectious diseases, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
David Oshinsky, author, Polio: An American Story. George Littlefield professor of American history, University of Texas
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.