In 1956, during the height of the polio epidemic in the U.S., health officials in Chicago offer polio shots at a public school.
Bettmann via Getty Images
With poliovirus circulating in New York, health authorities worry that pockets of the county with low polio vaccination rates could give the virus a foothold.
Critical-care patients in the emergency polio ward at Haynes Memorial Hospital in Boston in August 1955.
Associated Press photo
Health officials say the new case of polio in New York state and the presence of poliovirus in the municipal wastewater suggests that hundreds more could already be infected with the disease.
Polio is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2022.
Sarah Poser, Meredith Boyter Newlove/CDC via AP
Massive vaccine distribution efforts take a lot of coordination. The rollout of the Salk polio vaccine in the US in 1955 holds lessons for those delivering COVID-19 shots today.
Polio patient in an iron lung to help them breathe.
Everett Collection/Shutterstock
Public trust is key to a successful immunisation programme.
An emergency polio ward in Boston in 1955 equipped with iron lungs. These pressurized respirators acted as breathing muscles for polio victims, often children, who were paralyzed.
www.apimages.com
Polio was nearly eradicated with the Salk vaccine in 1955. At the time, little was known about this mysterious disease that paralyzed and sometimes killed young children.
UCSF neuroscience grad student Sama Ahmed, whose three-minute talk on ‘how to know your species’ won first place at the campuswide contest, will compete for the Grad Slam championship in Oakland May 4.
Susan Merrell/UCSF
Janet Napolitano, University of California, Office of the President
The president of one of the country’s leading research university systems argues that the academic community has to make sure researchers and scientists engage with the general public.