Yowis Arias

S.S

5/11/15
Polio Vaccine

702

There is hope in dreams, imagination and in courage of these who wish to make dreams a
reality. Jonas Salk the creator of the Polio Vaccine once said. His imagination led to this pioneer
in medical science to reducing 350,000 inevitable cases of the Polio virus in 1952 to just 223
cases in 2012. This Extraordinary feat of immense proportion cannot go unnoticed by medical
science. This form of distributing medicine may damage the epidermis but it revolutionized and
contributed so much to modern medicine, and also the economic and medical advancements like
using vaccines to combat deadly pathogens. However controversy struck when traces of mercury
a highly toxic substance was found in vaccines in the 20th century. Also, side effects are very
present when it comes to vaccines. But controversy is unnecessary because of significant
decrease of some diseases.
One of the biggest diseases of the 20th century was the Polio virus. The more correct term is
poliomyelitis the name of the singular pathogen cell. Standing at 30 nanometers tall and wide,
this is one of the smallest pathogens with a virus that is fatal and common. You get infected by
letting the pathogen getting inside a carless wound or cut on the epidermis. Most patients are
adolescents, children, or early teens. One of the first epidemics was in 1907 with 2,500 cases in
New York. The first time the bacteria was isolated was by Erin Popper a biologist in 1909.
Jonas Salk was born in October 28, 1914 in New York City. When Salk was an adolescent
he was not interested in medical or science as a whole. He was more interested in becoming an
attorney or prosecutor but his mother disapproved of his career choices. Jonas said Science
bored me until high school. From 1934-1939 he attended New York University School of
medicine. This led to him winning prestigious honors like the Medal of Freedom. He worked on
the vaccine from 1948-1950 with doctors.
The vaccine was then tested in 1952, after completion they perfected the vaccine with
Jonas Salks HELA cell technique. It was finally ready to fight poliomyelitis. The vaccine was
finally made public as a scientific discovery on April 12, 1955 by Dr. Thomas Francis Jr. The
vaccine saved 1.5 million potential cases in the 20th century alone. The vaccine also helped in
the 2013 Syria outbreak. 60-70% of Polio virus type A was reduced. Additionally, 90% of polio
type B and C were reduced. Since the data shows that the virus mostly infects adolescents and
teenagers the vaccine was tested on Arsunal Elementary in February 23, 1954.
Even though vaccines vast timeline has done so much, controversy still lingers. The excuse
about mercury is not a really valid argument, because of the fact that most vaccines contain only
0.0001%-0.0003% of mercury. That is almost laughable when many citric fruits like oranges,
lemons, limes, grapefruit, etc. has more mercury. The other argument is that vaccines can make
you autistic. However autism is when a brain is literally structured differently from birth because
of the genetics of the mother and the father so a liquid cant mutate something or someone
because of its predetermined biological course.
It has been more than 60 years since the Polio vaccine came to be and changed medical
science by introducing the HELA cell technique. Since that fateful period of medical science
vaccines have improved drastically over the years. The controversy was later humbled in the 21st
century with technology making vaccines with less chemical mishaps or side effects. Also

present diseases have been lowered in the amount of lethal power. For instance small pox
pathogens killed 3% of the human population now it is as uncommon as Ebola. New vaccines
have been made for more common diseases like chickenpox/shingles, Diphtheria, Hepatitis A,
and Hepatitis B.

In conclusion Jonas Salk and other great minds of the 20 th century have created a legacy of
medical science and greatness inspiring future brilliant medical scientist to follow in their
footsteps. They set expectations and boundaries for the 21 st century. They may have created
controversies but they saved over 3 million lives in the immense journey.