A race to cure polio in the 1950s mirrors the dash for a coronavirus vaccine — but, medical historian David Oshinsky warns, too fast might prove harmful. 'We want a vaccine as quickly as possible,' Oshinsky says, 'But ... you've got to be cautious.'
The polio experience differed from today's COVID-19 in one important respect: by the 1950s, polio — a disabling and potentially deadly disease
Then, as now, there was no effective treatment for polio, so a vaccine seemed the only way out. But even so, Oshinsky says the government played very little role in coming up with a vaccine for polio. In the spring of 1954, a massive study of the Salk vaccine kicked off. At the time, confidence in the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was high, as was fear of the polio virus, and millions of children took part in the trial.
It turned out that the vaccine made by Cutter Laboratories was responsible. The company's manufacturing process did not fully kill the virus they used to make their vaccine. As a result, hundreds of children who got the Cutter vaccine got polio, and some died.
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