I was visiting (one of my several) graduate alma mater for an alumni event this past weekend at the University of Pittsburg graduate school of public health "GSPH". By a coincidence there was an exhibit from the Salk family estate of Jonas Salk memorabilia. Peter Salk (Jonas' grandson) maintains the estate. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh. The exhibit included one of the few iron lungs in a museum historical archive anywhere in the US (possibly anywhere in the world) . As it turns out, after the vaccine was developed, eventually iron lungs were no longer manufactured. The only way to get spare parts was to cannibalize old unused iron lungs. ( a side point, there are I believe one or two people alive today or alive until recently on an iron lung since the late 1950's) . And while there seem to be no more than a couple iron lungs on display or in a museum in the US (or possibly anywhere), after I posted a picture of the iron lung to my FB, a sacramento friend let me know there is an iron lung in Sacramento California ( there is a youtube video for the iron lung https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5NUyvlb9nE) http://www.ssvmmh.org/virtual_tour/IronLung.html
My post includes an ---attachment jpg --- and a link below to the ----informed consent --- for participation in the polio vaccine trials. Very different than the typical informed consent of a current 2023 clinical trial.
Other parts of the exhibit were, the centrifuge machines used in Salk's labs ( I don't know if original from his lab or simply a machine of that era)
links to my iphone pictures of the exhibit. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAYVtJ
The link to the informed consent of the polio trials
https://flic.kr/p/2p9Vm89
I am not aware of any plans for that exhibit of Salk Memoribilia to ever tour outside of pittsburgh. Should the opportunity to see the Salk exhibit, I recommend section members consider attending
------------------------------
Chris Barker, Ph.D.
2023 Chair Statistical Consulting Section
Consultant and
Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics
www.barkerstats.com---
"In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds."
-Steve Lacy
------------------------------