There are distressing reports of a lawsuit against the FDA demanding that the approval of the polio vaccine be withdrawn. I won't dignify those by linking to the URL.
Some of us, including myself, may have a recollection in childhood of getting a sugar cube with the vaccine, as part of the largest clinical trials ever conducted.
Not long ago I attended a commemoration of the Dr. Salk's work at the University of Pittsburgh, one exhibit at the Graduate School of Public Health (my alma mater), It is important to recall. Many who were infected by the virus may have been able to continue to breathe with assistance from an Iron Lung. Mr. Paul Alexander survived nearly his entire life with breathing assistance from an Iron lung. Mr. Alexander was 78 years old when he passed , he was in an iron lung from age 6 y/o in 1952. https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1238251518/iron-lung-polio-paul-alexander
Toward the end of the working life of an iron lung machine and because the vaccine worked, iron lungs were no longer manufactured. The only way to get spare parts for an iron lung was by cannibalizing parts from iron lungs no longer in use. I found and referred to the group at Pitt, one of those iron lungs - on display in the Sacramento Area.
------I attached a copy of a picture of the iron lung from the Salk exhibit at University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public health (GSPH)
My other pictures from the Salk Exhibit at GSPH https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisphotos/albums/72177720311998926
At the time there were two versions of the vaccine. The developers were Dr. Salk and Dr. Sabin. Dr. Salk's was the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV).
While both vaccines worked, there was a tragic problem with the Salk IPV. In what one clinician (Dr. Offit currently chair of the FDA vaccine advisory committee and chair during the covid vaccine advisory hearings) described as the worst biological disaster in the history of humankind the virus was not entirely de-activated. a link to a report (behind a paywall ) https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/04/14/cutter-polio-vaccine-paralyzed-children-coronavirus/
excerpting ...It was "one of the worst biological disasters in American history: a man-made polio epidemic," Offit wrote....
Tragically that inadequately deactivated vaccine caused some children to develop a subsequent "polio like illness". That biological disaster is described in medical textbooks at the "Cutter incident". Cutter was a laboratory and vaccine manufacturing site in Berkeley, Ca. And in part due to the fact that all vaccines prepared were packaged and shipped in "lots" , it was possible to determine which lots had vaccine that was not properly deactivated. For those in pharma, recognize that to this day, FDA among its many roles requires tracking of vaccines, and drugs etc. manufactured by any pharma company. During a clinical trial it is common to talk about packaging of the drug/vaccines for the trial and the assignments of "lot numbers". Credit for the discovery that vaccine had not been properly deactivated traces back to a team of scientists who visited Cutter labs. Details of the exact conversation(s) are vague , though it appears that during a presentation of the manufacturing process a Cutter laboratory scientist acknowledged that the vaccine had not been properly deactivated. one of the team members at that presentation was a relatively new faculty member, Dr. Paul Meier, perhaps better known for his work on the product limit estimator. My revisiting of the history of the "cutter incident" here for a 2020 note for the Society of Clinical Trials
http://www.barkerstats.com/PDFs/Meier/SCT-Newsletter-October-2020-Meier.pdf
excerpting from that note .... (re-) discovered that Paul Meier was part of a team in 1955
that discovered that Cutter Laboratories had not correctly attenuated the live polio virus. Worse, it appears that Cutter had been
hiding details of the "virus attenuation". Children receiving the vaccine developed a polio like illness later described as the
"largest biological disaster in the history of the US". Laws and safety review of vaccines changed because of the Cutter Incident.
...
As to the laws that changed. There is and may still be a small office in Washington for those who can be compensated for harms that may be caused by vaccines.INterest in this program was raised during the Covid pandemic and issues about the possible harms from the covid vaccine. That is the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program "VICP"
a note about that (unfortunately behind a paywall) https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/07/covid-19-vaccine-safety-lessons-paul-meier-polio/
excerpting that note , author-ed in part by Paul's daughters
...We know this story because of our personal connections with Paul Meier, a young statistician at Johns Hopkins in the 1950s who studied the polio vaccine program of 1955 and its aftermath. ...
The missteps that resulted in 40,000 unnecessary vaccine-induced polio infections are being repeated today. Failure to invest in safety and quality as well as speed has the potential to harm many people and further erode the nation's faith in science and public health....
In closing. I recommend reading a paper in Science written by Paul Meier about the Safety of the polio vaccine.
a link to a copy of Paul's paper in science http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/epidemiology/hanley/bios601/Polio/SafetySalkVaccinePaulMeierScience.pdf
------------------------------
Chris Barker, Ph.D.
Past 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
------------------------------