Jonas Edward Salk's Polio Epidemic

A long time ago there was a sickness called polio. It killed millions of people until Salk made a cure. Salk was a rescuer/hero in many ways like being brave, thoughtful, making a difference. Salk was a very productive man “Salk received his M.D. in 1939 from New York University College of Medicine” (“Salk, Jonas Edward” 1). “He was renowned for his work in developing the first effective vaccine against poliomyelitis.”(“Jonas Edward Salk” 1). When Salk was 25, he graduated college and by the age of 39, he made the vaccine for the polio disease. This makes him a rescuer because he wanted to fix something and he worked towards it and was successful in helping a lot of people.

Second, Salk helped a lot of people with his vaccine.“In 1954 he developed the original vaccine that led to virtual eradication of paralytic polio in industrialized countries.”(“Jonas Edward Salk”1). Salk helped people in other countries and even around the world. He helped countless children. “The first large polio epidemic in the United States occurred in 1916, when 6,000 people died and 27,000 were paralyzed”(Petersen 1). Salk was only two years old when the first large polio epidemic broke out so the world was living with the polio disease

This means Salk was trying to find a way to make an antibody that would prevent the disease and not give it to the person. Here Salk was making a risky jump from helping anyone with it to first helping prevent people from getting it.

In conclusion, Jonas Salk was a strong, thoughtful, brave, risk-taking hero/rescuer. Salk made a cure that saved millions of people's lives. He is productive, helpful, and he will try anything. He was like a superman to people with