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Jonas Salk: The First Polio Vaccine

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Six decades after the first polio case was confirmed near Rutland, Vermont in the summer of 1894, polio terrorized the United States. The polio virus, which infected children in disproportions, could attack the nervous system and cause muscle paralysis and even death. Jonas Salk, an American virologist, announced his development of the polio vaccine in 1953.

Forever, all over the world, people worshiped athletes, inventors, war heroes, superheros-but a medical researcher? Jonas Salk was breaking new ground with the polio vaccine, weather he liked it or not, he was. Who knew, one successful vaccine could turn him into a celebrity in an instant. Jonas Salk was born on October 28,1914 to Daniel and Dolly Salk, Russian immigrants. He had two brothers, Lee and Herman. When …show more content…

Obviously, they didn’t find a cure, but he was inspired to try and find a cure or treatment to as many diseases he could.

Jonas Salk will always be remembered as a brilliant scientist and a great man, and he has many awards to display this. In 1954, he won the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium, that being his first ever medal. His second medal was Meritorious Service Medal, earned in 1955. In 1966, he earned the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. Then, almost twenty years later, he earned two awards: the Congressional Gold Medal and Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. His final award was earned in 1977, this one being the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He was also honored in having two elementary schools named after him, one being located in Merrillville, Indiana and the other in Bolingbrook, Illinois. The address for the Bolingbrook, Illinois school is 500 King Arthur Way. These awards and honors show how smart he was, and how much he helped improve the world and the people around

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