1934

First polio vaccines developed by John Kolmer (ricinolate [element of castor bean, as in oil] to weaken virus from ground spinal cords of infected monkeys) and Maurice Brodie (formaldehyde to kill virus also found in monkey spinal cords); both rejected at 1935 meeting of APHA in St. Louis after several children’s’ infections/deaths following inoculation (in study samples of 10K and 7ik, respectively). Brodie, who had used a control group, was ruined: Brodie “was one of the first to show that formaldehyde could kill polio virus; he was the first to figure out that formaldehyde-treated virus induced polio antibodies in children; he was the first to advance the notion that overtreatment with formaldehyde rendered the virus incapable of inducing polio antibodies; and he was the first to claim that a killed polio virus vaccine might induce long-lived protection” (Offit, loc 225). He died in 1939, rumored as suicide, though his ideas were later championed by Salk.