1938

FDR establishes National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, with Basil O’Connor as his hand-picked Director (Rogers, 170; Oshinsky II, 79-80), since, owing to FDR’s reduced popularity, his identification with Warm Springs had become detrimental (Gould, 73). “The National Foundation became the gold standard for private charities, the largest voluntary health organization of all time” (Oshinsky II, 79). The Foundation “contributed significantly to the development of the discipline of virology in the United States” (173). At Yale, John Paul and Trask discover polio virus in stool of polio patients during acute stage of illness and conclude that polio was an enteric viral infection that entered the body through the alimentary tract (Gould, 120).