1954

Trial of Salk’s killed-virus polio vaccine from April to June, with vaccination of 1.8 million children between six and nine, 420,000 of whom received Salk vaccine manufactured by Parke-Davis or Eli Lilly; 200,000 received placebo; and 1.2 million got nothing. “Although several cases of polio occurred within two months of vaccination, Thomas Francis concluded that Salk’s vaccine was not causing paralysis.” (Rogers, 178; Gould, 147ff.; Offit, loc 595ff.). Thomas Francis reviewed the data on 1.8 million children who had participated and announced the results at University of Michigan on 12 April 1955: “Inside the auditorium Francis finished to restrained applause. Outside the auditorium Americans tearfully and joyfully embraced the results. By the time Thomas Francis stepped down, church bells were ringing across the country, factories were observing moments of silence, synagogues and churches were holding prayer meetings, and parents and teachers were weeping. One shopkeeper hung a banner on his window: Thank you, Dr. Salk. ‘It was as if a war had ended,’ one observer recalled” (Offit, loc 548). That same day (12 April 1955), after only 2.5 hrs. of discussion (it now requires a year), Laboratory of Biologics control recommended licensure of Salk vaccine for all five companies, though only Eli Lilly and Parke-Davis had manufactured vaccine for the field trial. It never saw information Bernice Eddy had given William Ward that three of the six samples of vaccine submitted by Cutter Laboratory to the laboratory months earlier contained live polio virus (Offit, loc 720ff.).