Jonas Salk— CHJ 2010 Humanist of the year

“The story behind the story”

Dave Shafer, CHJ

Jonas Salk

1914-1995

Developer of polio vaccine

1976 Humanist of the Year

American Humanist Association

2010 Humanist of the Year

Society for Humanistic Judaism

Jonas Salk was born in

NYCity in 1914

“I was the eldest of three sons and the favorite and the one who had all of her

attention, certainly until my little brother was born -- I was about five years old

then -- and my youngest brother when I was about twelve. I was essentially an

only child in the sense of having her interest and concerns and attention. She

wanted to be sure that we all were going to advance in the world. Therefore we

were encouraged in our studies, and overly protected in many ways. “

Jonas Salk’s father

designed women’s

blouses and had an

artistic tempera-

ment. His mother

had a lot of ambition

for her son. Jonas

seemed to draw up-

on both traits in his

own life.

Salk quotes:

“As a child I was not interested in science. I was

merely interested in things human, the human

side of nature, if you like, and I continue to be in-

terested in that. That's what motivates me.”

“I think I was curious from the earliest age on.

There was a photograph of me when I was a year

old [not this one here] and there was that look of

curiosity on that infant's face that is inescapable. I have the suspicion that this curiosity was

very much a part of my early life: asking questions about unreasonableness. I tended to ob-

serve, and reflect and wonder. That sense of wonder, I think, is built into us.”

“I got along with my classmates, but I was not as sociable a child. I could spend time by

myself and I still do. I would say that I spent more time alone than I did in social settings.

Part of this was probably attributed to my mother's over-protectiveness, lest I hurt myself,

or be injured in some way. How much of this is innate, and how much of this came about

through that kind of nurturing, I can't say. “

But we can say. Salk had a largely absent father and a VERY ambitious mother.

Salk described his childhood of

being a time of extended waiting,

waiting to grow up and do great

things. Sort of like waiting for the

phone of adulthood to ring.

Left to right -

Brother Herman, be-

came a veterinarian

Jonas’ 1st wife Donna,

a social worker

Jonas

Brother Lee, became a

child psychologist

Bottom

Father, Daniel—

clothing designer

Mother, Dora (Dolly)

Both Russian Jews

Salk went to City College

when he was 15, and

then NYU medical

school.

In 1935 Yale medical

School received 501 ap-

plicants. 200 of these

were Jewish. Of the 76

people accepted, Yale

only took 5 Jews. Cor-

nell and others were

equally restricted.

For Salk to apply to a restricted Ivy League medical school

would have been a career non-starter and he knew that.

Salk’s wife Donna’s father

was a wealthy Manhattan den-

tist and regarded Salk as so-

cially inferior by several

notches. He agreed to the

marriage only if Salk was a

doctor (to put on the wedding

invitations) and took a middle

name, which he did not have.

They married the day after

he got his M.D. degree.

They had three sons.

“Being Jewish was a deeply important aspect of my

father's life. I don't believe he was a member of any

Jewish organizations as an adult, but there may be

things of that sort that I am not aware of. He arranged

for me to spend a summer in Israel (Kaitz ba Kibbutz)

when I was 18, and I think supported one or even both brothers to visit Israel in

their youth. I think my father's sense of being Jewish had more to do with the

cultural/genetic heritage than with religion. I consider myself Jewish, but in that

same way (heritage, not religion). It was important to me (for reasons I don't un-

derstand) to marry a woman who was Jewish -- which I did. Our son, I believe,

considers himself Jewish -- again, by heritage, not in terms of a practiced reli-

gion; though some aspects of ritual have been important to him (e.g., lighting

candles during Hanukkah). Both of my brothers married gentiles. I think they

both regard themselves as Jewish, but I can't speak for them. I'm not clear how

their own children feel about their half-Jewish backgrounds.”

Statement by Dr. Peter Salk, Jonas Salk’s oldest son

Polio has always been with us.

Here is an Egyptian with a with-

ered leg and deformed foot. Po-

lio is caused by a virus and in

some cases can result in total

paralysis in a matter of hours.

Roosevelt was

probably the

most famous vic-

tim of polio. The

news media went

out of their way

to not show him

in a photo like

this and the pub-

lic’s image of him,

at the time, was

not this one.

How times have

changed!

The Roosevelt memorial has been criticized for showing him

with a large cape that obscures his condition.

Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” shows his neighbor, who had polio.

Today our image of polio is of

adults who had it back then.

Back then the public image was

of stricken children.

Cause was unknown

No treatment

Mostly children

Public hysteria, fueled by

fund raising ads and im-

ages

Small chance of getting

compared to other ill-

nesses, accidents, etc.

Although there was no treatment for polio

that would cure it, there was something that

would somewhat help the symptoms. Sister

Kenny was an iron-willed self-taught Aus-

trailian WWI nurse, shown at right. She basi-

cally invented the whole field of physical

therapy and that was her way of helping polio

victims. Body manipulation and exercise.

She got enormous resistance

from the medical establish-

ment. Their approach —

braces and crutches, turned out

to do more harm than good.

Although adults could get polio, the fund appeal was

based on emotional pitches about children. The money

raised was eventually channeled towards Salk’s research

labs. Sabin also was supported in his quest for a vaccine.

Entertainer Eddie Cantor coined the phrase “March of Dimes” on his

radio show. People were encouraged to send a dime to help fight polio.

The response was absolutely overwhelming. Posters were everywhere.

Some Inconvenient Facts

Polio occurs quite rarely compared to

other serious diseases or accidents.

Public hysteria was not based on facts.

Its media visibility was very much out of

proportion to its actual occurrence

Polio mainly hits children under age

of 3 (50% of all cases). Roosevelt was

not a typical case.

Of people who get polio only 1 in 200

experience paralysis, usually in the legs.

Very few ended up in an iron lung. 90%

have no symptoms at all.

Recent

US data

During the 1952 US polio epidemic (worst year ever), about 3,000

people died from it. A tiny blip on a chart like this, if it were for

1952. Today 40,000 people a year die in car crashes, 65,000 from

poison and about 80,000 from infectious diseases (not polio)

A Bizarre Situation

Polio becomes much more common when

primitive sanitation is replaced by improved

hygiene.

Constant exposure to the virus in

primitive environments results in natural

immunity. With better hygiene, expo-

sure is delayed and infrequent, and im-

munity is lost.

Much better hygiene still is then need-

ed to turn this around, so that exposure

becomes very rare.

Polio Hysteria

An interesting digression -

what was behind this exaggerated fear?

After the horrific war the country

wanted to live a safe, quiet, peace-

ful life with no strife.

In the early 1950’s the country felt that

there were scary threats to the hard-won

post-war stability and prosperity. UFOs

were sighted. Russia got the H-bomb, due

to spies here in our midst. Commies were

hiding under every bed. You did not

know who could be trusted anymore.

Disturbing elements were emerging in young people

Marlon Brando was in “The

Wild One” 1953 movie. The

media was full of fringe ele-

ments breaking the “rules” of

conventional society.

Your neighbor could be a secret commie.

Or, as in this TV show and movie, could be a

double agent— an undercover commie for

the FBI. These communist threats to society

were scary because of being so hidden.

Questioning someone’s patriotism

could ruin a career, as Nixon sleazily

did.

The iconic 1952 movie “High

Noon” was a veiled reference to

the idea that a truly courageous

individual would stand up to the

paranoid “Red Scare” hysteria,

and Joe McCarthy’s House Un-

American Activities Committee.

Several people associated with

the movie were then blacklisted.

This time—1952—when “High

Noon” was released coincided

with the peak of the polio fear

hysteria.

During the war many women had left home to help with the war

effort (Rosie the Riveter). They also ran the household in the ab-

sence of men. After the war society (i.e. men) tried to stuff women

back into the home and into confining roles where happiness was

supposed to come from cooking and appliances.

Rosie the Riveter did not like

being stuffed back into the lim-

ited possibilities of the home.

Women had helped win the war and now did not want to

lose that independence and sense of achievement outside of

the home.

The 1956 book “The Organization Man” docu-

mented the rigid conformity that was stifling ten-

sions within the home and within society. The

pressure cooker being held here can be viewed

as a metaphor for problems ahead.

The real threat to the

“American way of life” was

not secret communist cells,

the Russian H-bomb, UFOs,

or juvenile delinquents or

beatniks. It was the unex-

ploded bomb that was brew-

ing of women’s lib (and also

black civil rights). The

deeper tensions in society,

and within the home, over

that may have fueled the Red

Scare and the polio hysteria

of 1952, as psychological

displacements.

And now back to our story

Sabin and Salk didn’t

see eye to eye about

how to best make a

good polio vaccine. Sabin developed

a vaccine that

contains live, but

weakened polio

virus.

Salk’s vaccine used

dead polio virus.

Developing a new vaccine

was kind of like alchemy -

lots of trial and error instead

of systematic science.

American slaves in colonial

times knew about a type of

vaccination that was used by

witch doctors in Africa.

It is remarkable

that some ancient

witch doctor

practices are actu-

ally good medi-

cine and not just

mumbo-jumbo.

They would

scratch one’s skin

or make some

small cuts and rub

into it smallpox

oozings from a

sick person.

Puritan preacher Cotton

Mather (1663-1728), famous

for his role in the Salem

witch trials, had a theory of

why this smallpox treatment

worked. He thought that if

you breathe in the “humors”

surrounding a person sick

with smallpox it would go di-

rectly to your lungs and mid-

dle of your body. But if in-

troduced through a scratch in

your skin it gave your body

time to marshal its defenses.

Quite a clever man, ahead

of his time.

There was intense rivalry between Sabin, shown here, and Salk over

who would first develop a vaccine. Sabin dismissively called Salk “A

kitchen chemist”. Sabin’s oral vaccine with live weakened virus eventually

won out over Salk’s shot with dead polio virus. Sabin too was Jewish.

One person involved in this race to produce the first polio

vaccine said that the choice would be between the “young

Jew” (Salk) and the “smart Jew” (Rabin). Of the two Salk

was far and away more media savvy. Any time photogra-

phers came to his labs he would

put on a lab coat even though

he was not involved at all in the

day to day lab work. Salk also

bypassed medical journals to

announce results directly to the

press. These and other grand-

standing actions made Salk

quite unpopular with his scien-

tific colleagues.

I hope that no Jonas Salk

fans get too bent out of

shape over this, but facts

are facts.

Salk initially failed to

acknowledge the major

contributions to his vac-

cine by his close lab asso-

ciates, who did most of the

work and development.

This did not endear him

to other scientists, who

place a high value on

proper credit-giving.

Sometimes life presents some re-

ally tough choices. Because of in-

tense public fears the polio founda-

tions decided to go with Salk’s

vaccine instead of Sabin’s because

Salk’s was already ready. A huge

field trial was begun.

Salk’s vaccine was the first success but was not quite as effective as Sabin’s.

On the other hand Sabin’s vaccine had live polio virus and there were a few

tragic mistakes now and then, with both vaccines, like the Cutter Labs screwup,

where some people got polio or died from a bad batch of vaccine. Today the

few US polio cases each year are almost all caused by the polio vaccine itself.

There were other risks with both vaccines — about which more later.

Despite these problems the verdict was in—polio vaccine was judged safe for use

Soon everyone was

lining up to receive

the Salk vaccina-

tion shot. Later

the Sabin vaccine

turned out to be

easier to adminis-

ter in 3rd world

countries, since it

is taken orally.

Salk became an instant mega-celebrity

and he was given the (figurative) keys

to the city everywhere he went. He

said that he did not like this publicity

and just wanted to work in his lab.

On April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr., of the University of Michigan, the monitor of

the test results, "declared the vaccine to be safe and effective. By the time Thomas Francis

stepped down from the podium, 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. 'It was as if a war had ended', one observer recalled.

Within minutes of Francis's declaration that the vaccine was safe and effective, the news of

the event was carried coast to coast by wire services and radio and television newscasts. Ac-

cording to Debbie Bookchin, "across the nation there were spontaneous celebrations, . . busi-

ness came to a halt as the news spread. The mayor of New York City interrupted a city coun-

cil meeting to announce the news, adding, 'I think we are all quite proud that Dr. Salk is a

graduate of City College.'"[4]:

April 12th had almost become a national holiday: people observed moments of silence,

rang bells, honked horns, blew factory whistles, fired sa-

lutes, kept their red lights red in brief periods of tribute,

took the rest of the day off, closed their schools or convoked

fervid assemblies therein, drank toasts, hugged children, at-

tended church, smiled at strangers, and forgave enemies.

Salk would not accept the ticker tape parade that NYCity

was urging on him, nor would he patent his discovery.

There are probably some

older people today who can

remember where they were

and what they were doing

when they first heard this

exciting news.

The long awaited break-

through had finally arrived.

With the country ecstatic

over this emotional catharsis,

Jonas Salk was treated as

some sort of god.

Salk had hit a scien-

tific home run and the

nation was cheering.

Only later would it become clear that

there were a few Frankenstein aspects

to what he had created.

Now it’s time to pop some illusions about the polio vaccine.

We are all mature adults here, right? As hu-

manists we should be immune to hagiography.

We can handle the truth here, I hope. The

much touted success of the Salk and Sabin vac-

cines is not what it seems.

1952 was the peak of polio incidence in the US. Salk’s vaccine did

not come out until 1955. By then polio incidence was way down, before

the vaccine was introduced. Greater emphasis on public hygiene aware-

ness plus perhaps a natural evolution of the epidemic had polio incidence

rates only 1/3 or less by 1955, when the vaccine came out, than at the

peak in 1952. Furthermore, around 1955 the medical definition of polio

was changed to a more restrictive class, so that there was a sudden drop

in “polio” cases around the time the Salk vaccine was introduced—just

due to this medical redefinition of what polio was. The vaccine worked

but was not by any stretch the miracle the country believed.

Big polio incidence dropoff before Salk vaccine was introduced

In 1998, after 18 years of the use of

the Sabin vaccine, the federal govern-

ment advised that only the Salk vac-

cine be used from that point on. The

Sabin vaccine is now no longer avail-

able in the United States. One prob-

lem was that the Sabin vaccine is de-

veloped by weakening the polio virus

by passing it through many genera-

tions of monkey kidneys. It turns out

that in the process it picked up a mon-

key virus—Simian Virus 40—that can

cause cancer in humans. This was not

known about until long after the vac-

cine was being used.

Having monkey virus attached to the polio vaccine turns out to be a very bad

idea. Simian Virus 40 was first discovered in both the Sabin vaccine and the

Salk vaccine in 1961. The more general controversy today about other vac-

cines is not completely without merit. 98 million Americans were given polio

vaccine containing this carcinogenic monkey virus from 1955 to 1963. There

are real hazards with vaccinations produced using non-human tissue cultures.

In 1994 studies showed that

tissue samples from victims of

mesothelioma (previously

thought to be caused by asbes-

tos exposure) were loaded

with Simian V-40 monkey vi-

rus. It has definitely been es-

tablished now, by labs around

the world, as a causer of some

types of cancer in humans. 98

million Americans were given

polio vaccine containing that same monkey virus.

Mesothelioma samples from Finland and Turkey show no SV40 virus

and those countries never used polio vaccine contaminated with SV40

virus. Recent research suggests that SV40 is also liked to some bone

and brain cancers.

Inter-species contact is

best left to the jungle and

not deliberately fostered in

the laboratory, while inad-

vertently producing mon-

key virus contaminated

vaccines.

Fortunately, this led to

much greater awareness of

vaccine risks and tighter

standards and quality con-

trol.

Mistakes still happen. In

March, 2010 a team of re-

searchers found that a chil-

dren’s diarrhea vaccine con-

tained pieces of pig virus.

The F.D.A. was alerted.

They had no idea what the

effect of this might be. Af-

ter studying the situation for

2 months the F.D.A. decided

that it was O.K. to continue using this vaccine. Who

knows on what scientific basis that decision was

made? Any long term effects of the pig virus would

take much more than 2 months to show up. This kind

of story is not that uncommon.

Bad News The F.D.A and Cen-

ter for Disease Control had no

idea at all that the amount of

mercury being given in multi-

ple vaccine shots to a child far

exceeded the amount of mercu-

ry they were saying was dan-

gerous from eating fish or envi-

ronmental exposure. Then when

they did realize this they had no

idea what the effect would be

on a child. Tests had to be

done.

Good News after some

years of rigorous science

we now know that the

mercury preservative that

used to be used in vac-

cines does not cause au-

tism. The mercury is no

longer used and yet au-

tism rates have actually

increased since then. But

this could have just as

easily turned out the oth-

er way. Mercury is very

toxic and we are just for-

tunate that this link to au-

tism has been disproven.

Public belief in the safety of vaccines is vital to public acceptance of

being vaccinated. Drug companies and governments therefore usually

try to suppress, or deny any news of vaccine dangers. The feeling is that

some casualties are unavoidable to promote the greater good, so these

dangers need to be denied or suppressed. Here is an example of a bogus

rumor that destroyed a whole country’s willingness to be vaccinated for

polio. In 2003 rumors in Nigeria spread that western countries were usu-

ing polio vaccine for geno-

cide in Africa, particularly

of Muslims, and that the

vaccine spread AIDS and

reduced fertility. Nigerians

would only resume being

vaccinated if the vaccine

came from a Muslim coun-

try.

It doesn’t help that there are solid

facts to base very speculative ru-

mors on. A third type of polio vac-

cine (not due to Salk or Sabin), also

contaminated with some monkey

viruses, was used in a field trial in a

remote part of Africa in 1958 and

about 300,000 Congolese were vac-

cinated. Later genetic research showed that the AIDS virus

(closely associated with a type of monkey virus) first emerged into

the world in that same remote part of Africa just a few years later.

Coincidence? Most probably, but this is how urban legends pros-

per—piggyback riding on a veneer of facts. This can destroy pub-

lic trust in vaccines

There are often unin-

tended consequences of

creating vaccines.

It is a mistake to

think that we are in

good hands with the

F.D.A. or the Center

for Disease Control.

Of course people can look at the

same data and see it in different

ways.

Some will think that there are

unavoidable (but small) risks

with vaccination. Others will see

frequent incompetence and

sometimes a lack of solid sci-

ence.

Unfortunately high quality con-

trol is often incompatible with

affordable costs. Because of that

and lots of law suits, many drug

companies have gotten out of the

vaccine business.

Let’s take a break now from our

streak of exposing the hazards of vac-

cines and return to the life of Jonas

Salk and what he did after his polio

success.

Godzilla on a break

Of course Salk is

blameless in all of

this. Nobody knew,

back then, about the

monkey virus. But it

does illustrate the

“Law of Unintended

Consequences.”

Salk remains a

model of a humane

committed searcher

for ways to improve

the lot of humanity.

Some advances in public

health, like the invention of

the Heimlich Maneuver, do

not require much time or ef-

fort.

Salk, however, was a work

demon with very long hours

for many years in his quest.

Later in life Salk founded the Salk In-

stitute for medical research. He contin-

ued an active research there himself in a

search for other vaccines, like one for

AIDS. He also spoke out on larger is-

sues affecting humanity and wrote sev-

eral books on ethical themes.

Salk remarried. His 2nd

wife was the former wife

of Picasso (one of his mod-

els) shown in her youth on

the right here.

Salk Institute in La

Jolla, California.

Designed by famed

architect Louis Kahn.

Books by Jonas Salk -

Man Unfolding (1972)

Survival of the Wisest (1973)

World Population and Human Values: A

new Reality (1981)

Salk used his fame to promote, through many talks and

interviews, discussions about humanistic approaches to

world problems.

Salk wanted to put his

great fame to good use. He

saw it as an opportunity to

have a public forum for pro-

moting humanistic values.

Linking success with good

deeds is what is in the news

these days, like with Bill

Gates

and his

work in

Africa.

Salk thought a lot about

ways to promote world

peace and prosperity, from

his humanist perspective

Salk sought parallels between

the evolution of civilization and

the growth and evolution of cells

and organisms in biology, seek-

ing to use these parallels for in-

sights into the future of popula-

tion growth and other contempo-

rary challenges to human values.

After developing the polio vac-

cine, at a young age, he devoted

the rest of his life to further at-

tempts to improve the lot of hu-

mankind.