The Future Strength of America Depends on the Success of the Vaccines

Dr. Jonas Edward Salk was born October 28, 1914, in New York City to Russian and Jewish immigrants. He worked under a microbiologist named Thomas Francis Jr., who was attempting to create a flu vaccine which was later used successfully in World War II. In 1947, the University of Pittsburgh recruited him to work specifically on viruses and ultimately on the polio virus. By 1952, his research had paid off; he started testing a killed virus vaccine.