The Greatest Battle Against Polio

Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky

Polio is a disease that has existed for thousands of years. It is an infectious disease that leaves most of its victims permanently disabled. For generations, humans have had to live with the devastation of Polio. Worse, it had no cure. It ravaged every civilization and country without pity; wherever there were humans, Polio was present. It probably would have remained destructive except for America.

The campaign against Polio is a uniquely American story, as this book makes clear.

Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky

The author tells the story from numerous perspectives, covering the lives of the major individuals, the major breakthroughs, the public campaigns, and the individual lives that have been affected by Polio. You understand the war against this disease thoroughly at the end.

At the center of this story is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR. The American president who served four terms as president. He led America through the great depression, the Second World War and launched the massive campaign that ended Polio. FDR was a son of privilege; his family name Roosevelt was powerful in American politics. At the age of 39, FDR was diagnosed with Polio. He was a promising politician with the family name, the connection, and the money to be a big name in American politics, but Polio seemed to want to stop it. FDR was not to be easily stopped. It is credited to his perseverance that he refused to allow the disease to stop him. FDR found ways to overcome his disability. He was elected Governor and then subsequently president. Before all these, his experience with Polio had made him sensitive to the suffering of others with the same disease. He established an NGO that catered to people with Polio. When he became president, this NGO became a national effort called National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Under the leadership of a remarkable man, Basil O Conor, this organization was the national flag bearer of the war against Polio. Basil turned the campaign against Polio into a people's effort, requesting donations from Americans. The biggest effort was the March of Dimes. The idea is that everyone should donate a dime. This proved to be very successful. Money was raised; the foundation used part to care for polio victims and other parts to fund research into polio cure and vaccine. At one point, more than 80% of all polio patients in the United States received care from the foundation. This is nothing short of impressive.

The author does an excellent work of narrating how rivals, personal egos, and determination fueled this search for a vaccine. In 1955, the Salk polio vaccine was approved. There was a lot of drama with this vaccine. Professional and personal beefs were invoked. A few years later, the Sabin vaccine was also approved. Jonas Salk and Alfred Sabin are the ultimate examples of the rivalry between scientists for the polio vaccine. As you read the book, you will realize it was a battle that involved more people and was bigger than these two guys.

The website of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, “Polio was once one of the most feared diseases in the United States. Thanks to vaccination, wild poliovirus has been eliminated in this country.” All thanks to the men and women who led the massive effort that ended this disease. FDR's personality as president was used as a rallying point, Basil O Conor was the town crier, scientists worked in the laboratory, ordinary Americans donated their dimes, and finally, they conquered Polio.

From the US, this global vaccination effort spread to the rest of the world. Today, polio cases have reduced by 99% since 1988. And the instances still prevalent are not in Africa (I had to say this because even I thought that the cases would be in Africa); Africa was declared polio-free in 2020.

It is an inspiring story about the human race. It is a tale of how we can conquer nearly any problem. Together, humans can do incredible things.

I noticed that many of the figures in this book were Jewish; the world has not come to grasp how much it owes to Jews. I read a book, Genius And Anxiety: How Jews Changed The World 1847-1947, a beautiful book about Jewish figures that have influenced the world. You can’t look at the general map of history without noticing the footprints of Jews in so many fields, especially the ones that led the most transformative technologies and inventions in the past 200 years.

I cannot end without talking about the great “sacrifice” of the animals. Monkeys, rats, mice, cows, etc which were part of the scientific process towards developing the vaccine. More than 100,000 monkeys were used to arrive at a vaccine for Polio! Jonas Salk had a penchant for using monkeys more than others. We have arrived here at great cost.

One last thing before I drop my pen here, this book made me realize the level of stupidity that humans showed in the face of coronavirus. For the first time in human history, we faced a disease, and we weren’t completely clueless. We had the tools and weapons to diagnose and understand the disease within a few weeks, and within a few months, we developed a vaccine, and we could make sure every human could have access to the vaccine. What did we do? Our politics divided us, religion was harnessed to spread conspiracy theories, and very smart people went public to say something they should be ashamed of today. It was not just ordinary people doing this. The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, top Professors such as Jordan Peterson, were against Covid19 vaccines, and popular Youtuber Joe Rogan continued to attack vaccines and even healthcare workers. A lot of them ran on the alter of “science” or “efficacy”. When the first polio vaccine was widely approved, it had an efficacy of a little over 60% (Jonas Salk insisted it reached 90%), but people were enthusiastic about taking it. It was only years later that these polio vaccines would reach 90% efficacy. Covid19 vaccines have an efficacy rate of 95% (Pfizer), 94% (Moderna), and 70% (Astra Zeneca). It still baffles me that these conspiracy theories still hold on. Yuval Harari once said, “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity”. Yes, science depends on disagreement, facts, and arguments to see which way is better, but the majority of the debates during covid19, especially the vaccine, had none. We may have become more knowledgeable than those who lived in the 20th Century, but we haven’t conquered some basic human tendencies.

This is the sort of book you can't put down once you begin, I have warned you. This is storytelling of a scientific subject at its best.