Polio Place

Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in History, this definitive analysis of the battle against polio is set against the social, cultural and medical backdrop of America during the 1940s and '50s. David Oshinsky centers on the fierce rivalry between Salk and Sabin in their race to discover the first successful vaccine. The cast of characters includes FDR as the high-profile and determined champion who revolutionized fundraising featuring the "poster children" that brought the Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the March of Dimes front and center as a solution to a problem threatening the nation's population. Unsung heroes are also noted, such as Isabel Morgan, perhaps the most talented of all polio researchers who might have beaten Salk to the prize if she had not retired to raise a family. Using information from newly found papers of Salk and Sabin, the author outlines the ethical dimensions of human testing and the massive inoculation program that reached 1.3 million school children in the 1954 Salk vaccine trials. Most currently, the author addresses the World Health Organization's hope for polio's eradication world-wide.