Did you know?
On April 12, 1955, 10 years to the day after President Franklin D. Roosevelt died, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr. announced that test results on the new polio vaccine, proved that it was “safe and effective.”
Roosevelt had, himself, been diagnosed as having Paralytic poliomyelitis in 1921, when he was 39 years old.
?He was considered the most famous survivor of polio, despite the fact that medical scientists have claimed his debilitation was more consistent with the disease known as Guillain-Barré syndrome.
NOTE: Actors Donald Sutherland, Lionel Barrymore, Mia Farrow and Alan Alda; singers Dinah Shore, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young; musician David Sanborn; director Francis Ford Coppola and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas each overcame their disabilities caused by polio.
Yet, it was Roosevelt who spearheaded the fight against polio, by helping to found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis — which is now known as the March of Dimes.
Having a wheelchair-bound president in the White House as a constant reminder of a scourge that had affected hundreds of thousands of families across the world was considered an important aspect of the search for a cure that ended in April of 1955.
I’ve looked back at Fayette County during that period before, but today I’m taking a longer look.
April 1st — The month begins with frivolity. On the front page of the Uniontown Evening Standard, there are some April Fool’s Day items about President Eisenhower no longer tolerating being called “Ike.”
Also, J. Watson Sembower, Uniontown’s mayor, had grown tired of growing roses. He was just going to “raise cain.”
On page six, young Harry Haught, Jr., of Belmont Circle, was “picked as one of the most popular boys, one of the handsomest, and the best dressed,” by his classmates at South Union School.
But on the same page there was some very serious news.
The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis wanted to have the Salk vaccine (which was still not licensed) delivered using mass distribution methods — free of charge.
April 4th — “State Plans Ready for Polio Vaccine” was the large front page headline in the Evening Standard.
The inoculations would be given to 465,000 first and second grade students.
April 5th — “Winston Churchill Resigns,” was the big news that day.
After nine years of leading Great Britain during war and peace, the local “O.K.” section on the front page claimed, “Sir Winston is one of the true giants of our times … and one the most fascinating men who ever lived.”
April 6th — “Parents Rush to Approve Polio Vaccine,” said the headline for a story about the 100 percent approval by parents who’d been sent request forms that would allow their children (students from the county’s 17 schools) to receive the Salk vaccine.
April 7th — A large picture of 75 “Schoolboy Patrolmen” appeared on the front page of the Evening Standard.
They were selling window stickers in an effort to earn enough money for their annual trip to Washington, D.C.
April 11th — “Answer Tomorrow on the Polio Vaccine,” was the front page headline about the “high optimism” that was expected when the results of the Salk vaccine tests would be released the following day.
But that story shared the front page with a big local story: “2 Escape, one Recaptured in County Jail Break Here,” was a story about a 16 and 17 year-old who attempted to escape from Fayette County Jail.
The 16 year-old was caught immediately, while the 17 year-old scaled a 30 foot gate and got away.
Inside that edition was an extensive profile of the man who would gain worldwide fame the following day — Jonas Salk.
Salk, had developed his vaccine while working at the University of Pittsburgh, but he admitted that when he entered the City College of New York at the age of 17, he hadn’t taken a single course in science in high school. In short, he didn’t know anything about it.
April 12th — Both of the teenagers who attempted to escape the Fayette County Jail were back behind bars.
But that story was no longer as important as the one that had the headline, “Salk Vaccine Gets Approval.”
As expected, the vaccine showed extremely promising effectiveness. Of the 1.8 million children given the test vaccine, only 1,013 cases of polio developed.
Licensing was to be given by the National Institutes of Health with 48 hours.
April 13th — It was reported that 8,000 Fayette County first and second grade students would be given the first shots — and within days.
April 14th — It was announced that 470,000 of Pennsylvania’s children, including 400 in Uniontown’s public schools would be given the vaccine.
April 18th — While Salk was on the verge of becoming a history making medical scientist, it was reported that a scientific icon — Albert Einstein — had died in Princeton, New Jersey at the age of 76.
April 19th — Uniontown newspaper legend — Walter “Buzz” Storey — wrote on the editorial page, “Nothing has captured the public imagination in years like the discovery and “proving out” of the Salk polio vaccine.”
April 25th — “First Anti Polio “Shots” Given to City School Children Today,” was the headline for one of the most important stories in the city’s history that day. It was one that signaled the beginning of the end of a disease that had spread its terror around the world.
Young Robert Rafail of Crow Avenue was pictured getting his first (of three) polio shots from Dr. J.E. VanGilder at Gallatin Elementary School.
The last recorded case of “naturally occurring paralytic poliomyelitis” (polio occurring through natural infection) in this country was in 1979.