Linda Elovitz Marshall’s picture book biography Polio Pioneer: Dr. Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine is especially interesting to read, for both children and their adults, as we reflect on the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been widespread outbreaks of disease throughout history—in our country and other parts of the world—and scientists have worked to discover ways to prevent them. In the wake of the flu epidemic which killed many people in 1918, Dr. Jonas Salk was one of the doctors focusing on how to produce a vaccine that would protect people from the flu. He and Dr. Thomas Francis figured out a way: “..using inactivated flu viruses, they made a vaccine to give people’s bodies a safe ‘practice’ run.” Today’s grandparents may remember the 1950s when the disease called polio killed or disabled many people (particularly children), causing fear and requiring enormous public precautions to be taken to prevent its spread. Jonas Salk was determined to find a vaccine to prevent the devastating disease. Examining different kinds of polio viruses, he and his team used inactive viruses to make an effective vaccine, testing it in multiple ways. It worked, and the polio vaccine became part of standard medical care, greatly diminishing the threat of the disease. Dr. Salk continued working to fight devastating illnesses, founding the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in California. Today, medical specialists continue to strive there to discover cures to many diseases—including cancer, Alzheimers and diabetes. In Polio Pioneer: Dr. Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine, engaging illustrations by Lisa Anchin invite readers to meet Jonas Salk as a perceptive, cerebral youngster, following him through medical school to the founding of the Salk Institute. In the process, readers get a glimpse of the scientific process and the impact a person’s determination can have on our world. Ages 5-9. A
Further information about Jonas Salk and the Salk Institute can be found here.
