Jonas Salk

By in Leadership

“What is … important is that we – number one: Learn to live with each other. Number two: try to bring out the best in each other. The best from the best, and the best from those who, perhaps, might not have the same endowment. And so this bespeaks and entirely different philosophy – a different way of life – a different kind of relationship – where the object is not to put down the other, but to raise up the other.” – Jonas Salk, M.D. (1914-1995)

 

Jonas Salk:

Born: October 28, 1914 in New York City, New York
Died: June 23, 1995 in La Jolla, California
Occupation: Medical researcher/virologist 
Known for: creating the 1st successful Polio vaccine

 

Jonas Salk is a world renowned medical researcher who discovered the vaccine for poliomyelitis, or polio.  However, his name is not as commonly known to the younger generation because of the efforts that nearly eradicated polio in the United States.  We are not familiar with the devastating effects of polio and the fear that it caused to many Americans during the summer.  Salk is not known as being a leader, but his personal traits can be connected to essential leadership skills.  He does, like any other inspirational figure, have some criticisms as well.  As a leader in the development of the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk exemplified confidence, perseverance, and openness, which eventually led him and his team to create the solution to polio.

 

For more information on Jonas Salk, see his interview on May 16, 1991.

 

Major Accomplishments:

Killed-Virus Influenza Vaccine

Influenza is not a deadly disease in today’s standards, but back then, 22 million at the very least died worldwide and 550,000 people died at a minimum in the United States.  Salk received an offer to conduct research in Thomas Francis’s lab and to teach a course in epidemiology at the University of Michigan, but declined the offer because of his intended devotion to serve the military during World War II.  However, Thomas Francis, who will become Jonas Salk’s onetime mentor and collaborator, persuaded Salk to work with him in creating a vaccine for influenza.

In October of 1918 alone, about 20% of the American army contracted influenza, and ultimately killed 44,000 soldiers.  The U.S. army did not want to face such a problem in the new war, so they appointed Francis in charge of developing a vaccine.  Francis had one seat remaining on his staff, and wanted Salk to join him fight alongside the Allies by saving hundreds of thousands of lives.  Salk had originally wanted to become a researcher to fight illness directly and to develop ways to prevent people from getting sick in the first place.  The idea of creating a vaccine for the army appealed to him much more than becoming a single doctor tending single patients.

Salk played a major role in the development of the influenza vaccine.  One of the first steps in creating a vaccine is to figure out a way to collect enough concentrated flu virus to process down into a vaccine.  This was a difficult task because viruses are a lot smaller and lighter, so the process of centrifuging took a lot more time and cultivated much less than what is needed to create a vaccine.  However, Salk figured out a way around this and, after countless trials, developed one variation that worked.

Contrary to what most vaccines contained, Salk wanted to create a vaccine that used stone-dead viruses.  Usually, vaccines contain weakened viruses that would trigger the creation of antibodies without causing the disease.  However, the live-vaccine has a possibility of developing the disease itself.  On the other hand, there is no such risk if  a killed-virus vaccine is used because the virus is dead to begin with.

Salk went on experimenting with different variations of formalin, dilutions, temperatures, and times of exposure to create a mixture that consistently and completely killed the viral cultures.  Then, he began picking the right dead cultures to use in trial vaccines.  Finally, in the fall of 1943, Salk and Francis had completed one that protected mice from influenza infection, and received positive results from human testing.  Two months later in a massive field study, 12,500 students on nine college campuses were inoculated with the flu vaccine, and another 12,500 with an inert saline solution.  The results were astounding; three and a half times as many people who had received the saline got sick as those who had gotten the real vaccine.  The 350% difference was clear proof that the flu could be prevented with Salk and Francis’s vaccine.  The greater implication of this success was that the principle of the killed-virus vaccine worked.  Immunity to viral diseases did not need a live-virus.

 

Salk Vaccine

Poliomyelitis in the United States, 1940-65. By Burnet, M & White, D, 1972.

Poliomyelitis in the United States, 1940-65. By Burnet, M & White, D, 1972.

Poliomyelitis was and is a terribly feared viral disease that at first seems like a cold, but in reality attacks the nervous system and causes paralysis of the limbs, usually the legs.  In worse cases, the poliovirus can reach the medulla and halt the breathing of the victim, leaving them to die.  Also known as infantile paralysis, polio was one of the most feared diseases in the United States in the twentieth century.  Often times, the virus attacks children less than five-years of age, but it can take the mobility of virtually anyone including President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he was 39 years-old.  The poliovirus resided in the warm summers and subsided as the temperature dropped, and in direct correlation, people’s anxiety rose with the approach of summer and fell as autumn came.  Poliomyelitis has been rumored to be around for as long as 3,500 years as suggested by an ancient stone tablet of a young Egyptian man with a dropped foot, a shriveled leg, and a walking stick.  This deadly ancient disease affected 55,000 children in 1952 alone in the United States.  A solution was desperately needed, and Jonas Salk answered the call.

 

 

Available for All

Salk insisted that the vaccine not be patented, making it available to virtually anyone in the world.  As a result, he missed out on earning an estimated US$7 billion. When asked by Edward R. Murrow, “Who owns the patent on this vaccine?” Jonas Salk simply said,

“Well, the people, I would say.  There is no patent.  Could you patent the sun?”
Salk receiving Gold Medal from Eisenhower, Jane S. Smith, 1956.

Salk receiving Gold Medal from Eisenhower, Jane S. Smith, 1956.

Thanks to his unselfish obligation to help others, he worked unless hours developing the Salk vaccine with no significant monetary compensation.

However, Jonas Salk received widespread recognition for his work in forms of awards such as the Medal of Freedom and the Gold Medal.

 

 

Salk Institute

Reviewing plans for Salk Institute, Academy of Achievement.

Reviewing plans for Salk Institute, Academy of Achievement.

The Salk Institute of Biological Studies in La Jolla, California was established in 1963 by Jonas Salk.  He worked closely with the development of the institution in hopes of creating an environment where biologists and others could work together and consider the wider implications of their discoveries for the future of humanity.  Today, the institute employs a full-time faculty of 56 and a scientific staff of 850 and serves as a learning and research center for more than 500 undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students.  Over the years the institute has trained five Nobel Prize winners, and seven Nobel laureates are currently either on the faculty or working as nonresident fellows.  Salk dreamed of building an ideal place for researchers to work together for the sake of all people; an innovative center for medical and scientific research.  He continued conducting research on improving his polio vaccine, studying multiple sclerosis, and developing a vaccine against AIDS in the 1980’s.  He also published books such as Man Unfolding (1972), The Survival of the Wisest (1973), World Population and Human Values: A New Reality (1981), and Anatomy of Reality (1983).  Salk’s work was never done and continued to ask,

“What should I be doing next?”

 

Leadership Lessons:

Confidence and Perseverance

Jonas Salk and his research team at the Virus Research Laboratory of the University of Pittsburgh, from Academy of Achievement.

Jonas Salk and his research team at the Virus Research Laboratory of the University of Pittsburgh, from Academy of Achievement.

Although Jonas Salk is not commonly known as a leader, he was a leader in the development of the polio vaccine.  Despite many people doubting his method of creating the vaccine, which included the use of a weakened live virus, Salk continued to believe in his methods and followed through with his plans.  Salk also knew the importance of working with others.  As mentioned in the quote in the beginning, it is important to “bring out the best in each other.”  He believed that in relationship with others, “the object is not to put down the other, but to raise up the other.”  Even when he was criticized, Salk remained calm and never showed his anger.

 

Criticism:

Jonas Salk was criticized for many things such as the ethics of his testing methods and giving credit to his fellow researchers. The field trials of the Salk vaccine proved to be successful, but Walter Winchell as well as other Americans were nervous because of the new vaccine.  As Winchell reported, “In a few moments I will report on a new polio vaccine – it may be a killer.”  Opponents such a Albert Saber wanted the inoculation of the Salk vaccine to be postponed until a safer preparation could be perfected.  However, the demand for a polio vaccine was so great that the field trial was conducted anyways.  Although the inoculation of the Salk vaccine may have a success,  it could have had detrimental effects.

 

Relevance:

Jonas Salk is an excellent example of someone who aided the struggles for a better world.  He helped others achieve the “American Dream” by saving the lives of many children.  He acted as the hope for all Americans in developing the vaccine for polio and brought them together through the collective effort of the March of Dimes, which funded the creation of the vaccine.  In Wagner College Professor Lori Weintrob’s “Leadership in the Face of Conflict” class, the main focus is on identifying exemplary models of leadership.

Salk himself also exemplifies the American Dream.  His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants who lacked formal education.  Like many other immigrant families, Salk’s parents were determined for their children to succeed and encouraged them to study hard.  As a result, Jonas Salk was the first member of his family to go to college.  Although he came from an immigrant family, he was able to rise to the top, ultimately becoming the savior of billions of children from polio.

 


 

About the Author:

Merrysha Castillo is a freshman at Wagner College, class of 2017, majoring in Biopsychology with a focus on Pre-Med.  She is the Vice-President of Sustainability for Wagner Cares, on the Honors Student Council, and a member of Pre-Health Society, Project Sunshine, Philosophy Café, and Psychology Club.  She plays the alto saxophone in the Jazz Ensemble at Wagner and the Hawaii Jazz’n Youth Exchange Big Band.  Merrysha has traveled around the world and has lived throughout the United States all her life, which gives her exposure to a wide range of cultural diversity.  Because of her interest in the sciences and aspiration to become a doctor, she decided to research Jonas Salk for the final project.  Although leaders are often seen in the fields of business or social justice, she has learned that they can be found in virtually any field, including science.

 


 

Bibliography

Academy of Achievement. “Jonas Salk, M.D.” Last modified May 16, 1991. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/sal0int-1.

Brookfield, Stephen D., and Stephen Preskill. Learning as a Way of Leading: Lessons from the Struggle for Social Justice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009.

Dawson, Liza. “The Salk Polio Vaccine Trial of 1954: risks, randomization and public involvement in research.” Clinical Trials (London, England) 1, no. 1 (February 2004): 122-130. MEDLINE, EBSCOhost (accessed October 23, 2013).

Kluger, Jeffrey. Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio. New York: Penguin Group, 2004.

Oshinsky, David M.  Polio: An American Story. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Pallansch, Mark. “Vanquishing the Terror of Poliomyelitis.” Science308, no. 5729 (June 17, 2005): 1744-1745. Academic Search Premier, EBSCO host (accessed October 22, 2013).

Wilson, Daniel J.  Living with Polio: The Epidemic and its Survivors. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005

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