Exploration
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Salk grew up knowing he had to make a difference in the world. Without having many options, Salk found ways to explore different/new ways of doing things, exchange ideas, and encounter success, as well as problems. With the number of cases of polio rising, Salk was on a mission to complete the development of a vaccine to help save lives. Salk was also going against what many people thought was right.
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Jonas Salk, Charles Dail, Basil O'Connor, 1961
March of Dimes polioplace.org
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Encounter
Children That Received the Vaccine, 1954
history.com
One of the major issues Salk encountered was funding while creating the vaccine. This issue was partly resolved by the March of Dimes organization. In addition, Salk's approach towards solving the polio crisis was unlike the rest, in which he encountered another complication. Salk and other senior scientists had a disagreement about the live and dead factors of the vaccine. His ideas being disapproved "were like being kicked in the teeth," stated Salk. It wasn't until he was able to prove that the vaccine was 90% effective that he talked with other researchers (outside his own team). All of these drawbacks were set behind him after the hard work paid off and encountered success.
 Charlotte Jacobs charlottejacobs.net
"He believed he could make a vaccine with an inactivated or killed virus which could impart immunity while being completely safe. But Salk disliked confrontation, and so he kept these thoughts to himself." - Charlotte Jacobs, Author of Jonas Salk a Life |
Exchange
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After his successful mass trial, Salk exchanged his results and ideas with the public. A couple of months prior to the development of the vaccine, thousands of children were lined up to get their polio shot-for free. Salk didn't care for the media's attention. He was just grateful that he was able to make a difference.
"It was not unlike the ending of a war, if you like. People often say they remember two things. They remember the polio episode and they remember Jack Kennedy's assassination. That is how these two things associate in the minds of people. That was the mood of the country and the world at the time." |
Jonas Salk
libraries.ucsd.edu
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