Colonial america, famine suffered by the donner party en route to california, irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine to create new lives in this country, disaster tourism, the johnstown flood of 1889, the impact of the fire in new york city, and disaster art that emerged from the 1930s dust bowl. So, today, we are discussing davids Pulitzer Prize winner book, polio an american story. You all received questions that i posted and im really interested in the topic because i also teach a seminar on the 1950s and of course thats when this takes place and i think just looking at polio, really, so many different issues that affected that decade. Before starting, though, i just want to mention one thing in light of what we were talking about in terms of dust bowl art. I was reading the new york review of poobooks and there is review of a novel that Woody Guthrie wrote, a novel called house of earth. Doesnt get a very good review. But obviously, he gets some attention. And youll be pleased to know that the introduction was by a historian names Douglas Brinkley and johnny depp, so i think theyre trying to sell copies but having a super star on the cover. Okay, i divided the discussion today into four sort of major themes. We cant cover all of the book but i thought the most interesting thing was looking at philanthropy, the research, scientists and their various personalities, which are interesting. Also the ethical issues. So, with that, lets start with the way we always do when looking at anything we have to read, and that is, first of all, who is david . A professor at the university of texas at austin and a distinguished scholar in residence at nyu. Okay. So, fairly reputable, we would say. Probably knows what hes talking about. I saw that he won the cartwright award, reputable. I saw that he won the cartwright prize from Columbia University Medical Center in 2010 and that was for his research into the history of polio. So that deftly adds some credibility. He also won the Pulitzer Prize award in 2006. Yes, winning a pulitzer is substantial. What did you think of his writing . His scholarship . His research . I was impressed by his thoroughne nesness researching scientists, the politicians, and the foundation. There is a lot, he went as far as he could. When we talk to robert cario who it took him even years to write his book. Very indepth and really a nice variety of people he interviewed. I thought it was a good balance between information and story. I found it very readable. I thought it would take me a long time but i found myself getting into it and i thought it was easy to read and interesting. I think he did a zood job of making it accessible. I think this is a gate interesting story. I think also he did a good job describing the historical part of it. There is also politics of each point. Not only a political aspect, but the politics of science which was an interesting point of you for us to read. Did he sderch the prize . Should we vote . I think thumbs up, right . So obviously a man of some repute and the first recorded outbreak of polio was in vermont in 1894. 123 people caught polio. Another outbrake in 1907 and another major in 1916 that occurred in pig town in brooklyn new york. Some 6,000 people dies from that outbreak. He has an interesting comment or thought to make about why these epidemics suddenly broke out. Why it is in the late 19th and then in the early 20th century. Suddenly we see these so many more people affected by this disease. And what is he saying. How does he tie in the determine theory of disease with his comments about the polio epidemic . He describes its as the age of cleanliness. America became so preoccupied with hygiene, sanitation, and cleaning up the cities. And the youth were not as explode exposed to micro organisms and they were more likely to be infected. And carry that forward, what does that mean in terms of children not being explodes to determines. He said when he got polio as a child it was a lesser dose, it was not as effective. When youre old ter can be stronger, like chicken pox. And particularly when youre really young you have mothers antibodies to withstand the impact of those diseases. Suddenly everyone is washing hands, cleaning clothes, i dont think it is an argument for not washing hands, but it made people more susceptible to polio. So americans were in a panic. What had not been through diseases like this before. I think one factor is that it was primarily children that got it and it wasnt they saw no reason for why it wasnt just children, it was children all across the board, maybe even more so in rich and clean areas. And there was no cause. So this would be like those living if phfilthy conditions. There is was no issue. It hit Young Children. It was called infantile paralysis. It hit children between the anyones of one and three. Here it is affecting innocent children. What else was different about this disease . I think it just lettered very quickly. A couple hours later or a day later they got that disease. And they recently came out with an antibiotic of pen sillen. Penicillin did no good. In some of the later cases it said it could wipe out the entire fame. Totally terrifying. You can just imagine it a child succumbing to this disease. No one knew how to cure it. What was the initial response if someone got polio, how did people react . What did they do initially . What did they do with they were quarantined and they shut down public spaces. Rightly so. They understood it was contagious. I can tell you stories of friends of mine, at least, that remember in childhood when they could not go to the local public womening pull swimming pool. No one could conceive of a federal government supporting medical research. We didnt have National Institute of health. Head kal research, if it had to be funded by individuals or foundations, but it was not generating a response. If you really wanted a good medical education, you went abroad. He had millions, what is hoe going to do with his money. This, of course, is the rockerfe rockerfe rockerfeller institute. So this was new. This was very exciting. And the director of a man that was appointed director of this institute was a man named simon flexler. Did yo get any sense of his personality . Of the man with his institute. Yes, okay, headstrong. And it was like polio was his thing. Te is like one way for the polio research. He ran this institute with an ire fist in the way. This institute took on many, many diseases. They really put polio on the map. They gained a lot more attention. That was frankly roosevelt coming down with polio. He is not an infant. He is a very good, how does oshinsky explain how someone like roosevelt got polio. What happened in his past or recently to him to explain this . He says he was extremely vulnerable because as a child he didnt have many illnesses and as he was growing up he became very active. He was traveling the world, and he also became exhausted and stressed with the amount of work, and his immune system was down. And he was orlando a lot of other people that he could have contracted the disease from. Anyone know about his childhood . Wealthy, so he was celebrated from main stream population that meant that he didnt contract common childhood businesses that wou diseases that would have boosted his immune system. His mother was very controlling, she made sure he was proekted from everybody, and she was something. That was just exactly what was not food for a child. Not having normal exposure. This was a unique dmild this privileged privileged child in this upbringing. He was kaexhausted. Where has he been . The boyscouts convention . A boy scout meeting the day before, that is probably where he contracted polio, what else . He had n been in washington dc. Going through these con if he thinks, so getting exhausted. Were you going to Say Something . Yeah, it was the navy scan l scandal. I dont know if he fell off of a boat or went swimming. He went into really cold water, it is frigid, and he stayed in his bathing suit. He got chilled and it interfered with his immune system. Suddenly we have he woke up and he was paralyzed. And from that point forward he never walked alone. He wore braces. He was breektlyfrequently assis people. He was typically always sitting. He was often in pain. His mother felt the best path would be to come home to hyde park, she would take care of him, but his wife convinced him otherwise. She felt the best thing was for him to reenter public life to try to get back to some kind of normal life if at all possible. And fortunately, of course, that is what he did. Its amazing how many people in this country never realized that roosevelt was was handicap. I have had students do oral histories of people who lived in the 1930s and 40s, and theyre like no, he wasnt paralyzed, they really did not know so e he was determined not to make a big deal of this. Not to become a sympathetic character, and there was a stigma mad being handicap. Youre not, in a sense, a whole person. He didnt want people to know and he did a great job of really hiding this fact. So he returned to a normal life. He partnered with a young man named basil o connor. And the roosevelt heard about this seedy spa down called warm springs, georgia. The waters bubble up and there are minerals in the water and its warm and wonderful. Did any of you see the movie called warm springs . Okay. It was a good movie. He, roosevelt travelled there, and he got into the waters, and this was just enter. It was sooting, it was exactly what he needed. So he spent like two thirds of inheritance buying this property. This is what he needed and other Polio Victims needed the same. So he formed the warm springs foundation. And he built his own cottage, and every summer he would spend weeks there just enjoying these wonderful warm mineral waters. In 1928 life changed again. Roosevelt was asked to be a Vice President ial candidate. So after soul searching, he agreed. They didnt win that, in fact it was pretty cataclysmic outcome. Herbert hoover won, as we know, but roosevelt became government of new york. Well in 1932, of course, Democratic Party decided that roosevelt would be the perfect candidate to run against herbert hoover. Roosevelt ran an incredible upbeat campaign. His song was happy days are here again. And of course he won the presidency and took office in 1933. Now many, now a number of scholars have looked at roosevelt and his character and found that pohl owe had an incredible impact. What did you get out of oshinsky in terms of what polio did for roosevelt as a man. Did it have a positive impact . A negative exact . I think there was a stigma that he realized if he could go in and be such a fundamental challenge that other people that were down and outside out could be the same thing. I didnt really agree that he hid it, but proved that just because you have a physical handicap doesnt mean you can go on to do impressive things. And people would praise this man. Before he had polio, he was called a lightweight, you know . I would not say a playboy, but he was not regarded as a man of great substance. Just a realitiy man who had every privilege in life, but he feels like the polio had a big impact on him. He went through this oshl situation of having to live through this horrible disease, and he emerged, what would you imagine he would emerge with. Here millions of people are suffering economically. How might that affect him as a person . I this it might make him more empathetic. He was able to empathize with feels less than and inferior to people around you. I think it also gave him an inner drive to success. And that just because he was physically handicap didnt mean he wasnt an effective leader. Yes, i think that was very important, the idea that he could overcome this and that it would not cause him to not do his best in any respect. He was going to become a great president despite the disease. And empathy. You know . That was a huge issue. When he ran against herbert hoover, he seemed to be a man that had no question with people who were suffering. And he really suffered physically and he could identify with whatever problem someone was suffering. All right, so obviously roosevelt being in albany as governor of new york, then occupying the white house, suddenly he is extremely busy. And he has no time to really Pay Attention to his foundation down in warm springs. So he appoints Basil Oconnor to take care of it. And the first fund raiding events were what . That used roosevelt effectively. The Birthday Balls . Yeah. Right. What was a Birthday Ball . Wasnt it just a big party or fundraiser basically on his birthday and they would drive in a bunch of not dimes yet. Still into the fancy balls. Just u you have fancy balls, and they are all across the coin try country. And why might people begin to think this is not a good hour. Okay, he is the president , so he is a political party. So you have the political issue, and what message does this deliver . This Birthday Balls. If youre in the heart of the sbregs, how might you the way i look at it is it is not very inviting to the lower class. To say the least, yeah. Definitely some class variances there. Very, very strong issues. So these Birthday Balls are for the elite, people are celebrating, getting dressed up, and there is the democratic president. They created a foundation for the National Foundation for infantile paralysis. It was basil again that took charge of this new foundation. This is when celebrities started to be drawn to this cause. He was a major radio personality and he was the one that coined the afraid march of dimes. There was newsreels before movies and it was call march of times. So it was a new approach. Now what happened . How did this foundation really transform philanthropy in this country. They made it so it was not just the wealthy that could want contribute. Even if you were poor you could send in a couple dimes. It involved the whole country. Yeah, everybody, okay . There is literally the march of dime. Send in your dimes. We dont need a 1,000, and they were inundated. Piles and piles and piles of dimes came in from people who found this really, really appealing. They could do their part, there was radio announcements about the importance of the march of dimes. There was collections in movie theaters. I guess people were now going to the movies. I cant quite figure that out, but they said that the foundation raised about 40 of its contributions in movie theaters. There would be a collection and they would put a dime or quarter in the buckets. If grow to a broadway show in november, in new york city ci, y have this plead for aids research. The actors stand in the lobby and ask you to contribute. The same kind of thing still goes on today far different purpose into what did this do . What did this fundraising do for people in america . How would you feel about it . I think it brought together the nation, it was not just a few people contributes to a cau contributing to a cause. It was a whole nation coming together to fight against polio. And people probably didnt know, didnt have televisions and didnt have no televisions, right. And they didnt have the ability to see newscasts and stuff like that. So it got out the whole notion that polio was there and it was killing a lot of people in the United States. Yeah, this is so new. Draw everybody together. Everybody is invested in this fundraising event. You know . This is your disease, this is what you contribute to. It raeched a class of people that had not even been asked to fundraise before. There is like a little piece oaf cardboard where you put your dimes, so we were all we all had to fill in this little piece of card board. They will hand it into the foundation in some way. So this was huge way to raise money. Then there was the annual Fashion Shows. And while there is this outreach to the people of there was still some events that certainly had a class issue about it. And the Fashion Shows were apparently just amazing. They wow draw all of the hollywood starlets. Harry winston would donate his jewelry for them. So this was incredibly effective. And there was one more aspect that had to do with mothers of america. And who was that. There is a lights on campaign so everyone for one night left their porch lights on and the mothers would go collect change from them and they could focus, everyone knew one night were going out to collect money. It was like a volunteering mother arm. And you would collect money. People would turn on a money. You put out a pair of shoes, please knock, please ring the doorbell. Nothing like this has happened by. I just wanted to mention this briefly. That outbreak in hickory, north carolina, in 1944. A foundation reacted so quickly. There was a outbreak of polio. The foundation moved in with nurses, with doctors, they took over a summer camp. There was very few people who died. This response was really effective. Major change in 1945. Roosevelt died in april of 1945. So that caused a huge change. Movie theaters stopped collecting for polio. Now they decided that the money they collected would go to the united way. Which is a community and polio cases are on the ride. As yet there is no vaccine to off set this. So on to the scientists and on to the medical research. Wondering if you found some of the behavior of these scientists as shocking as i did. Are we dealing with Young Children . Or are we dealing with grown men . I know, oshinsky does a good job getting into the heart of this. So there is an effort by many researchers to fend an effective virus to off set the horrible disease. And three things had to be discovered about polio before any researcher could engage in effective research. What were those three things. They were how many strains or types of the virus there were, how it got to the body and the Central Nervous system, and how to develop a supply of the vaccine for each type. So they had to start typing the strains, and what did they find . Only three strains, rather than 300. They were able to determine just three polio strains. So the point of origin, what had people long believed about how polio entered the body . Do you remember what . That it entered through the nose yeah, simon flexler absolutely knew. No one challenged him. But researchers started to study this and discovered what . That it comes through the mouth. The point of entry is through the mouth, the die digestive track. And the man who discovered this is a man named john enders. Excuse me, two assistants, who went on to win the noble prize for medicine in 1954. All right. So we have the foundation beginning to feel a real sense of urgency. Theyre raising all of this money. People are vested in this disease. It is the number one menace in america even though the death rate was not as high for polio as it was for other things. When you start getting people so involved in this disease, you know, pretty soon and giving their money, youre going to expect results. So the two major scientists involved in this research, and of course theyre not the only ones. But they are really the two on whom oshinsky concentrates his book. Jonas salk. What do you know about him . He had meager beginnings, but through a series of apprenticeships managed to become a star in the field of medical research. What was his education . Being a poor immigrant, jewish, went to wasnt it the city college . Yeah, city college of new york. Practically free, and then to nyu which admitted jews. Which in this period was often not true of other medical schools. So he graduated, he married, he worked at mount sinai. He went to the university of mis michigan and there he worked on finding a vaccine to deal with polio. The School Received a lot of grants, but salk had a falling out with his mentor because he became, while he was doing this research at this school, he became a consultant to a drug company. And of course there is a direct conflict of interest in doing that. His mentor would really astonished that he did this. And also even at this young age, salk wanted recognition, you know . He really wanted to be sure that everybody knew how important he was and how important the research was that he was doing. So in 1947, he left the university of michigan and he went to the university of pittsburgh. No one thought much of the university of peittsburgh, but the school was trying to change and it really saw somebody that could put this medical school on the map. So off he went to this sort of place that certainly didnt have the prestige, say of somewhere else. That is one side of the race. The other side is albert sabin. And who he is . Similar story . Different story . He is a russian immigrant that was jewish, so they had a similar background and he also was more established. Yeah, he was pfrom poland. He got a decent education, and he was interested in polio when he was fairly young. He was a privileged scientist to be at rockefeller. He went to the university of cincinna cincinnati, but he saw opportunities to do the kind of work that he wanted. So in looking at these two scientists, what did you what sense did you get what role did you think the foundation played in funding these men and in creating a situation that sort of exacerbated the attention between the two men . What did you think of the foundation and the role it play played . The foundation was giving money to research. Throughout the book i felt like salk he was kind of always determined to get some fame from this vaccine. So he was determined that he was going and sabin on the other hand, he was more trying to work with other researchers, more than salk was. Okay, so you would call sabin more of a peer researcher . Yeah, but both men got money. Who got more . Salk and i think it was because of his friendship with oconnor. So they were able to control the direction of the research with the virus. Yeah, early on you had basil first first, salk was chosen to attend a meeting in denmark. All of those gathered. And salk was chosen by the foundation to attend this meeting. And then on the return trip as they were traveling home via asha ship he met oconnor. So they hit it off. And so, you know many scientists would have said at this point that salk was becoming the celebrity scientist. That he seemed to be the handpicked, not heir apparent, but who the foundation felt would be the best to develop the vaccine. He began to get publicity. Time did stories on him. He became not just a scientist, but someone that the public certainly seemed to know about. No salk called him the kitchen chemi chemist, i think. So how did you feel about these two men . Did you get a sense of either one that you liked better than the other . Or did you sense that oshinsky showed any favoritism . Or is it a toss up, get rid of both of them . I kind of felt like at first salk was portrayed as the under dog because he was not as established in the Research Community and he had not received as much recognition. Then when he gained celebrity with the American Public it kind of switched. So he portrays himself as more of the peoples scientist and sabin is like the scientist scientist. Right. Which man would you rather have dinner with . That is a hard one, isnt it . What were the most negative characteristics of each man . What did you sense of salk . I felt like the worth part was neither was willing to recognize the success oaf tf th other. Salk was successful earlier and sabin was just attacking him saying his vaccine was not going to work. That was deplorable and then when sabin was successful and had a more widely spread vaccine used across the world, salk was still attacking him saying his was better. Right, and they made it public. This was not a private dispute. What else, do you remember anything about his drive to be nope, he would take peoples names off of papers. He said h he lost it and got it back. Yeah, his assistants wrote that paper, and then he supposedly got it, lost it, found it, and then his name a was at the top. It is just totally unacceptable. I think sabin did the same thing with cox they said there was like okay, lets share some samples and they were working on a live vaccine. So i think it was them sending over some samples of whatever they had, and i think they both had a quality where they were like just doing everything for themselves because they both thought they could do it the best. They were both pretty impossible, i think. Both of the men should have won a noeshl prize for medicine considering what each one developed, but no, never happened. And i think he hints that part of the reason was they were so awful to one another. They really were. Sabin always had the support of the Scientific Community. Salk had the support of the public. The Scientific Community made sure that salk never became a member of of the National Foundation of science. They kept him out of that organization. Lets move on to what i think is a really interesting issue if that is the whole ethical issue surrounding the testing of the polio vaccine. What do you think about the testing of the vaccine on orphans . On mentally channelled children . On prisoners . What how does that strike you . Is that, what, is that ethical . Is that right to do . Do you think was acceptable . I think it is really inhumane. If youre talking about children, especially, they dont have the mental capacity to speak for themselves and to say no i dont want this to be tested on me. If youre using prisoners, theyre obviously considered to be like second class citizens because theyre in a prison. So if something should happen to them theyre not going to get an adequate level of care. They were basically considering these people to be disposable saying if something happens to them well just find more. As you said many of the children didnt have parents around, no one to really say yes or no. Theyre in institutions, suffering huge problems, and yet they were chosen to the first recipients of the salk vaccine. Because jonas salk was moving in a positive direction. His killed virus vaccine was going in the right direction, but he had to try it on human beings. This would never happen today. You know the care that we take today, everybody fearing a lawsuit or whatever. This would never happen today in terms of just using what, in a sense, was a population of people who basically had no say about what was happening to them. So did those tests, they proved positive, and then in 1954 salk knew he had to try his vaccine on Elementary School children. Parents were involved in this decision. He had like 1. 3 million children in Elementary School that got his vaccine. Now before we get into some of the problems that happened, why would parents okay this . When this vaccine had only been te tested on a small, select group of people . They said that the killed virus could not cause polio. So i think for a lot of people they were like well, if it is you know not live virus, and they just inject it into my kid, and if it doesnt work, its not going to hurt them. I think they played up that point. It cannot really hurt, it can only help. So i think that was incentive for a lot of people to participate. And what did that i think it was the parents feeling a personal guilt if their children were to contract polio into it was like what can duo to avoid our children getting sick. Everybody now knew what polio did. They saw the pictures of children in iron lungs, and children with braces on their legs. There was a continued fear that was norm enormous in this count. So here is a possible prevention of your child getting polio. What was the stance on testing the viruvirus . Did it caution people . Your children are among the privileged to have this. There was a few cautionary remarks. There was a man named walter winchill who had been fed this shows you again the nasty stuff going on. He had been fed some information by another scientist who said this vaccine has not been properly tested, they should not be using it, et cetera. So he went on the radio saying parents watch out this is probably not a good thing. Salk said he is just looking for publici publicity. He doesnt know what he is talking about. It is a response not so much to the testing on children, but dr. Spoc, like the child care expert of his time, was telling parents to calm down. That perhaps the foundation was exaggerating the threat of the disease and over selling the problem. But in any case they moved ahead and they tested the salk vaccine on these children. And they had some placebos. They took they did this very, very carefully, supposedly. And it took a year for them to finally get the results after they gave these children the vaccine. And the results were, of course, positive. Great, a great moment in american medical history. The vaccine, the salk vaccine, worked. So the foundation knew they had to make a huge deal of this. Finally they had the answer. So they held an event at the university of michigan on october 12th. People gathered, the press was there. Edward r murrow was there. Thomas francis stood up, he gave a rambling talk on the glories of this discovery. And they spoke on the today show. They revealed the news that next morning, but some things went wrong. Shortly there after and within a few days. What were the negatives after that grate this was his moment of glory. He was thrilled. The foundation was thrilled, and things happened. What when the wrong . There was a couple outbreaks of polio from the cutter laboratories. Okay, and well get into that in a minute. We have some negative results like oh my gosh, this vaccine caused polio. This is supposed to be a dead virus. This is not supposed to cause polio. You have the outbreak of a few cases. What else happened that was upsetting to salk. He never thanked his research team. Right, he got up and gave a talk, and it was as if he alone was the only one to do anything on this research. And he had several assistants sitting there, you have seen this in the science world, articles have like ten authors of all of the people that engaged in the research. And his assistants could not even believe it. So that was an incredibly disappointing moment. And what else, do you remember what salk said that yes . He totally under cut the effectiveness of the results that they said i think the vaccine was like 70 or 80 effective. And he said he had still been working on his next vaccine that would be 100 effective. I think he managed to anger the Science Community undermining his own results and angering the American People who felt betr betrayed by him not having why had he not just waited to send out another vaccine instead of trying this less effective one and waiting a year to do the more effective. Yes, exactly. It was like this vaccine was supposed to be foolproof. It was supposed too work. And them you have him almost immediately saying this is better than the one we used. So this was a disconcerted moment. One of the first big problems that happened afterwards, so it has been a success. You had, you know, hundreds of thousands of children vaccinated in this country and now you have millions more waiting to get the vaccine. What happened . What was the problem that affected the distribution of the vaccine . There was a distribution planned . The government and the foundation had not really explored how they would produce so much of the vaccine to fsuppy enough for the american population. They would not be able to have their children vaccinated and it was turning on the government and the Foundation Like you should have handled this already. Nobody had a plan. Nobody thought about okay, you have the vaccine, how do you make sure that everybody gets it . So people were really upset. Again they invested their emotions and their money into this foundation and what it is trying to achieve. Suddenly they were confronted with the fact that there was not any kind of distribution plan. And the head of h. E. W. , she just fumbled around. She didnt know what to do. What was the problem with the government distributing the vaccine. Doesnt that seem like a natural way to go. What would be the problem that . Why not the government, josh . Is that reminiscent of socialism that was such a hot topic . Oh my gosh, well be like canada. This is not the role of the federal government. The Drug Companies were dead set against this. This is something for private companies to take charge of. The government should not step in. It also made the American Public really, really angry. And then, of course, physicians stepped in and they said you should not be giving these vaccines in Elementary School, they should be done in a Doctors Office so the doctors could make money into it created a horribly complicated situation in which, you know, there had been no plan for distribution. And ultimately he resigned. It was just such a bad situation. Then there was the cutter lab disaster which was what . What was the cutter lab disaster . They manufactured the vaccine improperly and a lot of children got sick. We had several Companies Developing the vaccine. And one lab in berkeley, california had developed the vaccine, but what went wrong . They discovered that 400,000 vaccines done by cutter lab. Somehow a live virus got into the bottles they were using, and Cutter Laboratory was the only one that used these bottles to give out the vaccine, so somehow, so way, a live virus got in there and affected a bunch of people. So this was definitely well part of the problem with with testing, and how much had been done on these vaccines . Next to none. One day, one day at this point. The rush to get it out, to have this done, they tested these vaccines only up with done day. They ignored the ones that didnt pass muster. Before this they took four weeks to test the vaccine. But again this was a rush and it had to be done right away. Now oconnor was furious. What he did was blame those who were working for the live virus vaccine. He thought there was some kind of plot that someone had come into the lab or something and tried to under mine the situation, it was really, really quite incredible. Well interest now turned, knew his vaccine was under question, americans started to turn toward sabin and his live virus vaccine. So using a different approach to solving the prop blem of polio. And sabin needed to test his vaccine and where was he able to do it . In the soviet union. Polio was becoming a huge problem in the soviet union. Cases were rising, and they invited salk and saban. So they decided to test on ten million soviet churildren. They test itd on ten million children, and it was basically a success. So we only have a few more minutes, so let me quickly sum msu summarize. The vaccines were working. There was still real debate about salk versus sabin. No one had quite made a decision, but salk decided now that he needed a new project. So he had done his research on polio, and what was his new project . Anyone get that far in the book . What did he want . What did he need . He started studying aids. He wanted his own research institute. He went to the university of pittsburgh where he had been and tried to convince them this would be a good thing. They demanded having some kind of control over this. Salk wanted some control. He went to california. I dont know if you have been to la hoya, because jewel of a city. A small city on the pacific ocean. He got the city to contribute land on a bluff overlooking the ocean. He got the foundation to provide some seed money, like 15 million. He hired the most preeminent architect in the country to do the design for this institute. So he now has his, in a sense, he has exactly what he wanted. His expenses were high. The foundation starts to withdraw support from salk and move on to other things. Oconnor died. Salk divorced his first wife. Then he married the form er picasos former mistress. He dressed in nice clothes and he had a good life in california. First of all, in this country there are some 400,000some survivors of polio. I actually know two people who work at davidson who have had polio. And some people are starting to really suffer from whats called polio syndrome, which is a result of their muscles gradually weakening. So polio even though they have survived polio, they are now having some there is some kind of impact that has remained. But he also says the polio survivors tend to be type a overachie overachievers, perhaps like a roosevelt. That, of course, is a good thing. Interestingly, polio is still in the news, and there was a News Coverage of this last week on npr because a reporter was talking about how polio is on the verge of being wiped off this earth, sort of the way smallpox was years ago, that polio will probably no longer be with us in a few years. Last year there were only 223 cases worldwide in three countries afghanistan, pakistan and nigeria. The World Health Organization and the bill and Melinda Gates foundation are working on this in a major way, providing huge amounts of money to eradicate this forever. Their goal is 2018 there will be no polio in the world. The only bad thing is that you may remember a few weeks ago, there were nine polio workers, women who were working in pakistan who were gunned down and killed. Just a horrible, horrible, horrible situation. But the other thing i wanted to mention is that good things can happen from a history book beside all you learn, but i did read that bill gates read this book when it first came out, and he loved it, and he was so inspired that he decided that his foundation would, indeed, take on polio as a major, major focus for his vast amounts of money. And so that sort of prompted him to try to move toward eradicating polio worldwide. So were almost there today. And people ask me about the march of dimz todes today. I still get mail from the march of dimes. What it works on now, obviously not polio, but birth defects, particularly in premature babies. So theyre still doing good things and still raising money, but for something very different from polio. Thats it for our disease of the day. And thursday you all should have read the essays for pure editing and marked them up significantly, and we will have Group Interaction with peer editing on thursday. Okay . Okay, thank you. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. In the 2000 president ial election, Texas Governor george w. Bush defeated democrat al gore in one of the most intense races in history. Outcome was not decided until five weeks after voters went to the polls. This awarded the United States presidency to george bush. Tonight we have the al gore concession speech in 2000. Watch beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern and enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan3. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Cspan3 created by American Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. The 1918 flu killed an estimated 50 Million People worldwide, including 600,000 americans. It is the deadliest pandemic in recent history. Up next on reel america, we heard the bells, the influenza of 1918. Commissioned by the u. S. Health and Human Services department, this documentary includes 1918 flu survivors telling their stories, a look at the science of flu and the history of the pandemic and the genetic sequencing of the 1918 strain based on remnants of the virus extracted from frozen bodies in permafrost. This is just under an hour. In 1918, i lived in sequoia county. In 1918, my family was living in south philadelphia. In 1918, we were living in el paso, texas. I was born and raised in baltimore. In bustling cities, in remote villages, in the United States and around the world, orphan children cried for their parents in 1