Although the polio vaccine had been tested and had been declare safe and efficient, thirteen days after, a terrible thing happened.
Prior to this, Dr. Salk and a trusted colleague had personally tested every single batch of the vaccine. But this was no longer possible because the demand for the vaccine was so great. So other laboratories were hired to help. Sadly, two batches from the Cutter Laboratory had live virus in them as the procedure for making the vaccine had not been followed exactly. This ending up with devastating results. Many thousands of children were exposed and some became paralyzed as a result, while others died. Some family members as well as others in the community also died from contacting the virus. Immediately all vaccinations were stopped.
The Cutter Laboratory as well as the company responsible for doing a final check were held responsible as they had been warned of a potential problem which hadn’t been taken seriously. Still this didn’t help those who had lost family members or who contacted polio.
It was devastating for Dr. Salk as he knew that the vaccine was safe. He and his family as well as his team of researchers had all had all been vaccinated before any testing had been done on children. Also, not one of the 400,000 children tested in the field trial had become sick.
Dr. Salk had not put a patent on his vaccine as he wanted it to be available and free to all who wanted it. He also didn’t want it to be controlled by one big manufacturing company. He had also not wanted the vaccine to be rushed, but unfortunately the American vaccine manufacturers went ahead without there being enough government control, allowing the chance for something to go wrong. As a result of the accident, the U.S. Public Health Service introduced stricter rules, and there were no further problems.
This could well be a lesson for those working on and producing a vaccine for the COVID19 virus. Many are waiting for a vaccine knowing that this is what is needed to prevent further spread of the virus. But in the process, every step must be taken by the creators, manufacturers and those handling the vaccine to ensure its safety.