(gentle music) - Hello, I'm Stacy Smith and this is Salk Hall, on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.

It's an old building, it was a hospital, in fact, it was Municipal Hospital.

And what happened here during an eight year period changed the course of the world.

It started in the basement, enveloped the entire building, then the city of Pittsburgh, soon the country, and eventually the world.

What started here was the conquering of polio.

(gentle music) - I was out in the hayfield with my uncle and I was in the sun, and my head started pounding and pounding, and I could hardly stand it.

And they took me to a doctor and he didn't know what was wrong, and eventually I tried to stand up one morning out of bed, and I fell down.

So then they shipped me off to the hospital in Pittsburgh.

- [Stacy] Jimmy Sarkett was taken to Municipal Hospital.

- Oh, it hurt.

Sorta made me immune to pain today, but it hurt.

My arms, my whole body ached, everything ached.

It was a terrible feeling, when you're 10 years old.

(gentle music) - [Stacy] What Jimmy Sarkett had, was polio.

It is a virus that attacks and destroys the motor neurons in the nervous system.

- Julius Youngner helped develop the Salk vaccine.

- There's no neuron to send the signal anymore, so that's why there's a flaccid paralysis.

It's limp paralysis, because there's no signal anymore and the muscle's not getting signal to contract.

- [Stacy] It was 1950, when Jimmy Sarkett came down with polio.

He was not alone.

- It was frightening.

It was very frightening that first day.

'Cause I will never forget when I woke up and I went to move and couldn't, just hollering and screaming for my mother.

- And what FDR... - [Stacy] David Oshinsky is a historian and wrote, "Polio: An American Story."

- I remember growing up in New York City and every summer was the summer of dread.

There would simply be box scores, like baseball box scores, that would start right after Memorial Day, listing the number of kids who had come down with polio that week, and you would see it start to grow, you know, June 1st to seventh, 20 cases, and then 30, and then 70.

- It was bad and getting worse, because of the numbers of children who were infected every year, was increasing, And there was another factor that was creeping in.

It was no longer infantile paralysis, where very young children, soon after their first year became infected.

The major age group was moving up.

- Talking to some of my friends, you know, when we'd hear of a person that would get polio, boy, that's terrible.

Boy, what are they gonna do, you know?

And then it did, it happened to me.

- Our guest today is Dr. Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the polio vaccine and founder... - Polio was the most feared disease, that which terrified everyone, every summer.

Now just put yourself in the place of anyone who had that periodic fear about which they could do nothing.

It disrupted people's lives for months.

Now that's over and above the effect it had upon the victims.

But the country was in terror.

- It was a kind of disease where there was no known cause for the disease, there was no prevention, there was no cure, so therefore everyone was at risk.

- [Stacy] Indeed, everyone was at risk, and that became very apparent when a 39 year old well-to-do man who was related to presidents, contracted polio.

His name was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He rarely allowed himself to be seen as crippled by the disease, but he became the rallying point in fighting it.

- Franklin Roosevelt, had he not run for governor, would probably have stayed in Warm Springs and become the head of the foundation to try to find a cure for polio.

When he was tapped to run for governor, and then his fortunes went up, and he ran for president, he took his law partner Basil O'Connor and said to O'Connor, "I'm passing the mantle to you, "and I expect you to basically raise enough money "to find the cure, or to find the prevention "for this disease."

(somber music) - [Stacy] For more than a decade, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis raised money by hosting presidential birthday balls.

They were held across the country each year, on the day of FDR's birthday, January 30th.

The goal of the foundation, which eventually became known as the March of Dimes, was to help pay the costs of medical treatment for many families.

It bought leg braces and iron lungs, but most importantly, it funded research and the funding was critical, as each year brought more polio cases.

- I got polio in 1952, the summer of 1952, which was one of the last epidemic years.

I was 12 years old.

I was out in the backyard with my mother, she was hanging clothes up to dry, and I was laying on a blanket and she said, "Will you go in the house "and get me some more clothes pins?"

And I couldn't get up, and she knew, because all parents were on the lookout for polio then.

As she ran in the house, she called my dad at work and said, "Get home here, immediately, you have to take Bea "to children's hospital," and he was home, came home, took me up there.

They did a spinal tap and they said, "Say goodbye to her."

And he said goodbye to me and they put me in isolation at Municipal Hospital for a month.

- [Stacy] A researcher by the name of Dr. Jonas Salk had already been working at Municipal Hospital for nearly five years by the time Beatrice was admitted.

He had come to the University of Pittsburgh in 1947, after helping to develop the first flu vaccine at the University of Michigan.

- Salk was moving up the ladder very slowly at the University of Michigan, And he got an offer from a Dean McElroy at the medical school.

Everyone said, "Pittsburgh, my God, "why would you go to Pittsburgh, "particularly from Ann Arbor?"

Ann Arbor was on the map medically, Pittsburgh was off the map.

And Salk said, "I need my own shop, "and I have my own vision."

- [Stacy] Salk's vision included an eye on the very successful fundraising by the March of Dimes, and on the field of polio research, and eventually a vaccine.

- And were it not for the March of Dimes that was organized in 1938, the problem of polio would never have been solved when it did, but there you see the great power of this country in the fact that individuals can come together as groups, to solve a problem when they feel strongly enough, motivated to do it.

- [Stacy] Salk's early work with the March of Dimes, with the National Foundation, was the kind of work the big scientific names in the field didn't want to do.

It was the basic work of trying to determine just how many strains of polio existed.

It was already known there were at least three strains.

- So the question was, "Are there more out there?"

So the National Foundation, the big project that they had, that Jonas Salk started here, and two other labs in the country were doing the same thing, we're given a number of strains.

Here, it was like 30, we got funding, finished 23 here, to type from wide geographical area to find out if there were any more types that don't fit under the rubric of one, two, or three.

Fortunately, there were no others.

- The March of dimes was pumping tens of thousands of dollars into laboratories that were typing, and what Salk well understood, was that this was the first step.

Once he did this, the March of Dimes would give him money to move on.

- [Stacy] In order to move on, Salk had to put together a staff that could not only do the typing, but also advance toward his goal of developing a vaccine.

One of those he hired was a young research scientist, Dr. Julius Youngner, who excelled in the little known field of cell culturing.

- No one is an island unto himself, and Salk really needed Youngner's expertise, in particular.

Because what Youngner could do was to allow Salk to grow the polio virus that was needed, and also to figure out the kind of tests in which you could see how virulent the virus itself was.

Youngner was a genius at doing this.

- [Stacy] In 1951, Youngner used his expertise in cell culture and discovered that using monkey kidney cells could yield more of the polio virus than previous methods.

- By the time we published the results of the typing, that there were only three types, all three labs agreed, by that time, we were well on the way with the cell culture system.

So we were moving at what I consider now, looking back on it, it amazes.

We were moving at warp speed in this process.

- [Stacy] That warp speed was leading to the development of a dead or killed virus vaccine.

It was not without controversy, though.

Very few of the leading scientists at the time supported the dead virus vaccine.

They believed the best way to inoculate people, especially children, was with a live virus vaccine.

- There were people working on a live virus vaccine.

Albert Sabin, but the March of Dimes put its money, most of its money behind Salk, because they knew that a killed virus vaccine, the one Salk was working on, may not be the quote unquote, best vaccine, but it was safe, and it could be done rather quickly.

And kids were dying every day, kids were being crippled every day.

Speed was absolutely essential.

- I have a twin brother and my mother and father.

- [Stacy] Ron Flynn was 21 months old in 1952.

He had been on an outing with his family to South Park to attend the fair.

- Took us home, and next day we all woke up, we had fevers, all four kids, my two sisters, and my twin brother, and myself, and they brought the family doctor to the house, and he examined us.

Upon examination, he sorta suspected we had polio and he immediately quarantined the house.

(gentle music) - [Stacy] 1952 was one of the worst years on record.

It's believed nationwide, 57,000 people, mostly children came down with polio, and there were more and more cases of multiple family members being hit with the disease.

Some of them, like Ron Flynn, with the bulbar strain of polio.

It could be deadly, because it would paralyze the breathing muscles.

(melancholy music) - [Narrator] It could strike anybody, anywhere.

It was so devastating that many of its victims were paralyzed in spirit, as well as body.

- [Stacy] The iron lung helped to keep some polio patients alive, but at the same time, it became the frightening symbol of polio, even for those who already had polio.

- Everyone around me seemed a lot worse than I was, because when they'd take us any place or they'd take us down the hall on the cart, you'd see like these iron lungs, and it wasn't, to me, it wasn't a sight to see.

- [Stacy] Experiencing it was a twelve-year-old McKeesport youngster, John Whitaker.

- I was in the iron long for about six weeks.

The thing was noisy.

It was constantly, like pistons going, hissing all the time.

That alone kept you awake, and I think you, I just went to sleep at times through exhaustion.

I think it was basically through the encouragement of my mother, was the way I made it through there, because you were laying flat on your back, and the fact that I couldn't move, there was no way I could turn, if I wanted to turn.

- You know, it was a pretty devastating disease, and a lot of people didn't make it, and I was one of the few lucky people who did.

- [Stacy] The effects of Ron Flynn's polio kept him at the DT Watson home for 17 years.

And during that stay, polio still claimed victims even years after they had come down with it.

He remembers when he was six, he had a friend named Billy.

Because of their weakened conditions, when one of them became ill, he was removed from the room for the safety of the other.

- And one time Billy got sick and they took him out of the room, and they put him in the isolated room, and I sent him a toy.

Finally, he'd been over there about a week to week and a half, and I sorta missed him, you know, and everything, and I asked the nurse at the time, the nurses aide at the time, her name was Mrs. Moppin.

We called her "Moppy," and I said, "Moppy, when's Billy coming back?"

And she sat down and she says, "That's why I come over "to talk to you, Ronnie."

She held my hand and she looked at me, and she says, "Billy's gone to live with the angels," and I never forgot that.

(somber music) - [Stacy] Before the polio virus swept across the country in 1952, claiming a record number of victims, the Salk lab here in Pittsburgh continued its hurried march toward a vaccine.

- When the cell culture system was obviously usable, the next step was to think, "Well, can we grow this virus "and activate it, and make a vaccine."

- [Stacy] Using Youngner's techniques to grow the virus, Salk used his expertise to kill the virus.

They tested this new dead virus vaccine to see if it would produce antibodies, but not give monkeys the disease.

It worked.

- We found that out, again, very quickly and we had absolute confidence that this was gonna work in humans.

- [Stacy] Testing the vaccine on humans, was the next critical step.

They decided to test the killed virus on children who already had polio to see if it would increase their antibodies.

Salk and the National Foundation approached Dr. Jesse Wright, of the DT Watson Home, a facility in Sewickley that treated children with polio.

- Using a vaccine to check whether it had... - [Stacy] Ray White is the CEO of the Watson Institute.

- She felt it was a safe practice approach, and so she approached Mr. Harry Stambaugh, who was the chairman of the board and he agreed with her reasoning, and they decided to proceed, and I've always been sort of fascinated with the board's decision at that particular point in time, because I think it still was a gutsy, gutsy call.

- It's a condition.

- [Stacy] One of those at the Watson Home was Beatrice Slutsky.

- And he asked all the kids' parents down there, and 40 of us, our parents gave permission.

- [Stacy] She had been moved there after a month in isolation at Municipal Hospital.

- And he used the 40 of us to test it before he tested it, you know, on other children.

It was done very, you know, matter of fact.

We would all go to the gymnasium, you know, get in line, and he would vaccinate us.

(gentle music) - [Stacy] Also at the DT Watson Home at that time was Jimmy Sarkett.

He was special to the Salk lab, for it was the strain of polio found in Sarkett, that the Salk lab used to eventually develop the vaccine.

In a matter of weeks, the Salk lab knew the tests on the Watson polio children worked.

Their antibodies to polio had increased.

The only catch was that the children had been inoculated with a strain of polio virus, they already had.

That meant the next step was to test the three kinds of vaccine, not only on those who already had polio, but on those who had not.

The lab group tested it on themselves.

Salk also inoculated his three sons, and asked 25 years later, whether he was worried about giving it to his own children, he responded.

- In retrospect, no, only at the time I was more worried about the other people, other children to whom I had given the vaccine.

Because at least for my own children, I was responsible, but I was also responsible for the others, and therefore, if anything had gone wrong, it would have, in my mind, been far more serious, if it would have happened to other children than my own.

(gentle music) - [Stacy] The lab team knew quickly the vaccine had stimulated antibodies in themselves, but then came the next step, testing it on a large group of children who had not had polio.

- I never lost sleep worrying about whether, that it wasn't going to work.

I was so confident that it would work.

- [Stacy] The National Foundation was becoming confident as well, urging the Salk lab to conduct the larger tests.

- Jonas wanted to do, as I remember it, he wanted to do about 1,000 school children in Pittsburgh.

The people in the committee said, "No, you gotta do 50,000."

And I don't know what, but there was a lot of, a lot of negotiating, and finally it was agreed to do 10,000.

I think we did 7,500 in this area.

- They were so much more frightened of polio than they were of any vaccine that they were, they were anxiously lining their children up.

They weren't doing it reluctantly.

They were literally pushing the kids into line because that was how frightening polio was to them.

- [Stacy] The lab began collecting the data and it proved what Youngner and the others believed.

- And the results were almost perfect.

It was a startlingly effective procedure in which not a single kid came down with vaccine inflicted polio and virtually all of the kids who got the shots built up very powerful antibodies to the disease.

- [Stacy] But while Salk and his lab were testing their vaccine on Pittsburgh children in 1953, others were still coming down with polio.

- My toe muscles.... (somber music) - [Stacy] Joseph Heilman, of the Kiski Valley was 15 years old, he had just started his freshman year in high school, and on Friday he had a bad headache.

On Sunday and then again on Monday, he tripped trying to go up the stairs.

He was sent to Municipal Hospital.

He remembers being wheeled into an examining room and the doctors tapped his spine.

- You had to lay on your side and pull your legs up and make, arch your back, and that wasn't too pleasant.

And then from there, it was, I didn't see my parents, I think for two or three weeks.

And I think there was two other patients in my room and they were teenagers also.

And the one boy, he couldn't move his arms, and the other fellow, he couldn't move both his legs.

And I can remember, you know, there was a lot of, down the hall, there was a lot of crying and probably suffering.

And at that point, you know, I just thanked the Lord that that wasn't me.

(somber music) - [Stacy] Joe Heilman, and a year later John Whitaker were originally treated at Municipal Hospital.

When they were released, they were taken to what was known as the Industrial Home for Crippled Children.

It is now known as the Children's Institute.

Not much is the same from 50 years ago, except the pool.

John Whitaker remembers the first time a therapist took him to the pool.

- Took me to the pool, actually carried me, into the pool, and I didn't know how to swim, and I was a little leery knowing that I couldn't walk either, but once I got in there, and she took me to the end where the water came up above my waist, and she just took me by the hand, and she says, "Walk."

And I started to move and I was able to walk as long as I stayed beneath the water.

It's like a miracle.

- [Stacy] Before John Whitaker came down with polio in May of 1954, the Pittsburgh field trials showed the vaccine appeared to be safe and effective.

It was now time to take the next step.

- The National Foundation could say let's do the field trial with phase three, which means you take the virus out into the field, do large numbers of children and not only get antibody results, but see if you prevented polio during the summer, in the ones that were vaccinated.

- [Stacy] But getting to that point was not easy.

The scientists, outside of Salk's lab wanted traditional, documented testing, where some children would be given the vaccine, and others would be given a placebo.

That was something Salk was opposed to, but something in the end he had to accept.

- I decided I would still take the children.

- [Stacy] So did parents who chose to take a chance on the vaccine.

Barbara Albert remember standing in line.

- When we would get there, there would be kids running around and screaming, crying everywhere, and my parents were saying, "Be brave, be brave."

And I was trying so hard not to cry, but when you saw those needles, it was, it was very scary.

- [Stacy] Dr. Mary Baily was a member of the Salk lab team.

- And then he included these people that wanted to volunteer and they volunteered, and he gave 'em, polio vaccine, they didn't get polio.

- [Stacy] You have to feel very proud that you were part of a team.

- Yeah.

I think he was amazing how he figured out that this was gonna work.

- [Stacy] Not everyone though, had faith it was going to work.

- Some of the other relatives that were asked, said no, 'cause they were too scared.

They said it was too risky.

- [Stacy] Barbara's mother, Nelly, recalls her sister-in-law's decision.

- She had maybe seven children and they refused to take the, and yet we were all close, and it just seemed weird in the same family with children that were more than cousins, all like brothers and sisters.

So part of us said, yes, we'd do it, and parts said, no.

- Qualynnn was in grade school at Homewood.

We lived in Homewood at that time, and they were going to give the shots in the school, and I told him, I didn't want her to have it, so they sent a message back to me, to please come in the one particular day that Dr. Salk was gonna be there.

So, I did go in and he talked to me for quite a while.

He finally convinced me the fact that they have a solution to prevent as much of the times they can, of polio.

So then at that time, I did agree then.

- [Stacy] Conducting and analyzing the nationwide tests was not Salk's lab, but rather his old mentor, Dr. Tommy Francis at the University of Michigan.

Salk had no idea who was getting his vaccine and who was getting the placebo.

For a year, Francis collected data.

He let no one, including Salk know whether the Pittsburgh vaccine was working, and then came word the results would be announced the year after the testing began, on April the 12th, 1955.

- [Reporter] The world centered on... - [Stacy] America held its breath.

- [Reporter] On April 12, 19... - The vaccine could be considered 80 to 90% effective against paralytic poliomyelitis.

- It was a day in which people clung to radios, fire whistles went off, church bells rung, as the news came out the vaccine works, it is safe, it is potent, it is effective.

Those were the words, and Jonas Salk became really our first celebrity scientist.

(upbeat music) - [Stacy] Salk did become a celebrity, soon appearing with President Eisenhower at the White House and conducting numerous interviews.

- We suggest that the booster dose be given.

- [Stacy] His name became synonymous with his work.

It wasn't the polio vaccine, it was the Salk vaccine.

The headline screamed it from coast to coast.

And it began here in Pittsburgh in the basement of a hospital.

- Pittsburgh's role is absolutely central from the very beginning.

Giving Jonas Salk his lab in the old Municipal Hospital, allowing Salk the resources to hire an absolutely phenomenal first rate staff.

(gentle music) Offering up its children, whether it be a DT Watson, or the 7,500 kids later who actually sort of blazed the trail for other children who followed.

(gentle music) And the medical school became a world-class institution.

It was put on the map by the Salk vaccine.

- Pittsburgh should be proud of its role.

People in Pittsburgh, the University, everybody should be proud that they were part of this.

- Somebody asked me once, "Would Watson still be there "if Dr. Salk had not been here?"

Well yes, we were here before he came here, but obviously we were never the same after he was here.

And I think we're very proud of the work that was done here by the board, the staff, and the families, and the children that reflected in what we gained from that.

(somber music) - [Stacy] The Salk lab team eventually went their separate ways, but their role in defeating and nearly eradicating a crippling and deadly disease has been unequaled.

- I mean, it's something that you don't get to do many times in your life, is to be part of the elimination of a major killer of children and others.

- [Stacy] A lot has changed since the Salk lab team developed the polio vaccine.

This part of Municipal Hospital is now used by pharmaceutical sciences for lab research.

The biggest change though, is that in this country, no new cases of polio have been reported in years, and it's that way through most of the world.

But perhaps the best legacy is this, when I walk into a room now, and a young person asks, "What's wrong with your leg?

", I tell them, "I had polio," and they ask, "What's polio?"

I'm Stacy Smith, thank you for joining us.

(gentle music) (gentle music)