Summary: Jonas Salk was born 100 years ago, into a world in which polio was a widespread and fearful possibility in the mind of every parent. Salk's successful polio vaccine was a revolutionary advance in medicine, and he became an international hero. Yet despite the vaccine, the money, and the will to eliminate polio over the last six decades, polio has not been eradicated. In fact, polio eradication has proven to be more challenging and complex than anticipated. What are the factors behind this paradox? Kathleen Murray, who worked with Dr. Salk for many years, will talk about what it was like to live with polio threat before the vaccine and how revolutionary Salk's work was. She will also relate her personal experiences working with Dr. Salk at his Institute. Rob Lin is Vice President of Finance at the Infectious Diseases Research Institute (IDRI) and former Deputy Director of Global Health Financial Planning at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is a member of the Executive Roundtable of the Washington Global Health Alliance. Dr. Lin represented the Gates Foundation on a 2009 Rotary International Polio Immunization project in Ethiopia.
