““”After mass inoculations began in 1954, everyone marveled at the high success rate—some 60-70 percent—until the vaccine caused a sudden outbreak of some 200 cases. After it was determined that the cases were all caused by one faulty batch of the vaccine, production standards were improved, and by August 1955 some 4 million shots had been given. Cases of polio in the U.S. dropped from 14,647 in 1955 to 5,894 in 1956, and by 1959 some 90 other countries were using Salk’s vaccine.”
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I was unaware of a bad batch-—thanks for the info.
I was teaching 1st grade in 1954-55 and the kids received the vaccine during that school year. It was a great thing for all of us.
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It wasn’t just a bad batch. It is/was a known side effect of the live virus vaccine. Still. It’s one of the reasons the live virus vaccine was discontinued in this country. The killed virus vaccine isn’t as effective though so the live one is still used in hot spots like Asia.
Live vaccines always have a risk of contracting the disease itself. One of my former coworkers contracted chickenpox from his infant/toddler daughter when she got her varicella vaccine. When he visited his internist it was one of the first questions the doc asked him. Was he around any young children who may have been recently vaccinated or anyone who had a case of the shingles. His kid had been vaxed about a week or 10 days previously. Coworker had had chickenpox as a kid, too.