The Polio Crusade (2009)

The Polio Crusade is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2009. It is an episode in the long-running series American Experience. Here is some basic information about it:

** Written, produced, and directed by Sarah Colt
** Edited by Randall MacLowry

** Narrated by Linda Hunt

** Historical consultant: David M. Oshinsky

** Academic adviser: Paul A. Offit

** Run time: 50 minutes

This is the story of polio in the United States. This disease has been around since ancient times, striking all over the world, but in this film the focus is on the US in the twentieth century.

Polio can kill, but most victims survive. This disease is feared, because the victims are paralysed, in most cases polio will hit the extremities: one or both legs, one or both arms. Most victims are children, but adults can also be hit by it.

This film covers two sides of the story: the first side is the consequences of polio. The second side is the search for a vaccine against the disease. Polio cannot be cured, but if there is a vaccine, it can be prevented.

THE WITNESSES

Several witnesses were interviewed for the film. Some of them appear several times. Here are the names in the order of appearance:

** John M. Johnson
** Eleanor Sage

** Betty Cook Brown

** Anne B. Crockett-Stark

** Eugene F. Warren

** Samuel L. Katz, scientist

** Kathryn Black, writer

** Julius Youngner, scientist

** David M. Oshinsky, historian

** Paul A. Offit, scientist

** Larry Becker

** John Troan, journalist

** Peter L. Salk, son of Jonas Salk

It is appropriate to add a few words about the witnesses. They can be divided into three categories:

# 1. Persons in the first category are victims of the disease or related to a victim of the disease. They are only identified by name.

# 2. Persons in the second category are professionals: a journalist (Troan), a historian (Oshinsky), and three scientists (Katz, Youngner, and Offit).

One person belongs to both categories: Kathryn Black lost her mother to polio when she was only a child. As an adult, she became a writer and wrote a book about her experience: In the Shadow of Polio (1996, 1997).

# 3. In the third category we have only one person: Peter L. Salk. He is a scientist, but he is included here because he is the son of Jonas Salk, one of several scientists who were searching for a vaccine against polio in the 1950s.

THE CRUSADE AGAINST POLIO IN THE US

In this film the focus is mostly on what happened in the 1950s and the 1960s, but polio was around long before that. The most famous victim is mentioned in the beginning of the film: the US politician FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was hit by polio in 1921, at the age of 39. Both his legs were paralysed, and he lived with this condition for the rest of his life.

His career as a politician suffered a setback because of this attack, but as we all know, it did not stop him. After a while he returned to politics and ended up as president of the US (1933-1945).

Roosevelt came from a rich family, and he decided to use some of his assets to help victims of the disease. He established a foundation for this purpose and as head of the foundation he appointed a partner from his law firm: Basil O’Connor (1892-1972).

O’Connor was not a scientist, but he was an administrator, apparently a very efficient administrator. He organised a nation-wide campaign – a real crusade - against polio, which became known as the March of Dimes. People were asked to send a dime to FRD in the White House, and many did.

Polio was not the biggest danger in the US. As mentioned in the film, more Americans were killed by traffic accidents than by polio, but the disease was feared, because it might hit anyone: young or old, rich or poor, black or white, so the danger was perceived as much bigger than it was in reality.

Among the scientists who were searching for a vaccine against polio two names stand out in this film. The first is Jonas Salk (1914-1995), the second is Albert Sabin (1906-1993).

As explained in the film, Salk and Sabin were rivals because they advocated different methods. The former used a quick method which produced a result in 1955, while the latter used a slower method which produced a result in 1962. Salk’s vaccine was injected, while Sabin’s could be taken orally on a lump of sugar.

Before any vaccine could be released to the general public, it would have to be tested on a small group of test-persons. Back in the 1950s, the rules for testing a new medical product were almost non-existent, as two witnesses (Katz and Oshinsky) point out. Oshinsky says:

“There was no real sense of what we would call informed consent. If you wanted to test, as Jonas Salk did, you went to the director of an orphanage, or what was called a home for the feeble minded, and you tested.”

Salk, who was supported by O’Connor and FDR’s foundation, announced his results at a public meeting in 1955. He was seen as a hero who was going to save the US – indeed the whole world – from the threat of polio, but suddenly the use of his vaccine was put on hold for a while. The reason was the so-called Cutter Incident, as the film explains.

One industrial facility, the Cutter Lab in California, had produced a vaccine that was sub-standard, in fact dangerous, and people who had been injected with vaccine from this lab contracted polio. It was a most unfortunate incident. Sabin had warned against Salk’s method for several years. When the truth of the Cutter Incident was revealed to the public, he said: “I told you so.”

While the Cutter Incident was a shock, the setback was only temporary. With one type of vaccine produced by Salk from 1955 and another type of vaccine produced by Sabin from 1962, the crusade against polio was moving forward, step by step. At the end of the film, the narrator can say:

“In 1994, 44 years after the epidemic hit Wytheville, Virginia, and nearly 60 years after Basil O’Connor first called upon Americans to send their dimes to the White House, polio was declared eradicated in the United States.”

TWO FLAWS

This is an interesting film. In many ways the producers have done a good job. They show us the tragic consequences of the disease, they show us the desperate search for a vaccine that can prevent the disease, and they end with the happy message that polio was eradicated in the US in 1994. In addition, we can say the witnesses are well chosen and the film is easy to understand. It is never too technical. But in my opinion, there are two flaws.

The first flaw is the perspective of the film. As stated above, polio has been around since ancient times, striking all over the world. Polio is a global disease, but this film has a limited perspective: it covers only the US in the twentieth century.

I know this film is part of a series called American Experience, so perhaps it is not surprising that it focuses on the US; perhaps it is unfair to complain about the limited perspective. But I still think that the producers could and should have said something about the situation in the rest of the world.

There is only one moment in the film where the rest of the world is mentioned. In 1955, when Jonas Salk was going to announce the test results of the new vaccine, people were waiting impatiently for his message. The witness Kathryn Black explains:

“There was no bigger story at that time. It was held in secrecy like no state secret ever could be. This news was awaited around the world.”

Apart from this statement, the rest of the world is never mentioned. It is as if it does not exist. But it does, and even though the vaccine has been used all over the world for decades, the disease has not yet been totally eradicated. In countries which are plagued by civil war, such as Syria, polio can still claim victims.

The second flaw concerns Salk and the team who worked with him. Salk and the team produced the vaccine, but Salk took credit for it. At the public meeting in 1955 when Salk announced his results to the world, his team was sitting in the audience. They were waiting for him to mention them, because they had also played a role in this scientific project, but he never did.

Salk took the credit not only for his own work but also for work that had been done by others. This was a serious violation of academic tradition and the members of his team were deeply disappointed with him.

This issue is never mentioned in the film. Why not? A member of Salk’s team is a witness in this film: Julius Youngner. I do not know if he mentioned this issue when he was interviewed, but it is very likely. If he did, it was not used in the film.

Today the controversy is part of the public record. It is mentioned in Oshinsky’s book about polio. And if you google the name Julius Youngner, you will find several items where it is mentioned (see the PS below for one example).

Salk played an important role in the crusade against polio, there is no doubt about it, but he did not work alone. He took credit for everything. Apparently, he did not understand that he should have shared the credit with the members of his team. By ignoring this issue, the film perpetuates the myth that Salk tried to create when he was still alive. Today, when the truth is out, it is most unfortunate to hold on to this myth.

CONCLUSION

This film is good but not great. It covers an important topic and does so quite well. But while there is much to like, I cannot ignore the flaws mentioned above, and therefore I cannot give it five stars. I think it deserves a rating of four stars.

PS # 1. David Oshinsky, historical consultant on the film, is the author of Polio: An American Story (2005, 2006).

PS # 2. Paul Offit, academic adviser on the film, is the author of The Cutter Incident (2005, 2007).

PS # 3. John Troan, who is a witnesses in the film, has written a memoir about his life in journalism. The title is Passport to Adventure (2000, 2013).

PS # 4. Regarding Salk and his team, see the following article: Adam Grant, “Giving and taking credit,” Chicago Tonight, 2 May 2013.

PS # 5. For more information about Salk, see the following book: Jonas Salk: A Life by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs (2015).

PS # 6. American Experience is a television program produced by PBS. The first episode was aired in 1988. The number of episodes differs from one season to the next, but the program is still running today. The story under review here (the polio crusade) is season 21 episode 2 of 2009.

*****