Karen Torgaly

Then he just had to get approval in the United States by the public health system to use the vaccine in the United States.

It's hard for me to picture him not gloating, but I think he was smart enough not to publicly gloat.

He pretty much warned Salk about this, that it was coming.

He had written to him and told him that other scientists were beginning to side with him and that he needed to expect this.

Salk couldn't believe that it was going to happen to him, that his vaccine wouldn't be used anymore.

And when it looked like the Sabin vaccine was going to get approved in 1961 and 1962, and each strain was approved separately, by the way,

And they took a long time doing it because they wanted to be super careful with it.

By the time it was approved, the Salk vaccine was basically out and the Sabin vaccine was in.

And it was devastating to Jonas Salk to see that his vaccine was no longer going to be used.

Albert Sabin was different from many other scientists in that he didn't just develop the vaccine, then let other people take it over.

He had to see it from beginning to end.

Because he was such a perfectionist in his science, he needed to see that it was going to be made exactly as he prescribed.

And he also wanted to be involved in the way it was administered to each of the populations where he gave it, because he gave it all for free.

He didn't make any money on it.

His experience in the Soviet Union taught him the science was what led to their collaboration and the politics didn't matter.

So that is also a lesson he tried to convey to other people the rest of his life.

Science is apolitical or should be.

And when we have something like a polio vaccine that can save children, we need to share it with others.

So he did that the rest of his life.

He just could never let it go.