Karen Torgaly

They had to be made to sit together sometimes, and it was very tense for everybody around them.

And at one point, they were supposed to speak at a meeting one after the other, and they chose to do it by alphabetical order.

So they wouldn't fight about that.

Sabin went first.

And when he got up to do his presentation, he said, well, there's one thing that Jonas and I agree about, and that is there should only be one poliovirus vaccine.

And so, of course, each of them thought it should be theirs.

He was at that press conference, and he knew that this was coming.

He knew that Salk's vaccine would be better than nothing.

He was very conflicted, but he also was convinced that if they didn't do something soon, the next polio season would be upon them and children were going to die.

So he swallowed his pride in some ways.

And the people who were selected to make the decision about whether to go forward and let everyone get vaccinated with the Salk vaccine, he said, yes, they should.

So he did vote in support of it.

He still had a couple of years to go before he felt comfortable that his vaccine would be safe enough to try on human beings.

He was just getting ready to do some of his experiments on prisoners in a reformatory in Chillicothe, Ohio, and that would be his first big trial on humans.

And it would prove to be very successful.

But what happened in the meantime was the Salk vaccine was such a blessing for everyone.

The biggest fear that people had at that time was their children getting polio or having a nuclear war.

And those were the two big fears.

So essentially, one of those fears was wiped out when the vaccine was developed.

And it was such a joyous time for people.