Jonas Salk

Jonas Salk (umw.edu/_lmccr9sd/poliovaccine/development.html)

A hero can be someone who risks his life for others. A hero can also be someone who saves the lives of others. My hero is Jonas Salk. He saved millions of lives.

Jonas Salk was born in New York City on October 28, 1914. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. They didn’t get to go to college, but they encouraged their children to study. Jonas was the first in his family to go to college. At first, he wanted to study law, but he got more interested in medical science. He became a doctor. When he saw all the children who got paralyzed from polio he wanted to help end polio. So then he started to research for a cure for poliomyelitis or polio.

Jonas signed up for a project to find how many viruses there were that caused polio. In 1952, he found three types of viruses that cause polio. He and his staff injected polio into monkeys, because they were closely related to humans. Then, one of the members of the staff found a vaccine to prevent polio, but it would only prevent polio in monkeys. Jonas Salk worked hard for eight years trying to find a cure for polio. Then one day, Jonas found the right vaccine for humans. First, they injected the vaccine into monkeys. Next, they injected the vaccine into the children who recovered from polio. Lastly, he injected the vaccine into his children who never had polio. The vaccine was finally released to the public in 1954. This made a lot of worried parents very happy. People started calling Jonas Salk a “Miracle Worker,” and he became a national hero overnight.

Jonas wanted to help mankind, not only one person at a time. In the end he was successful. His dream of making a difference in the world came true. In 1976, Jonas said, “RISKS, I like to say, always pay off. You learn what to do or what not to do.” This became a very famous quote. Even after Jonas Salk found the vaccine for polio, he continued to work very hard. His last years were spent searching for a vaccine against AIDS. Jonas died on June 23, 1995, when he was eighty years old. Jonas Salk is my hero because he wanted to help people, and he didn’t give up trying.