Jonas E. Salk

This is Salk twenty years before he died.

I think Jonas Salk was a hero and friend to many. He showed benevolence, perseverance and concern for mankind. He was a man who inspires me greatly. He accomplished so many great feats, the creation of the polio vaccine for example, even a talking computer couldn’t count them! What makes me think he was a great hero to all is that he helped people in need.

Jonas E. Salk was born in New York City into a family of poor Russian Jewish immigrants in 1916. He made it through college and medical school. After that, he was interested in finding a cure for polio and researched it for eight years. I think that researching one sickness for eight years takes a lot of perseverance. After all of that tedious research, he eventually found a way to prevent people from getting polio.

Before Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine, many deaths had occurred from the polio virus, and many were left paralyzed. In the two years before vaccine was widely available, the average number of polio cases in the U.S. was more than 45,000. By 1962, that number had dropped to 910.

He was also benevolent. He could have patented his vaccine and made millions of dollars. But instead he didn’t want to take the time to patent his vaccine. Instead he just wanted it out in the world as quickly as possible so more people could be protected against polio.

USPS stamp

Jonas Salk is so important because he made the polio vaccine, and because of that, now in countries where it is still in use the disease has been practically eradicated. During his life, he received very, very important awards such as The Lasker award, 1956, Bruce Memorial Reward, 1958, Jawaharal Nehru Award, 1975, Congressional Gold Medal Award and Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1977.

He died at the age of 80, and during the last years of his life he searched for a vaccine against AIDS. Even though he knew he was growing older, he still gave it his all to try to solve worldwide viruses and other health problems. Because he was kind and generous in so many ways, Jonas Salk is my hero. You can see from the number of awards that he has received, that many people think the same thing.