Jonas Salk, Officier: Recalling a Medical Hero By Caitlin M. Hawke, Chevalier n , a young mother of two with triumph of science. In his another soon to come, the artist Françoise Pulitzer-winning account, Gilot was living in France when news Polio: An American Story, broke about Dr. Jonas Salk’s successful David Oshinsky tells vaccine against polio. Françoise recalled of a uniquely American that her father Émile, an agronomist and confluence of forces that Ichemical manufacturer in Neuilly-sur-Seine, brought about the means strongly recommended she go at once to have her and will to fund research children vaccinated. Françoise heeded his advice, for the polio vaccine. $e becoming among the first mothers abroad to see desire to prevail came from her children receive the Salk vaccine. Little did a combination of post- she know that she and Jonas Salk would wed war optimism and belief fifteen years later and share their lives until the in technology; of a corps scientist’s death in . of mothers — fearing for $e year  marks two important the well-being of their anniversaries. April th will be the th baby-boom children — anniversary of the start of the mammoth and willing to go door to legendary polio vaccine field trial. It involved door collecting funds for . million school children and was led by an research; and of a private early mentor of Salk’s, Dr. $omas Francis, Jr., foundation known as the of the University of Michigan. October th will March of Dimes begun be the date upon which Jonas Salk would have by polio’s most visible turned . To commemorate this American victim, President Franklin scientist’s enduring legacy, major symposia, as Delano Roosevelt, and run well as panels and lectures open to the public, by FDR’s confidant, Basil will be held in New York, Pittsburgh, and San O’Connor. Diego, key American cities in the progression of It was O’Connor, known Salk’s career. as Doc, and his colleagues Says Peter Salk, M.D., the eldest of Salk’s at the March of Dimes three sons from his first marriage to Donna who determined which Lindsay, “$ese centenary events will provide scientists to fund in the an opportunity to focus attention on themes of frantic quest for a vaccine. importance to my father, including vaccination, Doc O’Connor invested Jonas Salk posed only once for his wife, the artist Françoise Gilot, who global health and international cooperation. heavily in two men with painted five portraits of the scientist in one day. Here, she references He devoted his life to improving human very different approaches: Rembrandt’s print of Faust with the spiral staircase transformed into the health, beginning with his work on the first Jonas Salk’s inactivated- double helix of life, DNA. Reproduced with the artist’s permission. influenza and polio vaccines and continuing virus, injected vaccine with the founding of the Salk Institute and and Albert Sabin’s live-virus, oral vaccine. Among the first foreign countries to celebrate his research on cancer, multiple sclerosis and Both scientists ultimately prevailed and their him, France named Salk Chevalier in the Legion a vaccine for HIV/AIDS.” Peter is president vaccines continue to be in use today in global of Honor in . He was later promoted to of the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation (www. eradication efforts. Officier. On December , , he received jslf.org), which is serving as the catalyst for However, Salk’s vaccine was ready first. On the American Society of the French Legion of centennial plans involving major American April , , to a rapt American public and room Honor Medal for Distinguished Achievement institutions such as Salk’s alma maters: $e full of media, Dr. Francis announced the results in the presence of his wife, ASFLH member City College of New York and New York of his field trial: “$e vaccine works. It is safe, Françoise Gilot, who herself in  was University School of Medicine, where he effective and potent.” Jonas Salk was instantly promoted by President Nicolas Sarkozy to the received his undergraduate and medical degrees catapulted onto the front page of every U.S. rank of Officier. respectively. Commemoration plans are also newspaper and into every American living room $e French-American couple met in La Jolla, afoot at the University of Pittsburgh where Salk with a television set. $e press was rhapsodic; California, in the fall of . She initially conducted his polio research as well as at $e the country was exhilarated. Demand for the resisted his attention, thinking they had nothing Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, vaccine soared: from a peak of over , U.S. in common. $e day after they met, Jonas took California, founded by the scientist in . cases of paralytic polio, the disease was sidelined her on a tour of the Salk Institute, designed by To put Salk’s legacy in public health truly into by the Salk vaccine resulting in just  cases Louis I. Kahn. She said, “He was showing me perspective one must recall the terror of infantile of paralysis by . $is notable success gave the child of his heart so to speak, his institute. I poliomyelitis before his vaccine’s introduction millions faith in the power of preventing disease was very receptive because apart from painting, in . Polio was the most dreaded childhood through vaccination. I love architecture. It was a moment of mutual disease of the prior half century. It struck fear Among many honors, Jonas Salk received the discovery.” $rough the years, Françoise has in parents, who dutifully kept their children Albert Lasker Award, this nation’s most highly continued to play an active role as a champion indoors in the warm summer months favorable regarded medical science prize. He received a of the Institute, one of Jonas’s greatest legacies. to the spread of the infection. Abandoned, citation and a Congressional Gold Medal from And her art still may be found within the iconic drained swimming pools. Once vibrant children President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And in , Kahn buildings on the dramatic Torrey Pines now stricken with paralysis. $e dreaded but President Jimmy Carter honored Martin Luther bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. life-prolonging iron lung. $ese were all images King, Jr., posthumously along with Jonas A little known fact: France played a role in that seared the public’s consciousness. Salk with the nation’s highest civilian award, the formation of the Salk Institute. In her In Nemesis, his last work of fiction, author the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President enthralling, newly-published history entitled Philip Roth captured the feeling of collective Carter remarked: “$ere are many Americans “Genesis of the Salk Institute: $e Epic of Its grief and helplessness: who do great things, who make us proud of Founders,” Suzanne Bourgeois recounts the “It was impossible to believe that [the child] them and their achievements, and who inspire story of what she calls the Pasteur connection was lying in that pale, plain pine box merely us to do better ourselves. But there are some and the Spirit of Paris. It was there at the from having caught a summertime disease. $at among those noble achievers who are exemplary Institut Pasteur, she says, that “a nucleus of the box from which you cannot force your way in every way [and] who reach a higher plateau founding faculty of the future Salk Institute out. $at box in which a twelve-year-old was of achievement….I have chosen to honor two [including French Nobel laureate Jacques twelve years old forever. $e rest of us live and great men, one who has alleviated suffering and Monod] was constituted.” grow older by the day, but he remains twelve. despair in the field of health and one who has On a more personal level, France was a Millions of years go by, and he is still twelve.” chosen to alleviate suffering and despair in the sustaining force in Jonas’s life, in great part But the dread was not to last, thanks to the field of human freedom.“ thanks to Françoise. She encouraged him to

2 spend time there so he could clear his head of disease of humans has been eradicated. In , the politics that swirled around him and the the World Health Organization announced that glare often cast by what can only be called his smallpox was a disease of the past, and indeed celebrity. No stranger to such a glare, Françoise most people under  in the United States are herself had found peace in New York and knew totally unfamiliar with either disease, thanks to the value of changing one’s surroundings. She successful childhood immunizations. However, says, “Jonas learned French not a little, but polio remains endemic in three countries: very well! Learning the language made him Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, where interested in French culture. So that was a great entrenched geopolitical obstacles continue link for us.” to hinder progress; militant Islamists have So  years after his birth, why is Salk’s obstructed vaccinators, sometimes with deadly legacy as relevant as ever? In part, because he force. )eir motivation is in part dogma, in part still stands out as a great American achiever. the politics of power and in part a reaction to From a modest immigrant background, he grew U.S. diplomatic tactics. Such geopolitics have Jonas Salk and Françoise Gilot: an artistic up in Jewish neighborhoods of New York and caused costly setbacks to eradication efforts and scientist and a scientific artist, as they called was a singular product of a public education. left children vulnerable to infection. each other. Used with permission of Françoise His determination led him to achieve many a In light of this, Jonas Salk’s words seem never Gilot. goal. His name is synonymous with the power more apt: “Life is an error-making and an error- of prevention through vaccination. )is spirit is correcting process, and nature in marking man’s FURTHER READING embodied in the great quest to eradicate polio papers will grade him for wisdom as measured from the planet, which cannot be achieved both by survival and by the quality of life of t
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#PVSHFPJT Genesis of the without his vaccine. Tantalizingly close to those who survive.” Salk Institute: $e Epic of Its Founders its goal, global eradication is a massive effort (University of California Press, ). funded and led by a public-private partnership ASLFH member and Chevalier of the Legion of t
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Picturing Medical Progress involving the World Health Organization, Honor, Caitlin Hawke was the Executive Director from Pasteur to Polio: A History of Mass the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary of the Pasteur Foundation for  years. She has Media Images and Popular Attitudes International, the U.S. Centers for Disease conducted in-depth research on the public health in America (Rutgers University Press, Control and Prevention, and UNICEF. history of polio and influenza and is currently an ). If the effort succeeds, it will be only the second advisor to the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation. To t
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Polio: An American time in public health history that an infectious contact her, please email: [email protected]. Story (Oxford University Press, ). The Newport Jazz Festival – 60th Anniversary by George Wein, Chevalier

hen I was in high school in musicians and others must be heard. Holiday to sing with Lester Young, Teddy the early s, before I was )is may be the first time you’re hearing from Wilson, Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge and the others drafted into the army in me personally, but I know I’ve met many of who had made those quintessential records of , I had the opportunity you Festival-goers while riding around on my the s, which cemented the reputation of golf-cart, known as Lady Day as the ultimate jazz singer. to go to a ballroom the “Wein Machine.” “Prez” (aka Lester Young) had not spoken to Won Massachusetts It’s always great to talk or played with Billie in over ten years, despite Avenue—not far from with fellow jazz-lovers. being responsible for giving her the name Lady where Berklee College In case you haven’t Day. He did not go on stage when he was of Music is now—in been to Newport announced after Billie and I remember asking Boston. It was my first before, it’s one of the him if he was going to go on. His words, “I opportunity to hear most beautiful Festival guess I’ll have to go up and help the Lady,” have Duke Ellington live. sites in the world. been imprinted in my mind ever since. That evening changed Narragansett Bay is Since then, there have been hundreds of the direction of my alive with fleets of vignettes associated with what became the life. As I matured, sailboats and yachts blueprint for jazz and music festivals all over after three years in the against the historic the world. I’m looking forward to what will army and four years backdrop of Fort unfold this year for our th Anniversary. We at Boston University, Adams. )e Festival are the granddaddy of all jazz festivals. the memories of that features three stages, Once jazz becomes a part of your life, it never evening lingered, and presenting  major disappears. It is always there. All I can say is that when I finally decided artists of all styles of a love of jazz music enhances your enjoyment to make jazz the focus George Wein. Photo: Chuck Gee. jazz each day. )e town and appreciation of what life has to offer. of my life, I’m sure itself is as picturesque the seed was planted that night at the Roseland as any seaport town in North America and, for For a complete schedule of the Newport Jazz State Ballroom. you foodies, you can’t beat a Newport lobster Festival go to www.newportjazzfest.org. George I’ve been producing the Newport Jazz roll. Wein, Chevalier, has been a Life Member of our Festival since , and I’m proud to announce I remember well, in , when we had Ella Society since , the year he was decorated. He that the Festival will be celebrating its th Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and the startling lives in NYC. Anniversary on August -, , three full days booking of Eddie Condon’s Chicago-style of performances by established and emerging group with Bobby Hackett, Pee Wee Russell LaNita Adams artists. Performers will include Jazz at Lincoln and Wild Bill Davison on the same Festival as Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Lennie Tristano’s ultramodern band featuring Bobby McFerrin, Trombone Shorty, David Lee Konitz. Without realizing it, this was a Sanborn & Joey DeFrancesco, Dr. John, Dave pioneering move, beyond creating the Festival Holland, Lee Konitz, and many more. We are itself. It was in , that we made the public thrilled to open the Festival on a Friday with an realize that jazz was a music from J to Z and entire day of musicians who have emerged on should include everything from the traditional the scene with distinctive stories to tell through beginnings to any contemporary creative their music. We’re not just selling these artists, movements. )e th Anniversary program we might be selling the future of jazz. In fact, continues that concept. the only reason for me to be in the Festival )e most poignant memory that I recall business at this point in my life is because these from that first Festival is when we asked Billie The Wein Machine Photo: LaNita Adams.

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