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Incline Village, Nev. (EOC Syndicated) --" 'The public's patience has been snapped by the revelation that the Eisenhower administration failed utterly to anticipate and plan for even the most fundamental problem' regarding distribution of Salk polio vaccine.' " (Wisconsin State Journal, 2)
The year was 1955, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin adopted the above resolution adding that the federal government failed to insure proper testing and rationing of the short supply. Other problems with the rollout of the polio vaccine involved the serum itself, as reported in the UK by The Guardian;
"This occurrence may have been due to vaccine which, by deficiency in the tests themselves, or by the error in the performance of the tests, passed the established safety procedures and yet contained sufficiently large amounts of live viruses to infect a small number of recipients." (The Guardian, 7)
The particular blend of polio vaccine had, according to the article, three different types of polio virus mixed together, accounting for the presence of remaining live viruses. That same month, the Idaho State Public Health Department banned the use of the Salk vaccine, citing " 'developers and promoters' of the vaccine of an apparent 'lack of interest' in the polio outbreak which followed inoculations." (Los Angeles Evening City News, 3) The developer of the vaccine was Cutter Laboratories of Berkeley, California. It was cleared of the failure when the federal government eventually accepted blame due to inadequate safety standards. Following a four month investigation, there was still no concrete explanation as to why the system failed. What can be found, even with the limited effectiveness of the Salk vaccine, was the outcome itself, as reported in 1957 by The Sheboygan Press;
"The polio rate fell dramatically in 1956--from a peak of 57,879 cases in 1952 and 29,983 in 1955 to 'only' 15,128 lats (sp) year." (Sheboygan Press, 2)
This is an indicator of one of the first inoculation programs and its case rate decrease, which was not linear, but also not exponential, best described as a "half-life."
The failures related to the measles in the 1970s fell within the expected range of three to five per cent with the live virus but for different reasons, chronicled in Pennsylvania's Lebanon Daily News and attributed to two different strains of the virus;
"The incubation for regular measles is seven to 14 days and for German measles, 14 to 21 days. Thus a child may have been exposed to measles lone or two weeks before and have the disease in his system at the time the vaccine is given." (Lebanon Daily News, 14)
By mid-1975, a resurgence of measles in California was attributed not to the actual failure of the vaccine or the lack of mass inoculation, but to the actual potency, or life, of the vaccine itself;
"Many children were immunized during the period 1963 to 1968 with inactive or killed virus. The immunity associated with this vaccine was relative short in duration." (Mendocino Coast Beacon, 10)
The article also noted some of the vaccine might have failed due to improper storage and warned that "no vaccine is 100% effective." Nationally at the time, measles hotspots were popping up and were attributed to "failure" although the characterization may have been misleading. No one knew for certain just how long the initial inoculations in the late 60s along with booster shots were effective,. but the answer to that came a few years later.
Some of the shortfalls echoed in the history of vaccinations relating to polipo and the measles can be found in the early rollout of COVID-19 vaccines:
Long lines, crashing websites, conflicting information confound COVID-19 vaccine rollout to Florida seniors
"I really need this vaccine," Mary Ravis said. She and her husband, 69 and 72 years old, respectively, have underlying health conditions. "We figured it would fill up fast."
Cited
State Democrats Hit Government's Vaccine 'Failures', Wisconsin State Journal, 23 May 1955, Page 2.
Live Virus Found in Vaccine, The Guardian, 11 June 1955, Page 7.
Idaho Bans Salk Vaccine As Failure, Los Angeles Evening City News, 27 June 1955, Page 3.
Dr. Salk Still Trying To Improve Vaccine, The Sheboygan Press, 30 March 1957, Page 2.
Safeguard Your Health, More on Measles, Lebanon Daily News, 03 June 1971, Page 14.
Measles On The Increase, Vaccinations Urged, Mendocino Coast Beacon, 17 July 1975, Page 10.
Salk & Ike image, Jonas Salk wins the fight against polio - Cosmos Magazine
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