Harry Weaver (neuroscience) died at his home in San Clemente, California, age 68. The polio vaccine was discovered and developed by Jonas Salk between 1952 and 1955. Weaver, acting as the Director of Research at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, now known as the March of Dimes,from 1946 to 1953, supported Salk's work with a sense of urgency for the development of the Polio vaccine. Weaver's urgency for developing a vaccine as quickly as possible was somewhat counter to the development of the Oral polio vaccine by Albert Sabin between 1954 and 1961. However, his support of Salk's vaccine was considered to
Jonas Salk assembled, devoted himself to this work for the next seven years. The field trial set up to test the Salk vaccine was, according to O'Neill, "the most elaborate program of its kind in history, involving 20,000 physicians and public health officers, 64,000 school personnel, and 220,000 volunteers." Over 1,800,000 school children took part in the trial. When news of the vaccine's success was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a "miracle worker" and the day almost became a national holiday. Around the world, an immediate rush to vaccinate began, with countries including Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway,