Cold War tensions and the polio vaccine polio vaccine. By the 1950, Jonas Salk had tested both live, attenuated polio vaccines and formaldehyde killed polio vaccines in monkeys and by 1952, began testing on humans. The killed vaccine was found to be effective, with proper filtration of the biological culture. A problem with this vaccine was the perception that to be adequately protected; a child had to get three Salk shots, properly spaced, and a recommended booster shot once a year, which was expensive. It should be noted however, that Jonas Salk, himself, has stated in interviews that this perception is not at all true. This vaccine
Jonas Salk talks continually about getting out of the limelight and back to his laboratory ... because of his genuine distaste for publicity, which he believes is inappropriate for a scientist." During a 1980 interview, 25 years later, he said, "It's as if I've been a public property ever since, having to respond to external, as well as internal, impulses. ... It's brought me enormous gratification, opened many opportunities, but at the same time placed many burdens on me. It altered my career, my relationships with colleagues; I am a public figure, no longer one of them." "If Salk the scientist sounds