Cold War tensions and the polio vaccine Sabin vaccine from the Soviet side. However other Soviet virologists argued that the Salk vaccine could be considered safe, since the Americans tested it on their own people. They considered that the Sabin vaccine must be potentially dangerous because the Americans did not wish to test it on their own society. The documented achievement of the Sabin-Chumakov collaboration eventually trumped the ideological differences of the Cold War. Their oral live-virus vaccine became federally licensed in 1962, and used for over three decades to help eliminate polio globally, replacing the Salk vaccine. Using these vaccines, the threat of polio remains only
Alvah Sabin Alvah Sabin Alvah Sabin (October 23, 1793 – January 22, 1885) was an American politician and clergyman. He served as a United States Representative from Vermont. Sabin was born in Georgia, Vermont to Benjamin Sabin and Polly McMaster Sabin, and was educated in the common schools. He was also a member of the Vermont militia and served during the War of 1812. Sabin also attended the University of Vermont in Burlington, which awarded him the honorary degree of master of arts in 1826. After the war, Sabin studied theology in Philadelphia and graduated from Columbian College (now George Washington University),