Albert Sabin organized by Soviet scientist Mikhail Chumakov. This provided the critical impetus for allowing large-scale clinical trials of OPV in the United States in April 1960 on 180,000 Cincinnati school children. The mass immunization techniques that Sabin pioneered with his associates effectively eradicated polio in Cincinnati. Against considerable opposition from the March of Dimes Foundation, which supported the relatively effective killed vaccine, Sabin prevailed on the Public Health Service to license his three strains of vaccine. While the PHS stalled, the USSR sent millions of doses of the oral vaccine to places with polio epidemics, such as Japan, and reaped the
Americans for Medical Progress issues the Albert. B. Sabin Hero of Science Award to honor leading medical scientists and advocates of biomedical research. Past recipients have included Dr. Sabin himself, Nobel laureate Joseph E. Murray, vaccine designer Maurice Hilleman, and herceptin developer Dennis Slamon, as well as opera legend Beverly Sills, actress Barbara Barrie, and former U. S. Representatives John E. Porter and Patricia Schroeder for their support and advocacy of medical research. In Spring 2008 the organization awarded Tom Holder, the spokesman for Pro-Test, the Michael D. Hayre fellowship in public outreach. This allowed Holder to move to the United States, and with