Dr. Peter Salk on Immunizations and His Father’s Legacy

On April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr. announced to the world that Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was safe, effective, and potent. This medical breakthrough cemented Dr. Salk’s legacy and made polio eradication a possibility. His son, Dr. Peter Salk, is the president and director of the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation, also serving as a professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. The Rotary magazine team recently spoke with him to discuss immunizations and polio eradication.