Jonas Salk is wearing a white lab coat, sitting with his elbow resting on a lab bench next to a microscope. He is relaxed, smiling towards the viewer.

Jonas Salk's Contributions

 Noninfectious Vaccines.  His work developing vaccines against influenza and paralytic poliomyelitis demonstrated definitively that a noninfectious vaccine could protect against a human viral disease, contrary to the widely held belief that infection with a living agent was required, first proposed by Louis Pasteur in the 19th Century. This opened the door to the development of novel noninfectious vaccines (including the vaccine against Covid-19 that brought that pandemic under control).

Community Effort.  The development of the noninfectious, injectable, killed poliovirus vaccine was an unprecedented community effort involving thousands of professionals and citizen volunteers and millions of school children and their parents (Who Participated?). New methods of fundraising were introduced, new manufacturing techniques had to be developed and current methods of regulating vaccine production were established.

Control of Polio in the US.  Within the first six years of its use (1955–1961), the noninfectious, injectable, killed poliovirus vaccine reduced the incidence of  poliomyelitis in the U.S. by more than 95% and eliminated annual epidemics as a serious public health problem . [Figure 1]﻿

Safety of Oral Live Poliovirus Vaccine.  He accurately predicted in 1961 that switching to using the oral live poliovirus vaccine for routine immunization in the United States would not have a major impact on the incidence of polio because the massive amount of killed poliovirus vaccine already used by that time had already brought an end to annual epidemics [Figure 2]. Those people who had a vested interest in promoting new mass vaccination campaigns relied on the unproven belief that immunity induced by an infection with a living virus would somehow be “better” than the immunity already induced by the inactivated, killed poliovirus vaccine. They claimed that everyone needed to be vaccinated with the new vaccine regardless of their previous vaccination status.                                                                                                                                            He also predicted accurately that widespread use of the oral, live poliovirus vaccine would lead to an unacceptable number of paralytic poliomyelitis cases caused by live vaccine viruses. [Figure 3]

Immunization Policy.  He anticipated and advocated for more than twenty years the need to change U.S. policy back to using the injectable noninfectious poliovirus vaccine for routine immunizations.

Global Eradication of Poliovirus.  He accurately predicted that a global effort to eradicate polioviruses using oral live poliovirus vaccine would fail and that only a noninfectious poliovirus vaccine could make polioviruses extinct.

Therapeutic Vaccines.  He proposed a "therapeutic vaccine" approach to control AIDS, which anticipated the use of therapeutic vaccines for cancer and other chronic diseases. [1]﻿ ﻿[2] 

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.  He established one of the preeminent biomedical research centers in the world  today. [3]﻿

Architecture.  His collaboration with the architect Louis Kahn established a new direction in American architecture. [4] [5] [6]﻿

Psychoneuroimmunology.  He set the stage for the development of psychoneuroimmunology. [7]﻿

Social Philosophy.  He published books, essays and lectures about human life and the nature of social evolution. [8] ﻿[8a] 

History of Medicine 1.  His papers, stored in two university archives, represent one of the largest collections of a contemporary scientist, containing scientific and philosophical writings, correspondence, historical and administrative documents, photographs, books, magazine and newspaper articles.  [9] ﻿[10] 

History of Medicine 2.  The collection of his laboratory records and the equipment used in the development of the poliovirus vaccine is an important contribution to the history of medicine. [11]﻿

History of Medicine 3.  His collection of preserved and frozen biological samples from both animal and human studies are housed at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pubic Health. It allows for new research using previously unavailable technologies. 