Snapshots: Demonstrating the Safety of Vaccine, 1956

Caption on the reverse of the photo: “March 13– Dr. Archibald Vinson, head of the City Health Department, administers a dosage of polio vaccine to his granddaughter, Becky Simmons, in her classroom at Calvin Coolidge Elementary School, as a demonstration of his confidence in Dr. Jonas Salk’s new creation. - Harlow Barton, Clarion-Standard”

In 1956, rumors and panic were running rampant amongst parents that the polio vaccine was responsible for a spate of cases of dropsy in area schoolchildren. The real cause was a small hepatitis outbreak, traced to a heavily-polluted pond in the city’s Roxboro section.
- RJ White, Ray Ingraham