American Experience: The Polio Crusade DVD

Comments about PBS American Experience: The Polio Crusade DVD:

This video hit close to home as I myself am a polio survivor. I never paid much attention to the history of the disease and the politics involved in getting the vaccine out. The fact that insensible children were used as guinea pigs for the vaccine was totally new to me. Today that would never happen. Who knows which is worse, the rights we hold dear today or an epidemic allowed to run rampant. Good show.

Comments about PBS American Experience: The Polio Crusade DVD:

As a polio survivor(1953) I Learned just how much terror this virus caused and the desire to do whatever to halt its spread.

Comments about PBS American Experience: The Polio Crusade DVD:

The documentary left out the essential contribution of Drs. John Enders, Frederick Robbins, and Thomas Weller. Without their discovery of how to grow polio in cell culture, Sabin and Salk would not have been able to scale up the production of their vaccines. Of note, neither Salk nor Sabin were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on polio; Enders, Robbins and Weller did receive the award for their novel contributions to science and medicine.

Comments about PBS American Experience: The Polio Crusade DVD:

My daughter had polio. Thank you Pbs!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been waiting for this documentary for 59 years. I want my granddaughters to view this DVD and realize what their mother lived through.
She was one of the fortunate ones and will celebrate her 61st birthday this month.

Comments about PBS American Experience: The Polio Crusade DVD:

I already own another documentary on polio, "A Paralyzing Fear," which I enjoy and value for its content and its contributors, but "The Polio Crusade" is the only documentary I have seen which mentions Jonas Salk's use of institutionalized, disabled children as research subjects. That aspect of the film, and the fact that Kathryn Black is one of the major voices in the film (I have read and love her autobiography/social history _In The Shadow of Polio_), makes this a must-have for my medical history/disability studies collection.