I was in second grade when the Salk vaccine became available (yes, I'm that old). We all had to get both shots and eat a sugar cube. It was a pretty big deal back then.
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Polio is nearly a thing of the past, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Jonas Salk. In 1952, Dr. Salk discovered and developed the first successful vaccine for polio. Combined with Albert Sabin’s oral vaccination, the virus is no longer the threat to the world that it used to be.
For the art, doodler Mike Dutton wanted to focus on those that benefited from this scientific milestone. Adults and children alike are susceptible to the disease, but children were especially at risk due to how the disease was transmitted.
“In earlier concept sketches, I wanted to show polio as something being conquered,” says Dutton.
Digging a little deeper, he learned that when the news of a vaccine was announced, people around the world spontaneously celebrated. Shopkeepers closed up shop for the day, factories observed a moment of silence, teachers and parents wept. “It was a pretty scary thing at the time. To go from something affecting hundreds of thousands of people around the world per year to just under a thousand cases today – it was a pretty big deal. That was my visual cue to show a town scene with both kids and adults celebrating, running around, enjoying themselves.”
