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When Jonas Salk was asked on television who owned the patent on his polio vaccine, he said there was no patent, that it belonged to the people, and asked, ‘Could you patent the sun?’ Polio had been paralysing tens of thousands of children a year.

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The exchange was with the broadcaster Edward R. Murrow on 12 April 1955, the day results from a nationwide field trial showed the vaccine was safe and effective. Salk's vaccine used a killed, inactivated form of the poliovirus, unlike the oral vaccine with live, weakened virus that Albert Sabin developed later. Lawyers for the vaccine's funder, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, known as the March of Dimes, had already looked into a patent and concluded that it would probably fail, because the vaccine relied on methods other scientists had already published. Polio cases have since fallen by more than 99% worldwide. Salk spent his last years working, without success, on a vaccine against HIV.

Türkçe oku
Jonas Salk'a televizyonda çocuk felci aşısının patentinin kimde olduğu sorulduğunda, bir patent olmadığını, aşının halka ait olduğunu söyledi ve ekledi: “Güneşin patentini alabilir misiniz?” Çocuk felci her yıl on binlerce çocuğu felç ediyordu.

Bu konuşma 12 Nisan 1955'te, ülke çapındaki bir saha denemesinin sonuçlarının aşının güvenli ve etkili olduğunu gösterdiği gün, gazeteci Edward R. Murrow'la yapıldı. Salk'ın aşısında virüs öldürülerek etkisiz hâle getirilmişti; Albert Sabin'in sonradan geliştirdiği ağızdan alınan aşıda ise canlı ama zayıflatılmış virüs kullanılıyordu. Aşıyı finanse eden ve March of Dimes adıyla tanınan Ulusal Çocuk Felci Vakfı'nın avukatları patent olasılığını önceden incelemiş, aşı başka bilim insanlarının yayımladığı yöntemlere dayandığı için başvurunun büyük olasılıkla reddedileceği sonucuna varmıştı. Çocuk felci vakaları o günden bu yana dünya genelinde yüzde 99'dan fazla azaldı. Salk son yıllarını HIV'e karşı bir aşı geliştirmeye çalışarak geçirdi, ama başarılı olamadı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Jonas Salk
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