What People Are Saying
As if he'd turned on a light bulb, Jonas Salk overnight vanquished the shadow of polio that had terrorized American parents for decades. It was the medical equivalent of the Manhattan Project -- and it makes you wonder why such an approach wouldn't work for latter-day scourges like cancer and AIDS. Remember when they used to close public pools, shut down schools, and warn kids to stay away from playgrounds? Actually, you might not -- and that's why director Tjardus Greidanus's exhaustive, compelling documentary is an important document for our time. In many ways, our Baby Boomer childhoods were shaped by our parents' visions of children in iron lungs.
Nancy Perry Graham - Editor and Vice President, AARP The Magazine
It's odd to admit that a brand new film about polio and Jonas Salk is infused with so much excitement, optimism and moral courage that it is infectious! The filmmakers have combined superb period footage with contemporary perspective. Prize-winning scientists marvel, "We'll never have a public health experiment like that again." But the true marvel of this story is Jonas Salk himself. His tenacious belief in science and the nationwide medical miracle he conceived made him "the peoples' scientist," a genuine American hero. The film makes us long for his like today.
Lynne Littman - Oscar-winning director of "Number Our Days;" Member, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors
"[The filmmakers have done a] wonderful job. The film takes us back to a time when polio was second only to the atomic bomb as the thing that Americans feared most. Today, fears of polio have been replaced by fears of vaccines. Many parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children. It's a dangerous choice. Because, as we learn in the final minutes of the film, polio isn't gone -- it still rages in India, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The combination of international travel and eroding vaccine rates could mean that polio will be back--and that the final chapter of polio in America hasn't been written."
Dr. Paul A. Offit - Co-author, "Vaccines;" Chief, Division of Infectious Disease, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
As if he'd turned on a light bulb, Jonas Salk overnight vanquished the shadow of polio that had terrorized American parents for decades. It was the medical equivalent of the Manhattan Project -- and it makes you wonder why such an approach wouldn't work for latter-day scourges like cancer and AIDS. Remember when they used to close public pools, shut down schools, and warn kids to stay away from playgrounds? Actually, you might not -- and that's why director Tjardus Greidanus's exhaustive, compelling documentary is an important document for our time. In many ways, our Baby Boomer childhoods were shaped by our parents' visions of children in iron lungs.
Nancy Perry Graham - Editor and Vice President, AARP The Magazine
It's odd to admit that a brand new film about polio and Jonas Salk is infused with so much excitement, optimism and moral courage that it is infectious! The filmmakers have combined superb period footage with contemporary perspective. Prize-winning scientists marvel, "We'll never have a public health experiment like that again." But the true marvel of this story is Jonas Salk himself. His tenacious belief in science and the nationwide medical miracle he conceived made him "the peoples' scientist," a genuine American hero. The film makes us long for his like today.
Lynne Littman - Oscar-winning director of "Number Our Days;" Member, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors
"[The filmmakers have done a] wonderful job. The film takes us back to a time when polio was second only to the atomic bomb as the thing that Americans feared most. Today, fears of polio have been replaced by fears of vaccines. Many parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children. It's a dangerous choice. Because, as we learn in the final minutes of the film, polio isn't gone -- it still rages in India, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The combination of international travel and eroding vaccine rates could mean that polio will be back--and that the final chapter of polio in America hasn't been written."
Dr. Paul A. Offit - Co-author, "Vaccines;" Chief, Division of Infectious Disease, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia