The War on Polio and Other Wars - Essay Example

The war on polio was waged against the disease through the democratic effort of then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who is a polio victim himself. The war on polio became a huge success because of his efforts. However, aside from polio there were other wars waged by America and many of them did not attain the same success as the war on polio perhaps because of what the other administrations failed to do. The joint efforts of the government and the people themselves helped in the success of the war against polio. Former U.S.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was afflicted with polio since 1921 and even until he became President in 1933. In 1937, Roosevelt, partly because of his own affliction and perhaps because of his genuine concern for children affected by the polio virus, instituted the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (Kluger). The National Foundation used the latest advertising, fund raising, and research to find a cure for polio, or perhaps some management techniques, and most of all to reduce the disease into something that should not be feared (Oshinsky 5).

The war on polio became successful because it was all about democratic effort and was greatly supported by people from all sectors, as the whole American nation participated in the annual galas held in the whole country during Roosevelt’s birthday. . Thus, the case of polio concerned everyone. The people whose responsibility is to find a cure for it were under a huge pressure not only from the President but also from the whole nation, and so its success was inevitable. As the National Foundation’s director of research from 1946 to 1953, Harry Weaver deserves much of the credit for the development of the vaccine against polio.

Moreover, his efforts at convincing Jonas Salk to work on the cure for polio virus instead of influenza were greatly instrumental to the success of the vaccine. Aside from Weaver’s convincing power, the foundation’s first check for Salk amounting to $41,000 plus money from other sources also greatly helped (Oshinsky 112,116). Nevertheless, the main factor, perhaps, that made America win the war on polio was its efforts to cooperate with other countries, and even with the Soviet Union, and to set aside political differences first before medical concerns.

From 1963 to 1999, the Sabin live vaccine proved to be more efficient than the Salk killed vaccine because the positive results were immediate in the former. However, since the whole country was then already using the Salk vaccine, Sabin decided to test his vaccine in the late 1950s in the Belgian Congo and in the Soviet Union, despite the Cold War and the political tension between the United States and the Russian country (“Two Vaccines”). With such diplomacy and urgency, countries were able to set aside political differences first and learned how to develop a mutual agreement to focus on the more urgent issue at hand.

Thus, the war on polio was won. The war on AIDS is not as successful as the war on polio because of several reasons but one of them is the growing hesitation of the American government to