PHOTOS: Philanthropy during a public health crisis has shaped the history of human society

Lessons from pivotal moments in previous health crises, in a series of evocative photos
Curated By: Madhu Kapparath
Published: Nov 28, 2020
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Image by : (LEFT) THE DENVER POST VIA GETTY IMAGES; GEORGE RINHART / CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

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POLIO AND LOOSE DIMES

US President Franklin D Roosevelt (right) was 39 when he contracted polio and was never able to walk again on his own. This led him to found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938 (later named March of Dimes), a philanthropic initiative to uncover the mysteries of polio. It raised money—literally urging Americans to send loose dimes—to sponsor clinical trials for Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine. Tested in a massive field trial in 1954 that involved 1.8 million schoolchildren known as “polio pioneers”, the Salk vaccine was licenced for use on April 12, 1955. By the 1960s, polio cases in America dropped from 45,000 to fewer than 1,000. March of Dimes has since adopted a global mission to combat a wide range of birth defects, and help mothers and premature babies.