With these words on April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis Jr., director of the Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, announced to the world that the Salk polio vaccine was up to 90% effective in preventing paralytic polio.

Dr. Francis made the announcement to a crowd of scientists and reporters at the University of Michigan’s Rackham Auditorium, concluding his two-year national field trials of the poliomyelitis vaccine developed by his former student, Jonas Salk. Francis was chair of the School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology where Salk did postgraduate training.

Click here to read the full press release on the website of the U-M School of Public Health.

Here’s a link to a touching 15-minute documentary produced to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the announcement. The documentary reveals that the announcement was scheduled for the tenth anniversary of the death of Franklin Roosevelt, one of the most famous persons to contract polio.

For the latest information on the progress toward the goal of eradicating polio worldwide, go to endpolionow.org.