ROTARY LUNCH: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio

Dr. Charlotte Jacobs' talk about Jonas Salk and the effort to eliminate Polio is sure to be riveting.

When a waiting world learned on April 12, 1955, that his vaccine could prevent poliomyelitis, Jonas Salk became a hero overnight. 

Born in a New York tenement in 1914, humble in manner, Jonas Salk had all the makings of a twentieth-century icon—a white knight in a white coat. He was just a child when poliomyelitis and then influenza devastated New York. Spared, he would one day play a major role in the prevention of both. Salk’s work on the influenza vaccine would go largely unrecognized. His polio vaccine, however, would catapult him into a world of celebrity from which he could never extricate himself.

Beloved by the public, he was shunned most research scientists, the one group whose adulation he craved. Jonas Salk had all but eradicated a crippling disease, and the scientific community seemingly never forgave him.

Charlotte D. Jacobs, M.D. is the Ben and A. Jess Shenson Professor of Medicine (Emerita) at Stanford University. A native of Kingsport, Tennessee, she studied medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. As a professor at Stanford University, she engaged in teaching, cancer research, and patient care. She has served as Senior Associate Dean and as Director of the Clinical Cancer Center. She currently cares for veterans with cancer at the Palo Alto Veterans Medical Center. 

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This is a weekly membership meeting for The Rotary Club of San Francisco, open to all Rotarians, visiting Rotarians, prospective members and guests.

Each luncheon meeting includes three-course lunch from Scala's Bistro. Individual lunch tickets are $40, or purchase a book of four tickets for the discounted price of $145. Cash, check and credit card payment options available. Tickets available for purchase at the door.