Congress also had asked acted in ways that demonstrated a transition was a different kind period. Afterwards airs on booktv every saturday at 10 00 p. M. And sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. You can watch all previous afterwards programs on our web site booktv. Org. Now on booktv Charlotte Jacobs remembers the life and career of jonas salk, creator of the polio vaccine. She is joined in conversation by Janet Napolitano, president of the university of california and former secretary of Homeland Security. Good evening and welcome to todays meeting of the Commonwealth Club of california, this is the place where you are in the know. You can find us online at commonwealthclub. Org, find us on facebook and twitter and on the clubs Youtube Channel as well. I am 8 share of the commonwealth board of governors and i am going to chair todays program. This program is part of the clubs good list ceres underwritten by the bernard foundation. 60 years ago, physician, researcher jonas salk changed Human History by inventing a the polio vaccine. His work has saved countless lives, helped shape the medical field as we know it today. Recently doctor Charlotte Jacobs, Professor Emeritus at Stanford Medical School published the First Comprehensive biography of this medical pioneer entitled jonas salk in life. Today we are pleased to have dr. Jacobs discuss her biography of jonas salk along with his work and Lessons Learned from it. Dr. Jacobs will be in conversation with Janet Napolitano, president of the university of california, former secretary of the department of Homeland Security and former governor of arizona. Let me now just say a bit more about each. A graduate of Washington University school of medicine in st. Louis, dr. Charlotte jacobs came to stanford as the fellow in oncology in 1975. She joined the faculty in 1977 and was promoted to full professor in 1996. She has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching and for her contributions to medical education. Dr. Jacobs also serve for seven years as senior associate dean for education and student affairs. Dr. Jacobs was appointed director of stanford clinical cancer center. And she served concurrently as director of the Clinical Cancer Program for the stanford joined health care program. 2001, dr. Jacobs stepped down from the director position to return to patient care. Dr. Jacobs is known for her research in head and neck cancers and held several leadership positions in the cancer arena at nationally. Janet napolitano became the 20th president of the arrest of california in 2013. She led the University System with ten campuses, five medical centers, three affiliated National Laboratories and a statewide agricultural and Natural Resources program. As you see president , Janet Napolitano has launched initiatives including achieving Financial Stability for the university, focusing research, resources on vocal and global food issues and achieving Carbon Neutrality across the system. She hopes by 2025. Also accelerating the translation of research in products and surpasses. She has also implemented the fair wage fair work plan which establish the 15 wage for employees and contract workers. This is the first for a public university. From 2009 to 2013 Janet Napolitano was the first woman to serve as secretary of the department of Homeland Security. And from 2003 to 2009 she served as the 21st governor of arizona becoming arizonas third female governor and the first woman to reelection. Janet napolitano greg tweeting from Santa Clara University and received her doctorate from the university of virginia law school. Please welcome doctor Charlotte Jacobs who will be in conversation with Janet Napolitano. [applause] thank you, joe, thanks to all who are in attendance with us tonight who are listening in for what i think will be a terrific conversation. And i think we have agreed to call each other by our first names so charlotte, id like to start by asking how did you come to choose jonas salk as the subject of this biography . I grew up in the time before the polio vaccine and i remember how frightening it was in pictures and magazines, and children struggling with crutches, it was enormous fear, no one knew which child and count, and in 1954 the National Foundation tells a National Trial looking at the efficacy of the jonas salk vaccine. They chose 200 lbs. Of around the United States and my home town of kingsport, tennessee was selected for one of but sites so i was in the original trial, i was called a pioneer. I still have that little button. Year later when the vaccine was called a successful jonas salk became one of the greatest heroes of my generation so i was surprised as an adult to realize no one had ever written a full biography of jonas salk so i set out to write one. Lets work our way backwards. Is beginnings, perhaps you could talk about his work free polio. And what he was doing with respect to influenza, another great surge of the 1900s. What brought in to the field. I scroll all the way back. He was unlikely to be a great physicians scientists, born in east harlem into an immigrant family, he was bright but not brilliant, he was shy, his mother told him when he was born that he was born with and amniotic sac over his face and destined for greatness and he believed her. He felt and used for a as a child did sunday he could do a noble deed. That drove him all the way to medical school. Right after his medical training, pearl harbor was bombed and so he who had done some research in medical school with, francis went to the university of michigan where Thomas Francis was rushing to make an influenza vaccine. Why was he doing that . An epidemic of influenza was threatening troops and brought back a terrible memory of 1918 with the spanish flu epidemic when almost as many young men died of the flu has died in combat. They were rushing against time and the two of them concocted and tested the First Successful influenza vaccine for which i must say at the 15 did not get a lot of credit. So then he got a little stymied by frances and took a position at the university of pittsburgh. There he wanted to work on a universal influenza vaccine. He thought you could make a vaccine that would take care of all different types of influenza but he was blocked repeatedly by senior scientists. In 1947 when harry weaver who was a talent scout for the National Foundation for infantile paralysis invited him to join him on the attack on polio he readily joint that effort. It is interesting because there are some names you have already mentions that are recurring names throughout the biography. And there are lots of very fascinating characters in the book, little many biographies included. I picked five. Lets go through those five, described a little bit for the audience who they were, how they fit into this story of the polio vaccine and begin with terry weaver. Harry weaver worked for the National Foundation for infantile paralysis. And had an eye for talent and he saw this young researcher, not full of himself, and what the march of times when did. That never happens. He was really instrumental, in getting him into that group who was working on the polio vaccine. Gary weaver wanted to see things move along, they had appointed a group of senior scientists in the field of polio, advise about their best approach to polio, but they were going pretty slow as scientists might, thinking about understanding a lot of basic science etc. And jonas salk was a race horse jumping at the bit not because he wanted fame but because he could see beyond the microscope. He wanted to get out there and get a vaccine, didnt want another summer to go by with children paralyzed. Gary weaver was the stimulus behind getting jonas salk in the march of dimes. Bully was seasonal. Every year people knew there would be another polios summer and you didnt know where it was going to hit or who was going to be affected. You mentioned Basil Oconnor, one of my favorite biographies in this biography. Talk about him. He is my favorite too. Basil oconnor was actually a law partner of Franklin Delano roosevelt. He was the spunky irish immigrant who really saw himself working with fdr, in a very wealthy family. He made a deal with fdr that he would do all the work in the law firm and became a very successful lawyer. This idea of having a place for polio victims, and then this idea, raising polio victims, when fdr died suddenly it all fell to his hands. Basil oconnor always swore of pinstriped suit, white carnation, his word was law. He ran the National Foundation with tight fists and everything had to go his way. That is the National Foundation for infantile paralysis which started the march of dimes as a mechanism to raise money for the polio vaccine. Interestingly, a 20 year difference between Basil Oconnor and jonas salk and they could not have been more difficult. Of oconnor was bombastic, knew exactly what he was thinking, he was strong, outspoken, and jonas salk was the shy, retiring, very kind individual. Coming back from a pallia meeting early on we have time together on the queen mary and that is where this deep friendship bordering on out love affair, they were crazy about each other and became lifelong friends and the little postbord they were crazy about each other and became lifelong friends and the little post cards and notes were endearing said their friendship week through the book and the saddest and most poignant part for me was when their friendship fell apart. That is for the end over issue is Basil Oconnor had a daughter. A daughter, called up one day and sent i have one of your diseases. She survived and developed a nice friendship with jonas salk this many people thought jonas salk, never had that scientists, some of them returned to the chosen. We will get to that in a minute. Medical research was funded very differently than it is today. Taco bell little bit about the march of dimes and the whole connection of the public. Someone is working on a book about the march of don imus, an incredible organization. The entire public, and a war on polio. It was thought of by any can for as a concept and at posters and canisters to put your dime in. If you had a dime when i was a child he wanted to buy candy but you had to put it in that canister. Everyone was behind it, the whole nation. The way they were able to do that and garner the excitement of the public was amazing. Not only through the march of dimes they found almost all the polio research, funded the future trial we will get to but even more incredible to me is that trial was carried out by the march of dimes by volunteers, was carried out by out Large Research institute for a lot of highpowered welltrained research assistants. It was carried out by school principals, housewives were involved in that enormous trial and collecting all of the data. It really was the public was so engage in the march of dimes. Really a universal, National Effort focused on one disease. We are going to get to the trial in a minute because the whole discussion is an amazing story, two other names, Isabel Morgan. A minor character in the book but not in the world of science and part of the Johns Hopkins team that was working on polio and one of the first things that had to be done by this group harry weaver got together was to figure out how many types of polio are they, is there one like smallpox . Are there a hundred change all the time like influenza which makes it difficult and what techniques they going to use so they would agree on how to test for the polio tight so jonas salk was listening to Isabel Morgan and talking about which technique and suddenly his mind goes to something else, shes talking about her experiments, and killed virus. Everyone is arguing about this approach, he is going yes, i can make that vaccine, the kill virus did stimulate immunity. At that moment, the history of medicine, most of the Scientific Community believe that only a vaccine made with the live weakened virus could impart immunity to prevent disease and that it been the case with smallpox for example and rabies and they all believed that and were working for having no live virus vaccine. Im going to make a kill virus vaccine and i think it will work. And credited isabel more than with that idea. Research shortly thereafter, there was really no role for all women at that time. And a quieter life. A lot of scientists. Jon enders. A pretty famous harvard professor, he is important because everybody used to have a polio virus in monkeys. He will grow polio virus, and the nobel prize for it, like the steam engine that was created or something. And got more credit from the public but jon enders had no interest in making a vaccine. Use the basic scientist who wanted to work on how to grow polio virus and he did. He also did not believe you could use a kill virus and he opposed jonas salk all away. The axis i will come back to that later. Hand 1700 paralyzed kids in boston. I want to get back to is that. You mentioned a minutes ago, Thomas Francis. Thomas francis had been asked and why you, jonas salk new at the beginning he wanted to do research and not be a practicing doctor. They went in and ask Thomas Francis if he could work in his land because francis is working on viruses and years later, he was a kind of presentable young man who wanted to tinker in the lab and realize what a determined to young man he was. When he went on to work on the influenza virus, jonas salk joined him. Tx that field, he became a very prominent epidemiologist, he wasnt engage in making vaccines but when it came time to test the vaccine the National Foundation, march of dimes, Basil Oconnor, harry weaver took the vaccine away from jonas salk and said you cannot be the person who runs or analyzes that trial. Why did they do that . At that point in time jonas salk was trying to get some bad vibes in the Scientific Community, they fought people would be suspect if he tested his own vaccine. So the march of dimes, the red cross, ran the trial and Thomas Francis was selected to do all of the analysis and present the trial data in an arbor, mich. April 12th, 1955. Interestingly Thomas Francis kind of a stuffy statistician, he would not let anyone know what was going on. No previews ahead of time and so this huge announcement was going to be made, jonas salk was to follow in in talking, he found out at breakfast the morning before he started the talks on an hour before, trial had been a success. The trial, you had polio as the center of national attention, the president had been of polio victim, the Nations School children, everyone else, everyone trying to find that vaccine, and Everybody Knows theres going to be a trial but it is not a little human trial, there have been smaller human trials for homes for children with disabilities and prisons etc. But the real trial that everyone thinks of now is the 1954 trial. Explain to the audience the scope of this trial. One of the biggest trials in the history of medicine certainly in the United States. It was conducted, first, second, and third graders at 211 sites, one of the million children who participated in this trial is astronomical. There were two trials going on at the same time, major trial, randomized between a placebo or vaccine. Housewives ran this trial, they were responsible for d term ending who got what and collecting the data. That to me boggles my mind. Because Basil Oconnor told the states to to it that way, it got the met vaccine in those towns and a rich compared to first graders and third graders. It was an incredible trial and carried out magnificently. I have this picture of francis, and picking up these cards from all over the country, analyzing it for months, coming into an arbor and a select april 12th, 1955, is a significant day for another reason. Frances and i selected this date, that was the longest one, gave me more time to do the analysis. But all the naysayers said it was for publicity and they said jonas salk chose that date for sure. Jonas salk had nothing to do with it. And so an arbor, mich. Everyone was paying attention. What was francis going to announce. This is a marvelous section of the book where you describe that day in and arbor. Can you give aid little flavor of how organized it was . That is not the way scientific advances you find out about them. Normally you would have written of the results, peer review in the journal, would have been published and given a talk about it and maybe it would have made the news. That was the standard but this was in the form of a News Confer