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Since its first major outbreak in New York City in 1916, the inhabitants of the United States had been on edge regarding infantile paralysis, or poliomyelitis, a disease that could paralyze young children by destroying nerve cells in the spinal cord or brain, leaving them with immobilized body parts or even causing fatal muscle restriction.[1] Thankfully, in 1955, the light at the end of the tunnel was nearing as the first polio vaccines were approved. Five pharmaceutical companies were tasked with producing and distributing the vaccines, and they were becoming readily available to the public that spring. Things were looking up, or so it had seemed. Unknowingly to the eager masses, one of the greatest medical crises in the country would soon occur, and the name Cutter Laboratories would become synonymous with disaster.
Jonas Salk, one of the most celebrated medical scientists of the 20th century, was responsible for developing an appropriate vaccine for combating poliomyelitis. From 1947 to 1952, Salk and his staff had worked tirelessly over the years on a solution for the disease and came to the conclusion that including a killed virus in the vaccine would work effectively to quell the infection. They then performed extensive testing on monkeys to identify different types of polio, and soon after would start testing on institutionalized humans. After the rigorous testing, it was proven that the Salk’s polio vaccine was effective, and after much pressure from the government, national field testing began in 1954.[2] A year later, the vaccine was ready for mass distribution through five pharmaceutical companies.
Of these five corporations in charge of distribution in 1955, one met with a horrific national scandal, Cutter Laboratories. The origins of this incident take place in Pocatello, Idaho, where Susan Pierce, one of the children who had taken the recent vaccine came down with a case of polio nearly a week later. At first, those in charge of the local administration of the vaccine wrote it off as someone who had contracted the disease before the vaccine, but the initial ignorance turned to great worry as other cases in the area would sprout, and Susan would end up tragically dying from the infection.[3] Shortly after the first cases were reported, more crept up throughout California and Idaho, two of the states in which the early doses of the Cutter vaccine were handed out. As more reports of mild polio symptoms came from those that received the vaccine, more serious reports involving paralytic polio often accompanied them. It was also quickly becoming clear that these cases were not mere coincidence, but a direct result of the vaccine, causing Cutter to immediately withdraw its product from the market. The Saturday Evening Post just a few months after the first Cutter occurrence remarked on some incriminating evidence: “It was found that all five of the California children became paralyzed in the left arm, which had received the vaccine. This was suggestive, since arms are less often paralyzed than legs.”[4] The impact of the Cutter Incident was huge; 40,000 cases of polio, 200 children with varying degrees of paralysis, and 10 deaths were caused by the vaccine.[5]
Cutter Labs' First Victim
Susan Pierce, 7, was the first case that was brought to the attention to the local health officer in Pocatello, Idaho. She had come down with paralytic polio after receiving the Salk Vaccine from Cutter Labs. Three days later, Susan had died from fulminating bulbar polio.
Steven M Spencer, “Where Are We Now on Polio?,” The Saturday Evening Post, September 10, 1955, pp.21
How could this have happened? If one may recall, the Salk vaccine contains a killed polio virus that works as an antibody to combat the actual disease. These particular lots from Cutter Laboratories actually contained a live poliomyelitis virus, so instead of counteracting the virus, it ended up infecting many children that took the vaccine. Salk made the assumption that these pharmaceutical companies would carefully follow his precautions and procedures for mass development. However, Salk’s original fifty-five pages of protocols for the vaccine development was whittled down to only five when it became time to manufacture due to pressure from the government and health departments. Not only were the protocols severely cut down, but Cutter Labs also failed to report any failures in testing, a critical mistake considering that one-third of their lots were deemed unsafe. Because of their failure to report these issues, the federal government was, of course, unaware of the potential risk of these lots, and approved the licensing for the doses.[6]
Although the majority of the blame lies on Cutter Labs, a good amount falls on the government with its constant pressure to release an effective vaccine despite not going through all of the necessary safety procedures. Dwight Eisenhower, the president at the time, confessed to the administration’s negligence, stating that “under this pressure the scientists in charge and development of the vaccine probably tried, as he put it, to take a little bit of a shortcut.”[7] As expected, many legal and political issues followed this incident, and the public became more wary towards vaccinations. Parallels can be drawn today, with rare cases of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine reportedly causing blood clots in some recipients. Although not nearly on the scale of the Cutter virus, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was also immediately recalled and incited public alarm, discouraging many from vaccinated themselves. In both the past and the present, it is fair to say that fatal mistakes in the industry encourages something just as dangerous; public dissuasion and fear of crucial and live-saving vaccines.
Daniel Bickar, June 2021
WhereAreWeOnPolio_SatEvePost_10Sept1955.pdfidaho-state-journal-Apr-28-1955-p-1.pdf[1] Harwell S Todd et al., “The Biggest Public Health Experiment Ever,” Montana The Magazine of Western History (Autumn 2019): 49.
[2] Karen L Wellner, “Polio and Historical Inquiry,” OAH Magazine of History, September 2005, 54-58.
[3] Steven M Spencer, “Where Are We Now on Polio?,” The Saturday Evening Post, September 10, 1955, 20
[4] Steven M Spencer, “Where Are We Now on Polio?,” The Saturday Evening Post, September 10, 1955, 152
[5] Michael Fitzpatrick, “The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing Vaccine Crisis,” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 99 (March 2006): 156.
[6] Nathaniel L. Moir, “To Boldly Remember Where We Have Already Been,” Journal of Applied History 2, no. 1-2 (2020): 29.
[7] “U.S. Okays Serum Too Soon,” Idaho State Journal, May 11, 1955, 1.
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