Vaccine diplomacy during the Cold War (i), heads or tails. Heads: Mikhail Chumakov and the oral poliomyelitis vaccine of Albert Sabin

M. Marco Igual
Neurosciences and History 2024;12(2):61-76

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

M. Marco Igual
Neurólogo. Hospital Universitario Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Spain.

ABSTRACT

Medicine and public healthcare have been used as a means of collaboration between politically opposed countries within the framework of the so-called soft diplomacy. One of the clearest examples of this type of diplomacy is vaccines, peaking in the 1950s with the cooperation between American and Soviet scientists to eradicate poliomyelitis. This task was led by the iron will of Albert Sabin and Mikhail Chumakov. This process was not free of difficulties, but the triumph over this severe disease was one of the greatest public healthcare achievements of the 20th century, saving countless lives and preventing the paralysis it caused. This article analyses the figure of Chumakov and his relationship with Sabin within the framework of the development of Soviet virology, which had already shown its potential by the late 1930s with the discovery of tick-borne encephalitis. A second article will address the vaccine born in the USSR at the same time that the poliomyelitis vaccine was developed, with the aim of treating acute encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis. This second vaccine, which was also assessed by Western scientists, did not meet the expectations of its developers.

KEYWORDS

Cold War, vaccine diplomacy, Mikhail Chumakov, Albert Sabin, oral poliomyelitis vaccine, Soviet virology

Neurosciences and History 2024;12(2): 61-76