Those of us who were kids in the 1950s have vivid memories of getting our polio shots so we wouldn't end up in an iron lung. On February 23rd 1954, when the first mass inoculation of children with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh, The New York Times ran a history-making front page headline: "Lasting Prevention of Polio Reported in Vaccine Tests."
The NYT story on that day by William L. Laurence said, "The latest tests on children with the anti-polio vaccine have revealed that the vaccine provides the body with lasting defensive powers against the three types of viruses causing the disease, it was reported tonight. This was described as the long-sought answer to a vital question, making it practically certain not only that the vaccine will produce effective immunity against all three types of polio but also that the immunity will be of the lasting type, possibly for the individual's lifetime."
The article went on to predict that this momentous discovery could mean that the dreaded crippler had finally been "tamed and conquered by man." Dr. Jonas Salk was quoted as saying "By the proper use of a suitably prepared non-infectious [dead] virus vaccine, antibody [immunity] can be induced readily in amounts equal to that resulting from natural infection [by live viruses]: And, that, in many instances, concentration of antibody in the blood stream can be raised to levels beyond that which may be regarded as an average response to the naturally acquired infection."
On the day of the first mass injections, the question still remaining to be answered was whether lasting immunity could be achieved with a single injection and no follow-up boosters. That, in fact, has proved to be the case, as we now know 58 years later.
