Polio Shot Controversy

The nationwide drive to get Americans of all ages vaccinated against polio was snarled last week in a furious controversy over the safety of the Sabin oral vaccine, Type III. Among 1962's relatively few cases of paralytic poliomyelitis (fewer than 450 to date, with the total not expected to exceed 700 for the year) was a handful believed to have been caused by the Sabin vaccine itself. An expert advisory committee called in by the U.S. Public Health Service recommended continuing all Sabin vaccination programs for children, and also ruled Types I and II safe for adults, but left it up to state and local health authorities to decide whether to go on giving Type III to adults.

The weakened strain of Type III poliovirus developed by the University of Cincinnati's Dr. Albert B. Sabin had always been accused by some virologists of occasionally reverting to a dangerous form after multiplying in human vaccinees. and the PHS had delayed its approval for many months until last March. Since then, an estimated 13 million Americans have taken it, many of them in mass "SOS" (Sabin Oral Sunday) campaigns such as the one held in Cleveland last June (TIME, July 6). Up to 5,000,000 of those who took Type III were adults.

At first, no ill effects were reported. But then a cluster of three paralytic cases developed in Oregon within seven to 30 days after vaccination. Nebraska soon had three cases, Michigan and Ohio had two each, and New York had one. Two of these eleven victims were in their teens, but the others were aged 23 to 52. The available evidence, including complex laboratory tests, indicated that in four cases the disease was caused by the vaccine. About the others, the PHS experts withheld judgment.

Because the PHS was so inconclusive, several U.S. cities canceled or postponed their Type III programs, while others, notably Houston, decided to go full steam ahead. Though no medical authority would put it in such down-to-earth terms, the best advice available was to play the odds. An unvaccinated adult stands only one chance in 2,000,000 of getting Type III polio. If all eleven paralytic cases now under suspicion were traced to the vaccine, the takers' risk would be about one 500,000--and the risk of vaccination would not be justified. Among preschool and school-age children, the risk of getting polio from Type III virus in its natural state is much greater, and the risk of getting it from the vaccine is almost nonexistent. Delay in Type III Sabin vaccinations, until the experts finish their lab studies, is therefore justified for adults, but not for children.

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