Enders Asks Fair Trial for Vaccine

Recent criticism of the new Salk vaccine against polio was deemed premature by John F. Enders, associate professor of Bacteriology and Immunology and recipient of the Nobel Prize this year for his work in isolating and growing the polio virus.

At a recent conference of research scientists in New York, Dr. G. S. Wilson of the Medical Research Council, London, had said that "the future vaccine in polio will lie with the living vaccines." The Salk vaccine is made by killing specimens of the three known types of polio-causing viruses with formaldehyde.

"There is much experimental evidence that the Salk vaccine may work," Enders said. "At any rate, it should be tried out before we decide what changes are necessary. The dead vaccine may well prove to be very effective."

"If it proves ineffective," he said, "then we should consider the living viruses. Perhaps a combination of living and dead will prove to be the best."

Enders also revealed that he was now working on the isolation of the measles virus. He felt that it was "very probable" that he had succeeded with the same methods he had used in isolating the polio virus, but as yet there has been no conclusive proof.