Monday, September 28, 2026

Question: In April 1955, researchers announced from a University of Michigan auditorium that a long-awaited vaccine was “safe, effective, and potent.” Which disease did it defeat?

Answer: Polio. Dr. Thomas Francis Jr., who directed U-M’s Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center, announced the Salk vaccine’s field-trial success at Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor on April 12, 1955.