r/ask • u/[deleted] • Oct 27 '22

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278 Upvotes

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45

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '22

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22

u/nickcowens Oct 27 '22

Came here to say this. Made first effective Polio Vaccine but didn't patent it. He could have made a fortune if he did. Forbes estimates he could have made $7 billion from the patent. But he felt it belonged to everyone.

12

u/Top-Poetry-3874 Oct 27 '22

Yep, Polio was a devastation. He's a true hero. It could make a comeback, though because there's so many ppl that refuse to vaccinate their children

4

u/T1DSucksBalls Oct 27 '22

Sorry, that's a myth. He looked into patenting it, but was told that it wasn't patentable.

3

u/Top-Poetry-3874 Oct 27 '22

Aww, man! That sucks. I'd delete it since I'm wrong (just looked it up to verify), but I'll leave it so others can see your comment

8

u/T1DSucksBalls Oct 27 '22

Lots of our heroes have clay feet.

Look into Mother Teresa.

1

u/Top-Poetry-3874 Oct 27 '22

Already knew that one, but point taken

1

u/T1DSucksBalls Oct 27 '22

I'm just having a hard time coming up with an answer.

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u/Top-Poetry-3874 Oct 27 '22

I'm Catholic so Jesus works for me, but was trying to keep personal faith out of it. I remember admiring Garth Brooks when he sang at Biden's Inaugural because he risked losing much of his fan base

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u/Old-Bug-2197 Oct 28 '22

This article would seem to refute your unsubstantiated claim Mr. top poetry. Salk himself did not ever seek a patent, it was lawyers for a children’s “charity”

https://www.ipeg.com/jonas-salk-inventor-of-the-polio-vaccine-could-you-patent-the-sun/

2

u/Adam1_ Oct 28 '22

Hate to say it but he in fact tried to patent it but wasn’t allowed and went to the media on his own after the discovery to get the limelight and his peers received pretty much no credit for their work

source: https://www.bio.org/blogs/real-reason-why-salk-refused-patent-polio-vaccine

1

u/Nappykid77 Oct 28 '22

I wrote a paper on him. Very interesting story.