No Better Time than Now to Watch a Story about the Polio Vaccine

Steeltown Entertainment re-releases documentary about Salk’s work

It was 65 years ago this month that the mass distribution of a polio vaccine began in the United States. The vaccine, developed by University of Pittsburgh researcher Dr. Jonas Salk, would change the world. 

The story of the discovery is told in the Steeltown Entertainment documentary “The Shot Felt ‘Round the World” which is being re-released on Vimeo, a competitor to YouTube. The film has had a renewed interest as Pitt researchers and others diligently search for a vaccine to prevent COVID-19.

“Polio was the most feared disease then. It didn’t kill the most people, but it came after kids and put them in iron lungs, like the ventilators today. It separated kids from families, so it had that same effect of really hitting home,” Carl Kurlander, the film’s producer and co-founder of Steeltown Entertainment, told the Ellwood City Ledger. “They shut down swimming pools and movie theaters then, and parents stopped sending kids to birthday parties. So, the terror is the same as now.”

The documentary is available for rent on Vimeo for $4.