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Polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk

EDM (Early Day Motion) 141: tabled on 09 September 2024

Tabled in the 2024-26 session.

This motion has been signed by 5 Members. It has not yet had any amendments submitted.

Motion text

That this House notes that October 2024 marks 110 years since Jonas Salk was born, an American Jewish virologist who was credited in 1955 for helping develop one of the first vaccines that helped drastically reduce instances of polio across much of the developed world; recognises he was widely praised for choosing not to patent the vaccine or seek profit from it in order to maximize its global distribution; further notes the current rollout of polio vaccine in Gaza where hundreds of thousands of children have been vaccinated against polio; and expresses the hope that any successful outcome of the vaccination programme might be a prelude to the beginning of the end not just of polio but the ongoing conflict in Gaza and the Middle East.