It would start with a headache, a fever, maybe a funny tummy. But soon enough your knee would give out, or your arm would hang limp, or you would struggle to breathe. You'd be taken to the hospital, where you'd get your diagnosis - polio. If you survived, you ran the risk of doing so with paralyzed limbs, struggling to walk on bulky leg braces. Your parents would be terrified they might lose you, and so everybody wanted the one thing that could stop all of this - a vaccine.

Videos:

• New England Journal of Medicine: The Cutter Incident, 50 Years Later

• American Experience: The Polio Crusade

• The Iron Lung and Polio by M.Rockoff | OPENPediatrics

Articles and books:

• Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky

• The Cutter Incident, by Dr. Paul Offit

• NEJM: The Cutter Incident