In this episode, I'm talking mainly about the early history of vaccination against polio in the United States and the recent, radical and rather worrying shift in national vaccination policy in the USA.

After trying very hard to reproduce the gentle cadence and authority of Alistair Cooke's voice using digital tools, I decided to use my own voice instead. I'm afraid that I don't have his mid-Atlantic brogue, just a mildly neutral Scots accent, blunted and shaped by spending most of my life in the north of England. Cooke's accent blended Salford in Greater Manchester with Fifth Avenue in New York. Mine comes from Glasgow, Scotland and Leeds in West Yorkshire. Hopefully, my voice should be clear enough (I'm working on it)!

1. World Health Organization — Vaccines and Immunization A global overview of how vaccines reduce disease, disability, and death worldwide.
2. Vaccine History Timeline An authoritative account of how vaccination transformed public health in the United States.
3. Salk Institute — The Life and Legacy of Jonas Salk The story of the polio vaccine and the ethical decision to place it in the public domain.
4. Albert Bruce Sabin: The Man Who Made the Oral Polio Vaccine An account of the oral polio vaccine and its pivotal Cold War trials.
5. Our World in Data — Vaccination Data-driven global trends showing the real-world impact of vaccination over time.
6. Vaccination Guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics can be found HERE. Thanks to Dr. Katelyn Jetelina