San Diego- He lives in La Jolla Village. Near this cave will be crowded this weekend with sunbathing people who do not want to protect themselves from the new coronavirus.

Peter Salk’s favorite shops and restaurants are also nearby. With the pandemic declining in San Diego County, many are starting to reopen.

However, after spending two months at home relaxing, 76-year-old Salk never ventures past the front porch on a long Memorial Day weekend. And that may be a while before he does so.

“I’m not ready to take the risk of becoming infected,” said biomedical researcher Salk, who worked with his father Jonas Salk for many years, against the deadly poliovirus. The man who developed the first successful vaccine.

“When alleviated, it is clear that the disease will come back.”

Customers began returning to local restaurants on Thursdays and Fridays after the dining service was reopened throughout the county.

However, many people, especially the elderly, share the concerns of soak. The mortality rate of COVID-19 is particularly high among people over 70 years old.

His thoughts on Soak’s threat weigh heavily on his family name, as well as his profound understanding of the promise and danger of epidemics and vaccines. In 1953, at the age of 9, he became the first to be vaccinated with his father’s vaccine.

His message has special meaning among people of sufficient age to remember the times when polio paralyzed and killed thousands of people in a random way.

The children were hit hardest. It is not uncommon for parents to take their child out of school simply by proposing that another student has the virus. The virus becomes infected when it comes into contact with the stool of an infected person. Polio can also be transmitted through the sneeze and cough droplets of an infected person.

In the 1940s and 1950s, polio was the most feared disease in the country. Public areas such as pools and cinemas were closed when the outbreak occurred.

The situation remained the same until 1955, when after seven years of research, development and testing, the Jonas Salk vaccine was considered safe and effective. By 1961, the incidence of polio cases in the United States had decreased by 97%.

Soak moved to La Jolla, where he founded the Biomedical Institute, which bears his name. With a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, Peter later joined the Salk Institute where he studied everything from cancer to immunotherapy, multiple sclerosis, and HIV / AIDS.

He was still watching the disease carefully and was surprised when the news about the coronavirus first began to spread.

“I was surprised when this all happened,” Salk told the Union Tribune during an interview on Zoom. “I’m 76 years old. I had a problem with my lungs. Suddenly, this virus appeared to overload and overwhelm the hospital.

“I wonder if I could get a hospital bed if I had this infection, or my wife Ellen was infected, or if I needed it, I couldn’t get a ventilator.

“I was scared. I felt like I was lurking everywhere. I brought my disinfectant with me. I was paranoid that I might touch something contaminated with a virus.”

On March 19, Governor Gavin Newtham ordered the Californians to evacuate there.

“It was a great relief for me,” Salk said. “I haven’t left home since then.”

His 2003 Honda Civic is sitting outside. The battery is exhausted due to lack of usage.

Soak took another step to potentially protect his health and obtained the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. He got it long before President Donald Trump cited the drug as a possible cure for COVID-19.

Mr. Trump’s statement caused a fuss because scientists have not yet decided whether the drug can be used effectively against viruses.

“I looked at the original study and got the impression that the drug might be useful,” Salk said. “But it was clear that it had to be used carefully because of side effects that could cause dangerous abnormal heart rhythms.

“A recent report suggests that hydroxychloroquine may actually be ineffective in the context of severe coronavirus disease. I’m not sure if it will help soon after exposure. Hmm.

“While monitoring closely, I may still consider taking it.”

Meanwhile, scientists around the world are enthusiastically trying to develop a vaccine against the virus.

Sawke was cautious about this issue and said, “I do my best to stay open about new vaccines. I tend to think they are likely to be safe and effective. Perception, in most cases, it was handled properly when the problem was revealed.

“It’s important that we don’t rush, even though it’s an urgent need to get a vaccine as soon as possible. For example, I think some vaccine programs skip animal studies and go directly to humans. I’ve read what they might be doing. I lose the opportunity to see how the vaccine works for people. ”

“My father had never been vaccinated against the flu as a young man, even though my father played a major role in the development of the first flu vaccine in the early 1940s,” Salk said.

“I must have obsessed him in the way, but then my family got the flu and got sick badly. It changed my attitude and since then I’ve had the flu. I was vaccinated. “

Salk is eager to see a safe vaccine coming soon. He is very worried about what is happening now.

“First and foremost, we don’t yet have a natural history of this disease, as it occurs throughout the year’s season,” says Salk. “Other coronaviruses show seasonality. Maybe we’ll be lucky for now, and the new coronaviruses will be less likely to spread in spring and summer than in winter. But we do I do not know.

“In any case, the possibility that the disease will come back sooner or later is real, especially because of the looser social distance limits.”

But he understands the need for good news for people.

“People were afraid of polio, which affected them for years,” Salk said. “It can be measured by the extraordinary sense of security when the (soak) vaccine turns out to be safe and effective. I was delighted. Finally, because I got the vaccine, I needed to live in constant fear. There was no. “

I don’t think people’s anxiety will soon subside once the coronavirus vaccine is approved.

“It depends on what this vaccine looks like,” Salk said. “Will it really succeed? Can it be used? Who will get it? How many people really want it?”

“We live in an era when there is already distrust of vaccines in a significant portion of the population.

“I’m worried about this.”

Read or share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/23/peter-salk-whose-father-conquered-polio-says-coronavirus-fight-far / 111857020 /