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Transcription: [00:00:05]
{SILENCE}

[00:00:15]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Our Adventures in Science guest today is Dr. Thomas M. Rivers, Medical Director of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

[00:00:24]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Dr. Rivers has been, up until 1955, director of the Rockefeller Institute Hospital, and I think you could call Dr. Rivers, Dr. Virus, because perhaps, as no-one else in the world, he has been at the forefront of this great investigation that's been underway against the virus diseases.

[00:00:44]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Not only Polio, but all viruses diseases. Dr. Rivers, we've made a real progress, great deal of progress in the past years, few years, against Polio. Won't you tell us just what that amounts to, in your opinion?

[00:01:02]
{SPEAKER name="Thomas M. Rivers"}
We certainly have made a great deal of progress. When we started in 1938, none of us had any idea that we would be as far ahead of the game as we are today.

[00:01:13]
{SPEAKER name="Thomas M. Rivers"}
I think it's remarkable that so much knowledge has been found and so much has been done to prevent the disease, and also to treat those who have been crippled by the disease.

[00:01:27]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Well Dr. Rivers, there's really not too much excuse for a person getting Polio these days, with the vaccine that's available, this vaccine is one of the great achievements of modern medicine.

[00:01:41]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Are most of the people in the country protected against Polio today? I should think they would be.

[00:01:47]
{SPEAKER name="Thomas M. Rivers"}
A lot of people are protected, but there's an amazing number who are not protected, and I'd like to give you a few figures.

[00:01:56]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
I wish you would, Dr. Rivers.

[00:01:58]
{SPEAKER name="Thomas M. Rivers"}
There are 109 million people under 40 years of age. 64 million of these have had at least one shot of Polio Vaccine.

[00:02:10]