The University of Pittsburgh is celebrating the 66th anniversary of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine being declared “safe and effective” with a new documentary about the covid-19 pandemic.
It was April 12, 1955, that Salk’s breakthrough was confirmed. To mark the date on Monday, Pitt is holding the world premiere screening of the film “Chasing Covid” at 7 p.m.
The half-hour movie takes viewers inside the lab of Paul Duprex, director of Pitt’s Center for Vaccine Research, where he and his team are engaged in a global collaboration on vaccine research.
“Chasing Covid,” which will be offered to educators free for use in their classrooms, was produced and directed by Carl Kurlander, senior lecturer in Pitt’s English Department. Kurlander, a screenwriter and producer, was behind “The Shot Felt Around the World,” a 2010 documentary about the Salk polio vaccine.
“This film is going to let everybody inside the process of making a vaccine and explain it using what happened 66 years ago in Pittsburgh where we conquered polio,” said Kurlander. “It explains what’s the same, what’s different and what are the challenges ahead. If we don’t understand how this all works, we can’t defeat the next one and also, more importantly, through understanding will come trust with people in science.”
Following the film will be a panel discussion including Duprex; Peter Salk, son of Jonas Salk and professor of infectious disease and microbiology at Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health; and Anita McElroy, a pediatric infectious disease physician. She has been collaborating with Duprex on studying the novel coronavirus.
Registration is required.
