SAN DIEGO – With a growing anti-vaccine movement as a backdrop, noted researcher and president of the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation Dr. Peter Salk – whose father discovered the first polio vaccine – will address the fight to end polio and the current controversy surrounding vaccines during a public presentation at Tifereth Israel Synagogue on Sunday, October 27.
Titled “Remembering Jonas Salk – The Shot Felt ‘Round the World,’ the event is scheduled for 7 p.m. Admission is $10 and includes a dessert reception.
Dr. Salk worked in his father’s laboratory at the Salk Institute from 1972 to 1984 conducting research on immunotherapy of cancer, autoimmune disease and strategies for vaccine production. He worked again with his father in the 1990s on a project to develop a vaccine for HIV infection and subsequently worked on the introduction of AIDS treatment programs in Africa and Asia. As President of the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation, he now devotes his time bringing attention to various aspects of his father’s legacy and addressing myriad challenges to global health and wellness.
Dr. Salk graduated from Harvard University in 1965 and from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine four years later. Besides serving as president of the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation in La Jolla, Dr. Salk also is a visiting professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health.
Dr. Salk has stated the growing anti-vaccine movement is contributing to the recurrence of measles, whooping cough and other preventable diseases. Said Salk, in a 2014 interview with The Atlantic: “What strikes me is—I don’t know quite how to put this, but it’s like there’s an epidemic of misinformation, and we’ve got to inoculate the public against it.”
Tifereth Israel Synagogue is at 6660 Cowles Mountain Blvd. in the San Carlos neighborhood of San Diego. The event is part of the Tifereth Israel Men’s Club Speaker Series.
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Ogul is president of Tifereth Israel Synagogue.