Evening star., 1955-06-08
BY ROBERT X. WALSH

Mystery surrounding some as
poets of the polio vaccine prob
lem still remained to be solved /
as the Nation today awaited de-
tailed official explanations as a
follow-up to a brief special |
report by Surgeon General Leon /
ard A. Scheele.
With Welfare Secretary Oveta .
Culp Hobby, DR.. Scheele dis
cussed the vaccine situation last /
night in a Nation-w quarter
hour television and radio talk.
His principal new announcement /
was that manufacturers of the
Salk vaccine will not be able
to produce enough of the serum
to immunize all children this
summer"
Mrs. Hobby and DR.. Scheele
were commended by President
Eisenhower today for having
shown wisdom in stressing safety
and caution, rather than mere
haste in the handling of the
vaccine. Undue speed, the Presi-
dent said, could have had many
disastrous effects.
Public Health Service spokes-.
men said last nights talk was
not intended as a preview of an
exhaustive report being prepared
for release possibly within a day
or two. This will deal with the
history and problem Of the Salk
vaccine development, production
and distribution, they said.
Doctors Hear Report
A 33-page paper read earlier
yesterday by DR.. Scheele at an
American Medical Association
meeting in Atlantic City was
more technical than his special
report" on TV. 1t neverthe-
less went considerably farther
toward removing some of the
confusion of recent weeks, al
though DR.. Scheele remarked
that various questions are yet
to be answered.
Possible further confusion
that developed in the course of
DR.. Scheele's talk last night was
clarified when a PHS spokes-
man said the reference to "all
children" meant those in the
1-to-19 age group. !
DR.. Scheele's statement, it was
explained, did not conflict with
President Eisenhower news
conference comment last week
that enough vaccine will be on
hand to complete the two-shot
inoculations of all first and
second-grade school children.
DR.. Scheele described polio as
truly a national health prob
lem" But he urged calmness,
confidence and sense of per-
spective on the part of the pub
lie and of officials. He declared
that the PHS policy is safety,
not speed. except as speed is
compatible with safety"
Some Epidemics Seen
"While it is much too early
to make any predictions" he
advised, "there is no reason to
believe that incidence of polio
this year will be greater than
the five-year average. Expert
ence indicates, however, that
there will be scattered local epi-
denies and some may be severe"
He noted, at that same time, that
the dread disease of polio never
theless does not cause as many
children's deaths each year as
do pneumonia, cancer and heart
disease.
He began by repeating ques-
tions he said most people are
asking: is the vaccine safe? Does
it really protect against polio?
Will there be enough vaccine for
large-scale use this summer?
He replied that the vaccine
itself is good and represents the
sum of available scientific
knowledge" With the recently
adopted stricter testing stand
ards. there is sound reason for
confidence in its safety and eff
fectiveness. he said. He ex-
planned that there is always the
possibility of very minute
amounts Of live virus in the vac
cine. But he assured his hearers
that "these amounts have been
reduced as low as science can
reduce them without destroying
the effectiveness of the vac
cine"
AS for production which has
been stalled for a month and