Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Enablist Impact: From blog to a prestigious journal


On the eve of ‘World Polio Day’, I wrote a post on this blog World Polio Day - 24th or 28th October? It was an attempt to challenge the erroneous belief that Polio day is celebrated to mark the inventor Jonas Salk’s birthday, which is not true. The websites, media reports and even the WHO and UN sites claimed the same on 24th October which is celebrated as Polio day. I had already done my Sherlock Holmes investigation in the said post.


I then decided to write ‘letter to the editor’ to the ‘Vaccine’ journal. 17 years earlier the journal carried an article on Jonas Salk clearly stating 28 October as his birth date. ‘Vaccine’ is the official journal of: The Edward Jenner Society, The International Society for Vaccines and The Japanese Society for Vaccinology. The prestigious journal has a 5-Year Impact Factor of 3.7. The journal immediately accepted my letter titled ‘It’s time to correct the literature’ and it has been published online now here.

Why then, for years, we are perpetuating the wrong thing by misquoting a legend’s birth, time and again. If Rotary International has faltered here by choosing the wrong day, isn’t it our duty to correct the same? 24th October is not yet an United Nation observance, but even if it has become synonym with polio day can’t we celebrate the whole week as a Polio week to satisfy all parties?


Also read:
Polio survivor's fight to correct date of Salk's b'day

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