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?
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