What Would Dr Salk Think?

Raised in Pittsburgh,
Dr Salk’s polio vaccine trial
Of grade school children
My formative medical memory.

Doctoring for decades,
Tending to patients,
Thousands of vaccines,
Preventing polio, measles.

Throughout, steadfast in feeding
“The very root of medicine,”
To help “one human” with
Medicine’s “special knowledge.”¹

Recently retired, COVID erupted,
Upheaving life and limb,
Disrupting the earth
In unprecedented ways.

Between pandemics,
Science’s amazing advances
At the highest level imaginable.
Antibiotics, mRNA vaccines.

Then, society’s amazing retreats,
Anti-science, vaccine denial,
At the highest levels imaginable.
What would Dr Salk think?