Film Story

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, having produced “The Shot Felt Round The World“, movie about the development of the Salk polio vaccine, Carl wrote an article on The Deadly Polio Epidemic and Why It Matters to Coronavirus  The story went viral, being shared over 26,000 on Facebook and in publications around the world.   It also caught the attention of CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Rita Braver and in the summer of 2020, Carl ended up on a segment with Dr. Paul Duprex, the Jonas Salk Chair, the director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research.

How The Fight Against Polio Was Won

Realizing the collective effort it would take to defeat this new unseen enemy, Duprex and Kurlander began to talk about creating an education film which would help educators better explain the process of making a vaccine today versus 65 years ago when Jonas Salk and his team developed the world’s first polio vaccine.    Working with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Creativity, a new thirty-minute vaccine education film has been made, Chasing Covid, documenting present day efforts to develop a Covid-19 vaccine framed by the development of the Salk polio vaccine.

The program has been designed with educators input to help teachers in schools talk about the history of vaccines, how a vaccine is developed in the lab (and the difference today versus 65 years ago when Salk made his vaccine), how it is tested on animals and humans, and the challenges of distribution a vaccine globally, including concerns about vaccine hesitancy and equity.

Chasing Covid will premiere globally on April 12, 2021, the 66th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine being declared “Safe and effective.” (Details to be announced soon, but email ckpa@pitt.edu to be notified.)

Also in April will be the launch of the Take a Shot At Taking the World viral video contest where students can create and make their own short videos (under 3 minutes) to help good informations about vaccines “go viral.”     (A similar contest was done in 2012 based on The Shot Felt Round The World.  Click here for details about that previous contest.)

For more on lessons to be learned from polio for coronavirus, read How lessons from the distribution of the Salk polio vaccine can help us with coronavirus today  an article Carl co-authored with Dr. Randy Juhl, distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Pharmacy at University of Pittsburgh.