Dr. Jonas Salk

* Re “A Remarkable Life, an Extraordinary Era,” editorial, June 26:

Dr. Jonas Salk well deserves your tribute for having contributed to the elimination of the horrible polio scourge. That he was able to do so was because Drs. John Enders, Tom Weller and Fred Robbins at Harvard Medical School developed the technique of virus culture in roller tubes, including the polio virus, the measles virus, the varicella/zoster virus, etc., for which they most deservedly received the Nobel Prize. All subsequent work on preventable virus diseases is related to this technique.

Nowadays, the work of Drs. Salk, Enders, etc., would not be possible, because of the incredible bureaucratic restrictions of the FDA. For many years I have served as a consulting member of the National Institute of General Medicine Sciences, the National Bureau of Standards, and the FDA. Thus I can attest firsthand that the FDA is an incredibly inept and internally contradictory organization, most poorly run. While the FDA should monitor and regulate foods and addictive substances, it is really hurting the American public as it regulates drugs. Drs. Salk, Enders, Robbins and Enders would not be part of the American folklore and due our everlasting gratitude if the FDA had been regulating their contributions to our well-being.

ELIAS AMADOR MD

King-Drew Medical Center

Los Angeles

* To my dismay and horror, I was appalled at reading that Jonas Salk, one of our greatest scientists and biologists, was never awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the polio vaccine.

Salk saved hundreds of thousands of lives throughout the world with his vaccine. My children were among the thousands that received his vaccine in the ‘50s.

MURIEL SHAKERCHI

Los Angeles