Since 1921, outbreaks of poliomyelitis plagued America. There were 13,000 to 20,000 cases annually. Polio caused permanent physical disability and even death. This alarming situation caused the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to approach Jonas Salk, who held an appointment to the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, for research on a cure to this disease.
After 8 years of thorough research, Salk created a vaccine to cure polio. His work was enabled by a key achievement made by Harvard researcher John Enders and his team, who had figured how to grow poliovirus in test tubes. This step was necessary to obtain quantities of pure virus needed to develop and manufacture a vaccine. He also first tested the vaccine in monkeys and then on people with polio.
In 1955, the vaccine was officially declared successful. “450 million doses of the vaccine were administered over the next few years. From 1989-2009, there was up to a 99% reduction in the number of polio cases. This shows how his risk-taking has brought about benefits to the society worldwide.
Lessons learnt: 1. Education and learning from previous experiences of others is crucial in taking risks. (Jonas Salk made use of the research that John Enders and his team came up with and he succeeded in creating a vaccine for polio)
2. A gradual process is essential in cautious risk-taking. (He first tested the vaccine in monkeys and then on people with polio)
Overview: We aim to help the physically disabled teenagers by cultivating entrepreneurship. This is because they are inferior compared to the able-bodied teenagers. Thus, our project aims to guide the physically disabled in risk-taking in entrepreneurship by minimizing the risks involved so as to increase success rate of business.
The reasons why we chose this project are because teenagers aspire to be financially independent and it is difficult for physically disabled to be employed. According to business...