Vaccine
In the college coffee shop this morning, a trivia question:
Which disease did Joan Salk create a vaccine to fight?
Dozens of faculty members answered the question.
None pointed out that it was Jonas, not Joan.
Or is it me who doesn’t know the whole truth?
Did Dr. Salk, years after developing a cure for polio,
decide he’d had enough of the charade and make the
change he’d secretly been longing to make all those years?
I picture Joan Salk sitting in her office, talking with
fellow researchers about her pioneering work. Those
who were young enough might not even have known
about her past, just accepted her as the brilliant woman
she so clearly was. Maybe after saving the world, she
felt it was time to save herself.
7 January 2013
Auburn, AL
Comments