A #1 New York Times Bestselling Author With rivalries, reversals, and a race against time, the struggle to eradicate polio is on of the great tales of modern history. It begins with the birth of Jonas Salk, shortly before one of the worst epidemics in history. Salk entered medical school just as a president crippled by the disease took office. FDR provided the impetus, and, by the early 1950s, Salk had helped create an influenza vaccine and was hot on the trail of the polio virus.