Why do French Governors honor Jonas SALK?

Transcript :

The 2022/2023 promotion of Governors of the 18 French Districts has chosen the name of “Jonas SALK promotion”.
For what ?

Jonas SALK, from a modest family, immigrated to the USA from Russia, studied medicine at the University of Michigan .

He first developed a flu vaccine for World War II combatants .

After these first successes, Jonas SALK established his personal laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania , where he became a professor.

Shortly after, he discovered a polio vaccine in 1953.

He tested it on himself, on his family and on a few volunteers, then he announced his discovery to the world on the 26th . March 1953 .

After being tested on more than a million children, the vaccine was declared effective on 12 april 1955 by the University of Michigan.

He chooses not to patent it to make it more affordable to the millions of people who need it.

It is estimated that he forfeited a profit of around $7 billion