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Polio vaccine tested on incarcerated men at a prison in Chillicothe, Ohio.

1955

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Over two years, 39 incarcerated men receive different sets of an experimental polio vaccine along with live strains of polio. The men are paid $25 each and given "time off" for participation. None of the men get sick with polio, and this is deemed to be the first successful trial of the polio vaccine.

Afterwards, Dr. Albert B. Sabin wants to continue trials but the U.S. denies him a permit, so he brings the trials to the Soviet Union, Eastern Germany, and other Eastern Bloc countries.