MSN: Who created the polio vaccine?
New generation discovering UC virologist Albert Sabin's work — the polio vaccine
The COVID-19 era is casting light back more than a half century to the time when former University of Cincinnati virologist Albert Sabin developed the live oral polio vaccine. Recent worldwide media coverage, including the latest from MSN, is highlighting the health care hero's work.
"By 1963, Sabin had created an oral live-virus vaccine for all three types of poliovirus that was approved for use by the U.S. government," states the MSN story. "Sabin's version was cheaper and easier to produce than the Salk vaccine, and it quickly supplanted the Salk vaccine in the U.S."
In 1972, Sabin donated his vaccine strains to the World Health Organization (WHO), which greatly increased the vaccine's availability in low-income countries.
Impact Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.
Stay up on all UC's COVID-19 stories, read more #UCtheGood content, or take a UC virtual visit and begin picturing yourself at an institution that inspires incredible stories.
Related Stories
UC student veterans explore engineering careers
August 19, 2026
Stars and Stripes magazine highlighted the co-op experience of a University of Cincinnati mechanical engineering student who is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
UC expert helps rehome endangered Ohio bats
August 19, 2026
UC College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services Assistant Professor Joe Johnson is helping an Ohio marine rehome bats to make way for renovations. He launched a new tracking project that uses tiny transmitters that record bat migration using the internet of things.
Helping first-generation students explore the world
August 19, 2026
When Penny Wills, CECH ’74, began her undergraduate degree at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, every experience was fresh and exciting.