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Vaccine History

The Sweet Science of Vaccines: A Legacy of Discovery at Cincinnati Children’s

Dr. Albert Sabin gives a spoonful of medicine -- the oral polio vaccine.

Sabin Syrup

Sabin gives a girl a spoonful of the oral polio vaccine.

Sabin Sunday

Cincinnati parents bring their children to receive the polio vaccine Sunday, April 24, 1960.

“A Spoonful of Sugar (Helps the Medicine Go Down),” the popular song from the classic Disney movie Mary Poppins, was inspired by a polio vaccine developed at Cincinnati Children’s.

Because the oral polio vaccine created by Albert Sabin, MD, has a bitter, salty taste, it is sometimes given to children on a lump of sugar or in a spoonful of sweet syrup – known as Sabin Syrup.

Robert Sherman, one of the songwriters for the 1964 film Mary Poppins, said the lyrics to “A Spoonful of Sugar (Helps the Medicine Go Down)” came to mind soon after his 5-year-old son, Jeffrey, explained how he had swallowed the Sabin vaccine along with some sugar while at school one day.

Such efforts to inoculate kids against polio became common at schools and other venues across the country. The first large-scale use in the United States was April 24, 1960 – known as “Sabin Sunday” – when thousands of residents of Greater Cincinnati received Sabin’s polio vaccine on cubes of sugar. They lined up outside Cincinnati Children’s as well as at schools and churches.

Polio is an infectious disease that can cause paralysis or death, particularly in children, so the introduction of Sabin’s vaccine after decades of research was hailed as a major breakthrough. The Sabin vaccine eventually became the primary defense against polio in the United States and around the world.

Sabin moved to Cincinnati from New York in 1939. “I was particularly brought in to provide expertise on virology,” Sabin recalled in a 1979 video interview. “My job was to study infectious disease.”

Watch Video: Sabin Interviewed 1979

Cincinnati Children’s has a long history in helping to keep kids and adults safe from dangerous diseases. That includes developing vaccines – as well as testing and evaluating vaccines that might have been created elsewhere.

How One Gift Sparked Decades of Discovery

In 1927, a $2.5 million donation – equivalent to more than $39 million today – helped launch what is now the Gamble Vaccine Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s.

The gift was made by James Norris Gamble, a chemist and businessman credited with developing Ivory Soap while working for Procter & Gamble Co. His father was one of the founders of the Cincinnati-based maker of consumer goods.

David Bernstein, MD, MA, arrived in 1983 to help lead vaccine efforts. In 1994, along with Gilbert Schiff, MD, Bernstein obtained funding from the National Institutes of Health to launch a Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit at the Vaccine Research Center. The NIH funding has continued uninterrupted since then.

Schiff, a former director of the Vaccine Research Center, developed vaccines for childhood viral diseases and played a key role in eradicating rubella, also called German measles, which was once common in children and young adults. He was also an internationally known leader in developing influenza vaccines.

In 2002, Bernstein succeeded Schiff as director of the Vaccine Research Center and also became director of the Division of Infectious Diseases.

David Bernstein, MD

Bernstein continues to be active in vaccine research as associate director of the Vaccine Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s.

Richard Ward, PhD

More than 20 years of research by Ward and Bernstein led to the development of an oral vaccine for rotavirus.

Bernstein’s collaboration with Richard Ward, PhD, and more than 20 years of research led to the development of Rotarix, an oral vaccine to combat rotavirus, the leading cause of childhood diarrhea.

Since 2004, when Mexico became the first nation to approve the vaccine, more than 114 nations have licensed Rotarix and more than 30 million children have been inoculated. Made by GlaxoSmithKline, Rotarix was licensed for U.S. use in 2008. Wherever the vaccine has been widely distributed, deaths and hospitalizations from rotavirus have plummeted.

Robert Frenck, MD, who was recruited by Bernstein and succeeded him as director of the Vaccine Research Center, noted that he joined Cincinnati Children’s more than 15 years ago because of its history of leading the way in the scientific effort to develop and evaluate vaccines.

Cincinnati Children’s Efforts During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This experienced team of research investigators, research nurses, coordinators, data managers, laboratory scientists and investigational pharmacists was well positioned to take on the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cincinnati Children’s was one of the first medical centers in the world to begin testing the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in adults and adolescents during the pandemic. These vaccines were essential to safeguarding both children and adults from serious illness and contributed to global efforts to control the spread of the virus.

Paul Spearman, MD, current director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Albert B. Sabin Professor at Cincinnati Children’s, has led numerous clinical trials focused on helping develop vaccines for Ebola, HIV, and SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19. He served as the principal investigator at Cincinnati Children’s for CyanVac's intranasal COVID-19 vaccine trial.

The clinical research team, led by Michelle Dickey, MS, APRN, leveraged past experience with the H1N1 pandemic to plan and prepare for conducting multiple COVID-19 vaccine trials. Cincinnati Children’s was supportive in providing additional acute care nurses and research staff to augment the clinical research core, and the medical center quickly made available the equipment and supplies required to manage such large trials.

Under Robert Frenck, MD, clinical trials began in May 2020 involving more than 1,500 volunteers, ages 6 months to 86 years. The 11 studies related to COVID-19 included vaccines developed by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and CyanVac. In addition to research on COVID-19, Frenck has continued to lead efforts to develop vaccines for bacterial and viral diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, including norovirus, Shigella, and E. coli.

One of the big reasons that I chose to work here is the ‘can do’ attitude of the institution. The COVID-19 vaccine trials have been a group effort and confirmed that I was right that Cincinnati Children’s finds a way to make things happen. It has been an honor and privilege to be part of the team effort.

Robert Frenck, MD

Director, Vaccine Research Center