Timeline of The Great Polio Hoax

Step right up, folks! The greatest medical sleight of hand—decades in the making!

The Great Polio Hoax: A Timeline

1800s - Early Observations of Chemical-Induced Paralysis

• 1824 – Metal workers suffer from paralysis caused by exposure to toxic metal vapors, such as lead and arsenic. English scientist John Cooke notes, “The fumes from these metals, or the receptance of them in solution into the stomach, often causes paralysis.”

• 1890 – Lead arsenate pesticide is introduced in the U.S. for use on apple crops, sprayed multiple times per season to control the codling moth.

1890s - Early Polio Outbreaks Coincide with Toxic Chemical Use

• 1892 – First polio outbreaks occur in Vermont, an apple-growing region heavily sprayed with lead arsenate. Dr. Charles Caverly observes that cases occur in children from the same households, yet the disease is not contagious.

• 1893 – Massachusetts launches gypsy moth eradication campaign using lead arsenate. The same year, paralysis cases among children in Boston surge from 6 cases per quarter to 23.

• 1907 – Calcium arsenate begins widespread use, especially on cotton crops.

• 1908 – In a Massachusetts town with cotton mills and apple orchards, 69 children suddenly develop infantile paralysis.

1900s-1910s - Early Theories and Animal Experimentation

• 1908 – Scientists Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper inject emulsified spinal cord tissue from a paralyzed child into the brains of monkeys, who develop paralysis. They assume a virus must be responsible but fail to isolate any specific pathogen.

• 1909 – The Rockefeller Institute begins promoting the idea that polio is a viral disease. Director Simon Flexner injects infected human spinal cord tissue into monkeys' brains, claiming to have “isolated” the virus—despite failing to see it under a microscope.

1920s-1930s - Expanding Use of Pesticides and Continued Polio Epidemics

• 1921 – Franklin D. Roosevelt develops polio after swimming in waters off Campobello Island, a location known for pesticide runoff.

• 1938 – National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (later known as the March of Dimes) is founded with Roosevelt as its figurehead, raising funds to combat polio—but focusing exclusively on a viral theory.

1940s - The Introduction of DDT and Explosion of Paralysis Cases

• 1943 – DDT, a neurotoxic pesticide, is introduced for military use. By war’s end, it is widely used in households, farms, and public spaces.

• 1943 – A UK polio outbreak is linked to a dairy farm where cows are washed down with DDT.

• 1944 – The Rockefeller Institute’s Henry Kumm conducts field trials of DDT spraying in Naples, Italy, and American military camps in the Philippines, which experience unprecedented polio outbreaks.

• 1944 – NIH reports that DDT damages the same anterior horn cells as polio.

• 1945-1952 – Mass spraying of DDT intensifies across the U.S. Coincidentally, polio cases rise sharply every summer, the exact period when pesticide use peaks.

1950s - The So-Called Discovery of the Poliovirus & Early Warnings of a Chemical Link

• 1950 – Dr. J.G. Townsend notes the similarity between pesticide poisoning and polio symptoms, questioning the viral theory.

• 1951 – Dr. Ralph Scobey presents evidence to Congress linking pesticides to polio-like paralysis but is ignored.

• 1952 – The largest polio outbreak in U.S. history occurs, with 57,000 cases. DDT use is at its highest levels.

• 1952 – Dr. Morton Biskind warns that DDT exposure can cause polio-like symptoms, testifying before Congress that the polio epidemic is not caused by a virus but by widespread poisoning.

Mid-1950s - The Introduction of the Salk Vaccine and the Cutter Incident

• 1954 – The Salk vaccine trials begin, based on an inactivated poliovirus.

• 1955 – The vaccine is officially released, but the Cutter Incident results in thousands of cases of vaccine-induced polio due to improperly inactivated virus.

• 1955-1956 – Polio cases begin to decline—but DDT use is also being phased out due to rising concerns over toxicity.

• 1957 – U.S. DDT use begins to decline significantly. That same year, polio cases also plummet.

• 1958-1961 – Mass Salk vaccine campaigns continue, but the polio decline mirrors the reduction in DDT exposure, suggesting a different cause.

1960s - WHO's Reclassification Scheme and the Polio "Eradication" Myth

• 1960 – The World Health Organization (WHO) changes polio diagnostic criteria, reclassifying many cases as acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), Guillain-Barré syndrome, and viral/aseptic meningitis.

• 1961 – The live-virus Sabin vaccine replaces Salk’s inactivated vaccine, leading to a heated rivalry between the two scientists.

• 1963 – The oral polio vaccine (OPV) is introduced, claiming to provide longer-lasting immunity, despite concerns about vaccine-induced polio.

• Late 1960s – Paralysis cases continue under new names, but polio is officially declared "eliminated" in developed countries.

1970s-2000s - Vaccine Controversies and Continued Paralysis in Developing Nations

• 1970s – The CDC stops tracking polio cases separately, merging them with acute flaccid paralysis cases.

• 1980s – Reports of polio-like paralysis increase in regions with high pesticide use, including India and Africa.

• 1990s – Cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) begin appearing, as OPV is found to mutate and cause paralysis.

• 1995 – The WHO launches a massive global vaccination campaign, promising total eradication by 2000—but acute flaccid paralysis rates rise sharply in India.

2000s-Present - Bill Gates' Campaign and the Persistence of Polio-like Paralysis

• 2000 – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation intensifies efforts to eradicate polio, funding mass vaccinations in Africa and Asia.

• 2005 – Cases of acute flaccid paralysis surge in India, coinciding with intensified OPV campaigns.

• 2010s – The WHO admits most global polio cases are now vaccine-derived, yet mass vaccinations continue.

• 2019 – More polio cases are caused by vaccines than wild poliovirus, prompting criticism of the eradication effort.

• 2022 – Polio is redeclared a public health emergency in New York after a vaccine-derived strain is detected in wastewater.

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Conclusion

The polio narrative has been dominated by the myth of a viral cause and vaccine success, ignoring the well-documented role of pesticides, toxic metals, and environmental poisons in causing paralytic disease. The reclassification of polio cases in the 1960s helped mask vaccine failures, while modern outbreaks of acute flaccid paralysis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and vaccine-derived polio reveal that "eradication" has been a mirage. Today, the Gates Foundation and WHO continue to push mass vaccinations despite growing evidence that polio-like paralysis persists due to environmental toxins and vaccine policies themselves.