 even when it goes right. Because there has never been a medical breakthrough in history that has not been associated with a price. When Thomas Francis did the polio field trial in the mid 1950s, Jonas Salk had made his vaccine, but he didn't know whether it worked or not. So they chose to do a big field trial. 420,000 children were given his vaccine over a year period funded by the March of Dimes. 200,000 were given placebo, first and second graders throughout the country.