Suzanne Humphries on polio: what the evidence says · JRE #2294
SUBJECT: POLIO
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
1916, Upper East Side, Manhattan, there was a Rockefeller lab that their specific stated goal was to try to create the most pathological, neuropathological strain of polio possible. And they did that by taking monkey brains and human spinal serum and injecting it into monkeys. And there was a big problem with that, which was released into the public by accident. And the world experienced the worst polio epidemic on record, 25% mortality, that's unheard of, really freaked the public out.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
The 1916 US polio epidemic was real and severe, with roughly 27,000 reported cases nationally, New York City hardest hit, and a case fatality rate around 25 percent by the era's reporting, so the mortality figure is roughly accurate. The epidemiological record treats it as a natural poliovirus outbreak driven by ordinary transmission, not a laboratory release. The assertion that a Rockefeller Institute lab deliberately engineered the most neuropathological strain and accidentally caused the epidemic is a speculative single-author hypothesis, not established science, and the mainstream sources on the epidemic's spread and impact document no such origin. It is also not the worst polio epidemic on record by case count, since the 1952 US epidemic was larger. Status: misleading, a genuine and deadly epidemic wrapped around an unproven lab-release claim.