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The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing Vaccine Crisis

Emerging Infectious Diseases, CDC

Where this source supports the record

Each entry separates the article’s editorial relevance note from its exact, section-level claims. A bibliography link without a direct claim is labeled plainly.

  1. Epidemics & public health · 12 April–May 1955

    The Cutter Polio Vaccine Incident

    Former Cutter Laboratories vaccine plant · United States

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    Why editors use it here

    Peer-reviewed historical review of cases, process failure, regulation, litigation, and trust.

    1. Quick read

      Weeks after the Salk polio vaccine was licensed in April 1955, children developed paralysis after receiving lots made by Cutter Laboratories.

      Reviewed 26 July 2026
    2. Trigger and conditions

      Cutter followed the licensed process, but viral clumping and tissue debris could shield poliovirus from formaldehyde.

      Reviewed 26 July 2026
    3. Uncertainty

      Published totals differ by whether cases among vaccinees, household contacts, community contacts, nonparalytic infections, and later diagnoses are combined.

      Reviewed 26 July 2026
    4. Why it matters

      Cutter is essential to vaccine history because acknowledging a real manufacturing failure strengthens, rather than weakens, the case for rigorous vaccination systems.

      Reviewed 26 July 2026