A horror movie could not be more dramatic: A disease seeks out mainly children and terrorizes them and their parents each summer season. They no longer go to pools or movie theaters for fear they might contract the potentially fatal disease that often cripples its victims, leaving many in a dreaded iron lung. A beloved, polio-afflicted U.S. President inspires the country's men, women, and children to send their dimes to fund research - some of which would go to an ambitious, but unknown 33 year-old scientist at the University of Pittsburgh who, working from a basement lab between a morgue and a darkroom, would go on to change the course of medical history.
The Shot Felt 'Round The World uses first-hand interviews with world-renowned experts to tell the remarkable story of Dr. Jonas Salk and his research team, and of a nation that quite literally rolled up its collective sleeves to conquer the most-feared disease of the 20th century.