John R. Paul

John Rodman Paul (April 18, 1893 – May 6, 1971) was an American virologist whose research focused on the spread of polio and the development of treatments for the disease.

Life and achievements

Leaders in the effort against polio were honored at the opening of the Polio Hall of Fame on January 2, 1958. From left: Thomas M. Rivers, Charles Armstrong, John R. Paul, Thomas Francis Jr., Albert Sabin, Joseph L. Melnick, Isabel Morgan, Howard A. Howe, David Bodian, Jonas Salk, Eleanor Roosevelt and Basil O'Connor.

Paul was born on April 18, 1893, in Philadelphia. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1915 from Princeton University and received his medical training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, which awarded him an M.D. degree. He began his career as an assistant pathologist at Johns Hopkins in 1919 and 1920, and followed that with an internship at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia from 1920 to 1922.

As a member of the polio advisory committee of the United States Public Health Service, Paul joined in a 1962 recommendation that the use of an oral polio vaccine created by Albert B. Sabin in treating adults should be halted based on the lack of clinical evidence showing that the vaccine prevented those receiving the vaccine from developing the disease.

A resident of the New Haven, Connecticut suburb of Guilford, Paul died at age 78 on May 6, 1971, at Yale – New Haven Hospital after what The New York Times described in his obituary as a "long illness". 1963: Kober Medal by the Association of American Physicians