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Wasn’t Covid supposed to be over by now? Yeah, don’t hold your breath. The first smallpox vaccine—which was the first vaccine ever—was introduced in 1796. It took almost two motherfucking centuries to finally rid the world of one of its most lethal viruses.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: December 9, 1979--
The earliest medical writings of smallpox date back to 1500 BCE in India, so of course some bigoted motherfucker is now gonna call it an Indian virus. It certainly had nothing to do with Europe being barely out of the fucking Stone Age at that point in time.
Anyway, smallpox killed a lot of motherfuckers. In eighth century Japan it wiped out about a third of the population. Outbreaks were pervasive across areas and eras; it killed a third of the people who got it, and survivors didn’t always have a fun time either. Oh, and it didn’t exist in the Americas until Europeans showed up. It was viral genocide that helped obliterate 90% of the Native American population. Continues below …
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In 1796 Edward Jenner introduced the smallpox vaccination to the world, but getting people vaccinated was no easy feat, what with the disease present in every corner of the world and things like mass production and public health campaigns and computerized logistics not yet being a thing. Oh, but you know what was a thing? Fucking antivaxxers were a thing from the get-go. Right away unscientific assmunchers were all no fucking way I’m putting that vaccine shit in me. And then a lot of those antivaccine dumbfucks died from smallpox, but not before spreading it to other people. Hmmm … Sounds familiar. Assholes.
To give you an idea of how bad smallpox was and what a herculean effort it was to eradicate, in the 20th century aloneit killed at least a THIRD OF A BILLION people. Yikes. But in 1967, when there were still 15 million cases a year, the World Health Organization said okay enough of this bullshit, let’s eradicate this mofo.
A lot of money was thrown into it, using a program of disease surveillance followed by quickly vaccinating everyone in proximity to an outbreak. I was born in 1968, and yeah, I got the smallpox vaccination scar on my arm. The last significant outbreak was in Yugoslavia in 1972. It only killed 35 people because authorities were quick to act, declaring martial law, enforcing a quarantine, and going on a vaccination spree.
And then, on December 9, 1979, a commission of scientists said smallpox was eradicated; the WHO certified it five months later. Fuck yeah, science.
By the way, only two diseases in history have been driven to extinction. The other is rinderpest, which affected cattle, buffalo, and even-toed ungulates, which was eradicated in 2011.
In conclusion, please vaccinate. Please.
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I don't believe that it is REALLY gone; there are too many remote corners of the world in which smallpox could hide. Time will tell.