In the medical history lectures I've given to med students and to my upper years, when we get to smallpox I'm like this is the unleashed fury of an angry old testament god, do not fuck with it. About 400,000 a year claimed by it that we know of in the c18th, I think it was.
Photo of two boys - one vaccinated against smallpox, the other not - published in 1901 by Dr. Allan Warner.

Smallpox killed over half a billion people in the 20th century alone. On 8 May 1980, the WHO announced its eradication, which was achieved through #vaccines, surveillance, and containment.

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