Smallpox eradication anniversary offers glimmer of hope to world battling COVID-19

Friday marked the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, an encouraging reminder of what can be achieved when the global health community unites behind a common cause.

For centuries, smallpox was a far deadlier disease than the novel coronavirus, killing three out of every 10 people that contracted it. Epidemiologists believe the virus killed as many as 300 and 500 million people in the 20th century alone, with the disease even traced as far back as to the body of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses V, who died in 1157 BC.

"Ideologies and politics were set aside as the world united to fight a common threat," the World Health Organization wrote of the global vaccination campaign that launched in 1959 to eradicate smallpox. The disease was at last declared nonexistent outside of labs on May 8, 1980, and today remains the only human disease to be eradicated.

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The WHO emphasized that scientists fighting COVID-19 today can learn from the smallpox campaigns. "When the [world] unites behind science and public health measures we can defeat diseases and protect lives and livelihoods," the organization said. Learn more about smallpox below. Jeva Lange