Some of the omicron variant’s unique properties – such as its ability to spread rapidly while causing milder COVID-19 infections – could usher in a new phase of the pandemic.
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Articles on Smallpox eradication
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The major problem in Britain and elsewhere was complacency. The early success in suppressing smallpox, and indeed eliminating it in some places, led parents to neglect vaccination.
Too much hope is being pinned on the vaccine alone to get us out of the current pandemic. But ‘low-tech’ solutions are needed, too.
As ready as you are to be done with COVID-19, it’s not going anywhere soon. A historian of disease describes how once a pathogen emerges, it’s usually here to stay.
The history of anti-vaccination theories can help us understand how such claims capture a popular following. The same misinformation used against 19th century smallpox vaccine is still in use today.
The smallpox virus appears to have been with humanity for millennia before a global vaccination drive wiped it out. Current genome research suggests how smallpox spread and where it came from.
The smallpox vaccination used calf lymph, which was unacceptable to vegetarians and anti-vivisectionists who were growing in number from the mid 19th century.
Smallpox is the only disease to be eradicated through sustained human effort. Many of these volunteers were women who defied social norms to save lives in India.
Polio for years has been close to becoming eradicated, with the entire continent of Africa going two years without a reported case – until early August. Here’s why eradication is hard but attainable.
Top contributors
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Emeritus Professor of History, School of Humanities, University of Tasmania
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Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, Global Health, and Epidemiology, Emory University
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Research Project Manager, Emory University
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Professor Emerita of Biology, Indiana University
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Research fellow, University of York
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PhD candidate, University of Dundee
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Doctoral Student, Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, University of Oxford
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Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina
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Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina
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Senior Lecturer in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, King's College London
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Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University - Newark
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Researcher, Centre for History in Public Health, The University of Edinburgh
