Smallpox being the global disease that killed some 300 million people in the 20th century before being eradicated by vaccination. And a lesson in how today's common anti-vaxer tropes are just modern rehashes of the same false claims that have been used ever since vaccines were developed.

----------------------------------------------------------

The strange history of the anti-vaccine movement

...

"Smallpox, a viral disease defined by a rash of painful pustules across the body, has been one of the most lethal of all, claiming an estimated 300 million lives over the 20th century alone. ... And so, when UK doctor Edward Jenner developed the first version of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, he was hopeful that he might change history. ... And he would be proved right. In 1980, after a decades-long public health campaign that included widespread vaccination, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox had been eradicated. It remains the only infectious disease where this has been achieved.

...

Think of the "anti-vaccination movement", and you might envision the public protests, court cases or inflammatory claims about the Covid-19 vaccine. But there is a long history of protests against them, including anti-vaccine riots in 1850s England, 1880s Canada and 1890s America. In 1905 in Boston, US, vaccination opposition led to widespread protests and a Supreme Court case, which would go on to deem vaccine mandates constitutional. 

...

After Jenner's discovery of vaccination, one common trope was that immunisations should be avoided because they were "unnatural" – making vaccines the latest victim of the "appeal to nature" fallacy... Claims that vaccines were poisons also were common.... Others claimed, without evidence, that vaccination was a secret ploy by doctors to enrich themselves, despite this being demonstrably false and an insult to pioneers, like Jenner, who had refused to profit off vaccines."

...

As contemporary as the anti-vaccine movement might seem today, many of its arguments echo Victorian-era tropes – from the argument that anyone who supports vaccines is being paid off by the pharmaceutical industry, to the false claim that other public health improvements have rendered vaccines unnecessary. The popularity of these narratives, says Gorski, are a reminder of the stubborn tenacity of health misinformation."

 

(more)

 

BBC

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250905-the-strange-history-of-the-anti-vaccine-movement

 

Comment & Analysis

David Robert Grimes is an adjunct assistant professor in public health at Trinity College Dublin and author of The Irrational Ape: Why we fall for disinformation, conspiracy theory, and propaganda. His work focuses on health disinformation and conspiracy theory.

 

 

The Triumph of Science: The Incredible Story of Smallpox Eradication

May 8, 2023

 

"Smallpox is the first and only infectious disease that has been eradicated in humans, which means it no longer exists naturally anywhere in the world. Smallpox is also the first disease for which a vaccine was developed and vaccination played a significant role in eradicating the disease.

...

Before smallpox was eradicated, the disease took a significant toll on humanity:

• About 3 out of every 10 people infected with smallpox died
• About 500 million people died due to smallpox over 3,000 years, including 300 million deaths in the 20th century alone

...

In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids who previously had cowpox (which is caused by a virus that is closely related to variola) were resistant to smallpox. By transferring material from a cowpox sore on a milkmaid named Sarah Nelmes into the arm of James Phipps, the son of his gardener, Jenner observed that Phipps had developed immunity to smallpox after exposure to the variola virus. This major discovery led to the development of the first vaccine against smallpox derived from cowpox.

...

The last naturally occurring case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977. The last fatal case of smallpox occurred in England in 1978. Smallpox was declared officially eradicated by the World Health Assembly in 1980, and there have been no naturally occurring cases since then."

 

https://www.nfid.org/the-triumph-of-science-the-incredible-story-of-smallpox-eradication/

 

 

Seem to be the usual participants of the Anti-Vaxers of the alien ALU-HAT conspiracy group🤗🤩🥳

Enjoy

 

History of the Smallpox Vaccine

...

"The world and all its people have won freedom from smallpox, which was the most devastating disease sweeping in epidemic form through many countries since earliest times, leaving death, blindness and disfigurement in its wake.

...

A cure was never found for smallpox before eradication, with those infected being treated only by cleaning wounds and lessening pain.

 

Instead, following the discovery of Dr Jenner’s vaccine, eradication was achieved through prevention, as he himself predicted. Bolstered by efforts united around the world, Jenner’s concept survived to defeat a historic scourge.

 

After 3000 years of suffering and death from the disease, there hasn’t been a recorded case of smallpox in almost half a century."

 

https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/history-of-smallpox-vaccination

 

Smallpox is the name given to those unfortunates who express symptoms of poison removal in one way or the other. It has not gone away. How could it? It is not a disease. It's the result of the body ridding itself of stuff it don't want.

 

 

And the same nonsense anti-vaxer claims of old persist today:

Smallpox

"Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus."

...

The United States and Russia retain samples of variola virus in laboratories, which has sparked debates over safety.

...

The genome of variola major virus was first sequenced in its entirety in the 1990s.[54] The complete coding sequence is publicly available online. The current reference sequence for variola major virus was sequenced from a strain that circulated in India in 1967. In addition, there are sequences for samples of other strains that were collected during the WHO eradication campaign.[54] A genome browser for a complete database of annotated sequences of variola virus and other poxviruses is publicly available through the Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center.[

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

 

 

What was old is new again:

COVID-19 anti-vaxxers use the same arguments from 135 years ago

5 October 2020

...

 

 

 

https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/article/covid-19-anti-vaxxers-use-the-same-arguments-from-135-years-ago

 

 

Did a 1930s Cartoon Warn of Vaccine Misinformation?

A remarkably prescient cartoon, dating back almost a century, resurfaced in 2021, as COVID-19 vaccination efforts intensified

 

 

 

"a cartoon showing various archetypes of vaccine objectors: "Anti-vaccinationist" (wearing a blindfold labelled "prejudice"); "Mr. Careless"; "Anti-Everything"; and "Faddist" — a largely archaic word that describes people who turn to alternative or niche health trends, especially diets, in a way that neglects or contradicts mainstream scientific advice."

 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1930s-cartoon-vaccine-warning/

 

 

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The genome of variola major virus was first sequenced in its entirety in the 1990s.[54] The complete coding sequence is publicly available online. The current reference sequence for variola major virus was sequenced from a strain that circulated in India in 1967. In addition, there are sequences for samples of other strains that were collected during the WHO eradication campaign.[54] A genome browser for a complete database of annotated sequences of variola virus and other poxviruses is publicly available through the Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center.

Meanwhile, in the real world.

 

They are looking here. They are looking there. Behind the trees. In the bushes. Under stones. In supermarket shopping carts. But they cannot find it.

 

They said it would kill millions. And still it comes. Kennedy!! Please help us.

Exhibit A...

 

4 hours ago, Stiddle Mump said:

Kennedy!! Please help us.

Hell NO 🥳