Forgetting the lessons from Smallpox
A reminder to give thanks in this Holiday Season.
On December 9th, 1979 smallpox was officially declared eradicated. Why isn’t this event a federal holiday¹, or at least mentioned in the news?
It’s estimated that over 300 million lives were saved due to the eradication of small pox by an international team of public health officials and volunteers, sometimes at great personal risk. More than all the lives lost in all the wars in history. Yet we are barely taught this lesson in school.
We do learn a lot about war, though, and figurehead heroes. And care more about one lost blond child than the anonymous fate of millions….
Human lifespans have doubled over the last century in response to three innovations: public health measures- mostly vaccines and sanitary sewers- and the the green revolution improving nutrition and lowering the cost of food. Yet these fields struggle for funding and respect, even after the latest pandemic.
Think of the lost opportunities.
Smallpox eradication marks a high water mark of human ingenuity and cooperation. From healers in the Ottoman Empire inventing the concept of vaccination, to Jenner and his safer cowpox vaccine, to the remarkable WHO effort led by D.A. Henderson- hundreds of millions of lives were spared the ravages of the disease.
There is a fascinating history of smallpox in:
tracing the scourge from its ancient origins at the beginning of civilization, to its devastating effect on native New World populations, to its eventual eradication.
The fact that more people recognize Kris Jenner’s name than Edward’s is one more sign of our misplace priorities. And to refuse a covid vaccination is an insult to to those lives lost, as well as a selfish act.
Learn their names. Remember the lessons. Reset our priorities.
[1] A federal Public Health holiday, celebrating the enormous yet invisible benefits of clean water and air, vaccines, abundant food, standards and regulations, etc that we take for granted every day is long overdue. If not December 9th, there is always July 16th.
Frankly, it’s easier to focus on individuals (Columbus or Washington) or a dramatic event (war and veterans) than on these more powerful, yet diffuse, innovations. A federal holiday is a chance to educate the public, make the invisible tangible, and volunteer in your community.
