3 ms·

Smallpox is: - Spread by contact - Off-the-scale virulent - Trivial to turn into a vaccine - Not present in animal reservoirs

• jrockway 6y ago
  I think this particular thread is debating the ethics and unintended consequences of eradicating all coronaviruses, not how possible it would be to actually do.
  • guscost 6y ago
    The original question starts with the word “Can”, and the answer is [going to be] no.
    • ianai 6y ago
      Do you have a reference for no? They seem to have had luck making vaccines so far.
      • guscost 6y ago
        Do you have a reference for a vaccine that confers near-total near-lifetime immunity? That would be a prerequisite.
        • rfrey 6y ago
          The investigation is “can we”, not “have we”.
          • ianai 6y ago
            Just to clarify, I wasn’t looking to put anyone on defense there - so, apologies. Off the top of my head, “How to Survive a Pandemic” by Michael Greger suggests pandemics may be an emergent, new-normal. Many of the factors which led to this pandemic are not going to be mitigated without broad, deep, and costly changes to how agriculture function. The medications used in raising and killing cattle, chicken, pigs, and etc combined with the scale of those activities act as a breeding ground for viruses which are statistically likely to become pandemics.