The eradication was a major achievement, but not strictly a scientific achievement IMO. I find it hard to imagine 300-500 million people died from smallpox in

The eradication was a major achievement, but not strictly a scientific achievement IMO. I find it hard to imagine 300-500 million people died from smallpox in the 20th century. Yet we both eliminated it May 8, 1980 and had drastically reduced the number of cases well before that point. The last US case was in 1949 and the vaccine was being administered starting in 1796.