3 ms·

500 Million, But Not a Single One More

76 points by Smaug123 2y ago

pimlottc 2y ago
Smallpox. It's about the eradication of smallpox.
- koliber 2y ago
  Reading this story made me hungry for the answer, and it felt good to get it at the end. It would be a more boring story if the disease was stated at the top.
- pcdoodle 2y ago
  500 Million is also the figure quoted on the Georgia Guidestones which are no longer a thing :)
deldelaney 2y ago
[flagged]
- Animats 2y ago
  Come on, it's about 40 seconds of reading time.
  - maeil 2y ago
    In fact, I'm convinced it's significantly shorter than the average article length on HN!
    - onionisafruit 2y ago
      It’s also a pleasure to read.
teslabox 2y ago
Smallpox was able to be eradicated because it’s a disease that people only get once, and which does not have an animal reservoire. The smallpox vaccine was intradermal, rather than intramuscular. Resistance to inoculation was reduced because it was just a scratch, rather than an injection. The elimination project concentrated its efforts on outbreaks. Dr. William H. Foege developed a “ring vaccination” strategy to target vaccination around outbreaks rather than mass vaccination.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- hiyer 2y ago
  They did mass vaccination too, at least here in India. They stopped before I was born, but my elder brother got the vaccine long after we'd had the last case of Smallpox in India.
credit_guy 2y ago
Nice story. Here's two little tidbits regarding humanity's fight against smallpox. Catherine the Great let herself be "variolated" in 1768 by Thomas Dimsdale. Following her example, two million Russians underwent the procedure in the next 3 decades [1]. On the other side of the world, George Washington mandated this procedure to all his soldiers in 1777 [2]. Some people think this contributed to the colonists eventual victory against the British. [1] https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/empress-immunization-how-catherine-great-revolutionized-public-health https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/empress-immunization-how-... [2] https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/smallpox-inoculation-revolutionary-war.htm https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/smallpox-inoculation-revolu...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

76 points by Smaug123 2y ago

pimlottc 2y ago

Smallpox. It's about the eradication of smallpox.

koliber 2y ago
Reading this story made me hungry for the answer, and it felt good to get it at the end. It would be a more boring story if the disease was stated at the top.
pcdoodle 2y ago
500 Million is also the figure quoted on the Georgia Guidestones which are no longer a thing :)

deldelaney 2y ago

[flagged]

Animats 2y ago
Come on, it's about 40 seconds of reading time.
- maeil 2y ago
  In fact, I'm convinced it's significantly shorter than the average article length on HN!
  - onionisafruit 2y ago
    It’s also a pleasure to read.

teslabox 2y ago

Smallpox was able to be eradicated because it’s a disease that people only get once, and which does not have an animal reservoire. The smallpox vaccine was intradermal, rather than intramuscular. Resistance to inoculation was reduced because it was just a scratch, rather than an injection. The elimination project concentrated its efforts on outbreaks. Dr. William H. Foege developed a “ring vaccination” strategy to target vaccination around outbreaks rather than mass vaccination.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
hiyer 2y ago
They did mass vaccination too, at least here in India. They stopped before I was born, but my elder brother got the vaccine long after we'd had the last case of Smallpox in India.

credit_guy 2y ago

Nice story. Here's two little tidbits regarding humanity's fight against smallpox. Catherine the Great let herself be "variolated" in 1768 by Thomas Dimsdale. Following her example, two million Russians underwent the procedure in the next 3 decades [1]. On the other side of the world, George Washington mandated this procedure to all his soldiers in 1777 [2]. Some people think this contributed to the colonists eventual victory against the British. [1] https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/empress-immunization-how-catherine-great-revolutionized-public-health https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/empress-immunization-how-... [2] https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/smallpox-inoculation-revolutionary-war.htm https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/smallpox-inoculation-revolu...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]