We Shall Overcome: Lessons we can learn from eradicating Smallpox

I wanted to avoid writing about COVID-19 as much as possible but came across something interesting as I was going through Twitter this morning half-asleep. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the eradication of Smallpox. On May 8th, 1980, the World Health Organization declared the world free of smallpox, a little more than 2 years after the last active case of the disease was diagnosed in Somalia. Years of mass vaccination, combined with containment and tracing measures had helped the WHO achieve its goal of complete eradication, and the world rejoiced.

I understand that smallpox and COVID-19 are fundamentally different. I’m far from an epidemiologist, so I’m not even going to try and get into the differences, but they are not the same, that much I know. Also, reading an article by the epidemiologist largely responsible for the eradication of smallpox, the aptly named Larry Brilliant, it’s likely that COVID-19 will never be eradicated. Smallpox was also an endemic concentrated in a few countries, while for anyone living under a rock, COVID-19 is, of course, a pandemic, making its mark on nearly every country in the world. All that being said, reading this news today still gave me hope.

Life may seem to have come to a standstill at the moment. A lot of us are away from our families at the moment, some of our families may be nearer than others, but we’re ultimately in the same boat as we face severe restrictions on our movement. It’s been a sudden change that we’ve had little to no time to prepare for, our lives have been changed almost instantly. With no definite end date in sight and easy access to media from around the world, it’s hard not to worry about an uncertain future, the continued safety of our loved ones, and the economic impact of all this. But to a large extent, that’s not something we can control. We’ve adapted to multiple challenges as a human race before, and we’ll adapt to this one too. Sure, our lives may not return to what we knew them to be, but would we want them to if changes we need to make, make our lives better in the long run? Speaking for myself, I can already see a change in attitude towards life, focusing on the bigger picture, and putting everyday issues into perspective. We’re likely to become more mindful of our health, our personal hygiene and our personal finances. Maybe this is the reality check we all needed in order to get our lives back on track and make them more meaningful?

Human beings are resilient, and we’ve overcome adversities we’ve been faced with throughout history. Smallpox killed 400,000 people per year in 18th century Europe, up to 500 million people in its last 100 years of existence, 300 million of those in the 20th century. Up until 1967, we had 15 million cases a year, with a 30% fatality rate, making it one of the deadliest infections out there. Even though a vaccine was discovered by the English physician Edward Jenner in 1796, large parts of the world were still affected until the late ’60s. It took a massive effort from the WHO, who contributed $2.4 million annually and introduced surveillance programs and containment measures, similar to what we’re seeing today. And ultimately, we got there. No new naturally occurring cases since 1977, and 40 years on from that announcement, we can be proud of ourselves.

With COVID-19 too, we’ll get there. No one knows when, or how, or long and winding the road will be. There might well be a different challenge waiting for us at the end of the road, but we’ll overcome that as well. And as we’ve done in the past, we’ll learn from this challenge too. Thank you for reading, and have a great weekend!