The Cold War is mostly remembered for proxy conflicts, espionage, and competition. It's important to remember one of the greatest examples of international cooperation in human history.
Smallpox had been documented for thousands of years and killed at least 500 million people, including 300 million in the 20th century alone. It killed roughly 30% of those infected and left survivors with lifelong scars. By the 1950s, wealthier and more economically developed countries eradicated the virus within their borders, but couldn't stop all infections from immigration and international travel.
In 1959 Soviet Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Zhdanov's plan for Smallpox eradication was approved by the WHO. The USA and USSR were the largest contributors to the Smallpox Eradication Programme. Through vaccination and surveillance programs the WHO was able to declare Smallpox eradicated in 1980, three years after the last documented case in 1977.
I will also note that it was a British physician, Edward Jenner, who came up with the first Smallpox vaccine in 1796.
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by sw337
14 Comments
The one time when the US and the USSR agree and united on something.
The indomitable human spirit can lead to great and terrible things.
Death to the Pestilence.
One thing that all humans can agree on is the fact that only humans can kill other humans. Diseases and Viruses are not allowed to mess with us.
The Soviets and Americans cooperated on a couple more occasions. Their joint condemnation of the “politionele acties” (Vietnam esque warcrimes) the Dutch were perpetrating in Indonesia caused the Dutch to pull out and grant the Indonesians independence. That being said the Dutch are a bunch of greedy fucks that love money and the Americans threatening to stop marshall aid also contributed to that decision.
Another example is during the suez crisis where the us and soviets both condemned the franco-british-israeli actions against Egypt. The soviets threatened to rain down hellfire (as usual) and the us was like “I’d let them”.
Cue anti-vaxxers in the 21st Century, encouraged this time by another British physician, but one of profound ill repute, Andrew Jeremy Wakefield.
This couldn’t happen today. Too many anti vaccine illiterate trump supporters who woukd rather see their kids get sick and die then to disobey their god king.
And still war
People today have a hard time understanding just how much of a scourge smallpox was on the human world for literally all of our history.
Not only had it been with us since the dawn of the human age, but when it appeared, it tore through every bracket with no preference for target, no class or country was safe. It burned out several royal lines back in the days when that was still a common system of government, left disfiguring scars that never went away and seemed basically *unstoppable*
It was horrific, which is why the world jumped on a permanent solution when one appeared, even during the midst of the cold war.
This is also a reminder of how dangerous anti vaccine sentiments are. A world without vaccines is a world WITH smallpox.
The two most impactful words in the English language:
#***Smallpox was***.
[Time to plug my favorite text about smallpox](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/s/97CI4j0Tw0)
Ya know, that’s a war I’d be fully behind. Compete with your biggest rival to eradicate a disease. Show how powerful you are through the amount of good you can do. Space race was cool too, now race to beat cancer.
Share this story to ruin an antivax quack’s day.
USA and USSR eradicating smallpox viruses like Legolas and Gimli
“STILL COUNTS AS ONE!”
This is the best thing that humans have done (that isn’t just reversing an own goal). “Smallpox: The Death of a Disease” is a great book to read if you want to get hyped about the ability of people to work collectively to solve hard problems. One of the authors, DA Henderson, helped lead the American arm of the eradication effort.