The disease, for which no effective treatment was ever developed, killed as many as 30% of those infected. Between 65-80% of survivors were marked with deep pitted scars (pockmarks), most prominent on the face.
In some ancient cultures, smallpox was such a major killer of infants that custom forbade the naming of a newborn until the infant had caught the disease and proved it would survive. WHO fact sheet on smallpox
In a conservative estimate by experts, in the 20th Century, smallpox killed 300 million people. More than Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined. It left about twice as many as it killed, scarred (literally) for life. By 1967, there had been a number of failed efforts to eradicate diseases from humanity, including an effort at US behest on malaria. Defying expectations, a shoestring operation run out of that inefficient and (if you listen to conservatives) useless organization, the United Nations, managed to organize a program of vaccination and isolation that resulted in smallpox afflicting its last victim in 1977 (excepting a tragic case in a British research lab).
If the UN never did another useful thing (it has done many), this alone would justify its existence. It is past time that liberals remember this marvellous achievement, and begin to reference it more often. This is the potential of big (read: "effective") government, and speaks to the proven capacity for coordinated global cooperation to solve humanity's most pressing (and depressing) problems.
Markets didn't eliminate smallpox, nor did religion, tradition, patriotism or family values. Governments did. Big, bold, active governments, including the one ring to rule them all, the UN. This just isn't something that conservatively run governments or societies would even attempt, nor ever achieve. They ideologically reject all the essential elements of such a program. Yet it has been done, and we are all better off for it, and conservatives should not be allowed to forget it. Government that can drown in a bathtub simply cannot do this.
Recently, the Carnagie Council (one of my podcast subscriptions), had an outstanding guest, Dr. D.A. Henderson, give a talk on the WHO program to eradicate smallpox. I have long meant to write about smallpox, particularly recently with the swine flu pandemic and Henderson provides a great retelling of this undersung story. Henderson was the director of the program from 1967 until the final declaration of smallpox's in-the-wild demise by the WHO in 1980. The audio is here, and the transcript, here.
I tried in vain to summarize the best parts, but ended up with far too much for any reasonable semblance of fair use, so you'll just have to follow the links.
Some of the key details to note:
That the majority of the actual work was done by the health workers in the target countries, as the program really was only a shoestring budget and staff, existing only to cajole, guide and coordinate actions, rather than execute them.
The very idea of doing this was contentious, and only barely survived a rare vote in the WHO, due to the Johnson administration reversing the American position to embrace what had originally been a Soviet idea.
The bold steps Henderson took to expand the role of the WHO, so that it could ensure enough supplies of safe and effective vaccine
The innovative use of "ring vaccination" to isolate pocket outbreaks before they could spread and let them die out
It's an important story. The biggest problems of our day, climate change, global market governance, and of course other pandemics from HIV to bird and swine flu are very much going to require applying many of the lessons here.
