[ad_1]
- On the 40th anniversary of smallpox eradication, the director-general of the World Health Organization said it is “a reminder of what is possible” when it comes to the coronavirus.
- But he said fighting smallpox had a crucial tool that we don’t yet have for COVID-19: a vaccine.
- Even after a smallpox vaccine was developed, another 184 were needed to completely eradicate the disease, a reminder of the long way to go to conquer the coronavirus.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
On May 8, 1980, the World Health Assembly officially declared smallpox eradicated.
The disease “had affected humanity for at least 3,000 years and killed 300 million people in the 20th century alone,” said Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during a press conference exactly 40 years later, on May 8, 2020.
“Humanity’s victory over smallpox is a reminder of what is possible when nations unite to fight a common threat to health,” he said.
Getting there involved many of the tactics used today against the new coronavirus, including case finding, contact tracking, and mass communication campaigns. But a “crucial tool” is still missing: a vaccine, which the WHO, among many organizations and researchers, is working to develop.
Even when an effective coronavirus vaccine is available and widely available, eradication of COVID-19 is likely to be far, if any. Smallpox remains the only human disease to be eradicated globally, and it took 184 years from the development of the first vaccine in 1796 to its eradication in 1980.
“The deciding factor in the victory over smallpox was global solidarity,” said Tedros. “At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States of America joined forces to conquer a common enemy. They recognized that viruses do not respect nations or ideologies. That same kind of clarity built on national unity is he needs now more than ever to defeat COVID-19. ”
