As a child, I noticed a peculiar scar on my mother\u2019s upper arm \u2014 \u201ca ring of small indents surrounding a larger one.\u201d Years later, I saw the same scar on an elderly woman and asked my mother about it. She said it was from the smallpox vaccine.<\/p>\n
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Smallpox was a deadly disease caused by the variola virus, killing about 30% of those infected and leaving survivors scarred. \u201cFor centuries, it devastated populations around the world.\u201d Global vaccination campaigns eventually eradicated it, and the World Health Organization declared smallpox gone in 1980. Routine vaccinations in the U.S. had stopped in 1972.<\/p>\n
The vaccine was unusual. It used \u201ca bifurcated needle, a small two-pronged instrument dipped into the vaccine solution.\u201d The skin was pricked several times, introducing a live virus called vaccinia, related to smallpox but far less dangerous. A blister formed, scabbed, and healed, leaving the circular scar recognized worldwide.<\/p>\n
For many, the scar was more than a mark \u2014 it was \u201ca visible reminder that they were immunized against one of history\u2019s deadliest diseases.\u201d Today, few under 50 have it, since smallpox vaccination is no longer needed.<\/p>\n
The eradication of smallpox remains one of humanity\u2019s greatest medical victories. Those who still bear the scar carry \u201ca living piece of history\u2014proof of science\u2019s triumph over a once-unstoppable killer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a child, I noticed a peculiar scar on my mother\u2019s upper arm \u2014 \u201ca ring of small indents surrounding a larger one.\u201d Years later, I saw the same scar on an elderly woman...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8437,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8436\/revisions\/8437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}