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.
We are going to be talking a lot about swine flu over the next few weeks.
The conversation about the politics of the thing is already well underway, engulfing those who sought to remove funding for infectious disease control out of the "stimulus" bill.
We are lacking, however, an examination of the science of the thing, and that's the point of today's conversation.
How dangerous is this infection?
Why is it killing people in Mexico but not here?
Exactly what is a pandemic?
Do those facemasks really serve any purpose?
And what about closing the border?
They're all good questions; and they are all questions we'll try to answer today.
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