Name: The story of the killer disease humanity eradicated | BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2020-07-30T16:35:41.000Z
Duration: 5 min 14 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

You just had to look at a smallpox sufferer

The eradication of smallpox is one of the most

For me it would be up there with the moon landing.

You certainly couldn't miss a patient who had got smallpox.

You had these blisters, these lesions all over your skin.

All these pustules were filled with virus.

because it saw smallpox as a threat to military power.

But the problem was that it was as risky as it sounds -

you're basically trying to stop a deadly disease by giving somebody

Variolation could lead to uncontrolled epidemics.

and they might survive or they might die from it

When Jenner inoculated the arm of James Phipps,

with the contents of a cowpox bled from a dairy maid,

it became possible for the first time to protect human beings artificially

This really tipped the table in favour of prevention and eradication.

To people in the 1700s, this was totally mind-blowing.

What happens in 1948 after the Second World War,

is that the world agrees that a new world order was needed.

What a crazy idea it would be to say that you're going to institute

approved a resolution in 1958 calling for worldwide smallpox eradication.

The WHO galvanised enthusiasm, they standardised the vaccine,

obtained the resources that they needed internationally.

They really deserve tremendous credit for that.

were going from door to door with pictures

of a child with smallpox and asking people in the community

if they knew anyone who had this disease.

It's a strategy which many people have said

will be the only way we can keep on top of Covid-19.

Two men affix their signatures to an historic document.

National and local health workers played an immense role

often selflessly, because a disease like smallpox was

as threatening to them as Covid-19 is to today's health workers.

It's interesting that we're often so eager to commemorate success in wars,

but that much less is done to celebrate success

we know that we can eradicate other human diseases.

If we all work together to tackle the disease,

to stop it spreading, to protect ourselves,

there is no reason why we can't stop another pandemic

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The story of the killer disease humanity eradicated | BBC Ideas

significant

pandemic

strategy

deserve