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how about a video about tuberculosis? It's not eradicated, but it used to be a huge burden on society and today is mostly unknown in most parts of the world
The eradication of smallpox is why my gran despises anti-vaxxers. She’s seen a world with smallpox and how devastating it is, and she’s seen how vaccines have meant I never had to worry about it
My Grandma delivered her 10th child while covered from head to foot in smallpox in 1938. This was, as the previous 9, a home birth. They thought my aunt had died in the womb and laid her in a crib while helping Grandma. Another of my aunts who was 12 was looking at her sister in the crib. All of a sudden she called out, "the baby is breathing!" and those in the room rushed to take care of the baby. My Grandma lived to have one more child and died when she was 99.
@@StuUngar well she wouldn't be covered in pox when they got randy. It takes ~9 months to have a kid Edit: I get it the age range was wrong. Blame the public education system.
I remember asking my mom (71 yrs) about her smallpox vaccination scar when I (47 yrs) was a kid. She explained how horrible smallpox was and I wanted to know why I didn’t have the scar. It blew my mind that it wasn’t needed because we had literally eradicated the disease in her lifetime!
Be glad it is gone. I have my scar as well as I also was vaccinated as a child as Smallpox still existed back then and was even then still killing several million people a year worldwide. To give you some perspective. Smallpox was so bad that even the US and USSR at the height of the Cold War = worked together to eradicate it.
I read in an excellent biography of Catherine the Great that she voluntarily took the small pox vaccination, in front of many of her subjects, to show how simple it was to get.
@@arnolddavies6734 if the internet had been around we never would have eradicated it. The idiots would have united against any sort of cooperation with any government because "muh freedums!"
Currently have monkeypox. I got it at my job. I'm on week 4 of being sick and I'm continuing to get new lesions and have had lingering symptoms like headache and fatigue and fever. My state health department is super confused as are all my doctors I've seen. Monkeypox shouldn't last this long and there aren't any cases known to them where someone's initial lesions fully healed but then new ones developed in other places. I went looking for smallpox videos because monkeypox is the far less deadly cousin of smallpox. It's not related to varicella (chickenpox) it's in the same family as smallpox (orthopox viruses). I wanted to feel better about my situation since I've been feeling so down. This video DEFINITELY helped. I'm so glad I have something like monkeypox as opposed to smallpox. Holy crap that looks awful.
The part that makes me laugh that this guy is literally just going over history of things that actually happened, like well documented illnesses and their treatment, and there are actually people dumb enough to call all the information fake news. Like the great videos, your presentation has earned my sub and I love putting these on as background for when I'm working.
Yeah, because the notes by doctors over the centuries trying to treat and get rid of illnesses are clearly part of an ongoing conspiracy started way back 🙄
History is one big mesh up story written by the victors, mixed with rebel anarchists and propagandists that are against said victors, and a smidge of the remnant of the losers. Just because it is in our history books or even taught in school doesn't necessarily make it accurate, especially in certain countries that shall be left unnamed. Consensus and evidence is as always the most important detail. Just because some non peer reviewed journals of some town doctors were found doesn't mean a whole lot, especially considering how few early "doctors" were actually properly educated and given how much medical science has evolved and shown past mistakes, even the educated ones were probably a far cry from doctors even a generation later to the time period covered in this video.
@@joshbull623 What a fantastic way to say absolutely nothing while giving the impression you are saying something profound. Consensus is meaningless when those providing it are idiots, evidence is meaningless when it can be both ignored and produced on command, and peer review is meaningless when you can submit a fake thesis declaring that men are the cause of literally all the world's problems and supporting it with details pulled directly out of your ass...and still get it peer-reviewed and published. *This happened,* and it was only a handful of years ago.
I remember being vaccinated as a little girl, while in school. Each class was trooped into the school gym and then lined up to see the nurse, who used what looked like a silver mechanical "gun", to give us our inoculations. I'm 60 now and still have that scar on my left shoulder, along with the small white TB bump on my right forearm.
I developed a single pox after the vaccination, right between my eyes. It was very mild, left a barely noticeable scar. Yeah, World Health Organization got this one right!
Well I am from Eastern Europe 28 and have vaccination scars, but I like them, I grew up seeing it on my mom and surrounding people and found them nice reminder of health
I remember the small scars on my grandparents and older family members. They told me about smallpox. I was just too young to understand. They also told me that a lot of family members didn't live because of it. Thank God for its eradication.
dangerous enough to cause great damages, but not dangerous enough to cause healthy fear... also, by vaccines or by being infected, we have reached a form of herd immunity. Not enough to not get sick again with the next wave, when we don't have antibodies anymore or if a new strains is different enough for the antibodies to be "inadequate", but enough that the immunity system react faster to exposition and produce antibodies faster than at the first exposure. This difference in the timing is what save most of the "at risk" peoples, alongside the fact that if there is no massive outbreak anymore, the healthcare system isn't overrun like for the 1st 2 waves.
I read a fascinating book about the history of vaccines, and apparently the man who used cowpox to inoculate his family was so ostracized in his community that he kept quiet about what he did and how effective it was. There were also cartoons in newspapers showing people turning into cows after being vaccinated. It’s sad that even today people are quick to attack vaccines despite the fact that we still have very few effective antiviral drugs and the window in which they work has usually passed by the time a patient seeks medical attention. It’s true that some vaccines can cause side effects (because the whole point is to promote an immune response and sometimes you get more than you bargained for) but they still remain the best way to prevent infections that in many parts of the world are still lethal
It’s funny you mention that because that same story came to mind at the beginning of covid vaccinations. Humans will never stop being resistant to knowledge and progress. It’s frustrating. My aunt bought into the whole horse dewormer BS instead of the vaccine. At least she did until she almost died from covid pneumonia. She’s now vaxxed and promotes it, but she carries a lot of guilt because she convinced a lot of her friends to use ivermectin instead of getting vaxxed. 4 of those friends are now dead.
It's amazing that the more we change as humans the more the idiot ones stay the same My country's ex-president said, publicly, that the COVID vaccine would turn people into alligators... And some people believed him...
@@unicornglitterfart5201 Sorry for your loss. There needs to be an investigation/study as to why supposedly intelligent people reject proven medical intervention to save their lives.It’s crazy.
I was an infant when smallpox was declared eradicated, and so I was the first person in my family to not have the scar on my arm from the vaccine. Of course, my older siblings used that lack of scar to teased me, saying that the scar meant they were "grownups" and I would never have that mark of maturity. Ah, sibling rivalry!
I had a smallpox scare in 1982. Turned out to be a bizarre allergic reaction that looked almost exactly like variola minor (technically called Alastrim). I was five at the time, and mostly angry that I missed my kindergarten Giftmas party (complete with piñatas).
@@SewardWriter wouldn't be so sure about that. my almost eighty year old granny, who forgets what she had for breakfast, can still tell stories like that. sure she tells the same stories over and over because she forgets which ones she has told already, but those memories never leave. it's similar with the names of her grandchildren, she knows all our names, but struggles to remember which is which.
@@windhelmguard5295 Core memories and long term memories are stored in a different part of the brain than recent remembered memories, things like music, colors, videos, pictures, and more are all stored in the most central part of the brain; that being said that’s why most patients with memory loss can remember faces up to a point, songs, videos, pictures, and tell stories with amazing accuracy, as those deeper parts of the brain have not been affected yet
My dad had polio at age 10. He's 87 and has never had the polio vaccine. I've had all those childhood shots, had to have them to start school. This vaccine I haven't had and don't plan on getting. From 2020 up to 2023 I'm still not vaccinated.
Small pox killed my great great grandmother’s sister. Measles killed two of her brothers. The flu pandemic of 1918 killed her son, my great grandfather. Tuberculosis killed several of my grandmother’s cousins. My grandmother then became a nurse and cared for polio patients. I have a small pox vaccination scar on my left shoulder. Because my ancestors somehow dodged what killed so many of their loved ones, I am here. All of my kids got their vaccinations and I live to see my grandchildren. Now there’s Covid. So I’m participating in a Covid vaccine trial. It’s not always a sure thing, but science has proven to be far more effective than hopes and prayers & fear and denial.
Right on. Now we're about 40% vaxxed, well in the USA anyway, and life is starting to get back to somewhat normal for those with healthy immune systems. (I'm not there yet, but hopefully one day)
Thank you for participating in that trial💜 Me and a lot of my family needed the vaccine so bad since we're highrisk ( Diabetes and a lot of my family are +65 ) Thank you for helping in a time of crisis💜
its sad some people have forgotten the immeasurable pain and suffering before modern vaccines became widly available. I guess all we can do is hope that education and reason will prevail in the end. The eradication of smallpox was a real goliath vs david story and hopefully not the last!
It’s because those people have never had to watch a loved one die of smallpox. Or experienced it themselves. One of the more heartbreaking stories that happened repeatedly over the last two years were devout anti-vaxxers on their death beds begging their doctors and nurses for the vaccine they had once claimed was a hoax.
I'm one of the last generation who remembers what a plague was like -- in the early 1950s polio had parents terrified, swimming pools were closed, public playgrounds were shut down and us boomer kids were kept inside for THE ENTIRE SUMMER!! Many families didn't have TVs, and those who did were lucky to get one channel. A year after Sauk vaccine was made available I contracted measles, along with the other neighborhood kids. I was the one who nearly died from it; high fevers caused my hair to fall out and I lost some of my vision. Years later I learned my parents had expected me to die and contacted a funeral home!
It’s amazing hearing the scale of devastation. Of course we’ve all heard of Smallpox, but the absolute destruction it had on lives and humanity is just mind blowing. Let’s hope we get to a place where we can come together and eradicate many more destructive diseases. 😊
The anti-vaxxers are trying their damnedest to ensure that doesn't happen. All because, in their wrong opinion, death is preferable to mental illness, which they're blaming anything and everything for and in spite of many being genetic or a case of the mind wiring differently regardless of what the mother does or doesn't do.
Unfortunately this term "antivaxxers" is used to hide widespread corporate corruption around the provable harm that vaccines cause when they are exempt from liability since 1986. Most so called "antivaxxers" are actually mothers who have vaccine injured children. Vaccine court has paid out billions to these victims.
@@stevenwebb3634 The question is: do you actually want the evidence ? Most people only care to prove what they already believe."what the thinker thinks the prover will prove " If your inquiry is authentic I will go through the sources for you.
@@stevenwebb3634 Something tells me that If i gave you all the evidence possible, you would not change what you believe. Why waste my time ? the people who look for truth do not need me to feed it to them. Be well Steven.
My grandmother, now in her late 90's was the youngest of ten. She had a sibling who died of smallpox along with several others throughout the years in rural upstate New York. She cried when telling me how happy the disease being eradicated made her after seeing what it could do to her loved ones and community. It's infuriating how a few negligent and selfish people put their heads in the sand and refuse to vaccinate against the pox, allowing the disease to reappear. I want to believe if they'd lived through a time when it was common and deadly like my grandmother they wouldn't feel so entitled as to protest protective measures not just for themselves but their communities, but as we've seen with covid, tragedy won't stop this brand of stupidity. As for my Grandmother, a generally quiet and lovely woman who considers the word "hate" too intense for her to use, she still shouts at the television when the concept of antivaxxing is brought up.
Really good for her and also another part with bad news antivaxers would never survive these parts like the movie Outbreak and this one Stephen King's The Stand.
I had chicken pox at 16...it was down my throat and...well in every orafice... ears, nose, unmentionables. The pain was unbearable. I still have nearly bone deep scars. I'm thankful kids today have access to a vaccine. ♡
It's really bad to get chicken pox after age 7. It's brutal on the body and it can kill. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I am also glad that kids can get vaccinated, so they don't have to go through that. Or shingles!
Yes. The eradication of a vaccine preventable infectious disease is reason enough to be glad. That is happened however during the height of the Cold War = is extraordinary. No less than the US and the USSR worked together along with others to facilitate the program which led to the eradication of Smallpox.
@@emilybarclay8831 You're a fool if you think that. Without the moon landing and its inventions you wouldn't have a cellphone nor the micro chips to even comment on this news feed. If a new desease broke out nowadays we have instant access to the info and Governments can respond at blazing speeds. This is thanks mostly to the inventions that simply brought us to the moon.
I like to imagine we're in an existetial loop and we're in a game of plague inc playing plague inc unaware of the people in the game we're playing that are also playing themselves
True. I would however point out that mankind has had access to vaccines for more than a century now = and still some have not learned the lesson of their value. For myself the eradication of Smallpox was man's greatest achievement - not because of vaccines per se = but because of what the effort represented. The Smallpox eradication effort was a multi-national endeavor which included support from private corporations who donated resources to the program. Further it took place at the height of the _"Cold War"_ whereby the US and USSR actually worked together towards a common goal against a scourge which had plagued mankind for millennia. Both nations despite representing geopolitical enemies provided resources and personnel to make it happen. So it shows what humanity can accomplish when = we work together.........
1:35 - Chapter 1 - An ancient curse 4:45 - Chapter 2 - The fall of empires 10:40 - Mid roll ads 12:20 - Chapter 3 - Blankets & bullets 14:50 - Chapter 4 - "The greatest gift of our time" 18:35 - Chapter 5 - The disease defeated
My Grandmother as a young girl was quaritined with smallpox they had someone give them food thru a window every once in a while, I can recall my mom telling me the story and dad telling me that it almost took out the whole world.
You didn't mention Lady Mary Wortley Montague and the introduction of variolation to England from Turkey. Speaking of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, do an episode about her. She lived a fascinating life.
@@malloryjines5050 the Muslims have a belief that a fever is the beginning fire of hell or a taste of hell wandering is a related to smallpox
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My half-sister on my dad's side, her mother turned 86, this last mother's day, and survived a nasty case of smallpox _as a child_ in 1939. She's also nine years older than my father and outlived him by so-far 18yrs, and her last husband was over fifteen years her junior, and he died two years ago. Needless to say, she's being kept in the dark about those two centenarian women who not only survived their own case of Spanish flu, but also survived COVID-19, lest she take this as a personal challenge.
I am proud of being a grandson of one of MuDr. Raška-s colleagues who helped with eradicating smallpox. Interesting thing Is that most participants of the eradication campaign were awarded the "order of bifurcated needle", basically vaccinating needle turned into a ring.
I remember my parents celebrating when it was announced on the news. Then they cried because they’d both lost friends or family, that’s the memorable part for me.
The amount of diseases we have defeated thanks to sanitation efforts and vaccines is insane. We now barely know about things like TB, syphilis, the plague, etc.
@@louf7178 TB is still rampant in Africa and probably third world countries elsewhere. It especially loves to pall around with HIV AIDS. There is even a variety resistant to antibiotics.
Sypholis is far from eradicated. It got a second wind in the 60s and 70s, helped along by "free love". But at least now you can kill it with antibiotics if you catch it in time.
I had shingles.... at its heights, the pain was unbearable on my torso nerve...1 year later I still have scars and itching where the out break was... so I had a taste of what these diseases could be like... but these are MUCH worse
@@dnegel9546 Humanity also survives if we stop wearing seatbelts, but does that mean we should stop wearing seatbelts? I’m all for opinions or whatever, but not if it risks the lives of other people.
You simply kick butt. I am SO fascinated with disease pathology, and had a lovely time with Swine flu-a shockingly wicked disease. I had fun with MRSA that nearly killed me as well, and I now have flesh missing from my left glute. I have a rare condition where I get a nasty, long-lived and painful welts in reaction to strep throat and Fifths Disease-a type measles. So yes-microbes are terrifying thus fascinating.
My grandfather survived smallpox. He was born in 1894, and he was young when he caught it, so it had to have been in the first decade of the twentieth century. I'm told he walked out of his skin.
Joseph Stalin got smallpox when he was a kid, eventually he recovered from it but he was left with a scar on his face, other kids would teased him and make fun of him, Stalin even exiled or killed artists because they drew the scar.
@@threadworm437 wouldnt change anything, stalin is a man amongst many others, he wasnt unique, he just was in a place where it would have been filled by any other.
@Conner Wine How can everyone be unique? That literally goes against the meaning of the word. Unique means unlike anything else and if everyone’s unique then there’s nothing unique about anyone.
Being born in 67, my scar vanished by the age of 25. I still can't believe how people suddenly see vaccines as suspicious. They don't want to remember the past.
Scourge of mankind indeed. Its amazing to see how my own people's history describes how it was so feared at the time, barely 3 people ago, having not had it in our history as long as Europe. Great Video, as always Mr Whistler
Actually you allude to the real crux here. Far too many only think in terms of "mortality". While people dying is always a paramount concern the real metric for infectious disease epidemiology is = "morbidity". So the true "cost" of infectious diseases are not the unlucky ones who die. It is the totality of the spread and what follows. A million cases of Measles is still a million cases even if "only" 5K people ultimately die.
My mom had smallpox when she was six years old in 1926. She spent over 40 days in an isolation hospital on an island here in Ottawa, ON called Porter's Isle. My mom was French Canadian and spoke no English and unfortunately, the hospital staff spoke only English. The last thing my grandmother said to her before the ambulance took her away was to remind her of a certain cousin who recovered from smallpox but was badly scarred, "If you scratch you'll look like her" she said. It must have made an impression on my mom because she recovered with only a couple of small scars on her back. I think back and marvel at how brave a little 6 year old she was. In a ward surrounded by strangers and yet she managed to pull through. My grandfather called evert night to check on her but she was never allowed to speak to him. They would manage through pantomime to let her know he had called. Times have changed thanks to the vaccine. Here's hoping we'll be saying the same about Covid.
This video is an interesting watch. We should be grateful that we are alive now and not another point in history where terrible diseases like smallpox ravaged humans. Watch and BE GRATEFUL I believe people wouldn't be so critical of modern medicine (which I agree has it's problems) if they were transported back 300 years.
@@rhondablevins4466 I believe what Suub City is trying to say is that we should be grateful that we live in an era where communication between people over vast distances takes mere minutes as opposed to weeks or months. Where as a society we understand the basic concepts of anatomy, hygiene, viruses, bacteria, etc. and respective treatments. In other words, science. Collectively, we no longer believe that all health and ailments are due to a balance/imbalance of the humors (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm) or that disease was caused by God as a punishment for one's transgressions. Imagine what the state of the world would be like right now if we didn't have the advances of modern medicine and technology. Instead of approximately 733,000 dead - at the time of writing this (Covid-19) , we could very well likely be looking at approximately 50,000,000 dead (Spanish Flu), or worse. Imagine how different things would have been had the Genoese been able to call/email the various heads of government of the nations of Europe, Africa, and those along the silk road.
@@rhondablevins4466 covid 19 is much less fatal than smallpox. Or typhus. Or cholera Add in that cleaning wounds was incredibly difficult and could easily lead to sepsis, people died of easily preventable causes The archaeological record is very clear on the proportions of a population living with significant illness. Even in the relatively protected monestries, many of the skeletons show poor health
@@eamsee657 . Unfortunately we also live in an age of anti intellectualism, where ignorant opinions are considered as having the same value as expert knowledge.
Just to get an idea of how devastating this disease was, estimates are that seven out of ten of all the people who have ever lived have died of smallpox.
When I was a teenager the topic of smallpox inoculations came up while I was speaking with my father and grandfather. Both of them rolled up their sleeves and proudly displayed the nicel-sized scar from their inoculation as children/while in the US Army saving lives. I, myself never vax'd, felt rather left out! My grandfather would have been in his late 70s at the time and my father his late 40s. It always surprised me a bit that my grandfather still had a scar from 60 years prior.
Be glad you were "left out" as that means the scourge of Smallpox was gone. Having a scar is not a good thing as it meant you felt bad for some days and had a blister on your arm which hurt and bothered you. There are photos of people infected with actual Smallpox who survived and many years later their faces were "pockmarked" much as the arms of inoculated - myself included as a child. Trust me you didn't miss much.
Him: smallpox is the one of the deadliest diseases, and caused the collapse of entire empires Also him 3 seconds later: anyways, have you heard of dollar shave club?
Hearing the story about the woman who died and her father had a fatal heart attack after seeing his daughters pox ridden body is one of the saddest things I've ever heard. I truly couldn't imagine the absolute dread that that man must've felt, the terror. Enough to give him a geart attack. God do I appreciate modern medicine
I received my smallpox inoculation in 1967….at 7 years old, moving to Greece as an Air Force dependent. I still remember the small scraped circle on my upper left arm the virus was introduced with. The faint scar still remains. I was given so many inoculations during that time its no wonder my immune system has always been excellent! They probably gave me a shot against experimental things I never even realized- based on how the government seems to have been so sneaky back then ! But at 62, the worst issue I’ve ever had was this past month- a minor kidney stone.
Unfortunately what you were immunized against back then for the most part = has long since worn off....... The simple reality is that immunity as a rule is transitory. Some pathogens being highly virulent can cause affinity cell formation to occur which results in prolonged antibody generation. Yet without subsequent exposure at some point down the line that antibody generation can wane. Most infections however yield temporary immunity. Also as you age your body begins to work less effectively to include your immune system. So it can less readily deal with infections the older you become. So studies to determine how long your body generates antibodies against say Measles as an example were done long ago when Measles was still fairly commonplace. In the intervening years it has become far less prevalent such that people vaccinated long ago who 20 years later still had high antibody titers were probably re-exposed via community exposure at some point - which is like getting a booster shot. Add another 20 years with no further community exposure however and those levels are likely less. So best not to assume you are protected as a result of vaccinations decades ago. Just saying 🤔
renoloverxoxo 😂 remove hospital and years of medical experience including the reduction of nurses and doctors. You can’t compare 1960 car to a 2021, that’s my point. Without today’s resources tings will be way uglier.
In 1777 my 6th ggf is on the Valley Forge muster roll, and is listed as having Smallpox. He survived, continued to serve, and finished the war at Yorktown. There are no family stories of lasting effects, but thank God he could still have children!
How bizarre is it that the final fatalities related to an illness that directly killed untold millions over centuries would be caused by shock, grief, and suicide.
I haven’t been watching utube for a while and I’m shocked at how huge your channel is now. I was in the first 500 followers and I just want to congratulate you for this brilliant channel although this video is rank 😂
I remember being in 1st grade, being in line waiting to be vaccinated for several different viruses. They used this gun looking thing, and then given the polio vaccine on a sugar cube. That was 1967.
I have be through this small pox when I was five and I remember all the kids in the village got it. It was terrible. I feel like monster and my skin was hurting at night from pus and my scalp was bleeding from having a old skin rash.
@@jasmeetxxx9 oh it's about homo sapiens and how we come to rule the planet. How we might be the reason behind Neanderthals extinction. It's a quite famous, interesting and enlightening book.
@@QuestionEverythingButWHY i know the book. hv the audiobook with me. i guess i ll get around my procrastination to pick it up someday in paper or in audio. just learning about logical fallacies, so my raider went off when i read a quote from blaise pascal.
i listened to a four episode podcast about Janet Parker a while back. terrifying. have you heard about unsecured samples being found at other WHO buildings in the past 20 years? not a conspiracy theory, it happened. it’s a wild story
@@mijalakis3 actually the smallpox vaccine hasn't been given in the west for decades because of the eradication. I was born in the 90s and I don't have it. I don't think a relative of mine born in the late 50s got it either. It may be different in other parts of the world, but I think the smallpox vaccine was discontinued unless you were going to a part of the world where you might get it fairly early in North America. I don't think the smallpox vaccine has been manufactured in ages, either, except for people who have level 4 biohazard clearance and might come into contact with it at either the WHO storage site in the US or the one in Russia.
This makes me fairly emotional. This is what the world can do if it focuses on the important things. We could wipe out disease, hunger, and so much else if we just focused.
Thankfully only 2 samples of it exist. One in the CDC headquarters, and one in some obscure lab in Siberia. Sure we have some vaccines stockpiled, but if it broke out again it would most certainly cause havoc. I mean, imagine if it broke out in Beijing or New York. Especially to you-know-who. The good thing, is that most countries (I believe) have an emergency plan set in place incase it does.
Great video! One of the most interesting stories I read about the smallpox during my studies was from China. In the 17th century the last big nomad realm of the Eurasian Steppes, the Oirat federation ruled over big parts of nowadays Xinjang, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Siberia and western Mongolia. They were almost constantly at war with Qing China, who were unable to defeat the mobile Oirats on the steppes. They also fought of the Russians who were encroaching from the west, and were subdued by these 2 powers after an outbreak of smallpox, that killed half of their population. As the most remote Mongol tribe, they had not built up an immunity or had learnt about inoculation, which was guarded as a state secret in China and thus were in a similar Situation to the native Americans. One source claimed, that the Qing deliberately sent Oirat war prisoners who were infected with the disease back home, so that they would spread it among their peers.
One thing you forgot to mention, is that Jimmy Carter was one of the people who helped push the campaign to eliminate Guinea Worm. He also still worked for habitat for humanity last I checked at the age of 90
My ancestor Reverend Thomas Thatcher, First Minister of The Old South Church in Boston, wrote the first ever medical publication in the US on measles and smallpox and saved thousands of lives during the 1677 epidemic! Definitely a very proud descendant, particularly as I found all of this out when I was in my second year at university studying Public Health, Epidemiology and Statistics! Imagine! Just goes to show that our interests are sometimes genetic/nature and not so much nurture!
I'm one of the people who, as a kid, was marched off to the doctor's office in 1968 for my smallpox vaccine. I remember it really well because the "gun" they used to inject it was huge and loud. I was lucky that my doctor decided to choose a spot on my arm to do the shot so the scar wasn't as apparent; it's hidden on the back of my arm nearly in the armpit. Friends of mine had it smack dab on the middle of their arms and no amount of makeup could ever hide that. It's like a badge. To this day you can still identify the people of my generation by the puckered coin-shaped scar on their arms. I realized when I became a young mother that none of the children of my child's generation have to have such a disfiguring mark on their arms anymore. Take that, smallpox.
Watching this in May 2020, having received both of my Pfizer vaccination doses, feeling incredibly grateful and lucky to be alive in a time where eradicating diseases is possible.
I have a big scar on my left arm from a tuberculosis vaccine. Norway usually don't vaccinate most children with it anymore but I am so thankful for all my vaccines as a child and into my adulthood. We are all really blessed that this smallpox is gone.
I was vaccinated against Smallpox as a child as it still raged in the world back then. People today with no living memory of those times have no idea of the way it used to be when outbreaks of Measles or Chickenpox etc. would close down schools etc..
@@varyolla435 people in my family had measles and was lucky to survive. Only thing I have lived though is the corona virus and that was scary enough. With anti vaxers measles has begun to spread again. I don't understand why people would take the risk 😵 It's a good thing most people listen to those who lived though these outbreaks.
@@vinterhufsa It is simply human nature. In the US many sadly fall into the description of: _"scientific illiteracy."_ Like the Romans of old who fell into decadence the culture of the US has slid into = _"endless distraction"_ - it now being an entertainment-based culture. Moral: people are like electricity in that they will typically take the path of least resistance. Hence it is far easier to assume than to make the effort to educate oneself so as to understand. Being ignorant of the science + of history + and having access to the internet and cable television which perpetuates *A LOT* of nonsense = yields woefully "distracted" and uneducated individuals on this subject. Dunning-Kruger is the bane of our times.
I love you Simon and all of your work! But the plague of Athens has been confirmed as typhoid fever. They did dna testing on dental pulp. My undergraduate degree was in history and I love medical history
5 years ago I caught the Chickenpox when I was already 30 years old. I cried not because of the pain but the thought of the scars that will be left behind. Thank goodnesses there wasn’t any scarring. 😭 But it was one of the most miserable 2 weeks of my adult life. 😬
2015 on a trip to Japan, I got chickenpox which I thought it was bedbugs. The itch was crazy and lasted 2 weeks, just a scar happened the first that appeared.
@@jenniferhart559 I had chicken pox, my sisters had them, all of my nieces and nephews had them. All 4 of my kids had them. One of my kids scratched open a sore, it got infected and he was one day away from hospitalization. Everyone at my daughters b’day party got them. My husband got them when he was a baby. The only one with a tiny mark is the one who had them as a baby. So I guess I’ll see your ‘two’ and raise you a few hundred
I really like how your presentation is a fair and accurate depiction of the smallpox epidemic in North America. Of all the horrible things Europeans and Native Americans did to each other, knowingly/intentionally spreading the disease (blankets or otherwise) was not one of them.
No polio mention? Smallpox, polio & I believe diptheria (sp?) were the OG of mass vaccination along with tetanus (DTP) required to attend public schools in the US back in the day. I still have the scar. Measles, chicken pox, mumps & others came later. I got measles & chicken pox as a teen which absolutely sucked. Please vaccinate. And be sure to keep up with boosters if required.
Coronavirus doesn’t have anything on how terrible Smallpox was, thankfully. With many diseases, even horrible cases, if you survive, there’s a good chance you can make a full recovery. Not so with smallpox and it’s pockmarks. And the fact that a disease with a mortality rate of 3% at minimum and 30% from its worst strain was once essentially ubiquitous is terrifying. I’m only 19 so It had been wiped out for decades before I was born, but the stories are scary.
I remember taking a month long trip to Spain in the 1970s when I was in high school We all had to go to the Public Health clinic to have our smallpox scars checked and documented They also said it was a good idea to get the cholera vaccine. I did, had awful side effects (chills and fever) but, there was an outbreak while I was there
Thanks to Dollar Shave Club for sponsoring. Go to DollarShaveClub.com/biographics to get your first starter set for $5. After that, full price products will ship at regular prices.
Edward Jenner needs his own video!
Did you try their products yourself before advising them to us? :)
*_❤ You Give Such Informative Information ❤ Love You Simon ❤ You Inspire My Documentaries ❤_*
how about a video about tuberculosis? It's not eradicated, but it used to be a huge burden on society and today is mostly unknown in most parts of the world
@@bedtimecartoons5213 - Is your channel _really_ dark??
I remember hearing the news that the world was smallpox free on the radio. It’s one of those moments that you never forget.
*Afghanistan would like to know you location*
How old are you?
How old are you?
It was a legit question😊
It was eradicated in 1980 so he can’t be that old lol
The eradication of smallpox is why my gran despises anti-vaxxers. She’s seen a world with smallpox and how devastating it is, and she’s seen how vaccines have meant I never had to worry about it
My Grandma delivered her 10th child while covered from head to foot in smallpox in 1938. This was, as the previous 9, a home birth. They thought my aunt had died in the womb and laid her in a crib while helping Grandma. Another of my aunts who was 12 was looking at her sister in the crib. All of a sudden she called out, "the baby is breathing!" and those in the room rushed to take care of the baby. My Grandma lived to have one more child and died when she was 99.
Grandpa was very randy to be gettin it on with smallpox covered granny.
Your 99 year old granny was a bedroom freak!
@@StuUngar well she wouldn't be covered in pox when they got randy. It takes ~9 months to have a kid
Edit: I get it the age range was wrong. Blame the public education system.
What a woman!
@@StuUngar That was on weird comment,
@@lilacsunshine3044 Would be in person, unless you knew the person really well.
I remember asking my mom (71 yrs) about her smallpox vaccination scar when I (47 yrs) was a kid. She explained how horrible smallpox was and I wanted to know why I didn’t have the scar. It blew my mind that it wasn’t needed because we had literally eradicated the disease in her lifetime!
Be glad it is gone. I have my scar as well as I also was vaccinated as a child as Smallpox still existed back then and was even then still killing several million people a year worldwide. To give you some perspective. Smallpox was so bad that even the US and USSR at the height of the Cold War = worked together to eradicate it.
How did i got my smallpox vaccine scar? I'm only 16
@@RNClash That’s really unusual…do you live in the US?
@@tuesdaypatience Brazil
@@RNClash some places still vaccinate people against smallpox
I read in an excellent biography of Catherine the Great that she voluntarily took the small pox vaccination, in front of many of her subjects, to show how simple it was to get.
If Trump was a real leader, he also should have made a public display over taking the covid vaccine..
If anti vaxxers had their way, smallpox would still be around.
@@arnolddavies6734 if the internet had been around we never would have eradicated it. The idiots would have united against any sort of cooperation with any government because "muh freedums!"
@@nosuchthing8 oh Christ don’t tell me you think Biden is a real leader
@Fake Man spider
Let’s not have an argument, shall we?
The eight-year-old kid that reported their friend for having smallpox was based. She probably saved so many lives with that one small action.
Currently have monkeypox. I got it at my job. I'm on week 4 of being sick and I'm continuing to get new lesions and have had lingering symptoms like headache and fatigue and fever. My state health department is super confused as are all my doctors I've seen. Monkeypox shouldn't last this long and there aren't any cases known to them where someone's initial lesions fully healed but then new ones developed in other places. I went looking for smallpox videos because monkeypox is the far less deadly cousin of smallpox. It's not related to varicella (chickenpox) it's in the same family as smallpox (orthopox viruses).
I wanted to feel better about my situation since I've been feeling so down. This video DEFINITELY helped.
I'm so glad I have something like monkeypox as opposed to smallpox. Holy crap that looks awful.
Hope you are doing better now!!
The part that makes me laugh that this guy is literally just going over history of things that actually happened, like well documented illnesses and their treatment, and there are actually people dumb enough to call all the information fake news. Like the great videos, your presentation has earned my sub and I love putting these on as background for when I'm working.
Yeah, because the notes by doctors over the centuries trying to treat and get rid of illnesses are clearly part of an ongoing conspiracy started way back 🙄
I do the same thing. I work in inventory control, primarily a pc job, so listening to his different channels keeps the boredom at bay.
History is one big mesh up story written by the victors, mixed with rebel anarchists and propagandists that are against said victors, and a smidge of the remnant of the losers. Just because it is in our history books or even taught in school doesn't necessarily make it accurate, especially in certain countries that shall be left unnamed. Consensus and evidence is as always the most important detail. Just because some non peer reviewed journals of some town doctors were found doesn't mean a whole lot, especially considering how few early "doctors" were actually properly educated and given how much medical science has evolved and shown past mistakes, even the educated ones were probably a far cry from doctors even a generation later to the time period covered in this video.
@@joshbull623 What a fantastic way to say absolutely nothing while giving the impression you are saying something profound.
Consensus is meaningless when those providing it are idiots, evidence is meaningless when it can be both ignored and produced on command, and peer review is meaningless when you can submit a fake thesis declaring that men are the cause of literally all the world's problems and supporting it with details pulled directly out of your ass...and still get it peer-reviewed and published. *This happened,* and it was only a handful of years ago.
I'm not saying the content in this video was bs, I enjoyed watching it but you do realize that the one who controls the world, controls the history.
I remember being vaccinated as a little girl, while in school. Each class was trooped into the school gym and then lined up to see the nurse, who used what looked like a silver mechanical "gun", to give us our inoculations.
I'm 60 now and still have that scar on my left shoulder, along with the small white TB bump on my right forearm.
I developed a single pox after the vaccination, right between my eyes. It was very mild, left a barely noticeable scar. Yeah, World Health Organization got this one right!
Yep I got 'em in early '80s when I was a kid. Still have that Circle on my arm.
I am 51 now and we got that in Ireland. It was called the BCG vaccination.
Well I am from Eastern Europe 28 and have vaccination scars, but I like them, I grew up seeing it on my mom and surrounding people and found them nice reminder of health
Me too.
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”
― Carl Sagan
How have I not read this quote yet?
@@judochopmaster8233 😀 at last then.
Think Different - Thought Provoking Ideas so far, we’ve survived it all. Stay safe.
Life is fiction, death is the reality.
@@zoperxplex no better words have never been said better
I remember the small scars on my grandparents and older family members. They told me about smallpox. I was just too young to understand.
They also told me that a lot of family members didn't live because of it.
Thank God for its eradication.
in 15 and have the scar
@@lollol-kz8vc You got smallpox in the 2000-2010's? Bro is your mom an antivaxxer
Thank science and the people who worked day and night to see it gone. God created smallpox in the first place lol
The power of not politicizing public health and just using common sense
dangerous enough to cause great damages, but not dangerous enough to cause healthy fear...
also, by vaccines or by being infected, we have reached a form of herd immunity. Not enough to not get sick again with the next wave, when we don't have antibodies anymore or if a new strains is different enough for the antibodies to be "inadequate", but enough that the immunity system react faster to exposition and produce antibodies faster than at the first exposure. This difference in the timing is what save most of the "at risk" peoples, alongside the fact that if there is no massive outbreak anymore, the healthcare system isn't overrun like for the 1st 2 waves.
@@kolerickfucking put this on billboards all across the US south we need it
@@craigmckenzie4967 Most of them can't read it... :)
His beard is definitely holding the lost colony of Roanoke citizens
No...it merely makes him look like a magnificent chick magnet!
Under his moustache it says CROATOAN
🤣🤣
Lol!?!
Im screaming
I read a fascinating book about the history of vaccines, and apparently the man who used cowpox to inoculate his family was so ostracized in his community that he kept quiet about what he did and how effective it was. There were also cartoons in newspapers showing people turning into cows after being vaccinated. It’s sad that even today people are quick to attack vaccines despite the fact that we still have very few effective antiviral drugs and the window in which they work has usually passed by the time a patient seeks medical attention. It’s true that some vaccines can cause side effects (because the whole point is to promote an immune response and sometimes you get more than you bargained for) but they still remain the best way to prevent infections that in many parts of the world are still lethal
It’s funny you mention that because that same story came to mind at the beginning of covid vaccinations. Humans will never stop being resistant to knowledge and progress. It’s frustrating. My aunt bought into the whole horse dewormer BS instead of the vaccine. At least she did until she almost died from covid pneumonia. She’s now vaxxed and promotes it, but she carries a lot of guilt because she convinced a lot of her friends to use ivermectin instead of getting vaxxed. 4 of those friends are now dead.
It's amazing that the more we change as humans the more the idiot ones stay the same
My country's ex-president said, publicly, that the COVID vaccine would turn people into alligators... And some people believed him...
@@unicornglitterfart5201 Sorry for your loss. There needs to be an investigation/study as to why supposedly intelligent people reject proven medical intervention to save their lives.It’s crazy.
I was an infant when smallpox was declared eradicated, and so I was the first person in my family to not have the scar on my arm from the vaccine. Of course, my older siblings used that lack of scar to teased me, saying that the scar meant they were "grownups" and I would never have that mark of maturity. Ah, sibling rivalry!
A lot can be considered a symbol of maturity. It was (and still is) a hoot when they said that being circumcised is a sign of growing into an adult.
That’s kinda fucked up ngl pffft
dont go to afghanistan
@@greg7402 How is that "fucked up"?
@@N0rth_Star Now why tf would anyone do that G ? 🤣
This is MY mental breakdown and I get to choose the comfort video.
Whatever works for you, hope you feel better soon!
I had a smallpox scare in 1982. Turned out to be a bizarre allergic reaction that looked almost exactly like variola minor (technically called Alastrim). I was five at the time, and mostly angry that I missed my kindergarten Giftmas party (complete with piñatas).
I don’t know if I should say congratulations or sorry
@@jakeg3126 I missed candy, but bizarre medical memories last until dementia takes them away. 👍
@@SewardWriter wouldn't be so sure about that. my almost eighty year old granny, who forgets what she had for breakfast, can still tell stories like that.
sure she tells the same stories over and over because she forgets which ones she has told already, but those memories never leave.
it's similar with the names of her grandchildren, she knows all our names, but struggles to remember which is which.
@@windhelmguard5295 Core memories and long term memories are stored in a different part of the brain than recent remembered memories, things like music, colors, videos, pictures, and more are all stored in the most central part of the brain; that being said that’s why most patients with memory loss can remember faces up to a point, songs, videos, pictures, and tell stories with amazing accuracy, as those deeper parts of the brain have not been affected yet
My dad had polio at age 10.
He's 87 and has never had the polio vaccine.
I've had all those childhood shots, had to have them to start school.
This vaccine I haven't had and don't plan on getting.
From 2020 up to 2023
I'm still not vaccinated.
Small pox killed my great great grandmother’s sister. Measles killed two of her brothers. The flu pandemic of 1918 killed her son, my great grandfather. Tuberculosis killed several of my grandmother’s cousins. My grandmother then became a nurse and cared for polio patients. I have a small pox vaccination scar on my left shoulder. Because my ancestors somehow dodged what killed so many of their loved ones, I am here. All of my kids got their vaccinations and I live to see my grandchildren. Now there’s Covid. So I’m participating in a Covid vaccine trial. It’s not always a sure thing, but science has proven to be far more effective than hopes and prayers & fear and denial.
Right on. Now we're about 40% vaxxed, well in the USA anyway, and life is starting to get back to somewhat normal for those with healthy immune systems. (I'm not there yet, but hopefully one day)
thank you for participating in that trial :-)
Thank you for participating in that trial💜 Me and a lot of my family needed the vaccine so bad since we're highrisk ( Diabetes and a lot of my family are +65 )
Thank you for helping in a time of crisis💜
You still alive? Getting any weird radip signals or heart palpatations?
@@jffry890 obviously not 😂 Keep drinking the Koolaid 😂
its sad some people have forgotten the immeasurable pain and suffering before modern vaccines became widly available. I guess all we can do is hope that education and reason will prevail in the end. The eradication of smallpox was a real goliath vs david story and hopefully not the last!
and now, there is ton of people said vaccine is hoax
@@andihuang8638 ikr
It’s because those people have never had to watch a loved one die of smallpox. Or experienced it themselves.
One of the more heartbreaking stories that happened repeatedly over the last two years were devout anti-vaxxers on their death beds begging their doctors and nurses for the vaccine they had once claimed was a hoax.
I'm one of the last generation who remembers what a plague was like -- in the early 1950s polio had parents terrified, swimming pools were closed, public playgrounds were shut down and us boomer kids were kept inside for THE ENTIRE SUMMER!! Many families didn't have TVs, and those who did were lucky to get one channel.
A year after Sauk vaccine was made available I contracted measles, along with the other neighborhood kids. I was the one who nearly died from it; high fevers caused my hair to fall out and I lost some of my vision. Years later I learned my parents had expected me to die and contacted a funeral home!
@@krisaaron5771 That is both morbid and scary...but also like, good on you for surviving 👍😅
It’s amazing hearing the scale of devastation. Of course we’ve all heard of Smallpox, but the absolute destruction it had on lives and humanity is just mind blowing. Let’s hope we get to a place where we can come together and eradicate many more destructive diseases. 😊
Your optimism disgusts me, try being more pessimistic, it makes me happier, mortal
@@charlieclark9552 tf
The anti-vaxxers are trying their damnedest to ensure that doesn't happen. All because, in their wrong opinion, death is preferable to mental illness, which they're blaming anything and everything for and in spite of many being genetic or a case of the mind wiring differently regardless of what the mother does or doesn't do.
@@charlieclark9552 I hope you've changed over the past year.
Antivaxers: "Im gonna ignore everything you just said"
Unfortunately this term "antivaxxers" is used to hide widespread corporate corruption around the provable harm that vaccines cause when they are exempt from liability since 1986. Most so called "antivaxxers" are actually mothers who have vaccine injured children. Vaccine court has paid out billions to these victims.
@@bradk8768 where's your evidence?
@@stevenwebb3634 The question is: do you actually want the evidence ? Most people only care to prove what they already believe."what the thinker thinks the prover will prove " If your inquiry is authentic I will go through the sources for you.
@@bradk8768 I asked you for evidence didn't I?
@@stevenwebb3634 Something tells me that If i gave you all the evidence possible, you would not change what you believe. Why waste my time ? the people who look for truth do not need me to feed it to them. Be well Steven.
LOL, the email notification said "The plague Humanity Defeated Thanks To Dollar shave Club".
'Cause grooming is everything
@@russellfitzpatrick503 😳😳😳
they were the true heros
@@russellfitzpatrick503 EDP445
The Segway in the video was almost as hilarious. "It wasn't just devastating in South America... BUT FIRST, DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB!"
Imagine shaving off all those little pimples with a razor blade that's totally not sponsored by dollar shave club.
Nightmare fuel
That razor commercial made me since !!
Wince, sorry
@@davidschaadt3460 editing exists
EDIT: Forgot the ‘s’ in ‘exists’
My grandmother, now in her late 90's was the youngest of ten. She had a sibling who died of smallpox along with several others throughout the years in rural upstate New York. She cried when telling me how happy the disease being eradicated made her after seeing what it could do to her loved ones and community. It's infuriating how a few negligent and selfish people put their heads in the sand and refuse to vaccinate against the pox, allowing the disease to reappear. I want to believe if they'd lived through a time when it was common and deadly like my grandmother they wouldn't feel so entitled as to protest protective measures not just for themselves but their communities, but as we've seen with covid, tragedy won't stop this brand of stupidity.
As for my Grandmother, a generally quiet and lovely woman who considers the word "hate" too intense for her to use, she still shouts at the television when the concept of antivaxxing is brought up.
Really good for her and also another part with bad news antivaxers would never survive these parts like the movie Outbreak and this one Stephen King's The Stand.
2020 has really sucked so far. An outbreak of rainbows and puppies sounds like a great idea.
J C And kittens....don’t forget kittens. 😃
Who's going to pick up all that puppy poo?
Virus aint even real
Kristy Kelly
Yes. A lot of cake.
Ohhh outbreak of rainbows, bacon sandwiches and raspberry slush puppies, with a sprinkling of unicorns.
So incredibly sad that he slit his throat. It broke my heart to hear that. Blaming yourself to the point of suicide has to be such a horrible thing. 😢
He probably thought the lab may have undermined the whole eradication endeavour. Sad he didn't wait to see that it was not a catastrophic breakout.
I had chicken pox at 16...it was down my throat and...well in every orafice... ears, nose, unmentionables. The pain was unbearable. I still have nearly bone deep scars. I'm thankful kids today have access to a vaccine. ♡
And it's nothing compared to smallpox!
It's really bad to get chicken pox after age 7. It's brutal on the body and it can kill. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I am also glad that kids can get vaccinated, so they don't have to go through that. Or shingles!
The story of smallpox eradication is important because it demonstrates what humanity is capable of, when we find the will to work together
Yes. The eradication of a vaccine preventable infectious disease is reason enough to be glad. That is happened however during the height of the Cold War = is extraordinary. No less than the US and the USSR worked together along with others to facilitate the program which led to the eradication of Smallpox.
I never ever had to think if smallpox once. Thank you to all the work those scientist put in
To my mind, this stands as one of humanity's greatest achievements. Equal to the moon landing in triumph.
Yes.
And disturbing that both are considered hoaxes by large segments of the population.
Unloke moon landing, its actually useful
I’d say destroying a disease that killed possibly billions of people throughout history is a better achievement than putting some cloth on a rock
One had a lasting legacy and saved billions, the other one was mostly for prestige
@@emilybarclay8831 You're a fool if you think that. Without the moon landing and its inventions you wouldn't have a cellphone nor the micro chips to even comment on this news feed. If a new desease broke out nowadays we have instant access to the info and Governments can respond at blazing speeds. This is thanks mostly to the inventions that simply brought us to the moon.
Someone, somewhere, has lost a game of plague inc and decided to restart
I like to imagine we're in an existetial loop and we're in a game of plague inc playing plague inc unaware of the people in the game we're playing that are also playing themselves
I still have my smallpox vaccination scar. Vaccines are the greatest medical achievement in the history of humankind.
True. I would however point out that mankind has had access to vaccines for more than a century now = and still some have not learned the lesson of their value.
For myself the eradication of Smallpox was man's greatest achievement - not because of vaccines per se = but because of what the effort represented. The Smallpox eradication effort was a multi-national endeavor which included support from private corporations who donated resources to the program.
Further it took place at the height of the _"Cold War"_ whereby the US and USSR actually worked together towards a common goal against a scourge which had plagued mankind for millennia. Both nations despite representing geopolitical enemies provided resources and personnel to make it happen. So it shows what humanity can accomplish when = we work together.........
1:35 - Chapter 1 - An ancient curse
4:45 - Chapter 2 - The fall of empires
10:40 - Mid roll ads
12:20 - Chapter 3 - Blankets & bullets
14:50 - Chapter 4 - "The greatest gift of our time"
18:35 - Chapter 5 - The disease defeated
I think it's different in different markets... I had ads 2 mins in already. Sheesh, Google/TH-cam.
Antivaxxers: This bridge is only 99.9999 percent safe. I'll just swim instead
That's what antivaxers don't understand yes there are risks to everything, every trip in a car is an impossibly complex set of multiple risks.
So..... Your profile name is that of the flight that disappeared never to be seen again somewhere in the Indian ocean, And....... That's your comment?
@@jkilla385 Yeah seems right
Lol I'd rather swim than be on that flight but Lol
@@jkilla385 so you're an antivaxxer I see
When I was a kid and I first learned of small pox, I thought there was an even worse disease called Large Pox... lol
My Grandmother as a young girl was quaritined with smallpox they had someone give them food thru a window every once in a while, I can recall my mom telling me the story and dad telling me that it almost took out the whole world.
You didn't mention Lady Mary Wortley Montague and the introduction of variolation to England from Turkey.
Speaking of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, do an episode about her. She lived a fascinating life.
As you wish, master.
Yes, this was fascinating. How the first variolations occurred in the Middle East and gradually expanded to the rest of the world.
My grandfather's family named Montague came from England to the US.
@@malloryjines5050 the Muslims have a belief that a fever is the beginning fire of hell or a taste of hell wandering is a related to smallpox
My half-sister on my dad's side, her mother turned 86, this last mother's day, and survived a nasty case of smallpox _as a child_ in 1939.
She's also nine years older than my father and outlived him by so-far 18yrs, and her last husband was over fifteen years her junior, and he died two years ago.
Needless to say, she's being kept in the dark about those two centenarian women who not only survived their own case of Spanish flu, but also survived COVID-19, lest she take this as a personal challenge.
I am proud of being a grandson of one of MuDr. Raška-s colleagues who helped with eradicating smallpox. Interesting thing Is that most participants of the eradication campaign were awarded the "order of bifurcated needle", basically vaccinating needle turned into a ring.
I remember my parents celebrating when it was announced on the news. Then they cried because they’d both lost friends or family, that’s the memorable part for me.
The amount of diseases we have defeated thanks to sanitation efforts and vaccines is insane. We now barely
know about things like
TB, syphilis, the plague, etc.
👍
Yet those diseases are still around
@@MusicGamesEverything But not rampant.
@@louf7178 TB is still rampant in Africa and probably third world countries elsewhere. It especially loves to pall around with HIV AIDS. There is even a variety resistant to antibiotics.
Sypholis is far from eradicated. It got a second wind in the 60s and 70s, helped along by "free love". But at least now you can kill it with antibiotics if you catch it in time.
"they died in heaps like bedbugs" what an interesting turn of phrase.
I had shingles.... at its heights, the pain was unbearable on my torso nerve...1 year later I still have scars and itching where the out break was... so I had a taste of what these diseases could be like... but these are MUCH worse
Thumbnail is legs covered with blisters, next immediate image is Simon holding a razor.
How did we defeat smallpox?
Antivaxers: Essential Oils
*Breathing intensifys*
And yet humanity survived without vaccines.. 🤔
You know the majority of people who got smallpox were given it purposefully right? Vaccines are cool but I just dont trust humans
@@dnegel9546 Humanity also survives if we stop wearing seatbelts, but does that mean we should stop wearing seatbelts? I’m all for opinions or whatever, but not if it risks the lives of other people.
@@dnegel9546
“Humanity survived” yeah, with millions dead. Did you even watch the video?
Anti vaxxer: small pox is gone
Together we can change this
"every day, someone gets vaccinated, together we can stop this".
@@tei4724 "Good luck"
@@tei4724 you didn't finish the sentence; "... and spread new plagues throughout the world."
Allegedly
Ah... Anti vaxxer, that's why there a thing called natural selection
This is what mankind can achieve if we actually work together instead of fighting eachother, gives you just a bit of faith in the human race
You simply kick butt. I am SO fascinated with disease pathology, and had a lovely time with Swine flu-a shockingly wicked disease. I had fun with MRSA that nearly killed me as well, and I now have flesh missing from my left glute. I have a rare condition where I get a nasty, long-lived and painful welts in reaction to strep throat and Fifths Disease-a type measles. So yes-microbes are terrifying thus fascinating.
My grandfather survived smallpox. He was born in 1894, and he was young when he caught it, so it had to have been in the first decade of the twentieth century. I'm told he walked out of his skin.
Joseph Stalin got smallpox when he was a kid, eventually he recovered from it but he was left with a scar on his face, other kids would teased him and make fun of him, Stalin even exiled or killed artists because they drew the scar.
One of many factors that would make him became a monster.
If only it killed the rat
@@threadworm437 wouldnt change anything, stalin is a man amongst many others, he wasnt unique, he just was in a place where it would have been filled by any other.
@Conner Wine do you live in a 1st world country? then you are even more disposable than me.
@Conner Wine How can everyone be unique? That literally goes against the meaning of the word. Unique means unlike anything else and if everyone’s unique then there’s nothing unique about anyone.
Being born in 67, my scar vanished by the age of 25. I still can't believe how people suddenly see vaccines as suspicious. They don't want to remember the past.
I feel like James Phipps should have statues of him in every city in the world. That kid took one for the team!
Scourge of mankind indeed. Its amazing to see how my own people's history describes how it was so feared at the time, barely 3 people ago, having not had it in our history as long as Europe. Great Video, as always Mr Whistler
I think it's a good idea to keep secure samples of small pox for the reason you stated. So long as the government doesn't hand out any blankets
The sheer ammount of death and suffering caused by smallpox is unimaginable. Living in a world without it, is nothing but a blessing.
Actually you allude to the real crux here. Far too many only think in terms of "mortality". While people dying is always a paramount concern the real metric for infectious disease epidemiology is = "morbidity". So the true "cost" of infectious diseases are not the unlucky ones who die. It is the totality of the spread and what follows. A million cases of Measles is still a million cases even if "only" 5K people ultimately die.
This was both horrifying and really interesting. I would be really interested to hear the history of Tuberculosis.
@8IghtyFour I had to google to find out who Arthur Morgan was, I'm not a gamer :-)
Bet you never thought man's competent ability to just wipe crap out would come in handy. ;)
I know. Usually it's through accident, not deliberate effort.
Hopefully we can repeat this with mosquitos, fingers crossed
Humanity when Largepox comes in:
My mom had smallpox when she was six years old in 1926. She spent over 40 days in an isolation hospital on an island here in Ottawa, ON called Porter's Isle. My mom was French Canadian and spoke no English and unfortunately, the hospital staff spoke only English.
The last thing my grandmother said to her before the ambulance took her away was to remind her of a certain cousin who recovered from smallpox but was badly scarred, "If you scratch you'll look like her" she said. It must have made an impression on my mom because she recovered with only a couple of small scars on her back.
I think back and marvel at how brave a little 6 year old she was. In a ward surrounded by strangers and yet she managed to pull through.
My grandfather called evert night to check on her but she was never allowed to speak to him. They would manage through pantomime to let her know he had called. Times have changed thanks to the vaccine. Here's hoping we'll be saying the same about Covid.
This video is an interesting watch. We should be grateful that we are alive now and not another point in history where terrible diseases like smallpox ravaged humans. Watch and BE GRATEFUL I believe people wouldn't be so critical of modern medicine (which I agree has it's problems) if they were transported back 300 years.
Suub City Ever heard of a disease called Covid-19?
@@rhondablevins4466 I believe what Suub City is trying to say is that we should be grateful that we live in an era where communication between people over vast distances takes mere minutes as opposed to weeks or months. Where as a society we understand the basic concepts of anatomy, hygiene, viruses, bacteria, etc. and respective treatments. In other words, science. Collectively, we no longer believe that all health and ailments are due to a balance/imbalance of the humors (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm) or that disease was caused by God as a punishment for one's transgressions. Imagine what the state of the world would be like right now if we didn't have the advances of modern medicine and technology. Instead of approximately 733,000 dead - at the time of writing this (Covid-19) , we could very well likely be looking at approximately 50,000,000 dead (Spanish Flu), or worse. Imagine how different things would have been had the Genoese been able to call/email the various heads of government of the nations of Europe, Africa, and those along the silk road.
@@rhondablevins4466 covid 19 is much less fatal than smallpox. Or typhus. Or cholera
Add in that cleaning wounds was incredibly difficult and could easily lead to sepsis, people died of easily preventable causes
The archaeological record is very clear on the proportions of a population living with significant illness. Even in the relatively protected monestries, many of the skeletons show poor health
I agree completely 😊 Back then even drinking water could kill you
@@eamsee657 .
Unfortunately we also live in an age of anti intellectualism, where ignorant opinions are considered as having the same value as expert knowledge.
Just to get an idea of how devastating this disease was, estimates are that seven out of ten of all the people who have ever lived have died of smallpox.
When I was a teenager the topic of smallpox inoculations came up while I was speaking with my father and grandfather. Both of them rolled up their sleeves and proudly displayed the nicel-sized scar from their inoculation as children/while in the US Army saving lives. I, myself never vax'd, felt rather left out! My grandfather would have been in his late 70s at the time and my father his late 40s. It always surprised me a bit that my grandfather still had a scar from 60 years prior.
Be glad you were "left out" as that means the scourge of Smallpox was gone. Having a scar is not a good thing as it meant you felt bad for some days and had a blister on your arm which hurt and bothered you. There are photos of people infected with actual Smallpox who survived and many years later their faces were "pockmarked" much as the arms of inoculated - myself included as a child. Trust me you didn't miss much.
Him: smallpox is the one of the deadliest diseases, and caused the collapse of entire empires
Also him 3 seconds later: anyways, have you heard of dollar shave club?
Who else thinks Simon should do an autobiography? After all the other people he's covered, he deserves his own biography.
It has been told often: he does not want to
Watch his 2016 vlog and the few interviews that he did. You'll meet his awesome wife and find out all there is to know
“He came dancing across the water, Cortes, Cortes. What a killer.”
Hearing the story about the woman who died and her father had a fatal heart attack after seeing his daughters pox ridden body is one of the saddest things I've ever heard. I truly couldn't imagine the absolute dread that that man must've felt, the terror. Enough to give him a geart attack. God do I appreciate modern medicine
I received my smallpox inoculation in 1967….at 7 years old, moving to Greece as an Air Force dependent. I still remember the small scraped circle on my upper left arm the virus was introduced with. The faint scar still remains. I was given so many inoculations during that time its no wonder my immune system has always been excellent! They probably gave me a shot against experimental things I never even realized- based on how the government seems to have been so sneaky back then ! But at 62, the worst issue I’ve ever had was this past month- a minor kidney stone.
Unfortunately what you were immunized against back then for the most part = has long since worn off....... The simple reality is that immunity as a rule is transitory. Some pathogens being highly virulent can cause affinity cell formation to occur which results in prolonged antibody generation. Yet without subsequent exposure at some point down the line that antibody generation can wane. Most infections however yield temporary immunity. Also as you age your body begins to work less effectively to include your immune system. So it can less readily deal with infections the older you become.
So studies to determine how long your body generates antibodies against say Measles as an example were done long ago when Measles was still fairly commonplace. In the intervening years it has become far less prevalent such that people vaccinated long ago who 20 years later still had high antibody titers were probably re-exposed via community exposure at some point - which is like getting a booster shot. Add another 20 years with no further community exposure however and those levels are likely less. So best not to assume you are protected as a result of vaccinations decades ago. Just saying 🤔
Remove today’s medical resources and you’ll see how scary today’s bugs can be.
Truely sobering.
Well. Corona is a brand new pathogen so we are seeing what it's like without vaccines or natural immunity.
renoloverxoxo 😂 remove hospital and years of medical experience including the reduction of nurses and doctors. You can’t compare 1960 car to a 2021, that’s my point. Without today’s resources tings will be way uglier.
@@AkuaDragon you must not be from the US because our leadership is dumb af.
@@renoloverxoxo corona has cousins so it’s not something extremely different, now if it mutates we may be in trouble or better off.
In 1777 my 6th ggf is on the Valley Forge muster roll, and is listed as having Smallpox. He survived, continued to serve, and finished the war at Yorktown. There are no family stories of lasting effects, but thank God he could still have children!
How bizarre is it that the final fatalities related to an illness that directly killed untold millions over centuries would be caused by shock, grief, and suicide.
This channel is great, I’ve seen a few videos of yours and they are always thorough and entertaining. Keep it up
4:10 I swear I thought I heard "Once it got hold, you never got old"
I haven’t been watching utube for a while and I’m shocked at how huge your channel is now. I was in the first 500 followers and I just want to congratulate you for this brilliant channel although this video is rank 😂
I remember being in 1st grade, being in line waiting to be vaccinated for several different viruses. They used this gun looking thing, and then given the polio vaccine on a sugar cube. That was 1967.
I have be through this small pox when I was five and I remember all the kids in the village got it. It was terrible. I feel like monster and my skin was hurting at night from pus and my scalp was bleeding from having a old skin rash.
“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
― Blaise Pascal
even though homo sapiens survivrd and neanderthals went extinct, yah i guess it has its ups nd downs.
@@jasmeetxxx9 have you read Sapiens by Yuval?
no. if i m wrong, u can tell me directly. i only read manga
@@jasmeetxxx9 oh it's about homo sapiens and how we come to rule the planet. How we might be the reason behind Neanderthals extinction. It's a quite famous, interesting and enlightening book.
@@QuestionEverythingButWHY i know the book. hv the audiobook with me. i guess i ll get around my procrastination to pick it up someday in paper or in audio. just learning about logical fallacies, so my raider went off when i read a quote from blaise pascal.
i listened to a four episode podcast about Janet Parker a while back. terrifying. have you heard about unsecured samples being found at other WHO buildings in the past 20 years? not a conspiracy theory, it happened. it’s a wild story
Well, that's technically dangerous if you're anti vaccine person or under the age of the first dose.
@@mijalakis3 actually the smallpox vaccine hasn't been given in the west for decades because of the eradication. I was born in the 90s and I don't have it. I don't think a relative of mine born in the late 50s got it either. It may be different in other parts of the world, but I think the smallpox vaccine was discontinued unless you were going to a part of the world where you might get it fairly early in North America. I don't think the smallpox vaccine has been manufactured in ages, either, except for people who have level 4 biohazard clearance and might come into contact with it at either the WHO storage site in the US or the one in Russia.
@@ExperimentIV I was born 94 and I was vaccinated for small pox
@Behavior & Handwriting Reveal the Truth So you're telling me what vaccinations I've had now? How smart do you think that is?
.... unsecured samples. I mean insecure samples could be a thing, but I don't think many samples dabble into Meyers brigg.
This makes me fairly emotional. This is what the world can do if it focuses on the important things. We could wipe out disease, hunger, and so much else if we just focused.
Thankfully only 2 samples of it exist.
One in the CDC headquarters, and one in some obscure lab in Siberia.
Sure we have some vaccines stockpiled, but if it broke out again it would most certainly cause havoc. I mean, imagine if it broke out in Beijing or New York. Especially to you-know-who.
The good thing, is that most countries (I believe) have an emergency plan set in place incase it does.
Great video! One of the most interesting stories I read about the smallpox during my studies was from China. In the 17th century the last big nomad realm of the Eurasian Steppes, the Oirat federation ruled over big parts of nowadays Xinjang, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Siberia and western Mongolia. They were almost constantly at war with Qing China, who were unable to defeat the mobile Oirats on the steppes. They also fought of the Russians who were encroaching from the west, and were subdued by these 2 powers after an outbreak of smallpox, that killed half of their population. As the most remote Mongol tribe, they had not built up an immunity or had learnt about inoculation, which was guarded as a state secret in China and thus were in a similar Situation to the native Americans. One source claimed, that the Qing deliberately sent Oirat war prisoners who were infected with the disease back home, so that they would spread it among their peers.
Smallpox : The plague humanity cured, weaponised, cured again and then kept in a yoghurt pot in a freezer "just in case"
That is probably the best summing-up I've ever read.
Let’s just hope nobody eats the forbidden yogurt
One thing you forgot to mention, is that Jimmy Carter was one of the people who helped push the campaign to eliminate Guinea Worm. He also still worked for habitat for humanity last I checked at the age of 90
My ancestor Reverend Thomas Thatcher, First Minister of The Old South Church in Boston, wrote the first ever medical publication in the US on measles and smallpox and saved thousands of lives during the 1677 epidemic! Definitely a very proud descendant, particularly as I found all of this out when I was in my second year at university studying Public Health, Epidemiology and Statistics! Imagine! Just goes to show that our interests are sometimes genetic/nature and not so much nurture!
Such an uplifting video, in the depths of the C-virus lockdowns. Proving again that you do have the touch for these things
Simon describing smallpox: "Not nice." 6:49
Brits really do like understatement lol
I'm one of the people who, as a kid, was marched off to the doctor's office in 1968 for my smallpox vaccine. I remember it really well because the "gun" they used to inject it was huge and loud.
I was lucky that my doctor decided to choose a spot on my arm to do the shot so the scar wasn't as apparent; it's hidden on the back of my arm nearly in the armpit. Friends of mine had it smack dab on the middle of their arms and no amount of makeup could ever hide that. It's like a badge.
To this day you can still identify the people of my generation by the puckered coin-shaped scar on their arms. I realized when I became a young mother that none of the children of my child's generation have to have such a disfiguring mark on their arms anymore. Take that, smallpox.
Watching this in May 2020, having received both of my Pfizer vaccination doses, feeling incredibly grateful and lucky to be alive in a time where eradicating diseases is possible.
It's not over. The virus mutates. So you are not completely safe
A relevant video given the times we are living through with Covid-19.
Slyness69 no it doesn’t have a cure at least not yet
@ it might have only a 1% death rate but it will leave many more with permanent lung/heart damage
Covid is nothing compared to smallpox
@@sebastianhermann1992 Still not in smallpox's league
Just listening to this made me scared and itchy. Geez, I’m so thankful for modern science...
I have a big scar on my left arm from a tuberculosis vaccine. Norway usually don't vaccinate most children with it anymore but I am so thankful for all my vaccines as a child and into my adulthood.
We are all really blessed that this smallpox is gone.
I was vaccinated against Smallpox as a child as it still raged in the world back then. People today with no living memory of those times have no idea of the way it used to be when outbreaks of Measles or Chickenpox etc. would close down schools etc..
@@varyolla435 people in my family had measles and was lucky to survive. Only thing I have lived though is the corona virus and that was scary enough.
With anti vaxers measles has begun to spread again.
I don't understand why people would take the risk 😵
It's a good thing most people listen to those who lived though these outbreaks.
@@vinterhufsa It is simply human nature. In the US many sadly fall into the description of: _"scientific illiteracy."_ Like the Romans of old who fell into decadence the culture of the US has slid into = _"endless distraction"_ - it now being an entertainment-based culture.
Moral: people are like electricity in that they will typically take the path of least resistance. Hence it is far easier to assume than to make the effort to educate oneself so as to understand.
Being ignorant of the science + of history + and having access to the internet and cable television which perpetuates *A LOT* of nonsense = yields woefully "distracted" and uneducated individuals on this subject. Dunning-Kruger is the bane of our times.
Imagine how bad big pox would be
I love you Simon and all of your work! But the plague of Athens has been confirmed as typhoid fever. They did dna testing on dental pulp. My undergraduate degree was in history and I love medical history
5 years ago I caught the Chickenpox when I was already 30 years old. I cried not because of the pain but the thought of the scars that will be left behind. Thank goodnesses there wasn’t any scarring. 😭 But it was one of the most miserable 2 weeks of my adult life. 😬
2015 on a trip to Japan, I got chickenpox which I thought it was bedbugs. The itch was crazy and lasted 2 weeks, just a scar happened the first that appeared.
So, no one thought to tell you that scarring from chicken pox is almost impossible?
@@debbylou5729 impossible?! Dude, I have them all over me. It was very possible to get scars from pox. My brother and I both have them.
@@debbylou5729My husband and I are both 48, and both had chicken pox in the 1980s. We both still have scars from it.
@@jenniferhart559 I had chicken pox, my sisters had them, all of my nieces and nephews had them. All 4 of my kids had them. One of my kids scratched open a sore, it got infected and he was one day away from hospitalization. Everyone at my daughters b’day party got them. My husband got them when he was a baby. The only one with a tiny mark is the one who had them as a baby. So I guess I’ll see your ‘two’ and raise you a few hundred
Just wait for bigpox
I really like how your presentation is a fair and accurate depiction of the smallpox epidemic in North America. Of all the horrible things Europeans and Native Americans did to each other, knowingly/intentionally spreading the disease (blankets or otherwise) was not one of them.
"was not one of them"
I believe the "not" has to be removed to carry your point
No polio mention? Smallpox, polio & I believe diptheria (sp?) were the OG of mass vaccination along with tetanus (DTP) required to attend public schools in the US back in the day. I still have the scar. Measles, chicken pox, mumps & others came later. I got measles & chicken pox as a teen which absolutely sucked. Please vaccinate. And be sure to keep up with boosters if required.
FYI, my dad had small pox at the age of 6 months. He still had some scars when he died at 71..
Humanity : we defeated smallpox
Coronavirus: this battle will be legendary
Coronavirus doesn’t have anything on how terrible Smallpox was, thankfully.
With many diseases, even horrible cases, if you survive, there’s a good chance you can make a full recovery. Not so with smallpox and it’s pockmarks. And the fact that a disease with a mortality rate of 3% at minimum and 30% from its worst strain was once essentially ubiquitous is terrifying.
I’m only 19 so It had been wiped out for decades before I was born, but the stories are scary.
@@mailcs06 I know bro it was a joke and smallpox was super scary
I remember taking a month long trip to Spain in the 1970s when I was in high school
We all had to go to the Public Health clinic to have our smallpox scars checked and documented
They also said it was a good idea to get the cholera vaccine. I did, had awful side effects (chills and fever) but, there was an outbreak while I was there
Did you not have a Vaccination Certificate written by your doctor?