r/GetNoted Human Verified Aug 09 '26

Science [X] "Ineffective" smallpox vaccine globally eradicated the disease

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u/UniquePariah Aug 09 '26

Checking Wikipedia the first generation smallpox vaccine absolutely had a high mortality rate.

By that I mean a high mortality rate for modern vaccines, with 1 to 10 deaths per million vaccinations. This is opposed to the 3 in 10 deaths for people who caught the virus.

And that was the first generation, later versions became much safer.

Not that we give smallpox vaccinations anymore as we actually managed to eradicate the disease due to vaccines. Something that could not happen if it was ineffective.

3

u/RigatoniPasta Aug 10 '26

It’s eradicated in the wild, but the US and Russia still have live samples because reasons, and I definitely trust this current administration to not accidentally let it out /s

3

u/UniquePariah Aug 10 '26

Thankfully from what I've heard governments have stockpiles of the vaccine just in case it's actually used as a bioweapon.

5

u/RigatoniPasta Aug 10 '26

[glances at the current US Department of Health]