posted on Apr, 30 2005 @ 07:03 PM
slank
So far there have been no outside occurences of smallpox, but saying it has been eradicated infers that medical professionals have sampled every piece
of organic matter on the planet and found no traces of the disease.
I understand functionally destroying something is just as good, but I wouldn't get behind any claims such as that without knowing the basis for the
judgement.
Are all people in the world free of smallpox? How would we even know? There are hundreds of communities worldwide that have little to no outside
contact.
Are all animals in the world free of smallpox? How would we know that either? There's no feasible way to test every creature on earth.
Depending on what sorts of forms the disease takes, where it hibernates, how it's transmitted, there could very well be strains of smallpox quietly
mutating in dozens of locations around the globe.
What if some indigenous tribe or another became immune to its effects after a while, but still carry it? What if it arose from an animal carrier
immune to symptoms?
I dunno, I don't think it's reasonable to say it's been wiped off the face of the earth.
Eradicated from industrialized nations would be a more conservative statement, with a higher degree of certainty.