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a_imho
It looks like someone at npr caught up with the perfectly functioning and compliant text only option.
Vecr
I'm not sure why they put "a Deadly Virus" in the title, not "a Smallpox Epidemic". Is smallpox as a concept becoming an obscure thing?
shrx
"Deadly virus" gets more clicks.
donohoe
It’s not inaccurate so that’s good, and don’t see it being misleading either way
inglor_cz
The vast majority of the world's population was born after smallpox was eradicated in the wild.

IDK how many people out of 10 would correctly answer the question "what was smallpox and what was its cause"? One in ten?

[dead] Y-Bopinator
I may be a zoomer but im pretty sure smallpox is a punk rock band and not a virus
gus_massa
Looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox#Eradication in most parts of the word it spread until 1960-1970, so I expect most people with more than 60 years old to know. From https://ourworldindata.org/age-structure the 65+ group is 10% of the current population.

I'm younger, but I remember horror stories from my parents about smallpox and polio (mostly about polio).

My children, ... I don't know. I can check later, but I guess my older daughter know, but's perhaps it's like horror stories about her grandparent epoch.

Perhaps we should pick a day and make a big annual commemoration worldwide.

Somewhat relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2448/

mixmastamyk
Anything with "pox" in the name, should give a hint.
IncRnd
They obviously did that to increase the click count.
Broken_Hippo
Folks kind of know that smallpox was a problem, but a lot of folks don't have any personal reference for it nor have any real reference for how deadly it was. The US stopped routine vaccinations for it in 1972, after all, and they cheered when they declared it eradicated in 1980. Multiple generations have been born since then. A few folks born after it was eradicated are grandparents now.

Honestly, syphilis has a similar story and it is still around: Sure, there is some shame around it, much like other STDs, but we can cure it. And wow, it is a horrible disease, eating away at folks.

AlexCoventry
"Deadly virus" will attract more attention than "smallpox epidemic" because it highlights the parallels with the coronavirus pandemic.
[dead] redis_mlc
Fauci is probably funding a smallpox revival too. Shhh!
mxcrossr
> "We don't know exactly why or how it works, we just know that it does work," says Michael Kinch, an associate vice chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis who has written a book on vaccination. Kinch and others suspect this form of inoculation may have worked because it introduced the smallpox virus through the skin, rather than the lungs.

This is really interesting, I wonder if we have any evidence of similar behavior of other viruses?

TheBigSalad
It's insane that we don't know this. Are we not studying this?
[dead] modularform12
It was only a year ago that 'journalists', including NPR, were telling us that discussion of medical interventions outside of the mainstream consensus was dangerous and should be censored.
EccentricBunny
What a turn of events at the end. Without this lady, even though Edward Jenner may have survived and even though this method was already a thing in other parts of the world, I think we can say it was a big influence in his career as doctor later on. Not only because he received the treatment as kid but for all the political nonsense around it.