Shocking Smallpox Photo Shows The Benefits Of Vaccination

Get the damn jab.

Shocking Smallpox Photo Shows The Benefits Of Vaccination

Image Credit: Instagram

It’s almost been two years since the global COVID-19 pandemic began and changed life as we knew it. And yet, there are still some among us – including renowned tennis player Novak Djokovic – who refused to get vaccinated against COVID; even though trained and qualified doctors and scientists highly recommend getting those shots for prevention and protection.

This isn’t the first time that people have put their – or their child’s – health at risk by not vaccinating though. Smallpox, an infectious disease that was rampant in the 18th and 20th centuries killed millions of people, which is why a vaccine was developed in 1796. It was thanks to this vaccine that smallpox was eventually completely eradicated in 1980; no cases of naturally occurring smallpox have happened since.

Many of those who have chosen not to get the COVID vaccine have made this decision because the vaccines were ‘developed too quickly’; despite various renowned health organisations around the world deeming that they are safe, and were developed without compromising quality, safety and effectiveness. But the smallpox vaccine, which was relatively unchanged from 1796 to 1980, was the first vaccine EVER. And it was undoubtedly effective.

Image via Instagram

Just take a look at this photo from the early 1900s Instagram user @historyphotographed posted. Taken by Dr Alan Walker at Isolation Hospital, located in Leicester, UK, the photo shows two thirteen-year-old boys who were both exposed to the same smallpox source at school on the same day. The boy on the right was vaccinated against smallpox at birth, whereas the boy on the left wasn’t vaccinated against smallpox at all.

The stark difference between the two boys’ smallpox symptoms is shocking. Of course, people are applauding the post and @historyphotographed for highlighting the importance of vaccination. One Instagram user commented:

“Yay for science and vaccines!”

Another user wrote, “this is good. People need [to see] this.”

People are also commenting their anti-vax views under the post. So perhaps we haven’t come as far in regards to trusting the science, as a society, in the last couple of hundred years as we thought. C’est la vie.

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