A stark reminder of vaccine history.
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
Exclusive insights, data, and analysis for financial market experts.
Search
Have an existing account?
Sign In
This historic photo (late 19th/early 20th century) shows two boys exposed to smallpox. The boy on the left was unvaccinated and developed severe smallpox, while the boy on the right was vaccinated and remained healthy. This image was widely used in medical literature to demonstrate the effectiveness of vaccination. Thanks to efforts like this, smallpox was officially eradicated in 1980—the only human disease ever wiped out.
Great reminder. Alternatively you can look at the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas.
When I first started working in hospitals and the antivax movement started to get some traction posters like this were plastered everywhere. We should do that more again and have pro vaccine groups run ads on TVs, billboards, etc. again so people can get a reminder.
Polio, too, could have been eradicated but for two countries, I believe.
Smallpox was horrendous. Measles might not look worse, but still causes blindness and deafness which an unvaccinated child will *not* be able to recover from.
Anti-vaxxers incoming…
This should be tattooed on all parents that refuse vaccines
Most people haven’t had to watch friends and family die of contagious diseases because we developed vaccines. Now, because we were kept safe, we question vaccines and their efficacy.
If there is proof that vaccines are harmful, it should be presented to the medical community. If not, we should stop spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation and be grateful to live in a country, and at a time where we don’t have to die from these things.
Has RFK seen this?
Not vaccinating your children is neglect.
And somehow we have ended up with an antivaxxer whackadoo with no medical background as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services
Remarkable
Just for some clarity. The boy on the right also has smallpox (there are better photos where you can see the pox better).
The next time an antivaxer says that the covid vaccine doesn’t prevent you from getting covid….
The way the pox kid makes me feel is the way I feel seeing RFK. RFK looks like he is on heroin and high doses of steroids and hasn’t had a bowl movement in 7 years.
I’m 50 years old. I grew up in Utah. A lot of the fundamentalist Mormon breakoff groups don’t vaccinate.
When I was a kid I met a child four years older than me who went blind from measles. His family was expelled from the group when they followed totally legitimate medical advice to vaccinate their kids. They ended up living in a shit house on my shit street. The child nearly died, and saving him bankrupted them. They nearly lost everything.
When my grams found out she went over and helped them. She was a nurse and he needed care.
She spent days at their house and nights with us.
She told us how angry she felt that vaccines were being undermined.
Gma’s mom Ethel went blind from a high fever just like our neighbor boy Joseph.
Gma’s dad died of tetanus he got at the Kenecott copper mine mere years before the tetanus shot was widely distributed. (It had been invented, but scaling up logistics for distribution wasn’t yet implemented.)
These illnesses destroyed her life, her security, the protection her parents provided her, they threw her family into poverty. Then the Great Depression hit and everything was even worse.
Americans are believing lies spawned on misinformation troll farms in Russia, Iran, China, and N. Korea.
I’m dead. And not in a “I heard a funny joke” kind of way.
RFK thinks the boy on the left will be just fine
LET THEM COOK (themselves).
Iron lungs and leeches for all!
Fun fact you can visit Edward Jenners home where he worked on the smallpox vaccine!! and even go inside the shed where he gave out vaccines for free to children! It is in a town called Berkeley in Gloucestershire, England!
If antivaxxers could read this would make them very upset
Booooo! Fake news! The kid on the right was just a better Christian.
What happened to the boy?
Vaccines are as legit to a magical fix to diseases and with current research, even some cancers…
I will never comprehend why some people are against them.
make signs; put them on overpasses, intersections, street corners etc
Pass out pamphlets/infographics
Digital protest; comment on social media posts, news articles/videos
CALL,EMAIL AND SEND LETTERS to the representatives….!!
Petition the judges!
Emphasize that we need to check the budget LEGALLY
RESPECT THE CONSTITUTION
AND REMEMBER WE HAVE CHECKS AND BALANCES FOR A REASON
r/50501
This really needs to be shared. The muppets that support Trump / RFK Jr literally have no idea what they’re doing or the implications. Words won’t work as they’re mostly semi-literate, so pics like this are really needed to make an impression.
This needs more upvotes.
Fuck those antivax idiots
Yes but what big pharma fails to tell you is that the boy on the right died 93 years after this photo was taken!! 😳
I am sure glad that my kids are up to date on vaccinations. No idea what the future holds for that.
I wonder if Trump will try to scrub this too
I feel SO badly for the child in the left. He must have been so miserable
This should be the evidence you need to see.
Measles had made a comeback unfortunately and its occurrences continue to climb. Vaccinate your children!
Everyone who refuses to vaccinate their children should be imprisoned for the attempted premeditated murder of every immunocompromised person in the country
Make smallpox great again!
RFK jr: gimmi the one on the left
But my Bibble says that needles and gays are BAD
Is America great again yet?
If I ever contract tetanus, please kill me immediately. While many survive, I would rather die than go through that agony.
If we have an outbreak, the govt and media won’t show it. 0 accountability.
This afflicted child looks like RFK Jrs voice. This isn’t a future we have to live in. We already have the vaccines for it. We dont need to make sp come again
Makes me think it’s a way to make vaccines only available for the wealthy , all this anti vaccine propaganda.
BuT i dOnT wANT tO vACcInaTe My cHiLDREn iT CaUSEs aUTiSm
Yeah but we are going to be great again, just like the kid on the left
Omgggg. Too bad we aren’t vaccinated for smallpox today. 🙁
Imagine how hot we’ll all look when antivax idiots look like this
I think RFK Jr’s office should be flooded with mail that contains this pic and others depicting the horrors of vaccine-preventable diseases.