Smallpox was eradicated because everyone got vaccinated.

[MineralMan]

When I was a kid, it was mandatory. We didn't have a choice. We got vaccinated. Now, that vaccine is no longer needed, and children don't have smallpox vaccination scars any longer.

It took a long time to eradicate smallpox from our planet. There was resistance to vaccination. Until it was a mandatory thing, the disease was still around.

Polio is close to being eradicated, as well, thanks to mandatory vaccination.

Rabies is extremely rare. Why? Because our pets get vaccinated It's still out there in the wild, but we vaccinate our pet dogs and cats.

Now, we have COVID-19 and, once again, there is resistance. It will persist and continue to kill people until we finally make COVID-19 vaccination a requirement rather than an option.

Want to go to school? Want to work? Want a driver's license? Get vaccinated against COVID-19. That's how you do it.

[luvs2sing]

1. Growing up in the 60s, I was the only person I knew..

who didn’t have one of those scars. Because I have eczema, the doctor thought my chances of getting eczema vaccinatum and having severe reactions was much greater than my chances of getting smallpox. I remember having to bring a letter from the doctor to school every year explaining why I had never been vaccinated for smallpox.

These days, there is a special smallpox vaccination formulated for people with eczema and suppressed immune systems. Back then I was just a scarless freak.

[spinbaby]

2. Same story here

Eventually, I got a reduced dose of smallpox vaccine as a teenager. What’s interesting is that my Moderna covid vaccine caused a small outbreak of eczema in my elbow crease on the side I was vaccinated. Mostly I just had a very sore arm for a day, but I also had a red itchy rash (covid arm) at the injection site a few days later, as well as a small eczema outbreak.

[luvs2sing]

3. Oooh, that's interesting..

I also had an eczema outbreak after my Covid vaccination, but I didn’t connect the two.

They stopped requiring smallpox vaccines in 1972, when I was in middle school. My doctor was very relieved.

[spinbaby]

10. Overall, I consider myself lucky

I never felt sick or tired after the second shot—arm soreness plus a little rash s pretty minor, all things considered.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. Surprised that haven't seen more "Get Vaccinated" posters around.

Link to tweet

[Johonny]

25. There have been, but demand is still relatively high

We're still very much in the early game of getting vaccine to people. A large amount of the world has no supply at all.

The next step after the early demand runs out, will be a campaign to vaccinate the hesitant. There is unlikely to be mandatory vaccinations until the FDA give full approval tot he vaccine(s). I'm not sure what that time scale is.

The real question will be on a societal level. I can see large segments of the population refusing to work and join groups with unvaccinated people.

[Akoto]

4. Some of us who want to get it can't find it. Everywhere around me has been booked solid.

How do you distinguish between who you're going to punish for negligence versus those who want the vaccine but don't have locations with appointments or stock?

[MineralMan]

5. Since I have no idea where you are located, I can't offer

any suggestions. Demand is down in Minnesota, so you can get an appointment just about anytime, somewhere near the Twin Cities. In rural areas, it can be trickier, but making calls to pharmacies will usually find one that can give you the shot.

Where you are, I don't know. However, if you will tell us what state you are in and what city you are near, someone will probably be able to help you find a shot.

Obviously, if the vaccine is not available, you shouldn't be punished for not getting it.

Give us more information, if you are actually looking for a place to get the vaccine.

[Akoto]

6. Have posted about it several times in the past, I'm on the east coast of FL near West Palm.

We call around regularly. It's admittedly complicated by the fact that I am physically disabled and my parents have to bring me in, and they also want vaccines. To reduce risk on us all by having visits all over the calendar, we're trying to find a time when all three of us can get shots.

Fingers crossed, but my dad might have found a pharmacy that can get us the Pfizer (the one we wanted) in our situation. We'll see. I honestly have been looking for months, though, even just for my parents.

[cinematicdiversions]

7. I am surprised you are having such issues.

Most of Florida seems to be same day appointments with plenty of openings. Is there a way someone could drive you to a location in another county if your county is booked up?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Opinion: We should soon stop catering to the vaccine holdouts

Link to tweet

At some point, only the willfully ignorant and destructive will remain unvaccinated. Once that happens, employers, retail establishments, entertainment venues, public buildings, public transportation, colleges and (when vaccines are approved for children) K-12 schools should insist that people present a secure form of proof of vaccination before entering.

The resolutely anti-vaccination crowd will holler about their “freedom” being taken away. Nonsense. Schools already require an array of vaccinations for children. Public and private establishments can require shoes and shirts. Employers can require safety equipment be worn. The ornery holdouts won’t be mandated by the government to get shots, but they should not be able to enjoy the benefits, privileges and access that responsible Americans have earned by getting vaccinated.

There is no right to remain a breeding ground for dangerous coronavirus variants or a threat to the small number of people still susceptible to the virus despite their vaccinations (known as breakthrough infections). The country is approaching the point when it should stop catering to those bent on being a danger to themselves and others. We have all sacrificed too much for too long to indulge reckless conduct.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. Smallpox is very scary. It's "eradicated", but still exists in labs.

All it takes is one rogue government or one insane lab worker, and we'll be scrambling to create mass quantities of vaccine.

I agree, make covid vaccine mandatory. There may be legitimate medical exemptions, I'll defer to scientists/doctors (not clerics or Q-anons).

[ck4829]

12. A collective good? Republicans have a word for that... SOCIALISM

[Sgent]

13. In many places

the vaccine uptake by those 65+ is well over 90% -- that's the last age group that saw their childhood friends paralyzed or severely ill with polio (1953), mumps, and rubella -- and then didn't see their kids friends suffer the same thing.

Hell, Old Yeller was released in 1957 which scared every impressionable person to get their pets rabies vaccines.

[Ms. Toad]

14. One of the significant differences

is that the smallpox vaccination had full, regular approval. None of the COVID vaccines have been through the full approval process (all are approved only for emergency use).

Requiring people to take what are, essentially still, experimental vaccines is a bit troublesome.

Until they obtain full regular approval, there should be a choice between vaccination and mask wearing. (Although I have fewer objections to employers - especially health care employers - requiring vaccination as a condition of employment.)

[hamsterjill]

15. Smallpox had a mini needle, too.

At least mine did. I remember getting it a gazillion years ago. It was a small array of needles on a postage stamp-sized platform that the nurse just “stamped” into my arm. Was not painful or scary at all.

My scar is very faint now.

[Ms. Toad]

16. I remember polio -

but not smallpox. (I've had a smallpox vaccine - just no recollection of getting it. Not sure I can find the scar - although I could for most of my life.)

[MineralMan]

20. Well, full-scale testing is now underway, isn't it?

I understand what you're saying, but this remains an emergency situation, as hospitalizations and deaths are still occurring worldwide from COVID-19. In emergencies, we take emergency measures.

The emergency will continue, and may become even worse, unless the vaccine is accepted by a very large majority of people.

[Ms. Toad]

26. It is,

And when enough data is available for full approval, treating COVID vaccination like other vaccinations will be appropriate.

Until then there should not be government imposed vaccination. BUT people who choose not to get vaccinated should be subject to a mask order that is enforced by mechanisms similar to vaccine enforcement.

[MineralMan]

27. The same people who won't get vaccinated will also not wear masks,

just as they have done all along.

Perhaps public shaming will help. Whatever works if fine with me.

[Ms. Toad]

28. How do you plan to enforce vaccination?

Use the same mechanism.

Want to come in? Show your vaccine card. Don't have one? Pot a mask on.

We don't have ways to enforce adult vaccinations (childhood vaccinations are enforced via school registration, but there is no clear universal experience for adults.)

One you device an effective scheme to enforce adult vaccinations, use the same mechanism to enforce mask wearing.

[MineralMan]

29. I do not plan to enforce anything, Ms. Toad.

I am in no position to do that. Nor, I think, are you. In fact, nobody here on DU is in such a position.

We have no effective way to enforce either vaccinations nor mask-wearing. There may be no such way, in fact.

What I am in a position to do is state my opinion, which I do frequently.

[Ms. Toad]

30. The first post to which I responded included enforcement.

Now, we have COVID-19 and, once again, there is resistance. It will persist and continue to kill people until we finally make COVID-19 vaccination a requirement rather than an option.

Want to go to school? Want to work? Want a driver's license? Get vaccinated against COVID-19. That's how you do it.

[MineralMan]

32. Yes, that's what I wrote. That is my opinion.

You quoted my post, which is just upthread, in which I posted my opinion.

[Ms. Toad]

33. You're playing games. I'm done. n/t

[demtenjeep]

17. is that the one that left the circle scar?

my older siblings got it but I didn't. I was born in 66

[MineralMan]

19. Yes, that one.

[Initech]

18. I think it's time to start treating anti-vaxxers like terrorists.

And they pretty much are. Only they're not blowing people up. Their weapon isn't a bomb or a submachine gun. Their weapon is biology and their ignorance and selfishness are going to get a whole lot of people killed before this is over.

And I cannot stress this enough: FUCK ANTI-VAXXERS.

[womanofthehills]

21. Eradicating Covid will be much harder

According to this Forbes article: 4. This may be partly because SARS-CoV-2, like most viruses, has animal "reservoirs." If public health efforts succeed at pushing it out of human populations, it will likely live on in fruit bats and ferret populations (at least), only to return to infect humans again. 5. Smallpox, on the other hand, does not have any animal reservoirs. No longer living in human hosts, it is completely defeated — at least in the wild, at least for now.

[MineralMan]

23. Yes. No doubt it will.

However, until most people are vaccinated, the virus will continue to mutate and develop new strains. Some of those may not fit into the protection shield of the vaccines.

It's crucially important that we get a huge majority vaccinated to cut down on transmission in the human population. We're not moving ahead quickly enough at this point, particularly in red states. However, even blue states have large populations of vaccine resistors.

[USALiberal]

22. Rabies still kills 59,000 people a year, other nations not requiring vaccines for pets. Nt

[MineralMan]

24. Yes. That's why I live in this country. One reason, anyhow.

[womanofthehills]

31. But in the US rabies deaths are very rare - one to three cases a yr

28 cases since 2006 and 8 of those were infected outside US. Vaccines have just about eliminated tetanus in the US. No cases of tetanus in last 2 yrs. Some scientists believe we all all still protected from our childhood tetanus shots. I get pissed at drs who think we need another a tetanus Vax every time you get a cut. Some scientists say if you had a tetanus shot 30 yrs ago, you are still good but others say our childhood vacs must still be good because there have been no recent cases in US.