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tialaramextoday at 12:04 AM3 repliesview on HN

It might be possible to reintroduce Smallpox and I guess that idiots who also think coal is a good idea might actually be stupid enough to make it happen. But, fortunately humans did wipe out one other disease and unlike Smallpox it wasn't deemed useful as a biological weapon so AFAIK nobody kept copies, it's just gone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinderpest


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BigTTYGothGFtoday at 12:06 AM

> AFAIK nobody kept copies

Unfortunately this is not the case: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63707-z

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tehjokertoday at 12:55 AM

Funnily enough, RFK Jr. is doing what he can to bring its human cousin back:

"Measles virus evolved from the then-widespread rinderpest virus most probably between the 11th and 12th centuries."

k_roytoday at 12:11 AM

Good thing that smallpox wasn’t eradicated due to a vaccine.

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