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Comment by wernercd | Hacker News Reader

> there's strains

And? The world doesn't end when new strains of the cold or the flu happen. Every year. As it's happened for as long as there have been humans.

Humans have "eradicated"... Polio? Because it's rather serious? What else have we eradicated?

COVID is here to stay.

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Smallpox. Polio isn’t actually eradicated but almost is.

However, in the US a lot of diseases were eradicated locally. Malaria used to be endemic, and tuberculosis.

There’s also a list here: Diptheria, Mump, Measles, Rubella

Some have made small comebacks due to anti-vaxxer sentiment, but eradication certainly isn’t some impossible goal.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/6-diseases-the...

Global eradication of diseases is very hard, because there are lots of areas that don’t have much money or government capacity to dedicate to disease control. Developed countries have brought quite a few diseases to near-extinction within their borders; tuberculosis is the obvious comparison, given the similarity in symptoms, transmissibility, and vaccine efficacy.

You'd be surprised with respect to tuberculosis. We use a vaccine developed 100 years ago, a vaccine which actually doesn't really work in adults (and immunity from the vaccine gets lost by adulthood), and antibiotic resistant strains are only becoming more prevalent.

https://theconversation.com/tuberculosis-kills-as-many-peopl...

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