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We have never even come close to eradicating a respiratory virus. There is a huge difference between a disease like smallpox and covid19

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A nice summary of human attempts to fully eradicate pathogens - a feat we have accomplished precisely two (2!) times.

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

we have for all intents and purposes eradicated polio in the areas that trust vaccines. it's in basically 2 places now because of a few factors but a large one is that the taliban doesn't trust them and think it's a sterilizing campaign... pakistan, and afganistan.

Don't get it twisted: the CIA disguised its spies as polio vaccine administrators[1]. We could have eradicated the virus had the medical staff not been weaponized.

1. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/05/20/314231260...

You can both be right. CIA poured fuel onto the fire.

But I do find it is interesting that we almost had polio eradicated until the vaccine was politicized...

There have been both blunt and sharp political forces in play. As far as I know, CIA never operated this way in northern Nigeria, yet that was one of the anti-vax hold-outs where polio was kept alive.

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