How Rahima came to hold a special place in smallpox history — and help ensure its end

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/20/ [login to see] /smallpox-covid-vaccine-eradication-who
More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, people are getting used to the idea that the virus isn't going to disappear. Scientists predict that COVID will likely become endemic, a permanent part of our lives that we'll have to learn to live with and manage.

In fact, only one human disease has ever been completely eradicated: smallpox.

"Smallpox was one of the most devastating diseases ever since humanity can remember its history," says Daniel Tarantola, who was a medical officer with the World Health Organization's smallpox eradication program in the 1970s.