When I was a child, I vividly remember noticing a small but distinct scar on my mother’s arm.

Located high up on her shoulder, the scar took the form of a ring of small indents, surrounding a larger, deeper indentation. I can’t quite pinpoint why this scar caught my attention, but I was clearly intrigued by it

As time went on, the curiosity faded, and the scar became just another part of my mother’s arm that I hardly noticed.
That was until a few years ago when, while helping an elderly woman off a train, I happened to spot the same scar in the same place on her arm. Instantly, my curiosity was piqued once again. Unfortunately, with the train moving on to its next destination, I didn’t have the chance to ask the woman about the scar. So, I did the next best thing: I called my mother to ask if she remembered what had caused the scar on her arm.

My mother, of course, reminded me that she had explained it before. The scar came from the smallpox vaccine, a vaccine that was once widely administered to prevent the deadly and disfiguring virus. She explained that this vaccine, given to children before the 1970s, left a noticeable scar—a reminder that the person had been vaccinated against a disease that used to terrorize humanity.
Smallpox, a viral and infectious disease, was a major health threat for centuries. It was responsible for high mortality rates, killing roughly 3 out of 10 people infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition to the risk of death, many survivors were left permanently disfigured. However, due to the widespread success of the smallpox vaccine, the virus was officially declared “eradicated” in the United States in 1952. By 1972, smallpox vaccines were no longer a part of routine vaccinations, as the disease had been completely wiped out.
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