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Hi everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is
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The Study as a known, a podcast where we talk
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about Latin American history. Sometimes it's horrible and deals with
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heavy topics like racism, corruption, and genocide. But more than that,
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it's also by resistance, power and community. And we're back
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for back maybe. Yes, the break was what we needed
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for me to pack and mostly unpacked. Yeah, and we're ready.
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We're ready to go. So today it's it's a shorter
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episode because there's not a lot of information on the
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scene that happened, but I didn't know about it. So
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here we are. A few episodes back. I did a
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series on mob violence toward Mexicans in the US, and
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the last two really focused on Texas and the Texas Arrangers.
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And like we sometimes do, we make short videos about
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the topics that we cover on the podcast to post
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on TikTok and Instagram. Right, yeah, And I don't remember
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where the comment came from, but I posted a video
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about the Bortovindi massacre and the Texas Rangers and someone said,
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look into the smallpox riot of vlad Delo, Texas, and
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I was like, okay, oh, I don't think I saw
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that comment. Yeah, well there's thousands now so when you
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combine Instagram and TikTok. Anyway, Yeah, someone said that and
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I was like, okay, and that's what this episode is,
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the smallpox riots. Interesting, never heard of this. Yeah, I
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had no idea. And so this takes place in March
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eighteen ninety nine. But before we can talk about what
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happened on that day, that's share some context. Yes, we
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have like a little button that just like context. Context.
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We love context. Actually the button should say we love context,
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we love no, but we love it. No, yeah, no, seriously.
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So you know, thanks to the series that we did
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on violence, violence, we know that this was a very
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tense time period between the Texas Rangers and Mexicans in
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Texas because of the Texas Rangers, but also you know,
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there's the Mexican American War, then just a lot of
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angles arrive into the area, the Mexican Revolution, all of
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these things are happening, and just really it's it was
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bad time, contentious time, yes, thank you. And also this
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is the eighteen hundreds we're talking about, and it's like
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a terrible time to be sick with anything just in general. Yeah, yeah,
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like that's a death sentence, a cough dead not dead.
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Cut on your finger. If you don't lose your finger,
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you die, or you lose your finger and then you die. Right, Yeah,
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tennis and all that. Yeah, we didn't have things that
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we have today, like vaccines. But also before we talk
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about the riot, what is smallpox. It is a super
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contagious disease caused by the variola virus. Even though the
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names sound the same, chicken pox and smallpox, chicken pox
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is not from the same virus. I was gonna say,
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it's a different virus, right, it's a herpes virus. Yeah,
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I remember from listening to this podcast will Kill You,
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a very fun podcast. I haven't listened to that in
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so long. I haven't either a while. I got to
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get back to it. But yeah, So smallpox is believed
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to have existed for at least three thousand years before
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it was eradicated three thousand years. Well, yes, and it's
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eradicated like it's gone. Oh, like it's eradicated now. It
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doesn't exist except in labs to be maybe when they
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used as a biological weapon, which is very scary. Anyway,
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The origin of smallpox is unknown, but smallpox like rashes
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have been found on Egyptian mummies. Wow. Yeah, I forgot
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which mummy specifically, but like on his head. Oh, and
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that's where that three thousand years comes from. They're dating
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back to like that like for sure, then possibly longer.
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The earliest written description of a disease that sounds like
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smallpox comes from fourth century China. Fourth century. I can't
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even like fathom the fourth century, right, like oh, and
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then there's like there's like a drawings of them like
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making altars to a god to like help them with smallpox,
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which is just fascinating to see how people dealt with
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it because obviously there's no vaccines, so all they had
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was their gods or god. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. In Japan
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in the eleventh century, there's uh drawings of offerings to
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a smallpox demon. Yeah. Anyway, so early signs on symptoms
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of smallpox include a high fever, fatigue, severe back pain,
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severe back pain. I want to connected that I know
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the symptoms so amazing. I wouldn't have thought of that,
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and it's gone, so you wouldn't know it exactly exactly. Yes,
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thank you vaccines. Well to come back as has the measles,
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I hope not if it's a two rfk it will
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hm hmm but less rare, but also sometimes happen with
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some people's abdominal pain and vomiting. And that's like day
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one and two, right, because it gets worse and then
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you die. Yes. Day three is when the rash develops.
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And this is a very specific looking rash, like there's
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these big bumps everywhere. The bumps are full of clear
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liquid and then puss, I'm sorry for this, and then that.
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Then these bumps develop a crust and then that dries
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and falls off. Yeah, And the rash begins on the
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face and hands and then spreads to the entire body,
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but in the in the face specifically, it's these like
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lesions inside the mouth, the now the nose and mouth oo. Yeah.
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That then they become ulcers. So then you can't even eat, right, no,
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I mean it sounds painful like it would. But also
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some people are throwing up at the same time, you know. Yeah,
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honestly sounds like a terrible time. No. Yeah, again, highly contagious.
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It's transmitted from person to person through droplets. So like
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you know, you're love one sick, you comfort them, they
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turn and cough in your face and get done. They
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breathe next to you, but also through contaminated clothes and bedding.
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And it has an incubation period. Do you know what
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incubation period means? Yeah? I like, I like vaguely like, no,
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it's like the time I'll just like explain, yeah, before
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you go on about how you don't know what was
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the same. It's the time between when you get it
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and you're contagious and then you before you show symptoms, right, yeah,
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so it is the time from you are infected to
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the time you show symptoms. Sometimes you spread the disease
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during this, sometimes you don't smill box. It's not contagious
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during the incubation period. It is contagious when you start
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having a fever, which is like day one of symptoms.
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So interesting, Yeah, which is good because the incubation period
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of this is seven to nineteen days. Seven to nineteen days. Yeah,
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so you could have gotten it from someone between that
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time nationality symptoms, Yeah, you know in those amount of days.
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Well that means it doesn't spread as easy as fast
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as something else until yeah, like but it's not like
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they knew that back then, right right, So it's what
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someone is sick though, and you're near that sick person
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one hundred percent, you're going to get it, right, but
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it wasn't like like COVID right right, right, Yeah, and
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then your infectious from the moment the fever develops to
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the last scabs. I did know that falling off and
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this these scabs like sorry, the pustular rash, the pustules,
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those wings gap. It sounds discussing, but the pustular rash
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is before its scabs, right, yes, the scabs after Yeah,
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so that's about ten days and then it takes another
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six days after that for the scabs to all fall off. Now,
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so you're like infections for a long time. Yeah, you're
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dealing with this for a long time if you don't die. Yeah,
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what was the survivable rate of this? It was like
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three out of ten people died. Oh, but I couldn't
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find the exact year, like because in some areas like
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ninety percent of people. Yeah, like the seventeenth century when
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colonizers brought smallpox to North America. Yeah, and it was
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extremely deadly. And I will say it was deadly er
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because in like Europe and all these areas there was
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a form of inoculation for a while. So inoculation is
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like a precursor to vaccines, where like people had is
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that like herd immunity, Yeah, sort of like people had
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been living in close proximity to animals that had variations
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of smallpox within their own like species, right, and because
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of that people some people developed inoculation or some people
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had already gotten sick and survived, and so then you
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know that immunity spreads, and so a lot of people
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were already immune, these people being the colonizers that then
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came to North America, South America, these places that had
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never seen this disease before, and like a smallpox killed
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at least thirty percent of all indigenous peopleeople in like
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all these continents, in some areas like being like one
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hundred percent of some groups percent. Wow, and you're adding
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measos and the flu. That's where those numbers grow even
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more because measos and the flu also had not been
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encountered by these groups before Cortes and his army of
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colonizers they lost their first battle to the Meschica in
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the Tan, and then they were returning for their second attack,
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fearing that they were going to lose because they had
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already like lost that first battle. When they got back
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to the they found that smallpox had devastated the city,
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like so many had died already because they brought smallpox
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with them in other parts, like in more north than that,
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so like in the what would become the US, But
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when it was like still under British colonization, they found
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that smallpox was very deadly to indigenous people and they
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were like, hey, let's make smallpox blankets. Yeah, and there
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was a weapon, and again it was very very deadly.
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The Incan Empire also a very very like ninety percent
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mentality rate mortality rate, so yeah, very deadly. And until
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smallpox was eradicated through a vaccine, there were outbreaks that
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happened very often all over the world. The last known
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cases happened in the late nineteen seventies. Damn mm hmm,
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yeah that long ago. No, no, yeah again, no, thanks
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to vaccines. It is the only human infectious disease in
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the world to be completely eradicated, because even polio came back, right, yeah,
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and it wasn't completely eradicated everywhere. It had been eradicated
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in the US, but obviously like other areas. I remember
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listening well too, this podcast will kill you, and they
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mentioned that, Yeah, in some areas of the world it
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was still around, and I think they had someone from
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I forgot where in the world, but they had contracted
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it as a child as guests they had them him
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on Wow. Well yeah, like I said, outbreaks happened on
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a very regular basis before wide efforts to completely get
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rid of this disease. And again, the way this was
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done is it was amazing. I didn't write it down
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because it would take so long. But basically it was
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like a worldwide effort between like Who and the CDC.
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And I mean, if anyone wants to learn more, you
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can listen to the episode on smallpox from this podcast
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will kill you because they get into the history. Yeah,
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how it was eradicated all of that, Yeah, but it's fascinating.
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But basically, yeah, it was just this effort like quarantines,
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door to door vaccinations, things like that. Contact tracing. I
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am fascinated by contact tracing, truly fascinating, and it is
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what helped eradicate smallpox even the last outbreak that the
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last one that happened in somewhere, yeah, in nineteen seventy seven.
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I forgot where it was though, Somalia maybe, but it
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was contact tracing where they were able to like stop
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it from being spread and then like just vaccinate everyone.
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So yeah, contact tracing it works, public health it works.
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So yeah. One of these regular outbreaks that happened before
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the eradication of smallpox eighteen ninety eight Loretto, Texas. So
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on October fourth, eighteen ninety eight, doctors in Laredo started
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noticing the spread of an illness that resembled chicken pox.
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It was spreading among the children, and soon they realized,
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oh no, this is not chicken pox, this is smallpox
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because it's more deadly. The first death from this outbreak
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happened on October twenty ninth, eighteen ninety eight, and it
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was a Mexican child, and this death prompted the then mayor,
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Mayor Lewis J. Christen and officials to start a committee
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to investigate the spread of this illness. And within three months,
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by the end of January eighteen ninety nine, there had
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been more than one hundred cases in Laedo, and because
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of this, officials advised stronger measures to control the spread
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of the disease. And so this is where doctor Walter
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Fraser Blunt Blunt, a Texas State health officer then advised
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house to house vaccination and fumigation, the burning of all
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possibly contaminated clothing and personal effects that could not be fumigated,
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and then the establishment of a field hospital for all
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infected patients. And this field hospital it became like a
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quarantine area that then was called a pest house. And
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these measures to control the disease were mostly taking place
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in the poorer areas of Ladedo, which also happened to
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be mostly Mexican areas. And like we know that then
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populated areas are where viruses thrive. Yeah, it has nothing
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to do with a race, right, If anything, it has
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to do with the disparities that follow racial and ethnic
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and disadvantage groups right right, And then there's a reason
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the most a risk groups are the more highly densely
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populated areas. You add in like the style of living, like, oh,
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is it a multi generational home? Right people in this area?
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So yeah, all those things come into play when you
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look at how viruses are spreading. But we and our
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listeners know that this is the time period also where
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eugenics was like fully thriving, right, you know, people were
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blamed because of their race, Like, oh, those dirty Mexicans.
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So the fact this was getting mostly Mexican children was
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adding touch that narrative. Yes, thank you for your type. Yeah. Yeah. Also,
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these pest camps were hardly a place to heal and
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get better. It was probably more disease written. Yeah, and
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it was more like a prison, Oh god, and a
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death sentence going there and meant you were going to die. Basically,
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these pest camps had armed guards to keep the sick