Mankind has, over the millennia created countless thousands of gods. Most of these gods have died unremarkable deaths as the cultures that worshipped them moved on to the next new god, or were wiped out by the worshippers of different gods.

However, there are a select few gods that all of mankind came together to kill. In Japan, it was the devil named Hōsōkami, Koreans named it “Your Majesty”, in south India it was Mariamman, in Africa the Yoruba people called the god Shapona. All these gods (and more) were associated with the cause of mass death that, even today, would seem like a divine judgement. They were all associated with Variola Major, Smallpox.

Smallpox was highly virulent, and highly deadly. Of those that caught Smallpox, %30 on average would die- and the deaths were not easy ones… it was an extremely cruel disease. In severe cases, the blisters it created in the skin would become so numerous and large that they would join together, separating large sheets of skin from the underlying dermal layers, skinning victims alive. In some cases it manifested as a hemorrhagic disease, with the afflicted bleeding out from nearly every orifice. In some cases the whites of the eyes would swell with blood and turn red, leaving the pupils sunken in the eyeball. Survivors were, in many cases, left with scarring and disfigurement as well as damage to organs or eyes. Smallpox was also highly contagious, persisting in the air for quite a while. It is estimated that Smallpox killed over a billion people in the 3+ millennia it had free reign to burn through humanity.

In 1975 the last natural case of smallpox was identified in Bangladesh- three-year-old Rahima Banu was treated and survived, and every person within a 1.5 mile radius of her house was immunized. In 1980 victory was declared- for the first time in history a disease was driven to extinction.

The original COVID strain had an R_0 of ~2.9, on average a victim infected 2.9 other people. Smallpox is estimated to have an R_0 of 3.5-6. When it burned through a population it would seem like an act of a cruel and angry god. COVID, which had a death rate originally maybe somewhere around 1% shut down entire countries, flooded hospitals past their ability to handle it. Imagine what smallpox would do today.

Almost NO ONE is immunized against it. If you were immunized in the 70′s your protection has long since worn off, boosters are recommended every 3 years . So smallpox would have free reign, a far denser population, and a population that is far more well travelled. And it would have- at least- a 30% death rate.

Imagine the panic, the mandatory quarantines of entire communities… the economic devastation…

When the victory over smallpox was declared, there were two official places where the last samples of the virus were kept. The CDC in Atlanta under high security, and in Russia at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (also called the Vector Institute).

In 1969, the US ended its biological warfare program. The USSR, however, did not- there is information from many sources, including defectors from their biological warfare program , that indicates that not only did Russia experiment with smallpox to make it more lethal, they actually made TONS of the virus and fitted some of it into warheads. What was done with these tons of smallpox is unknown, also unknown is where these stockpiles ended up… are they in storage? were samples given to other nations? were they safely destroyed? The answers are unknown to all but a handful.

It is strongly suspected that North Korea, Iraq, China, Iran, and others have the smallpox virus in secret labs. What if Iran is foolish enough to provide a biological weapon to Hamas? None of these countries are stable or completely rational actors. In weeks the virus would be spreading world wide. In a completely unprotected population, a denser population than it has ever experienced, and a population where global travel is commonplace.

But it gets worse…

In 1998 Australian researchers working on mousepox (close relative of smallpox) added the gene for the creation of Interleukin 4 to the mousepox virus- supposedly with the intent of creating a virus that would render mice infertile. They infected mice designed to be resistant to mousepox with this modified virus- the results were terrifying. This simple change created a mousepox virus that had 100% lethality… and there is no reason to think that making this change to smallpox wouldn’t have similar consequences for humans. Adding this gene is not costly or difficult… the process required is something done all the time in labs with other viruses, and requires a few 10′s of thousands of dollars in equipment- it is easily within the capabilities of a nation with a biological warfare program, and even within the capabilities of a terrorist organization, or even a lone wolf provided they are given the smallpox virus. Further studies found the only way to protect from this modified virus was to ensure the mice were vaccinated just before (within weeks) exposure to the virus.

The thing about biological weapons, especially one like smallpox, is there is no way to prevent it from eventually coming back to infect your own population… That is perhaps our best assurance that it will not be used… but given the insane leaders like those in Iran and North Korea, can we be sure that they would not attempt to use smallpox to render their enemies helpless, or extinct?

And with the coming pandemic, the old gods will be remembered- and perhaps worshipped- once more… as countless millions die from a disease that had been declared extinct.