In 1950, smallpox killed over two million a year.

In 1959, the WHO launched the Smallpox Eradication Programme.

To eliminate smallpox, 80% of the world’s population would need to be vaccinated.

Epidemiologists from the Soviet Union and the United States of America worked side by side in the middle of a cold war.

In 1980, the WHO declared smallpox officially eradicated.

Look at what we can achieve when we all work together.

Smallpox once killed over 500 million people.

Thanks to efforts by the WHO that was strongly backed by the US, smallpox was eradicated by 1980.

The US recoups their investment every 26 days in money not spent on administering further vaccinations and treating new cases.

Withdrawing from the WHO will cost the US dearly in terms of money and lives.

The best way to make America healthy is by working together with the world on our shared goal of eliminating diseases that affect us all.

Finally, we met!

Delighted to chat with these fabulous Canadians who wrote about the #Covid19 pandemic in #BreakingCanadians.

If you read our book and weep, turn that sorrow into action.

@NightshiftMD @dfisman @DocMCohen @ImogenRCoePhD @placentadoc @flindall_steve

Because Earth's oceans are so big and so deep, it takes an *immense* amount of heat to warm them even a few degrees. But that's what we have accomplished.

And — because the oceans are so big and so deep, the changes we are causing in them are essentially irreversible. We'll have to live, or die, with the consequences of our foolish behaviors.
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“Astounding” ocean temperatures in 2023 supercharged “freak” weather around the world as the climate crisis continued to intensify, new data has revealed.

The oceans absorb 90% of the heat trapped by the carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, making it the clearest indicator of global heating. Record levels of heat were taken up by the oceans in 2023, scientists said, and the data showed that for the past decade the oceans have been hotter every year than the year before.

The heat also led to record levels of stratification in the oceans, where warm water ponding on the surface reduces the mixing with deeper waters. This cuts the amount of oxygen in the oceans, threatening marine life, and also reduces the amount of carbon dioxide and heat the seas can take up in the future.
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FULL STORY -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/11/ocean-warming-temperatures-2023-extreme-weather-data

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Some good progress here in NYC: New York Health + Hospitals (NYC's public hospital system, and the largest municipal health care system in the US) has reinstated universal masking in all areas of their facilities.

Thank you to all the advocates who have pushed for this. Organizing works!

https://bronx.news12.com/masking-policies-return-at-city-hospitals-in-response-to-covid-flu-cases