We should not dismiss the possibility of eradicating COVID-19: Comparison with smallpox

This article was inspired by the video ‘Can we get rid of Covid-19 forever?’ by Vox. You can check it out here.

Smallpox is the only human disease we have ever completely eradicated; therefore, it upholds a golden standard for disease eradication. It used four factors that completely eliminated the virus: a vaccine, absence of animal vectors, global effort, and contact tracing and isolation. Depending on these factors, we can change the fate of COVID-19 and work towards eradication.