Inside STAT: Civil War vaccination kits yield genetic clues to how smallpox was defeated

MICROSCOPE IMAGE OF A CLUSTER OF SMALLPOX VIRUSES. (FRED MURPHY/CDC VIA AP)

Eradicating SARS-CoV-2 may seem like a distant dream, but the world does have the example of one deadly virus that has been successfully eliminated: smallpox. Looking at Civil War-era artifacts from a Philadelphia medical history museum — such as knife-like lancets and tin boxes — scientists were able to rebuild genomes of viral vaccines created in the 1860s to inoculate soldiers and others against smallpox. And the traces of virus found on these more than 150-year-old relics show how smallpox evolved within the larger virus family it belongs to, and indicates how a variety of strains could be used to fight against the deadly disease. Although there aren't direct takeaways for the current coronavirus pandemic, “this work points to the importance of looking at the diversity of ... vaccine strains," Hendrik Poinar, one of the scientists behind the new work, tells STAT's Elizabeth Cooney. Read more here.