Get PolitiFact in your inbox.
Smallpox was officially eradicated in 1980. It doesn’t need to be held in check by vaccines.
If Your Time is short
-
The World Health Organization in 1980 officially declared smallpox eradicated. The last natural case was in 1977.
-
The smallpox vaccine helped eradicate the smallpox virus. Because the virus doesn’t exist in the general public, vaccination is no longer required to keep it in check.
-
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary, has said in recent interviews he would make vaccinations a personal choice.
A Facebook photo claims smallpox, a viral infection the World Health Organization declared eradicated in 1980, will return now that President-elect Donald Trump has said he will nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary.
"Say hello to smallpox. It was never eradicated; it's held in check by vaccines, which RFK Jr. says he will eliminate coverage for, making vaccines ‘optional,’" text overlaying an image on a Nov. 15 Facebook post said. The image features a child with smallpox and Kennedy, Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary.
The Facebook photo was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)
This claim isn’t true. The World Health Organization officially declared smallpox wiped out in 1980 after years of no new reported cases. Smallpox is "the only infectious disease to achieve this distinction," according to the WHO. In the United States, there have been no natural cases of smallpox since 1949, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last reported case of smallpox in the world was recorded in Somalia in 1977.
The smallpox vaccine was the key driver in eliminating the disease, but since the virus’s elimination, the vaccine plays no role in keeping smallpox eradicated. The smallpox vaccine does, however, protect against the mpox virus.
Featured Fact-check
PolitiFact has fact-checked several claims by Kennedy, who has built a political movement on years of vaccine skepticism and science denialism and has talked about making vaccines optional. He said in a Nov. 6 interview with NBC News that "if vaccines are working for somebody, I am not going to take them away. … People ought to have a choice."
Kennedy would not change the status quo for smallpox because vaccines for the smallpox virus are no longer administered. Routine smallpox vaccination among the American public stopped in 1972 after smallpox’s U.S. eradication, a CDC fact sheet said.
Although smallpox has been eradicated globally for decades, the U.S. and Russian governments maintain live samples in secure laboratories. In theory, either country could release the samples as a biological weapon. If that were to ever happen, "health officials would use smallpox vaccines to control it," the CDC said.
We rate the claim that smallpox was never eradicated and that RFK Jr. would eliminate coverage for the smallpox vaccine False.
Our Sources
Facebook photo (archived link), Nov. 15, 2024
PolitiFact, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign of conspiracy theories: PolitiFact’s 2023 Lie of the Year, Dec. 21, 2023
World Health Organisation, History of smallpox vaccination - The only human disease to be eradicated so far, accessed Nov. 22, 2024
World Health Organisation, Smallpox, accessed Nov. 22, 2024
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, About Smallpox, accessed Nov. 22, 2024
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Smallpox Vaccine, accessed Nov. 22, 2024
PolitiFact, RFK Jr.’s Wi-Fi claim about human blood-brain barriers isn’t backed by definitive research, July 10, 2023
PolitiFact, COVID-19 wasn’t targeted to spare Jewish and Chinese people, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed, July 19, 2023
PolitiFact, No evidence atrazine in the water supply is causing more kids to identify as transgender, June 28, 2023
American Museum of Natural History, Smallpox, accessed Nov. 22, 2024
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Key Facts About Vaccines to Prevent Mpox Disease, accessed Nov. 22, 2024
NBC News, After Trump win, RFK Jr. says he won't 'take away anybody's vaccines', Nov. 6, 2024
Newsweek, Smallpox Was Eradicated 40 Years Ago, So Why Are the U.S. and Russia Still Holding Stocks of the Virus?, Dec. 13, 2019
NPR, Keep Or Kill Last Lab Stocks Of Smallpox? Time To Decide, Says WHO, May 9, 2014
Browse the Truth-O-Meter
More by Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
Smallpox was officially eradicated in 1980. It doesn’t need to be held in check by vaccines.
Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!
In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.