{"id":1616,"date":"2026-01-03T03:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/?p=1616"},"modified":"2026-01-03T03:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:12:18","slug":"smallpox-vaccine-scars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/?p=1616","title":{"rendered":"Smallpox vaccine scars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"249\"><strong data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"21\">A Mark Remembered<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"249\">A childhood memory of a strange circular scar on the author\u2019s<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"249\">mother resurfaced years later after seeing the same mark on an elderly woman.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"249\">The mystery was solved when their mother explained it came from the smallpox vaccine.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"251\" data-end=\"506\"><strong data-start=\"251\" data-end=\"272\">What Smallpox Was<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"251\" data-end=\"506\">\u201cSmallpox was a deadly and highly contagious disease caused by the variola virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"251\" data-end=\"506\">In the 20th century, it killed about 30% of those infected and often left survivors scarred.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"251\" data-end=\"506\">A global vaccination effort led to eradication in 1980.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"716\"><strong data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"531\">How the Scar Formed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"716\">\u201cThe scar resulted from the unique administration method.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"716\">A two-pronged needle repeatedly punctured the skin,<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"716\">and a live virus triggered a blister that healed into a permanent mark.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"718\" data-end=\"913\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"><strong data-start=\"718\" data-end=\"736\">A Living Relic<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"718\" data-end=\"913\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">\u201cThis mark served as a kind of historical \u2018vaccine passport.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"718\" data-end=\"913\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">Seen mostly on older adults, the scar remains a personal reminder of one of public health\u2019s greatest victories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Mark Remembered A childhood memory of a strange circular scar on the author\u2019s mother resurfaced years later after seeing the same mark on an elderly woman. The mystery was solved when their mother explained it came from the smallpox vaccine. What Smallpox Was \u201cSmallpox was a deadly and highly contagious disease caused by the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1620,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions\/1620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usanews1.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}