Podcasts · Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Lab Leak: Could Smallpox Come Back?
· 38 min · S6 E18
Episode Lab Leak: Could Smallpox Come Back?
In 1978 the world is on the brink of declaring victory over smallpox. No cases have been seen for months, and it looks like the end for a deadly, painful disease. When a photographer in Birmingham begins to feel ill, doctors are mystified: it looks like smallpox, but how could she have caught it? As they try to contain the outbreak, questions about blame and lab safety erupt in a media frenzy, questions that remain today.
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Transcript
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