Thanks for sharing this. I’d never read Dr. Oguntola Sapara’s Wikipedia page before, and I’m glad I read it now. A few key paragraphs:
He made many contributions to improving public health. He fought for slum clearance, organised a society for scientifically training midwives, organised the first public dispensary in 1901, and identified causes of an epidemic of tuberculosis in 1918, which included overcrowding, poor ventilation and public ignorance about hygiene.
He was Chairman of the Health Week Committee, leading the successful fight against bubonic plague, which struck Lagos in 1924.
In Nigeria at that time, numerous secret societies, such as the “Sopona” cult of the Yoruba people, had power. Sometimes they tried to blackmail people, threatening that if an individual did not pay money, the society would make him become ill and die.
When a victim refused, a member would infect him with smallpox through applying scrapings of the skin rash of smallpox cases. To keep their powers, the societies resisted public health efforts for vaccination. Sapara joined the cult incognito, at considerable personal risk. When he had learned the secret of their power, he helped the government prepare legislation to ban the societies.
We discussed the possibility of featuring content on smallpox on the Forum today, in honor of Smallpox Eradication Day — May 8. But despite humanity’s ability to coordinate to eradicate the disease, we’ve failed at coordinating on a day to commemorate this event, so we’ve got two, and we’ve gone with December 9 on the Forum before (in part because of a certain post). But I still find it useful and humbling to remember smallpox and the eradication efforts today. I also really appreciated this Vox piece from a few days ago.
Apologies for making the coordination problem worse. I actually picked December 9th before I knew about the two dates, inspired by this comment from B_For_Bandana on LessWrong in 2013 - in particular the last paragraph:
Because Smallpox Eradication Day marks one of the most heroic events in the history of the human species, it is not surprising that it has become a major global holiday in the past few decades, instead of inexplicably being an obscure piece of trivia I had to look up on Wikipedia. I’m just worried that as time goes on it’s going to get too commercialized. If you’re going to a raucous SE Day party like I am, have fun and be safe.
I thought about this when I was reading Kelsey’s piece. Thanks in part to this comment, the alternate reality it itself described is actually starting to become real.
Anyway—in the absence of a solution to the coordination problem I can at least help make the discrepancy more explicit:
For totally selfish, non-historical reasons, I feel like May 8 is a better date:
December 9 is too close to other rationalist/EA holidays, like Solstice, Giving Tuesday, and Petrov Day.
December 9 is right at the START of the typical cold/flu season, when infectious diseases are the worst. (Although idk if smallpox, plague, typhus, etc, were also seasonal in this way?) Maybe this makes it thematically resonant? But personally, like how Christians celebrate Easter at the end of winter, I feel like Smallpox eradication is a good seasonal match as a spring holiday, when flu season has receded and we are enjoying the bountiful outdoors and etc.
Not sure if it is a plus or a minus to have the holiday located in December during the “giving season” of charity fundraisers. Probably still a big plus, despite the competition from other fundraisers. And probably this factor is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of money moved, which would vastly overwhelm my mere desire for a nice springtime EA holiday. (But I can still feel grumpy about it.)
Thanks for sharing this. I’d never read Dr. Oguntola Sapara’s Wikipedia page before, and I’m glad I read it now. A few key paragraphs:
We discussed the possibility of featuring content on smallpox on the Forum today, in honor of Smallpox Eradication Day — May 8. But despite humanity’s ability to coordinate to eradicate the disease, we’ve failed at coordinating on a day to commemorate this event, so we’ve got two, and we’ve gone with December 9 on the Forum before (in part because of a certain post). But I still find it useful and humbling to remember smallpox and the eradication efforts today. I also really appreciated this Vox piece from a few days ago.
Apologies for making the coordination problem worse. I actually picked December 9th before I knew about the two dates, inspired by this comment from B_For_Bandana on LessWrong in 2013 - in particular the last paragraph:
I thought about this when I was reading Kelsey’s piece. Thanks in part to this comment, the alternate reality it itself described is actually starting to become real.
Anyway—in the absence of a solution to the coordination problem I can at least help make the discrepancy more explicit:
IsItSmallpoxEradicationDay.com
For totally selfish, non-historical reasons, I feel like May 8 is a better date:
December 9 is too close to other rationalist/EA holidays, like Solstice, Giving Tuesday, and Petrov Day.
December 9 is right at the START of the typical cold/flu season, when infectious diseases are the worst. (Although idk if smallpox, plague, typhus, etc, were also seasonal in this way?) Maybe this makes it thematically resonant? But personally, like how Christians celebrate Easter at the end of winter, I feel like Smallpox eradication is a good seasonal match as a spring holiday, when flu season has receded and we are enjoying the bountiful outdoors and etc.
Not sure if it is a plus or a minus to have the holiday located in December during the “giving season” of charity fundraisers. Probably still a big plus, despite the competition from other fundraisers. And probably this factor is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of money moved, which would vastly overwhelm my mere desire for a nice springtime EA holiday. (But I can still feel grumpy about it.)
One other counterargument is that rinderpest eradication day is on 25 May. Just two weeks after May 8.
We could combine them as “Eradication Day” on May 8, like the US does for “President’s Day” in February.