As a child, I noticed a distinctive scar on my mother’s upper arm: a ring of small indents surrounding a larger one. I was briefly curious about its cause but eventually forgot about it.
Years later, after seeing the same scar on an elderly woman’s arm, my curiosity returned. I asked my mother, who reminded me she had explained it before—the scar was from the smallpox vaccine.
Smallpox was once a deadly viral disease, killing about 30% of those infected and leaving many others disfigured. Widespread vaccination led to its eradication in the United States by 1952, and routine vaccinations ended in 1972. Before then, nearly all children received the vaccine, which left a recognizable scar.
The scar formed because the vaccine was administered using a two-pronged needle that made multiple punctures in the skin. The virus caused blisters that eventually scabbed over and healed, leaving the permanent mark many people from that generation still bear.
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