"I tell them not to do something foolish like me"

August 1, 2013 9:35 AM

Maalin told The Boston Globe in 2006 that he had several opportunities to receive the smallpox vaccine, but initially avoided it because he was afraid the shot would hurt. "Now when I meet parents who refuse to give their children the polio vaccine," he told the Globe, "I tell them my story. I tell them how important these [polio] vaccines are. I tell them not to do something foolish like me." -- Ali Maow Maalin was the last person in the world ever to get smallpox and dedicated his life to help eradicate another disease, polio, in his home country of Somalia. Sadly he passed away two weeks ago.
posted by MartinWisse (25 comments total)

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posted by Smart Dalek at 9:36 AM on August 1, 2013

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posted by sukeban at 11:35 AM on August 1, 2013

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posted by sbutler at 11:35 AM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

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posted by menialjoy at 3:52 PM on August 1, 2013

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posted by dhartung at 4:47 PM on August 1, 2013

It must have been heartbreaking for him to see a resurgence in polio before he died.
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posted by BlueHorse at 7:49 PM on August 1, 2013

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polio is such a wily, hardy virus in the wild, and so easy to reintroduce, with just a little human frailty of purpose in fighting it. I hope we can beat it worldwide by 2015, but I've been hearing about eradication on a short time horizon since at least 1995.
posted by paulsc at 8:02 PM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

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posted by toerinishuman at 3:05 AM on August 2, 2013

Finally, the dots, they make sense.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:54 AM on August 3, 2013