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w0mpum OP t1_j9zwdlr wrote

Reply to comment by CelloVerp in TIL about Janet Parker, the last person to die of smallpox in 1978. She worked above one of the last labs in its last months of permission to study the virus. The day Janet's viral strain was confirmed, Henry Bedson, the doctor in charge of the lab, took his own life. by w0mpum

the prevailing theory was originally airborne infection but they proved unequivocably she could not have gotten infected upstairs from it.

It was either by contact with a surface or person to person... rumors flew but most likely would be someone irresponsibly handled something in his lab, which couldve been Bedson himself. Either way it is his responsibility ultimately.

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