Smallpox is the wrong name for this disease. The blisters are large, dime sized and itch like crazy at the end. I know because I had it at age 8. I call it Bigpox.
The Aztecs wondered if this was smallpox what was the greatpox like???
I am surprised you were not vaccinated! I think it was available at the time!
Re “small” pox. Named for the scars (‘pocks’ or ‘pox’) it left rather than active skin lesions. In its early days syphilis was known, amongst many names, as the great pox. Early on that was visually more impressive than most modern cases, which tend to scar less than 600 years ago. I don’t know what pre-Columbian (syphilis likely was introduced to Europe by Columbus’s crew) “poxes” were thought of as bigger than smallpox scars.
I’ve seen different theories about the source of the name for “chicken” pox, the disease historically most often confused with smallpox. My favorite theory is that it was named not for poultry, but for chickpeas as thats skin lesions are similar in size. Many old names of skin diseases were botanical metaphors.
Last fatal case of smallpox was in London in a secretary working at a lab there doing smallpox. Her mom caught a mild case from her and survived so was the last actual case. Just how it got to the secretary was never proven, but the lab director suicided over the incident. There’d been multiple earlier lab releases so this London case convinced authorities to restrict it to one lab each in US and Russia. We know from defectors the Soviets weaponized smallpox (prior to final London accident) and had lab accidents with it. We don’t know whether to believe their claims they completely destroyed those stocks and hadn’t given any to Norks, Saddam, or other friends. Reconstruction of the virus from frozen bodies or published DNA sequences, or from working with its non-extinct cousins, of which monkeypox is the worst remaining, albeit seldom fatal, are also concerns.
Release of smallpox into a population in which none are immune is the most efficient way in history to kill millions. The Soviet defectors’ news scared the US into developing contingency countermeasures for an “extinct” disease last seen here in 1949. A brand new smallpox vaccine was developed, stockpiled, and given to some. Antiviral drugs though to be useful in it were developed and also stockpiled. I don’t think this is the only one.