Nice story. Here's two little tidbits regarding humanity's fight against smallpox. Catherine the Great let herself be "variolated" in 1768 by Thomas Dimsdale. Following her example, two million Russians underwent the procedure in the next 3 decades [1]. On the other side of the world, George Washington mandated this procedure to all his soldiers in 1777 [2]. Some people think this contributed to the colonists eventual victory against the British.

[1] https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/empress-immunization-how-...

[2] https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/smallpox-inoculation-revolu...