Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at 89
William Foege, a leader in the global fight against smallpox and champion of vaccine science, died last Saturday
The late physician and health administrator William Foege (Middle), J. Donald Miller (left) and J. Michael Lane (Correct), all of whom worked in the global smallpox eradication program in the 1980s.
CDC/Smith Collection/Gado/Contributor/Getty
William Foege, a leading leader in the global fight to eliminate smallpox, has died. Foege died on Saturday at the age of 89. according to The Task Force for Global Health, a public health organization he co-founded.
Foege led the smallpox eradication program of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 1970s. Before the disease was officially eradicated in 1980, one in three people infected with it died. No new cases of smallpox have been reported, according to the CDC since 1977.
“If you look at the simple metric of who has saved the most lives, he’s at the top,” said Tom Frieden, former CDC director. to the associated press. “Smallpox eradication has prevented millions of deaths.”
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Foege led the CDC and served as a senior medical adviser and senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2012, then President Barack Obama honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Foege was a vocal advocate of vaccines for public health, writing with epidemiologist Larry Brilliant scientific American It was said in 2013 that the effort to eradicate polio had never been “so close” to success. “By working together,” he wrote, “we will soon consign polio to the history books along with smallpox.” Polio remains a “candidate for eradication” according to World Health Assembly.
And in 2025 Foege, along with several other former CDC directors, spoke out against the policies of current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. new York Times op-edHe wrote that the tenure of the top health official was “unlike anything we had seen at the agency.”
In a statementPatrick O’Carroll, CEO of the Task Force for Global Health, remembered Foaz as an “inspirational” figure for both early-career public health workers and veterans of the field. O’Carroll said, “Whenever he spoke, his vision and compassion rekindled the optimism that led us to choose this field, and re-energized our efforts to make this world a better place.”
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