Whereas 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the eradication of the smallpox virus, which was declared by the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication in December 1979; Whereas smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases known to humans, and a total of 300,000,000 people died as a result of the disease, which was 3 out of every 10 people who contracted smallpox; Whereas the smallpox vaccine, introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796, was the first successful vaccine to be developed; Whereas smallpox was the first human disease to have been eradicated by vaccines; Whereas successful use of the smallpox vaccine led to the reduction of smallpox cases, and the last natural smallpox case in the United States occurred in 1949; Whereas, in 1958, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution calling for the global eradication of smallpox; Whereas the last natural occurrence of the smallpox virus in the world was in Somalia in 1977; Whereas the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in 1980; Whereas vaccines currently save 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 lives annually, and an additional 1,500,000 lives could be spared each year if global vaccination rates improved; Whereas in the United States, vaccines save 3 times more lives than seatbelts and child restraints combined; Whereas important research and development of vaccines continues, including recently developed vaccines to protect against human papillomavirus, the main cause of cervical cancer in women, as well as dengue, and a vaccine currently being tested against malaria; Whereas the world is on the brink of eradicating polio, with only 33 reported wild cases in 2018; Whereas the world is at a critical time in which misinformation about vaccines has led to the resurgence of measles in the United States and around the world; Whereas, as of September 19, 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that measles cases in the United States have climbed to 1,241 in 2019