Diseases have been eradicated and many countries have gone from poor to rich, through decisions that exhibit high returns to intelligence.

Judge as of 2015-08-17. The claim has two factual parts and one interpretive part: (a) at least one human disease has been eradicated; (b) many countries have moved from poor to rich; (c) the decisions behind these achievements show high returns to intelligence. True: by 2015, at least one disease had been eradicated (e.g. smallpox, certified by WHO in 1980) and multiple countries (e.g. South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan) had gone from low income to high income by standard measures such as World Bank income classifications, and credible sources tie these outcomes substantially to deliberate, knowledge-driven decisions (vaccination strategy, economic policy). Mostly true: (a) and (b) hold but 'many countries' is somewhat overstated (only a handful clearly qualify), or the plural 'diseases' rests on one human disease plus an animal disease (rinderpest, 2011). Mixed: one of (a) or (b) holds and the other clearly does not, or both hold but the 'returns to intelligence' framing is widely disputed by credible sources. Mostly false: the facts are distorted (e.g. no human disease fully eradicated) and only a loosely related version is true. False: the evidence shows no disease eradicated and no country going from poor to rich.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Smallpox World Health Organization · 1 November 2019

   “In 1980 WHO declared smallpox eradicated – the only infectious disease to achieve this distinction.”

2. E2 Shared Experiences of the Asia High-Income 5 Springer (SpringerBriefs in Population Studies, chapter by S. Kabe) · 21 May 2018

   “Before 1987, Japan was the only Asian economy in the high-income category; since 1987, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore appeared in the classification, while Korea, which joined the group between 1995 and 1997, fell back to middle-income during the Asian economic crisis, but has maintained a high-income level since 2001.”

3. E3 Shared Experiences of the Asia High-Income 5 Springer (SpringerBriefs in Population Studies, chapter by S. Kabe) · 21 May 2018

   “The rapid economic growth of all the members of the Asia high-income 5 featured export-oriented manufacturing and a first focus on primary and secondary education.”

4. E4 Which institutions are really needed to achieve wealth? A clarification of Acemoglu and Robinson's concept Historyka. Studia Metodologiczne (Polish Academy of Sciences journal platform), by J. Dzionek-Kozłowska and R. Matera · 2020

   “In other words, contrary to the beliefs of many experts and economic advisers, it is simply not possible to ‘engineer prosperity’.”

WHO declared smallpox eradicated in 1980 and calls it the only infectious disease ever eradicated (E1), so part (a) holds, but the plural "diseases" is overstated for human diseases. An academic source says that before 1987 Japan was the only Asian economy in the high-income category, and that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore have appeared in it since 1987 and Korea has stayed there since 2001 after first joining between 1995 and 1997 (E2), which supports part (b) for a handful of economies. E3 says the rapid growth of these economies featured export-oriented manufacturing and an early focus on primary and secondary education. E4 argues against the idea that prosperity can be engineered, but that is one dissenting source, not proof that the 'returns to intelligence' framing is widely disputed.