Diseases are nature's way of culling the herd.

@Organist1 The only herd these diseases thinned were the native Americans who had never seen or had these diseases.

@Sticks48 Very true, but in general, that's what diseases do, along with accidents, wars, and anything else that happens to us.

@Organist1 Most self-inflicted by our own species through our own actions and inactions.

@Sticks48 inevitable either way, not that it's good; it just is.

@Organist1 in our much more sophisticated world, many of us have come to realize that people who may be weak in one area can contribute significantly despite that if we can keep them alive. Stephen Hawking comes to mind.

@Lorajay That's the beauty of an educated society. We can choose; viruses and bacteria, on the other hand, need us as hosts to survive. Who will win? BTW, I am in no way suggesting that it's a good thing not to cure diseases, or keep medically compromised people alive. If it hadn't been for these advances, neither of my two sons would have lived, so I have a vested interest in modern medicine. That's why I said in my post that it would be bad.

@Organist1 Wars need not be inevitable. People starving to death need not be inevitable. Many of the people who have died during this pandemic did not need to be inevitable. These are things human beings can control and don't.

@Sticks48 Educated, peaceful people do. I wish we were all that way. Unfortunately, that's not the case. We need to control our population by birth control. I wish people would do that, but we don't. I wish a lot of things were chosen by people that aren't. We hippies thought we could change the world with peace and love. I wish we could have. The question falls to us: What do we do in the age of Trump, evangelism, flat-earthers, mass shootings, and Q-Anoners? If there's a solution that can be brought to 7.9 billion people on earth, please let us know.

@Organist1 I didn't say there is a solution. I don't think there is. I believe humanity is a failed experiment, and will never get its act together. There is nothing in our present or in our history that shows we will. I have read studies which show we are not even close to being over populated on this planet. We have more than enough resources, it is a matter of distribution and waste.

@Sticks48 Then why fret or even be bothered by a decreasing of population (and a segment that mostly decreases just because they won't take the medicine)? We'll replace those who are lost. Might take a decade but that gives us some time to invent AI and VR. Those are the only way we're going to keep people's desires satisfied and stop the distribution/waste of products. The mind won't really care if it's real or not. It will feel real and that's close enough for it.

@rainmanjr l am not fretting. I am just stating facts. I do have empathy for those who got very sick or died before there were vaccines available.