The ladybird was only there because I looked for it.
My friend Daniel came up with the idea I am about to relate to you. So, I claim no creative merit for it - I do think it's rather fabulous, though. As an idea. Not as a reality.
We were having one of our fairly regular zoom catch ups and just before he had to sign off for another zoom meeting (this life does seem to be quite busy despite the continuing semi-closed state of affairs) he told me his theory about Covid-19.
Imagine if this 'novel' virus had come into existence 150 years ago. In many if not most countries, average life expectancy would probably be around 30-60, with a large number at the lower end of that spectrum. Societies would be younger. And elders would likely be less unhealthy.
The kind of co-morbidities that have made coronavirus so deadly - heart disease, lung disease, diabetes - are correlated with rich Western nations. They are lifestyle diseases - what did Daniel Lieberman call them in The Story of the Human Body? (I referred to Lieberman in a previous post on the body.) Ah yes, mismatch diseases. The ones which have developed through us living in environments for which we are not suited, with too much fatty, sugary food and not enough movement. Asthma too, due to pollution. And stress - which is, according to Wiseman and Pickett in The Inner Level, only getting worse.
Anyway, the point is: how many people would have died? Those who did, well, people would say, old age. Pneumonia was seen, believe it or not, as 'the old man's friend' as death was often quick and painless when there were much slower and more painful ways to die.
We really have created the opportunity for this pandemic - we have it because we have created a world in which it can be. Or, more to the point of the quantum claim, we have it because we can 'see' it.
As we don't have antibodies, one assumes it must be a novel virus. But, consider the various coronaviruses that cause colds. Over many years, a kind of herd immunity has developed, not that it stops us catching them - but maybe, I'm throwing an idea out there with no scientific basis - they were once more dangerous. And what other diseases could perhaps have gone under the radar because the conditions weren't 'right' for us to see them?
And, you have to wonder, the better medicine gets, what other illnesses will we come to 'see'? What else can we create because it becomes visible?
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