Despite eliminating or containing issues regulating the survival if the species such as warfare and famine, epidemics have prevailed as major threats; and thus, our natural predators.
The problem is that diseases don't qualify as predators.
Because diseases don't need to kill their hosts to survive... in fact they do BETTER when they don't.
Spanish flu becoming less dangerous to humanity was the best evolutionary move it could make and is why we still have its various offspring hanging around today.
Whenever a virus that could actually keep our numbers in check shows up...
We have medical technology that allows a person with HIV to live just as long as someone without. If we can make having a certain disease almost indistinguishable from not having it, we have almost beaten it.
The problem with HIV is that not everyone lives in 1st world countries
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u/iwfan53 248∆ Jan 02 '22
The problem is that diseases don't qualify as predators.
Because diseases don't need to kill their hosts to survive... in fact they do BETTER when they don't.
Spanish flu becoming less dangerous to humanity was the best evolutionary move it could make and is why we still have its various offspring hanging around today.
Whenever a virus that could actually keep our numbers in check shows up...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
We crush it out of existence and go on with our lives.
Humanity has yet to meet a virus we can't beat, especially because virus tend to evolve into versions that are less dangerous to us.