The human plague

The anti-vaxxers and herd immunity prophets have got one thing right: COVID-19 is relatively benign. Historical outbreaks such as the Black Death (bacteria-caused bubonic plague) have frequently killed 30 to 60 percent of the human population in some regions, and in some instances up to 90%.

This current SARS-CoV-2 virus has infected nearly 250 million individuals worldwide and caused more than 5 million deaths, which means that only 3 1/2% of humans have contracted the disease, and only 2% of that number have actually died. I suggest that COVID-19 may be merely a practice scenario — a trial run — for a much more virulent scourge in the perhaps not-too-distant future.

The pachyderm in the parlor — the more serious pandemic — is humanity itself. While the current coronavirus affects only a few species (humans, other primates, cats, dogs, mink, otters, ferrets and deer ) the plague of humans has affected every nook and cranny of the ecosystem, precipitating the extinction or debilitation of a considerable number of the threads of this symbiotic and interdependent web of life which may even now be teetering on the edge of exponentially accelerating collapse.

But nature is known to be resilient and self-regulating. The question is: will nature somehow act to curb the human-caused disruptions in time to restore balance and save itself, either by decimating the race or some natural cataclysm? Maybe. Or … can and will we regulate ourselves in time to sustain the viability of the ecosystem and perforce our own survival? So far, it seems unlikely.

Dick Warwick

Oakesdale, Wash.