Because it could happen. It’s unlikely yes, but all it takes is one lucky mutation and we’re done. They were correct in that game, our understanding of fungal infections in humans and our ability to treat it is almost non existent.
We were able to product a vaccine for COVID, a far, far less disruptive illness, within two years (via huge global effort) because we’d been focusing on that area of research for decades very closely and producing similar treatments for a long time already.
But something fungal, and highly contagious? There’s nothing we could do except try to quarantine, bomb and napalm every infected area, and hope we got it all.
And we’ve already seen how an easy to contain illness like COVID simply can’t be contained even when we’ve had a heads up and some time to prepare. It will suddenly explode into the population, and once it’s out there it’s out there.
Long ago, we used to be protected from extinction due to disease as a species due to our inability to travel long distances to spread it. Now? All it takes is one infected person to spend a few hours at a large airport, and within 48 hours it’s reached the doorstep of vast majority of the populated world, and is already behind our best pandemic defences.
If a fungal infection that serious ever does make the leap to humans (which again while unlikely, is also entirely possible, it’s like winning the lottery - it could happen tomorrow or maybe never), we have an extremely tiny, almost non existent window in which we must identify how dangerous it is, quarantine the entire region it was located in, bomb it off the face of the earth and hope to the gods we got it all.
But, our morals, humanity and our indecision will stop us from committing what would normally amount to serious war crimes to save the human race, and that tiny window will slip by.
And COVID just proved that a significant part of the population will absolutely refuse to admit it’s a threat or a problem, dismiss it as hysteria or a hoax, and end up spreading it everywhere. Or hosting rallies and events about the evil government trying to control them and end up with a superspreader event. Even IF we had the means to prevent the spread, these idiots would undermine it. We’re all fucked.
The other side of the coin is desperation, too. Let’s say there’s a truly serious pandemic. Huge numbers of people getting sick, not enough resources to treat them all, even if there is a treatment.
In that scenario, even in a world with no antivaxers or antimaskers, where everyone trusts the science and the doctors, do we think everyone is going to just stay in their homes following the quarantine rules, when there’s not enough to go around, and doing so could be a death sentence?
Or do we think they’d go out, and try to get their hands on what they need to survive? Be it food, medicines etc…
Even in a world of people who trust the science like you or I, we’re probably screwed if things really get that bad, and the only reason COVID didn’t get that bad is for all its awfulness, it’s actually a relatively mild illness overall (not to disrespect the many deaths it caused, just to say that as things go, it could have easily been more infectious, more deadly, harder to treat, etc).
When things get that bad, good people will be so desperate to save themselves, their families, their children, that they’ll break the rules, spread the disease, and doom us all :-(
The Last Of Us.
Because it could happen. It’s unlikely yes, but all it takes is one lucky mutation and we’re done. They were correct in that game, our understanding of fungal infections in humans and our ability to treat it is almost non existent.
We were able to product a vaccine for COVID, a far, far less disruptive illness, within two years (via huge global effort) because we’d been focusing on that area of research for decades very closely and producing similar treatments for a long time already.
But something fungal, and highly contagious? There’s nothing we could do except try to quarantine, bomb and napalm every infected area, and hope we got it all.
And we’ve already seen how an easy to contain illness like COVID simply can’t be contained even when we’ve had a heads up and some time to prepare. It will suddenly explode into the population, and once it’s out there it’s out there.
Long ago, we used to be protected from extinction due to disease as a species due to our inability to travel long distances to spread it. Now? All it takes is one infected person to spend a few hours at a large airport, and within 48 hours it’s reached the doorstep of vast majority of the populated world, and is already behind our best pandemic defences.
If a fungal infection that serious ever does make the leap to humans (which again while unlikely, is also entirely possible, it’s like winning the lottery - it could happen tomorrow or maybe never), we have an extremely tiny, almost non existent window in which we must identify how dangerous it is, quarantine the entire region it was located in, bomb it off the face of the earth and hope to the gods we got it all.
But, our morals, humanity and our indecision will stop us from committing what would normally amount to serious war crimes to save the human race, and that tiny window will slip by.
And then we’re done.
And COVID just proved that a significant part of the population will absolutely refuse to admit it’s a threat or a problem, dismiss it as hysteria or a hoax, and end up spreading it everywhere. Or hosting rallies and events about the evil government trying to control them and end up with a superspreader event. Even IF we had the means to prevent the spread, these idiots would undermine it. We’re all fucked.
Sadly I believe you’re right.
The other side of the coin is desperation, too. Let’s say there’s a truly serious pandemic. Huge numbers of people getting sick, not enough resources to treat them all, even if there is a treatment.
In that scenario, even in a world with no antivaxers or antimaskers, where everyone trusts the science and the doctors, do we think everyone is going to just stay in their homes following the quarantine rules, when there’s not enough to go around, and doing so could be a death sentence?
Or do we think they’d go out, and try to get their hands on what they need to survive? Be it food, medicines etc…
Even in a world of people who trust the science like you or I, we’re probably screwed if things really get that bad, and the only reason COVID didn’t get that bad is for all its awfulness, it’s actually a relatively mild illness overall (not to disrespect the many deaths it caused, just to say that as things go, it could have easily been more infectious, more deadly, harder to treat, etc).
When things get that bad, good people will be so desperate to save themselves, their families, their children, that they’ll break the rules, spread the disease, and doom us all :-(