The study of evolution is important even if many religious folks request nicely that they don’t wish to discuss it. Still, we don’t have to talk about human evolution, we can very well talk about something which evolves millions of times faster. Take for instance flu strains, viruses, bacteria, etc. Yes, let’s talk about this, it’s something that we can see and we don’t even have to talk about human evolution and ruffle feathers (from birds that are what’s left over of many dinosaurs).
Could a flu pandemic nearly decimate the human race as we know it taking out half in just a couple of years? Yes, actually that is possible, and perhaps more probably than a killer asteroid, super volcano, or the proverbial Y2K, Global Warming, or Biblical Flooding event. Now that I have your attention and forget about the fear factor, let’s discuss this like adults. In a way a flu pandemic could be nature’s way of the struggling food chain, lack of fresh water supplies, over population, etc.
Can we stop it? Well, there have been reports of a future vaccine that would stop all known flu viruses, until the day that it doesn’t, kind of like antibiotics until there are strains that are completely resistant. The hard part right now with trying to produce enough vaccines is that we don’t know which strain might hit us yet until that season comes forth. Remember the virus and bacteria are also duplicating to survive, they are evolving, much faster to find a way to stay going.
If it kills too fast, it burns itself out, if it modifies itself to live within the host in a symbiotic way, it could live forever and be part of us, just like gut bacteria. It wins, we win, symbiotic and life goes on for both species through cooperation – not by choice but by necessity. You see that point too.
Why we haven’t had a big Bird Flu or Swine Flu killer pandemic come through in a long time. Because the ones we’ve adapted to move through the population fast and they are the main one, so the deadly ones are crowded out. And our immune systems are on full alert by then. If we kill all the flus then, a bad one comes along later and wreaks havoc.
Another strategy is to modify things like Malaria to be benign, help it evolve to work with us, crowd out the bad versions and infect the vectors, mostly mosquitoes with the modified version. Everyone is then fine, theoretically, but screwing with this stuff without knowing for sure, based on hunched and speculation is also dangerous right? What if you inadvertently make something that then becomes deadly, which is often in the Sci Fi genres of such things, escapes into the wild or leads to unintended consequences. Please think on this and consider it.