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In 1838, a 29 year old naturalist named Charles Darwin had a radical idea; that living species change and diverge because of survival advantages that accrue from random genetic changes over time, sometimes called "survival of the fittest." It has since been called "the best idea anyone ever had!"
Breeders had been modifying species of plants and animals by selecting for desirable traits from one generation to another for thousands of years. Darwin proposed that these changes also occur naturally, leading eventually to new species because of their increased survival potential. In the case of selective breeding, this survival potential is that the progeny are more acceptable to those who care for them and promote their breeding. In nature, it is that they are more in harmony with their environment, whatever that happens to be.
Today, there is a broad consensus among biologists that natural selection is the basic mechanism of evolution of species and form. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of all life.
This process works for humans, too. People whose relatives have lived many generations in the Arctic tend to be round, to conserve body heat. Those in the tropics tend to be thin, to more efficiently dissipate it. People who have allergies to their environment don't live to produce as many progeny as others. Although there are those who disbelieve on religious grounds, there is overwhelming scientific evidence that our existing human species is the only surviving one of several of the genus Homo. The others went extinct because they were somehow less fit to survive. Perhaps its because we are able to defend better against threats (like other people) and better able to take advantage of opportunities (like better weapons). Maybe we're just smarter!
Doing stupid things makes us less fit to survive, and therefore likely to produce fewer offspring than the smarter ones, regardless of whose "fault" it is. For example, 20 year old Daunte Wright resisted arrest by three police officers in Minnesota after making an illegal right turn in view of a police car! while driving with no license, no insurance, an expired vehicle license, an illegal vision obstruction, an outstanding arrest warrant and a protective order against him. In the resulting scuffle, he was unintentionally shot dead. Even though police officer Kimberly Potter was found to be at fault, young Daunte is still dead. As a teenager, he fathered a son. That's all the children he's ever going to have!
Near Cincinnati, Ohio, 15 year old Larry Mugrage regularly amused himself by walking across the yard of quiet but crotchety 66 year old Charles Martin. Regrettably, Larry demonstrated the stupidity of that activity when Mr. Martin reportedly hauled out his .410 shotgun and fired twice, killing Larry stone cold dead! Obviously, the shooting is Mr. Martin's fault, but it's Larry who isn't ever going to have any children.
A similar result occurred in El Dorado, Arkansas, when nine year old Demotric Moore regularly threw rocks at the house of 50 year old mentally ill Jonathan Watts, who decided to resolve the issue by shooting and killing him. The death, of course, is Mr. Watts' fault, but Demotric Moore is the one who's never, ever, going to have any children, either.
Then there's the case of teenagers Carlos Sousa and Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, late of San Francisco, who got drunk on illegal vodka, high on illegal weed, and then decided to go over to the local zoo and annoy the tigers. Their deaths were found to be the fault of a tiger that turned out to be able to jump farther than anyone thought possible. The tiger won't be doing any more breeding, but neither will Sousa and the Dhaliwal brothers. They're all dead!
Russell E. Cox, 19, of Marion, Indiana, assembled a gunpowder and propane bomb that didn't detonate when he expected it to, so he went back to inspect it and find out why. Daniel Ferraro, also 19, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, decided to photograph the explosion of a homemade pipe bomb up really close. Unfortunately for them, they were too close when the explosives detonated. No doubt there are some people who believe this was somebody else's fault, but neither of them will be having any children because they're both dead.
You can probably guess where I'm going with this!
Back in early 2020, the world became aware of a new virus, now known as Covid-19 or simply Covid, that was originally thought to have come from Wuhan, China. I heard people blaming the Chinese, white people, Israel, American doctors, and various politicians, but viruses are part of the natural environment, like dust, pollen, and low level radiation. They tend to mutate occasionally to infect new hosts or produce different effects, or both. This particular virus is currently affecting people all over the world in direct proportion to their demonstrated levels of, um, "poor judgment," such as not being vaccinated, even if they fervently believe otherwise! Viruses don't care what their hosts believe!
There is a general consensus among educated people that vaccinations are the most effective protection for the general population, more than any other single measure. More vaccinations provide more protection against having detectable amounts of the virus in one's nasal passages at any given time, against getting sick, against getting so sick that one has to be hospitalized, and against dying from the virus. For some time now, the overwhelming proportion of people who are dying from the virus are those who have not been fully vaccinated (or at all). That may not be people's fault in other countries where they cannot get vaccinated, but in the USA, at least three different vaccines, of proven safety and effectiveness, are available free to all except the very young, and those whose immune systems don't work anyway or who are already so sick that the vaccine would have no reasonable effect.
Of course, one won't get sick from the virus if he isn't exposed to it at all. Living out in the middle of a desert with nobody and no possibly infected animals around probably provides pretty good protection. Staying home by oneself provides less protection, limiting one's interaction to persons thought to be safe provides less, keeping a distance from others provides even less (depending on the distance), and mingling freely with strangers provides none at all.
Another factor is the protection provided by masks. There is no mask that provides one hundred percent protection from any virus. Sterilized air positive pressure full head masks, however, provide almost complete protection. N95 or KN95 masks provide the most protection otherwise, various other kinds provide less, and no mask at all provides no protection at all. In addition, the degree of protection decreases in inverse proportion to the time that one wears the mask, and the way in which he wears it. Since the virus is spread almost exclusively by airborne particles inhaled and exhaled by the nose and mouth, if one or the other is not fully covered by the mask, just having the mask on the face provides negligable protection.
Some people believe that there is some safety in getting tested. Tests don't provide any protection, but they do give some indication of whether or not an individual is contagious and what he, or others around him, should be doing about it. Approved tests either tell you that you are contagious when you probably are, or that you are not contagious when you probably aren't. The more reliable ones are right a greater percentage of the time, but none of them are completely foolproof. The bogus tests showing up on the market don't tell you anything reliably, but they might give you a false sense of security (or anxiety). Even the most reliable tests, though, tell if you were or were not contagious at the time the test was administered, not what the situation was after a sick person breathed on you as you were leaving the testing facility. I also question the wisdom of standing around waiting to be tested among other possibly infected people. The test might be negative, but it won't show that what is happening for at least a couple of days after active exposure.
Evolution affects viruses more than people because they replicate faster. Actually, that's all they do. Viruses are basically delivery systems for their own recipes to the cells of living things. The viruses that cause Covid infect the cells of the host and hijack the replication machinery of the host's cells to produce the virus instead of the host's cells. Evolution has equipped potential hosts with the ability to provoke a response that attempts to destroy the virus. The effectiveness of this process depends on the number of virus particles in the host and the efficiency of the destructive response. This efficiency requires evolutionary time to adjust to respond to any particular virus. Because the Covid virus is new, this efficiency is naturally low in humans. This is why it needs to be enhanced by recent vaccination. Unfortunately, it decreases with time, which is why booster vaccinations are recommended.
The replication process of the cells and the virus is pretty good, but it's not perfect. With all the gazillions of viruses being replicated all over the world, it is inevitable that occasionally one of them will be defective. If the defect reduces the ability of the virus to infect the host, or cause replication, the defective virus will quickly become extinct. If, on the other hand, the defect is such that the virus has a better probability of surviving and replicating in the host, or some other host that has no natural immunity, that virus will quickly become the dominant strain. This has happened at least three times, once that produced the delta variant, which is more deadly, once that produced the omicron variant that is less deadly but much more transmissible, and once that produced a hybrid Covid and influenza virus the hazard of which is not fully known at the time of this writing.
The virus replicates itself in the infected host. If it replicates quickly and aggressively enough that it quickly overwhelms the host's immune system and kills the host, it won't propagate very effectively, because dead hosts don't breathe, and the Covid virus is spread primarily by breathing. The delta variant seemed to be headed for extinction because it is less effectively propagated than the omicron. The omicron doesn't do that much damage to the host,. This gives it more of an opportunity to propagate from hosts who don't know that they are contagious because they don't feel sick. All viruses are naturally "trying to invent" new ways of defeating protective measures, such as partial (or total) immunity to existing vaccines, more effective methods of transmission (causing coughing or sneezing or transmission by other means such as perspiration or feces), infection of insect or other vectors and subsequent infection by them of other human hosts distant in space or time, more effective penetration of mask material, or means of staying dormant in the body of the infected person when he thinks he has gotten well, as chickenpox does. As long as one virus exists in one host somewhere in the world, the virus will continue to evolve, but the evolution rate will basically correspond to the total number virus particles in all hosts throughtout the world.
Every person is either an active infector (if he has the virus) or a potential infectee (if he doesn't). Taking protective measures lowers the risk of getting infected or infecting others. This, in my opinion, imposes a moral obligation on everyone to take reasonable measures to protect himself so he doesn't get the virus or spread it to others. This is where things get tricky!
When there were no vaccines, people protected themselves to various degrees by masking, social distancing, quarantine and other measures assumed to be effective. Now that vaccines are available, these other measures are less important for otherwise healthy people who have been recently vaccinated, like me. That's why I don't mask (except where it's necessary to go someplace where it's mandatory), test or quarantine. I don't think I need to, and I'm willing to take the small risk! Of course, if someplace I want to go requires a mask or social distancing, I can do what the owners want or stay away. That's my choice in the matter. If I get infected, my supercharged immune system will probably quickly overwhelm the virus, inhibit replication, and make me less contagious. If I get sick, I will additionally tend to stay home, thus giving my immune system more time to work and limiting my exposure to others. The resulting risk to my life is so small that I'm willing to take it. The others, meanwhile ought to be doing the same things to reduce their danger to me and those most vulerable.
Some of them aren't doing that!
Some people are refusing to get vaccinated because they don't believe that it is necessary, advisable, or morally acceptable. These people are more likely to harbor and produce virus particles than otherwise. Unfortunately, they tend to be the ones who don't mask, social distance or quarantine, either. Many of those who have been infected and hospitalized have died, which is how evolution works. Others have survived, some who have changed their minds and admitted that they made a mistake, that "Covid is no joke," or some such.
I don't recall any of them reimbursing the caregivers out of their own pockets for the resources spent on them because of their own unwise decisions. I understand that the Province of Quebec has proposed taxing unvaccinated citizens. I think that's a good idea! Those of us who are staying healthy by being properly vaccinated are paying for the care of others in the form of higher insurance premiums, higher taxes that pay for government insurance (Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare), and decreased quality of care for other things because the hospitals are concentrating on treating Covid patients, most of whom wouldn't need treatment if they had been vaccinated.
Nature isn't messing around! If they don't get vaccinated, she is trying to kill them! Frankly, I'm OK with that!!
Unfortunately, as long as people keep getting sick from Covid, we all are going to suffer because of increased risk to ourselves, and the social consequences of overcrowded medical facilities, tax dollars wasted on uncooperative citizens, closed businesses, interrupted commerce, and higher costs of everything. We are going to continue to do that to our own species as long as we devote resources to save those who aren't willing, for whatever reason, to protect themselves. I don't think we need them!
Some are people for whom vaccines don't work. Whatever the reason, these people need to be careful! Evolution is trying to eliminate them, too! Of course, if everyone eligible would get vaccinated, mask, social distance and quarantine, regardless of what any tests showed, the at-risk folks would be at less risk. Unfortunately, other people aren't going to do that, including the anti-vaxxers. Given the existing threat, it seems to be that it is the responsibility of those most at risk to take the most precautions.
These considerations lead me to believe that everyone has a moral obligation to take reasonable measures to protect his own health, but if they infect others in spite of that, it's basically nature at work. I think that the extent of those measures should be determined by the threat to one's own health. In doing so, he will automatically be protecting the health of others, even though he will be working against natural selection. Those who do not take reasonable measures, on the other hand, are dangerous to the human race as a whole because they are most likely to transmit the disease to others. They are the most likely to die, thus removing the threat, increasing the proportion of survivors, and contributing to the survivability of the human race as a whole.
Think of it as evolution in action!