No, We Haven't "Lived" with Diseases for Millions of Years
Before modern medicine and sanitation, we were at constant war with death.
You never hear about the yellow fever outbreak of 1793. Wealthy slave owners brought it to Philadelphia that year, fleeing revolutions in the Caribbean. During its peak, a hundred people were dying every day. Back then Philadelphia was a city of 50,000 people. The city government collapsed under the pressure. Almost everyone evacuated. Doctors thought it was spread by rotting vegetables. They were wrong. It didn’t end until a cold front came through in October, killing off carrier mosquitoes. The death toll settled to 20 or so per day. People began to return. Ultimately, the epidemic killed 5,000 people.
It was 10 percent of their population.
You hear this a lot: Apparently humans have lived with germs and diseases for millions of years. There’s no need for masks or vaccines. Nobody needs clean air. Natural immunity works just fine.
It’s wrong.
It couldn’t be more wrong.
We’ve never been able to live with diseases, not like we do now. Most westerners have no idea. Before medi…