Charles G. answered • 11/11/21
Research Scientist/Medical Educator and student advocate
Covid is self limiting. All viruses (including COVID) have no intention of killing off all of their hosts (human). If a virus is completely fatal than it will die as well. Furthermore, Virus are dumb in the sense that they do not reason, have no brains, have no cellular machinery (e.g. no nerves, etc.) and that mutate randomly due to selection. Think of them as pieces of genetic material inside some kind of a protective coat. They will mutate as they divide and the clones that best suit their environment will survive. All human (and animals) have anti-viral defenses like the immune system and will eventually destroy the pathogen or at least keep it from killing the organism. That is the hope with COVID 19. Finally, COVID is not 100% fatal. Most human already defend themselves against the disease. We are currently undergoing a pandemic that is a type of a crisis in that the old and the sick die (much less so than the very healthy and young).
Other crisis's such Global Warning and social ill that are currently affecting us are 100% different. Global warming affects each and every one of us. There are some things we can do about it if we wish to. There are other things that are not so easy to change...like normal large scale weather changes that occur every thousand or more years (think ice age). But, unlike a virus in which companies, the government and research organizations can mobilize against....fighting against the reasons our earth is warming and the amount of CO2 that we are putting in our atmosphere, etc. is not an easy fix. Not only is it not an easy issue to fix, some people do not agree that human mediated climate change is real. Finally, there are also issues about cost, who should pay and who should change their ways and so much more that are in play.
Yes, some of these issues overlap with those faced with pandemics. But, ultimately humans will win out over viruses (even if it means that only the healthiest survive - yes, sounds scary). But, if we do not act against our warming planet and the amount of C02 in our skies - than it will be hard to see how anyone wins.
