> We've wiped viruses off the face of the planet before Only recently. Widespread vaccine use is a fairly recent phenomenon. > Eradicating smallpox has appare

> We've wiped viruses off the face of the planet before Only recently. Widespread vaccine use is a fairly recent phenomenon. > Eradicating smallpox has apparently saved 5 million lives a year! It certainly saved lives but we really don't know how much. Every estimate is off of cherrypicked data. > But I doubt anyone will be harmed by having too few coronavirus infections, so I'm probably not worried this time. You just said we fucked up with bacteria and then you brush off viruses. There was a time when the scientific consensus was to snuff out every small fire to prevent wildfires. Now we realize how horribly naive that was. By preventing small localized fires, we allowed kindle wood to mass which fueled gigantic wildfires. That fires are natural and helps forests clear and rejuvenate itself. The same thing with parents and kids avoiding food/sickness. It lead to food allergies ( some of which can be deadly ) and poor adult immune system. Now we know a bit of sickness helps strengthen the immune system and introduction to a wide variety of foods helps prevent food allergies. The history of humanity/science/etc is we were wrong. But as long as we learn and move forward, that's what is important.