The 1918 pandemic also killed 17-50 million people at a time that there were many fewer people. While it is probably an under-count, it appears that Covid has

The 1918 pandemic also killed 17-50 million people at a time that there were many fewer people. While it is probably an under-count, it appears that Covid has killed at least 5 million. Public health measures and vaccines have prevented a rather spectacular number of deaths as we have worked to find a way to coexist with this virus. It seems likely that with a sufficient number of infections and waves, yes, humans would eventually force Covid to evolve in the direction of other more-benign viruses. The question at hand is really: how many waves and variants are we willing to tolerate to get there (and how much human suffering is acceptable?)? We have tools and tactics that can help to speed the end of the pandemic and decrease the number of people who die. We should use them well.