As a species that has thrived from conditions as diverse as Arctic cold, desert heat/dryness, and Himalayan elevations, I really doubt that Homo sapiens is goin

As a species that has thrived from conditions as diverse as Arctic cold, desert heat/dryness, and Himalayan elevations, I really doubt that Homo sapiens is going extinct any time soon. I don't even think nuclear war would do it, since there would be plenty of survivors, although we might regress back to subsistence farming if the survivors could not sustain our technological and transportation infrastructure. The worst pandemic we have recorded, the Black Plague, only killed between 30 - 60% of the population. At the beginning of the Covid pandemic the death rate was about 4%, and even in Italy where the medical system collapsed it was only 15%. Plus it was known early on that the mortality rate for under 40--people who will go on to reproduce--was very low. These figures are not even close to extinction level. Even the plague wasn't close to that level. So I strongly agree that fears of extinction are "unbelievable hyperbole". Was Covid serious? Yes. Could many people have died? Yes. A serious tragedy? Could have been (although I think the bigger problem, in retrospect, was shutting down the economy/society). Possibility of extinction? Not in the cards.