Your parent knows that and says as much but says he believes all the pathogens this actually helps against are "long gone". It's the conventional wisdom on feve

Your parent knows that and says as much but says he believes all the pathogens this actually helps against are "long gone". It's the conventional wisdom on fever, not your genius theory or suspicion. The body also does not go into fever mode for every kind of infection so I personally think that it's quite adapted to only "fevering" for the right kinds of pathogens, as in: yes it does still help/do something but there can of course be "imposters" that make you go into fever mode without it helping much. Some people get fever that goes way too high and kills the host if we didn't have Ibuprofen and the like (or herbal remedies to the same effect). If none of those were available, the genes affecting this would naturally die out/become less prevalent. Which is along the lines of the article that "letting diseases run their course" might be beneficial in that sense.