The lives of every person reading this discussion were probably touched by COVID-19 in one way or another during the last few years. COVID took the life of my son, so I know the pain and frustration that goes with a loved one dying due to a virus. As of July 2024, there have been a little over seven million confirmed COVID-induced deaths worldwide. What most people are not aware of is that comparing COVID and other disease outbreaks makes the COVID-19 pandemic death toll seem small.
Smallpox was another disease caused by a virus, and thanks to a vaccine, it was completely eradicated by 1980. It is the only human disease to be eradicated, but in the last 100 years of its existence, it took the lives of an estimated 500 million people. Its history goes back further than that because evidence of the disease showed up in Egyptian mummies around 1500 B.C.
Bubonic plague (the black death) was a bacterial disease that killed between 75 and 200 million Europeans from 1347 to 1351. It wiped out over 30-50% of Europe’s population, requiring over 200 years for the population to recover. It probably originated in rats and was spread to the human population by fleas. Since it was a bacterial infection, it can be treated with modern antibiotics.
When we look at COVID and other disease outbreaks, we find that more deaths resulted from the Spanish flu (50 million) and HIV/AIDS (25-35 million). A dozen other bacterial and virus disease outbreaks in history killed more people than COVID-19.
Modern medicine, including antibiotics and especially vaccines, has eliminated the horrible ravages of the bubonic plague and smallpox. Vilifying science and modern medicine is wrong, and so is blaming God. HIV/Aids came about because of human sexual activity with monkeys and spread through the human population by sexual practices inconsistent with God’s design. Other viruses came about through human actions or contact with wild animals.
Most people seek medical help when they are seriously sick. Few people refuse to take a prescription the doctor gives us for a disease or an infection. My son died because a caregiver had declined to take a vaccine, and the group home and workshop where he lived and worked would not allow vaccinations. I would not wish that frustration and pain on anyone else. COVID and other disease outbreaks remind us of the importance of medical science. This is just one more example of God giving us a solution to a problem, and people refuse to accept it.
— John N. Clayton © 2024
Data from Discover magazine for June 2020, page 11, and Wikipedia HERE and HERE