Humans and viruses represent two highly dedicated coevolving foes that have been pitted against each other for millennia. An article published in the November 10, 2020 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA aims to show how an evolutionary perspective can advance understanding of the progression and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This objective is addressed by having a diverse group of scientists with expertise from evolutionary medicine to cultural evolution provide insights about the disease and its aftermath.
As an illustration, at a granular level, consideration is given to how viruses might affect social behavior, and how quarantine, ironically, could make humans susceptible to other maladies due to a lack of microbial exposure. A psychological level describes ways in which the pandemic can affect mating behavior, cooperation (or the lack thereof), and gender norms, and how disgust can be used better to activate “behavioral immunity” to combat disease spread. A cultural level discusses shifting cultural norms and how they might be harnessed more effectively to combat disease and the negative social consequences of COVID-19.
Fundamentally, the existential conflict waged between viruses and humans is a consequence of the fact that nutrients and the machinery of cellular reproduction in Homo sapiens offer irresistible targets for exploitation by smaller and faster evolving organisms. While viruses benefit from rapid replication rate and mutation potential that enable them to adapt quickly to exploit their hosts, natural selection has provided humans with a complex physiological system that can target viruses at a cellular level. It is significant that humans have proven to be exceptionally quite adept through displays of communication ability, intelligence, and innate curiosity in producing extraordinary scientific tools to erect insurmountable walls for limiting the spread of certain viral diseases.
As the authors indicate, an evolutionary perspective can be helpful in understanding the nature of the virus that currently plagues the earth, our own nature in responding to its threats, and the interactions between them. Such an approach to the pandemic furnishes a valuable lens through which it becomes possible to ascertain which strategies a virus might use, our countervailing strategies, and which additional strategies it will become imperative to acquire.
Ten insights are listed and described in the manuscript. They are: (1) the virus might alter host sociability, (2) “generation quarantine” may lack critical microbial exposures, (3) activating disgust can help combat disease, (4) the mating landscape is changing and there will be economic consequences from a decrease in birth rates, (5) gender norms are backsliding and gender inequality is increasing, (6) an increase in empathy and compassion is not guaranteed, (7) we have not evolved to seek the truth, (8) combating the pandemic requires its own evolutionary process, (9) cultural evolutionary forces impact COVID-19 severity, and (10) human progress continues. Essentially, the paper is a call to action and also an opportunity to make new beneficial discoveries to improve health status.
More November 2020 TRENDS Articles
COVID-19: A DELICATE COEVOLUTIONARY DANCE
Discusses how an evolutionary perspective can advance understanding of the relationship between this virus and the human race. Read More
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
Looks at factors that will affect legislation and health policy outcomes as a new Administration is poised to occupy the White House in January 2021. Read More
HEALTH REFORM DEVELOPMENTS
Point out the impact that the coronavirus has had on health policy, along with some observations of a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Affordable Care Act and what to expect from a Biden Administration. Read More
DEVELOPMENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Describes the volume and repayment of federal student education loans and the degree to which racial disparities have an impact on debt burdens. Read More
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Chronic Pain And High-Impact Chronic Pain Among U.S. Adults: 2019
Black, Hispanic Patients Hospitalized For COVID-19 At Disproportionately High Rates
Exploration Of The Link Between Obstructive Sleep Apnea And Autoimmune Disease
Pre-Recorded Audio Messages Help Improve Outcomes For Patients With Heart Failure Read More
AVAILABLE RESOURCES ACCESSIBLE ELECTRONICALLY
State Of Lung Cancer In The U.S.
A Global Grand Challenge Of Achieving Healthy Human Longevity
U.S. Maternal Death Rates Are The Highest Among Wealthy Countries Read More
POPULATION HEALTH SCIENCE AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Examines how dynamics of this disease indicate that population health is best served by thinking dimensionally across a range of health indicators, expanding the focus beyond clearly defined categorical outcomes. Read More
MOVING FROM A GERM THEORY OF DISEASE TO THE MICROBIAL THEORY OF HEALTH
Pertains to a shift regarding the role of microbes in disease and health that necessitates a change in the approaches taken to design targeted infection control. Read More