Reflecting on Richard Epstein’s absurd predictions last year, which have been echoed in various ways by Berenson, Atlas, and other COVID-deniers. Some at least were born after smallpox, polio, measles, diphtheria, etc. we’re controlled by vaccines. But how short our memory is!
Epstein’s thin argument was. And it’s true that there is a point at which virulence can be so high as to be maladaptive. But so is zero virulence! hoover.org/research/coron… 
And as Epstein knew from having been alive for more than half of the 20th century, diseases do not naturally evolve zero mortality and zero virulence in less than a year. He was alive to see smallpox and polio make repeated sweeps through his own community.
He only cites AIDS, and for young Boomers and anyone younger in the US, that’s the only example we’ve seen of a national outbreak. But Epstein saw the celebrations as polio vaccines were first introduced. He knows that it takes more than natural selection to eradicate disease.
I was born around the time smallpox was eradicated. But I can read history and the literature of earlier eras. I know better without having lived in the midst of a pandemic. None of these other charlatans have any excuse.
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