I'll start with a lot of grief.  Did you notice that the World has passed   200 million COVID-19 cases ?   That's 2.6% of the global population.   Note that our current pandemic shows a current total deaths of  4.3 million , significant, but only 0.06% of people on Planet earth.   Smallpox killed 500 million . The odds for you being here so far because of this novel coronavirus are  1767 to 1.    Not only don't I personally know anyone who died from this pandemic, I don't know anyone who even was infected.   And I live in a building holding 200 seniors. Only 2% of humans around the world live in elder-care facilities.  THIS GROUP WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR  MORE THAN A THIRD  OF ALL COVID-19 DEATHS. A century ago, the  H1N1 Pandemic , also known as the Spanish Flu, killed  50 million  when the world population was 1.8 billion. That's almost 3% of the world population. It is said that the average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by 12 years. However, there are estimate

Variations in cells result in evolution.  For humans,   gene mutations can cause cancer , but might also have beneficial long-term implications.  COVID-19 has been particularly nasty because of mutations, which are called variants. A relatively new term, R-naught, or RO, is more and more being mentioned.  The information below was sent to me with no reference.  It looks generally accurate, but I found a second source,  VOX , which provides some additional details: In short, RO is the number of additional cases caused by an individual so infected.  The original COVID-19 virus had an R0 of 2 or 3, so the 2.7 indicated below is just more specific. VOX indicates that the Delta variant has an RO of 4, but the below quote says 5.7. Measles has an RO of 12. Will future mutations make COVID-19 even worse?  The answer:  no one knows. R naught: the Delta Virus has an R naught of 5.7 versus 2.7 for the original. R naught of other infectious diseases - · 1918 Influenza Pandemic that killed 50 mill