Future of Humanity in Peril if We Ignore Message of the Microbes

When a respiratory virus sweeps away almost 15 million lives in two years, as Covid-19 has, according to a May 5 World Health Organization estimate that includes indirect deaths, it’s a savage hit to humanity.

A single microbe has destabilized health-care systems, unbalanced economies, and confounded government leaders worldwide. Even as we cope with the Covid crisis, nature keeps throwing new challenges at us, ranging from an outbreak of rare viral monkeypox to an unexplained run of child hepatitis. It’s a humbling moment for Homo sapiens, accustomed as we are to doling out crushing blows to other ...