Perhaps humanity will, before it’s truly too late, decide to cease despoiling our planet – though that remains uncertain. Maybe we will choose to stop devastating the only home we’ll ever know while it is still habitable for us. With record temperatures in Antarctica and the ensuing chaos that implies, the situation is as precarious as it is urgent.
However, let’s hold onto hope that we can still act, summon our better instincts, and endure. Assuming we do, there’s a chance, depending on your age, that you might experience space travel. Not to reside there, but to visit. And if not you, then certainly your children.
Commercial space flight is already a reality, though far from commonplace and certainly not inexpensive. If we manage to survive and advance our technologies as our ingenuity permits, space travel could become both routine and affordable. Visits to the moon or other relatively close celestial bodies might transition from science fiction to a standard human experience. While reaching Arrokoth anytime soon is unlikely, Mars might become a viable destination.
Let’s indulge in the fantasy that this becomes reality. You have the opportunity to visit space, and just like on a cruise here on Earth, you are presented with a menu of optional activities. Among these is a spacewalk. Would you choose to wear the state-of-the-art space suit – a temperature-regulating, oxygen-providing Space Uniform – or would you forgo this protection and risk the cold, dark void completely exposed?
This question is pertinent because your answer, in ways you might not immediately realize, relates to issues like coronavirus, and indeed, to whatever pandemic may emerge next.
Firstly, this brings us to the matter of science and the respect it deserves, yet often fails to receive.
Let’s be clear: using social media to denigrate science is akin to flying a plane with a banner trailing behind it that reads: “If humans were meant to fly, they’d have been born with wings!” Do you see the absurdity? Employing a plane to criticize technology-driven flight is inherently contradictory. It’s hypocrisy at high altitude.
Similarly, the daily reliance on science-based technologies that enable you to read this and to tell me why science is untrustworthy is equally flawed. Those who use the products of science daily to broadcast their disdain for scientific conclusions they find inconvenient or conflicting with their preferred ideology’s conspiracy theories are, frankly, engaging in both hypocrisy and absurdity. It’s like using a complex metaphor to denounce poetry itself.
The second critical point is the misguided belief that Nature will inherently protect us, requiring no intervention. If you subscribe to this, you are being deceived.
There’s a specific anti-vaccine argument suggesting we should simply depend on nature to naturally boost our immunity and shield us from pathogens. However, this thinking leads us back to the idea of a naked spacewalk. It is not natural for humans to venture into space or the ocean depths. We engineered these possibilities and must rely on engineered protections to benefit from them. We don’t depend on nature to sustain our bodies when we fly; we rely on engineered solutions for cabin pressure and oxygenation. Similarly, a space uniform is engineered for survival in an unnatural environment.
Vaccination operates on the same principle. There is nothing natural about a world of 8 billion Homo sapiens, predominantly living in densely populated urban centers. There is nothing natural about our disruptions of ecosystems. There is nothing natural about the ultra-processed foods that disrupt our microbiome – an ecosystem within us. These are all engineered realities, stemming from agriculture, civilization, and what we optimistically call “progress.” The potential for pandemics to arise in these unnatural conditions dates back to the Dark Ages, not the Stone Age. This vulnerability is a consequence of our own making.
Vaccines are to the infectious disease threats of the modern world what a space uniform is to the hazards of space. Both are essential pieces of protection crafted by science to allow us to thrive in environments where we are not naturally suited to survive. Just as a space uniform shields astronauts from the vacuum and radiation of space, vaccines protect us from the invisible threats of disease in our densely populated, interconnected world.
Nature is indeed wondrous, but it is not inherently benevolent. A sunrise is natural, but so are botulinum toxin and cobra venom. The concept of a space uniform acknowledges this reality – we need more than nature to survive and explore beyond Earth.
The coronavirus pandemic is already upon us; prevention in this instance is no longer an option. The best course of action now is to stay informed, remain vigilant, stay calm, and carry on.
However, we can significantly improve our preparedness for the next pandemic, and let’s be clear: without improved global cooperation and responsible action, there will inevitably be another, and another, and another. We can be forewarned and therefore forearmed – addressing the root causes, from broken links in food chains to ecosystem disruptions and the disregard for science fueled by mass misinformation campaigns.
The most effective way to envision a pandemic-free future is to actively create it. Embrace both nature and respect for science. Just as a space uniform is indispensable for space exploration, a reliance on scientific understanding is crucial for navigating the complexities of our modern world and ensuring a healthier future for all.
-fin
Dr. David L. Katz is a preventive medicine specialist, James Beard Award nominee for health journalism, and co-author with Mark Bittman, of the forthcoming How to Eat
