EPILOGUE: THE PLAGUE NEXT TIME

Over the past three years, 6.6 million people have died from COVID-19. With vaccination rates lagging in many areas, we may continue to die for some time to come. But COVID-19 has also reminded me just how lucky we are, how much better off even now than humans who have lived at any other moment in history. Working on this book has helped me to see both where that good fortune has come from and how fragile it may yet prove to be.