Deep Learning from the Covid-19 Pandemic

The tremendous human sufferings and loss of life around the world caused by the Covid-19 pandemic prompt human beings to take some deep lessons from this pandemic and the pandemics/epidemics in history. Despite the fact that Covid-19 vaccines have been developed rapidly and more and more people have been vaccinated these days, the heavy death tolls and severe sufferings from the infectious Covid-19 disease all over the world have revealed our ignorance about the Covid-19 disease, the limitations of modern medicine, and the severe vulnerability of public health systems. The more we know about the coronaviruses (and other tiny invisible pathogens) and the diseases they caused in history, the better we can fight against the pathogens and save lives. To provide a historical perspective and to bridge the knowledge gap, this paper briefly reviewed the pandemics/epidemics in history and the death tolls they caused, discussed some associated factors, and identified 3 trends of the pandemics/epidemics in history. Further, this paper extended the discussion to the survival and extinction history of certain species on Earth, then took a future look of the possible climate change and environmental changes in our Solar system, and raised questions of human survival or extinction in the far future (billions of years later). The paper concluded that such deep learning from the pandemic is needed to save human lives, end the pandemic, prevent future large-scale pandemics and maybe even help prevent the possible human extinction in the far future.