Just yesterday I was reflecting on why the homeless haven’t been wiped out by COVID as was feared back in March and April. Does living in squalor without heat or AC get you exposed to lots of diseases that confer immunity? Even with compromised immune systems caused by living on the street?
This is quite remarkable.
To me, it’s a reasonable hypothesis. To my understanding, diseases are really only eradicated in a few ways: 1) herd immunity is achieved, or 2) a vaccine is found, or 3) the disease mutates into a less virulent form. Of those three, which is most likely to be protecting the homeless?
There’s a reason why societies have adopted, what up until CV19, were the standard, accepted practices for dealing with disease. Most viruses are going to run their course and there’s only so much we can do to alter that course. Our time-honored, standard practices are a good balance between risk mitigation and continuing to live productive lives. Now, we’ve made risk mitigation nearly the only factor in our decision making.