Our history is a battle against the microbes: we lost terribly before science, public health, and vaccines allowed us to protect ourselves: Humanity’s history is a continuous battle between us and the microbes.1 For most of our history we were on the losing side.
It wasn’t even close. We were losing very decisively. Billions of children died from infectious diseases. They were the main reason why child mortality was so high: No matter where or when they were born, around half died as children.
