>Without a working knowledge of how pathogens evolve, we cannot produce
>effective vaccines, antibiotics or gene therapies to combat possible
>pandemic outbreaks in our increasingly crowded and intermingling
population.

There is nothing good to expect from successful antipathogen medecines .
What we need  to do is to rediscover our place in the coevolving cooperative
dance of species
>
>Without a working knowledge of how humans evolved and how the process of
>conforming to our evolutionary niche shaped our DNA, we will never get to
>the root causes of auto-immune disorders that become the dominant
illnesses
>when infectious pathogens are brought under control.


I suspect viruses being an active  agent of evolution by reshaping the DNA
with new information.
 Interfering and messing up with this will explain the progressive
agravating unadaptability of humans to their original environment. The virus
link between species and individuals keep the dynamic balance between
organisms and their supportive environment.

this dynamic of evolution might not operate thru the " survival of the
fittest " battle but more thru the cooperative game of species.
we projected in the world that we see , our split sense of ourselves. Life
is not a war where there is a winner and a looser. Everybody must win or
everebody loose.

about pathogens being under control . I think it is the vast illusion
brought by vaccination and antibiotics, the symptoms associated with their
presence have been under control for a short while thru artificial means.
but the pathogens are still there waiting to do their job and do not miss
any opportinity to do so.

The association between germs and the symptoms associated with their
presence remind me of this curve on a  little road , here,  where people
were blaming the filberts growing on the side for the accidents happenings
because they were hiding part of the road. They decide to cut them so now
peoples can ride as fast or even faster than before til they discover than
the number of accidents decreased only for a short while to come back even
higher than before.

Next step will be to make that road an highway with lot of safety nets
around that will lead us quicker to our destination : death, because it is
where we go anyway as an individual .riding on the road of life

i don't know about you but
I prefer to ride smoothly the curves of life with the filberts gowing on the
side and even take the time to stop on my way to harvest the nuts.

jean-claude