We're living in the worst of the best of times. Human progress has continued to advance exponentially since the Enlightenment. And it isn't stopping, despite what will be a particularly severe yet ultimately temporary slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It's easy to forget — especially since many people never fully realized — that virtually every vulnerability our species endures, other than this recent outbreak, has on average continued retreating across the globe over the past centuries, decades and years. That goes for the proverbial Four Horsemen — War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. Fewer people than ever are dying in conflicts around the planet. Fewer are starving. Average life expectancy has doubled over the past century, and the child mortality rate has been halved over the past two decades. Even deaths by lightning strikes are down. And, yes, we should still remember that fewer people than ever are contracting and dying from diseases, with COVID-19 as an exception — for now.
