Now the Internet is flooded with remarks concerning the origins of the COVID-19 infection namely who made it, and for what purpose. I'm not sure this is true for countries like USA and Britain, but in Russia where I'm coming rom this is a hot topic. Well, this is not a simple translation of my Russian version of the article. Here I'm trying to shed the light on some of the global aspects of the viral infections and COVID-19 in particular.

The rumour has it that the virus was designed in a lab. This discovery cheers some of the sceptics of the natural cause a lot. The purpose of the design is not clear but it is normally left out of the discussion as something quite obvious. Some mysterious world government working quietly behind the scene, trying to obliterate the human race because ... well, it is too many of us and they want the planet for themselves.

My wife is a microbiologist and she is working now in China. He is a reliable source of information regarding this topic. I'm myself biologist taking some courses at the department of military epidemiology on the biology faculty of Moscow State University. So, I know the stuff.

Well the truth is .... indeed, the virus was made in a lab! But this lab is something astonishing! All the viruses that live in humans were made in it. And not only viruses, all other deceases too. This is the biggest and baddest lab in the world. It is called "Nature" and we all are its guinea pigs.

No need for secret service and hidden governments. No terrorists required for carrying out the final blow. All it takes is just us, 8+ billion people who are tirelessly, on everyday basis sharing the hidden gems of their inner worlds with each other.

What is a virus? The virus is a very small but extremely efficient system with a very high ratio of mutation. Like with every other organism most of the mutations are bad. Meaning bad for the virus in a way that the virus dies, taking the unlucky mutation with it. But sometimes the mutation turns out to be of a profit for the virus. This is a very rare case but there are trillions of viruses out there (actually they are not out there, they are all in here). One of a million cases or even less than that but this is already a very likely event to happen on a timescale of just a couple of years.

This is the reason why the human race is destined to encounter COVID-like epidemies on average once every five or so years. Unfortunately, with the pace our population increases its numbers we give the ever-evolving microbiological world within us an unprecedented opportunity for developing rapidly, efficiently and with a very high score of "success".

Still want to go to Mars? Become epidemiologist instead!

Alexey