Devil and Darwin in this COVID battle

Several years ago my running team attended a track and field meet at St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby. The final event of the competition, called “The Devil Takes The Hind One,” was a tradition of the annual meet whereupon the school mascot dressed in a red devil suit with a pitchfork would grab the last-place runner at the end of each lap of an eightlap race and escort them off the track until there were only three runners left. Those three would race for the medals.

This seems to be a great analogy of what is happening in our society.

The coronavirus (the Devil) is picking off the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers (check out the stats on deaths, hospital and ICU admissions caused by COVID), who are the slowest to take precautions against catching the disease, one by one, thus increasing the odds of those following science and health guidelines to reach the finish line and reap the rewards of a “normal” life.

Most people are familiar with the Darwin Awards, where individuals who perform actions which are not well-thoughtout, ill-advised or just plain stupid meet their demise.

According to the Darwin Awards gang, their removal from the population supposedly increases the overall mental strength of the species.

Microevolution, where individual populations can undergo significant change in a very short period of time due to a large environmental stressor, is being demonstrated right now.

Who would have thought that “The Devil” could improve the intelligence of the human species.

Greg Peters Victoria