Darwin was far enough into the transition to progressive values to forget his own insight that one season's survivors are the next season's mortality. The Zen master, if he were a biologist, might point out that the human species is host to many thousands of inactive microbial passengers, any of which can mutate into a harmful pathogen. Pathogenic bacteria, for their part, mutate into antibiotic-resistant strains under the pressure of medically induced selection. The modern therapeutic state is geared to extend the appearance of compassion and assistance to all the suffering. An advantage of the mechanical conception of health in democracies is that the patient is not required to be an agent in the healing process.
Healing is conceived as technical skill in manipulating subtle and refractory organic processes.
The patient is a bystander who, from time to time, may be conscripted to dietary or exercise chores. But for the most part doctors do not try to change lifestyles. This view of medicine's social role dominated the CDC's response to another epidemic that received scant public attention until after the damage was done. During the 1960s and 1970s, US doctors reported sexually transmitted diseases at the rate of 5-7 million cases per year. Thus the CDC knew the dramatic increase of chlamydia and the high rates of infertility that it causes.