Hubris, coronavirus and the lessons of history

Hubris causes us to over-estimate what can go right and under-estimate what can go wrong. In this article in Time magazine the medical historian Mark Honigsbaum reminds us that perhaps the biggest lesson from the recent run of epidemics is that while scientific knowledge is always advancing it can also be a hubris trap: we become blind to the unexpected epidemic just around the corner and forget the lessons of previous pandemics at our peril.