The great story of human health: after centuries of progress, are we entering a phase of decline?

After the the invention of agriculture, human health stagnated and life expectancy did not increase until the mid-18th century. It then slowly lengthened until the end of the 20th century, with advances in public health: sanitation, potable water, nutrition, and vaccination. After World War II, progress in the medical field was synonymous with better health, resulting in a life expectancy that was three times that of 1750. But at the same time, human societies have also been the source of new behavioral and environmental risks. The COVID-19 pandemic merely illustrates these new dangers to health worldwide, undeniably the result of human behavior.