Reich: Modern medical care will worsen human genomic health over centuries
David Reich · a16z Podcast | The Scientific Revolution of Ancient DNA · Jan 2, 2019 · at 27:35
David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, discusses how modern medicine affects natural selection and long-term genomic health with co-hosts Jorge Conde and Hannah on the a16z Podcast.
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“Allowing people to live who would not have done so before through in vitro fertilization or through having glasses, despite correcting very bad eyesight, and as a result, it's probable that there are mutations building up that would not have been building up in the past due to the random rain of bad mutations onto our genome. There's an idea that the rate of worsening of the genomic health of human populations is maybe akin a little bit to global warming. It's not getting worse too perceptively on the span of a generation or two, but over the span of a few hundred years, there might be very severe consequences, and so I think that we are in a time of profound environmental and lifestyle change.”
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