How does this pattern operate and what significance does it have for real people in the 21st century?

According to scientists, like Steven Cole, the hypothesis is that this characteristic response has been preserved from the time when the greatest threats to human survival were from death by wound injuries and loss of blood.

Facing attacks of this nature activated the stress system and increased the activity of genes involved in widespread inflammation in order to promote wound healing and benefit survival. Additionally, the activity of genes providing protection from viruses was decreased or downregulated to conserve resources. In other words, the immune system’s bodily resources were directed to where the fight was: wound healing instead of attacking a virus.

This conditioning persists despite changes in modern day stressors or threats to self, such as poverty, loneliness, bereavement, discrimination, etc. The upregulating of pro-inflammatory genes and the downregulating of anti-viral genes poses a real problem, given that chronic systemic inflammation has been related to the various disease conditions we saw on an earlier slide, and chronic inflammation is estimated to be at the root of 50% of deaths worldwide.