Now that’s something to thinks about....but in the realm of mass extermination on earth that we blame on catastrophic weather or “whatever”.
Spaceflight is stressful.
Who knew!
Space nutrition should be taking such things into account.
For example: higher ionizing radiation levels means larger numbers of free radicals that can damage cells. The solution to this should be a free radical scavengers formula they could take as a supplement.
“Free radical scavengers are substances, such as antioxidants, that helps protect cells from the damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules that can build up in cells and cause damage to other molecules. This damage may increase the risk of cancer and other diseases.” (cancer.gov)
Vitamin D (more of a hormone than a vitamin), has so many antiviral properties, and a shortage of vitamin D can lead to so many problems, that many physicians are now regularly testing their patients for serum (blood) vitamin D levels.
This level of scrutiny should apply doubly to astronauts. The research for this tends to be a bit complicated, however.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3308600/
In other words, stress hurts the immune system.
Perhaps the Homo sapiens' compulsion to expand its habitat beyond the earth will lead to the conquest of problems concerning the immune system and virus infections.
If such problems stand in the way of mankind's compulsion for survival, we will invest our vast resources in their solution, and the spin-offs could be spectacular.
I think I saw the Movies
So much for long missions to colonize other star systems.
I hope this is not a surprise to our spaceflight engineers.
Just our understanding of human interactions with viruses and bacteria down here on the earth’s surface, together with the many life-killing attributes of space above most of earth’s atmosphere, and the physiological stresses of space flight, the “news” should have been within the range of expected results, before spaceflight was undertaken, without having to know the specific details beforehand.
*ping*