Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen.
How much intelligence does it take to sneak up on a leaf?
The reader has certain rights. He bought your story. Think of this as an implicit contract. He's entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused; maybe all three. If he quits in the middle, or puts the book down feeling his time has been wasted, you're in violation.
I'd repair our education system or replace it with something that works.
The witnessing of titanic events is always dangerous, usually painful, and often fatal.
As for AIDS, it's a plague. We are human, we get plagues. They come along every so often, kill off two thirds of the population; in the next generation it's a quarter; after that it's a childhood disease.