3-4 month prediction going on 2 years ago... I'm pretty sure they got it wrong. (At least the time frame, though, prion like diseases manifesting is totally part of the predicted long-term side effects based on the few animal studies)
I agree with your first paragraph, even though, IMO, the intent is more important than specific spelling.
The second is one of speculation, if they ancient gods were actually divine beings come to earth, then "gods" would be appropriate. They may have been angels, aliens, or something different. Though, I tend to agree they weren't just fabricated entities.
More explicitly, the context was that I was referring to greed "gods", the "gods" of the mahabarata(sp for laziness in search?), and other ancient reference to "gods" that were written of as though they were physically manifest on earth.
I may refer to God in an incorrect manner, but intended as the universal creator, "the one", or however that entity should be referred. I've heard it commonly named Yahwey. Honestly, the only one that offends me is when I see "g-d", and then only because (on other forums) have had people edit quotes to remove the o.
That said, please correct me on how I had the definition and I will attempt to refine in the future.
I had a discussion recently where one was upset because I was saying gods and God (gods being non-descript that could be alien, angels, or something else that the ancients did not know as opposed to God as the creator)
The best we could do is speculate as to what was actually going on at those points in history.
Would aliens/demons still be 'people', even if not human?
If we really have to go through the four horsemen, (correct me if wrong) pestilence, war, famine and death. Will have to wonder how much worse things really have to get.
The reason it would be hard to add anything to compare with Tolkein is that Tolkein put massive amounts of effort into the world creation, not adding important characters that didn't have at least SOME story arc. The woke BS comes from people who are really about checking boxes and just like the left can't meme, they can't seem to put themselves in any alternative headspace to think about motivations. I've seen something from Tolkein where he talked about how he had to stop himself at certain points because if he was going to add a mountain, he would think about the size, the location, what was beyond that mountain.
In LOTR, every single character was added in for a reason, they had their initial motivations and individual story arcs. Effectively they were fleshed out people that each made a genuine contribution to the overall story.
That takes a level of creativity that I don't expect I could ever fully compete with, what they did with it was the antithesis of Tolkein's work, Tolkein himself didn't even want to see the books made to film, although the 2001-2003 trilogy was cinematically well made and reasonably true to the books. Although, I reread the books semi-recently and followed up with the films for a fresh comparison, and the biggest complaint is that, in spite of being 10 hours of film, the story was rushed and compressed in a way that just felt like it shrunk the world... although I understand that adding an extra several hours to each film to allow for the time camping would likely be boring to many.
I was raised catholic, and in spite of a period where I left the church, have come to realize that Christian beliefs are most likely true and real. (When it comes to old testament, I tend to think that where the books tend towards reference of individuals, that the stories make more sense if thinking in terms of groups or tribes)
External to that, I'm aware of non-christian sources that describe Jesus as a factual individual who was factually crucified as a traitor.
Angels, aliens, really the term isn't that important, so long as the distinction is made from God.
I mean, the Mahabarata talks about a war with "gods" that describes things that we could accept as rockets, nuclear weapons, UFOs, laser weapons, and one weapon that would have destroyed the whole planet (it misses).
Or the ancient Greek and Roman myths where there were the demigods that fought alongside men...
I don't believe those are accounts of divine beings, but could relatively accept them as aliens using technologies.
I say 10+, mostly just to keep it conceivable to most... frankly, if they had star trek level Technologies buried somewhere I wouldn't be shocked.
The Pluto in cave paintings reference would align with the concept that human civilization was pushed along by alien species.
That's one where you'd start getting into "black goo" type stories where it's AI but not using anything as we would recognize as computers.
The stories in that vein are intriguing, and as much as I would love that aliens being legitimate, the proponents always lack anything of tangible evidence. (I would even hold a lower bar on evidence for that topic).
The most compelling was the guy who claimed to have got in a gunfight with grey aliens in an underground base, and all he showed was a piece of metal, his missing fingers and the chest wound he had...
I'm speaking a bit out of school, but I think your description is closer than the OP image.
Maybe more car accidents (anecdotally, I have seen that), forgetfulness, personality changes, but it's also degenerative... not so much 'zombie apocalypse' .