Ugh, do we really need Trump + Pandemic again?
It’s entirely avoidable, if only Trump would have actually learned something from his first term and actually funded research and prevention teams. Sadly, he only has the foresight to see how cutting those programs saves the US Govt. a penny now, and not the wisdom to see how that panny would have been money well spent if it prevented us from having to spend thousands on recovery efforts.
Trump would have actually learned something
That’s physically impossible at this point.
But they made so much money stealing PPE last time! Probably some good extortion money, too.
Huge bonus if they get to hold a cure over people’s heads, too.
do we really need Trump + Pandemic again
If there were any justice in the universe, he would have died from the virus he unleashed on the world
Don’t worry, I’m sure Trump and his cultists will fuck this one up for us too.
I look forward to our next pandemic…
Maybe Trump’s narcissism will work in our favor this time. He’s been impeached twice, among other things. Does he also want to go down in history as the president who exacerbated TWO pandemics?
If we all die from the bird flu can we die after collectively doing the chicken dance?
Doo dee doo dee doo dee doot. Doo dee doo dee doo dee doot. So kiss my butt! 👏👏👏
I don’t wanna get my hopes up so fear-mongering aside, how actually likely is any of this?
Because I keep remembering that humans are notoriously bad at future prediction.
Surely you aren’t expecting a calculated probability between 0% and 100%. The most useful thing the scientists can do for us here is to prepare for the worse (while hoping for the best), and that is done by carefully selecting the recommendations they chose to publish (in the article).
I thought there was an effective bird flu vaccine that was being given to chickens and wild birds.
Paywall. Archive.org link
Just feel bad for the birds ;( not treated with any kind of decency or respect
When is this coming ?
There isn’t going to be another pandemic this soon after COVID. Pandemics happen about every 100 years. Pretty much everything happens in cycles and is predictable based on historical patterns. There isn’t going to be another pandemic this soon after COVID.
This is not how probability works.
We’ve had once in a century economic problems thrice in less than 30 years, STFU
That’s not how shit works dumbass
Last time was a red 9, there’s not going to be another red 9 for 36 more spins.
Torture and murder of non-human animals <—> Torture and murder of human animals.
But I guess the carnists gotta have their sandwiches. \s
Y’all can look around and see how little human life is valued. It’s not about humans, it’s about them and only them.
Yup. People don’t care about the kids mining their cobalt. To care about the animals they eat would be a long process.
And what about the kids that are forced to work in slaughterhouses then? Silly gotchas are not helping anyone.
Scientists: we have some good news and some bad news on the pandemic front.
Public: Gimme the good news first.
Scientists: We’re going to solve the housing crisis really quickly.
X/
There could be 1000000 empty houses for every homeless person and capital would still be murdering people who tried to squat.
They have to find you first. 1 in 1,000,000? I like them odds.
That’s dark. +1
“Top virologists raise alarm” … that didn’t help last time. People and government won’t take notice or want to take action until we see people with blood coming out of their eyes and dying in the streets, and even then, everyone will be more worried about the economy than in the body count.
at least worrying about the economy would be an improvement to just worrying about their personal freedom
They’ll just ask the elderly to die again
They wanted blue cities to die first. But somehow thought it would never get to the red places.
I’m not sure bird flu would work that way, anyway, but I’m sure lots of people with the bro science will declare that it does. Just like the bro science people were saying people were only dying “with” Covid, not “from” Covid.
“He didn’t die from being shot. He died from massive blood loss.”
I need to watch 28 days later again.
The third pandemic is a good book about a variety of diseases, including bird flu, mingling in a host (bird) body, morphing into a superbug, and wiping out huge swaths of the population.
If you like to read, it’s quite good, if a bit long. (but notably I read it in 5th grade and hauled around a dictionary for a lot of it… it sticks hard in my memory, because my step dad gave it to me after finishing it himself, and it was a challenge. One of our few shared positive things from the era where he almost killed me multiple times… but I haven’t read it in a hot minute; just shy of 30 years…)
Just in time for the sequel!
If you wait a while, we’ll be living in it
There’s a movie for this. Bird flu in america, was mediocre but somehwat accurate for the death rate portrayed
In the U.S., RFK has promised to personally consume every dead bird he finds on the side of the road.
I knew there had to be at least one positive trait.
He actually does have one positive trait: he’s open to the idea of psychedelics for the treatment of mental health disorders. Past administrations have had way too much love for the Nixon-era “War on Drugs” DEA schedule, which treats magic mushrooms as more dangerous than fentanyl. It doesn’t make up for all the other damage he’s doing, and even this one thing he probably won’t handle in an appropriate way, since he’s also, y’know, incompetent. But it’s conceivable that this one thing could move in a good direction despite his leadership.
Great point and something that I support. Psychedelics have been known to provide psychological therapy for a while and I’ll take any gains in that area.
That happened before bird flu was announced tho
Thankful JD was only into couches
That’s just the worm talking, it’s out for revenge
It wants a mate
I have a buddy who is a virologist. He sends me shit all the time about bird flu. The gain of function tests on it is wild. Also, note that we have seen this shit coming since 2012
- Fouchier, R.A.M., et al. (2012). “Airborne transmission of influenza A/H5N1 virus between ferrets.”
Published in: Science
Summary: Demonstrated that a small number of mutations could allow H5N1 to spread via respiratory droplets in ferrets.
Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1213362
- Herfst, S., et al. (2012). “Airborne transmission of influenza A/H5N1 virus between ferrets.”
Published in: Science (companion to Fouchier’s work)
Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22723413/
- Imai, M., et al. (2012). “Experimental adaptation of an influenza H5 HA confers respiratory droplet transmission to a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus in ferrets.”
Published in: Nature
Summary: Kawaoka’s lab showed that reassortment of H5N1 with pandemic H1N1 genes could enable airborne spread in ferrets.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10831
- Zhang, Y., et al. (2013). “H5N1 hybrid viruses bearing 2009/H1N1 virus genes transmit in guinea pigs by respiratory droplet.”
Published in: Science
Summary: Chinese researchers found that hybrid viruses combining H5N1 with H1N1 pandemic genes could spread between mammals.
Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1243362
- National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) Reports (2012).
Summary: Initially recommended redacting details of GoF studies due to bioterrorism concerns, later reversed.
2012? Bird flu been warned about since 2005 at least in my memory
The first case was in 1959 in Scotland. The first human case was in 1996 or 1997 in China. Then around 2002, there was an outbreak in SE Asia that caused alarm then in 2005 it spread by wild birds into Europe and triggered a big WHO warning. The first gain of function tests was in 2011 and 2012. My comment was about the gain of function tests. I probably could have worded it better
What is the point of gain of function research? Sounds unwise to devote resources to making deadly diseases deadlier.
I think the idea is that the diseases are likely to become deadlier whether we do research or not, but by experimenting we are able to get ahead of it.
That makes sense. As you might guess, I am not a scientist
We don’t “improve” diseases to make them deadilier and then just release them. The point of gain of function research essentially boils down to “How quickly can this disease become a serious issue and what do we expect that to look like?” with covid, thanks to gain of function research we knew it would quickly mutate and decrease in severity and we could significantly reduce harm by slowing the spread until it got to the point it’s at today.
Makes sense! Thank you for taking the time to summarize
I have to say it again, I am not a virologist. I am just a middle-aged peckerwood from South Texas so please don’t take anything I say on the subject of H5N1 as fact. It’s just my understanding of how things work in a field I have very little connection to lol.
Gain of function tests are very controversial. IIRC there were a few SARS-CoV-1 leaks in Asia from GoF tests in 2004 or 05. People use those to argue against them. It can also be argued that GoF tests help us map out what mutations we should be watching for so there will be faster responses when they eventually occur. It can also help to advance vaccine research.
When they are done they destroy the mutated viruses or store nonviable samples in secured labs. The security and precautions, for the most part, keep it safe. Or so we are told lol
In the big picture GoF tests are a drop, what should scare the dick off you is reassortment. That happens on its own in the wild. The hits include H2N2, H3N2, H1N1, and H9N2. IIRC H9N2 is a top donor for internal genes and making it a superstar in the reassortments of all sorts of avian flu.
Good luck
Good luck
Sounds like I’ll need it! Good luck to you too!
Summary: Chinese researchers found that hybrid viruses combining H5N1 with H1N1 pandemic genes could spread between mammals.
That would be bad, as current vaccines against avian flu in humans tent to work on the “H5” part…
I just hope it kills a lot more Nazi antivax idiots this time
Unfortunately, it’s the rich that are feeding them the garbage that’s infested their minds. I don’t think there’s any saving the masses from the delusion they’re slobbering up, but as long as the buffet keeps getting restocked, the pigs will keep fattening up for the slaughter.
Hopefully it kills the uber-privileged carnists responsible for all of this death and disease.
being able to be vegan/vegetarian is a privilege. it’s expensive as hell for starters. you can eat meat and still want change in the meat industry.
Not to mention there are people who physically have to eat meat. I have anemia due to stage 4 endometriosis. I can’t take iron supplements so have to eat meat or I get very sick.
Carnist? This is why we lose.
I doubt it will they all have doomsday bunkers. I do hope that they are forced to cower in them for the rest of their days though……because guillotine
There will probably be some slant in that direction, but there’ll be a much bigger slant towards killing the elderly, the immunocompromised, those who can’t afford medical care and time off, etc. As usual.
As terrible as it feels to say with the way elderly people vote they more often than not fall into the nazi camp. I know my gandad does with fox constantly playing.
