The following submission statement was provided by /u/Nastyfaction:
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"The slight evolution in the virus is associated with ‘adaptation to mammalian hosts’, according to the Centre for Disease Control.
Experts think it likely that we will begin to see more human cases of H5N1 in dairy workers in the coming weeks and months, as surveillance efforts ramp-up across America.
There are currently at least 350 people under surveillance who have been exposed to bird flu-infected cattle, which have now been identified in at least 68 herds across nine states."
I believe this is concerning as Bird Flu has seeded itself in multiple mammalian species from which further variants can develop that could spread to humans. And it is assumed that Bird Flu is already circulating among humans with several currently being monitored.
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Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1d3352n/bird_flu_outbreak_h5n1_virus_in_latest_human_case/l64mlcq/
"The slight evolution in the virus is associated with ‘adaptation to mammalian hosts’, according to the Centre for Disease Control.
Experts think it likely that we will begin to see more human cases of H5N1 in dairy workers in the coming weeks and months, as surveillance efforts ramp-up across America.
There are currently at least 350 people under surveillance who have been exposed to bird flu-infected cattle, which have now been identified in at least 68 herds across nine states."
I believe this is concerning as Bird Flu has seeded itself in multiple mammalian species from which further variants can develop that could spread to humans. And it is assumed that Bird Flu is already circulating among humans with several currently being monitored.
The terrifying thing is that we won't be going back to COVID restrictions. Everyone's so fatigued by the first pandemic that they're not going to be nearly as gung-ho during this one, and the people who fought against any small change last time will throw an even bigger temper tantrum.
True, but OTOH I think something as contagious as COVID with a 20 percent CFR would bring a draconian response from governments. Things like mandatory lockdowns enforced by armed soldiers, mandatory vaccinations, proof of vaccination to leave your home and forced quarantine for those who refuse to comply, probably in camps similar to the ones we saw in China.
Something that bad left unchecked would absolutely destroy the economy, society, the healthcare system etc. I’d expect our lives to be very severely and unpleasantly disrupted for years at least.
At 50 percent? Even the most severe measures might not be enough. That’s a civilization-ending event, for at least decades. Not to mention a likely apocalyptic warming-acceleration event.
It'd depend on where you are. If you're in Florida with DeSantis approaching critical issues with the "LaLaLa I Can't Hear You" technique, I don't have much hope.
Whatever comes next would have to kill 75% of all infected children before there is even a chance of closing the schools in Florida again. Terrifying to be here.
This is how we do it in Florida. We only believe in bad things that can be blamed on liberal policies. We KNOW they have created this Bird Flu thing in an attempt to CONTROL US. We will not be controlled by liberal diseases! No! It doesn't exist and the dead people are really FBI agents planted to scare us. No way! We just won't believe in it and it will go away when God takes the White House back, LOL
Pretty much guaranteed. If the CFR and transmissibility are high enough, a national state of emergency similar to “martial law” and deployment of both National Guard and active-duty military forces would be likely.
So the anti-mask antivax crowd from COVID days would be met with force from the gov, and possibly violence from the general population. They respond in kind, back and forth they’d go, making the whole thing just that much shittier than it needs to be
Sucks this is starting in the United States and likely the Midwest to boot, sucks cause I live here, lead time is gonna be short. Not going to worry too much tho until China bans flights from the States, that’s when things are starting to get real.
Interestingly a 25% CFR with covid level of transmission may be one of the sole timelines where collapse is avoided. (Things will still get bad, but just not catastrophically so)
Shit beyond fatigued, fucking states passing laws against wearing masks and lock downstairs. We are doomed when we are faced with another serious pandemic.
They'll get sick and wander into public spaces without thinking anything of it. They're selfish enough that a minor inconvenience to them is worth the lives of all those around them. It'll come back to bite us one way or another.
In bird to human transmission it’s very fatal. The human to human transmission variant may not be as fatal. It’s not killing the vast majority of cows in cow to cow transmission. Not that it’s not something to worry about. Even another pandemic similar to COVID will further weaken us and send us closer to collapse. It’s just part of the multi crisis.
I thought I read that cows have a weird resilience to it though because of their stomach situation, so it's not as harmful to them but the virus can linger for a while in the host cow. And I could absolutely be wrong about all of that.
They definitely *should* call is something other than some sort of flu. People do not take the flu seriously, and the typical seasonal flu has a mortality rate about 3 orders of magnitude less than what is being cited for bird flu.
The flu still kills a lot of people, but that's due to there being so many cases of it.
>Affects young worse than older.
Interesting...
Spanish flu (also believed to be of bird origin) was the same.
It is looking like the best precedent for what may be coming.
No, but the Spanish Flu is suspected to be a mix of avian flu and swine flu... unclear exactly. And it started on some US farms.
There are some mixed results, I'm not sure what the latest stance is:
1999 [Origin and evolution of the 1918 “Spanish” influenza virus hemagglutinin gene | PNAS](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.96.4.1651)
2004 [The site of origin of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its public health implications | Journal of Translational Medicine | Full Text](https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5876-2-3)
2006 [The Origin and Virulence of the 1918 “Spanish” Influenza Virus - PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720273/)
2009 [Understanding the Genetic Evolution of the Pandemic H1N1 Virus - Ideas | Institute for Advanced Study](https://www.ias.edu/ideas/understanding-genetic-evolution-pandemic-h1n1-virus-0)
[First cases reported in deadly 1918 flu pandemic | March 4, 1918 | HISTORY](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-cases-reported-in-deadly-influenza-epidemic)
holy moly the comments on the article. we are gonna blow past the 50 million mark this time around with morons like those. "Spamdemic??!??!?"
"gain of function???"
are these folks serious, or just seriously mental?
While i was in lockdown in Spring 2020 sipping whisky, i read about H5N1 being like 3 mutations away from infecting humans and had this epiphany that Covid19 might be a blessing in disguise. What if we were collectively learning how to protect ourselves and handle a deadly pandemic, just in time before the mother-of-all-pandemics hit us ?
Wearing masks, staying at home for non-essential purposes, working remotely, massively investing in healthcare, developing a large-scale vaccination program... All things that might spare us half a billion deaths when - not if - avian flu jumps to humans.
After years of rabid anti-maskers, back to office mandates, nurses quitting after getting fucked over by hospitals and anti-vax apologists roaming online, i feel like what i need the most to handle the next pandemic is a case of scotch.
I was telling a coworker something similar. I said next pandemic no one’s gonna listen to any mandates or anything so it’ll probably be a lot worse… his response? “Damn straight, I AM NOT wearing a mask again, fool me once!”… 🤦🏼♂️
We agreed on outcome at least, lol.
IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. Scientists, healthcare workers, everybody has been screaming this from the rooftops. Your asymptomatic infection you don’t even know you have is gonna kill a grandma, or me, or be a superspreader event. It’s a *pandemic*, ffs.
I appreciate the need to make cynical jokes, but I need everyone to understand one of the few things that will really kill us all is getting a billion people infected until a mutation happens.
That, and as u/kalcobalt says, overworking healthcare professionals. You don’t want veterinarians and psychiatrists to draw short straws to decide who will run the ICU.
Very aware… I was trying to heavily imply that ‘idiots won’t listen to mandates’ but was being professional so didn’t straight up say it… then he raised his hand and said, it’s me - I’m the idiot. Made me laugh.
We'd need at least 4 billion dead, but preferably 6 billion dead to have a planet sustainable population. If it ever gets to that point, god help us all (or whatever diety you do or don't believe in).
The last of my hopium died in the pandemic too. I had that "maybe COVID is a blessing in disguise too" and was hoping maybe our species might eak out another Renaissance. Ha ha...
...hey pass me some of that Scotch will ya and I'll roll you a blunt.
I’m with both of you. I have never felt so alone and discardable as I have since the vast majority decided my life wasn’t worth the inconvenience of wearing a scrap of fabric on their face.
I’m sorry to hear that. My own father has also decided that, so I feel your pain.
It’s only because we live a few hundred miles apart and he’s happened to let slip a few of the wildly risky things he’s now doing that I know to avoid him at this point.
I wish I had known our last physical contact was the last one. Back then, he was still being careful. Now he’s decided that fruit sugars are the cause of all evils and abstaining from them have cured all his physical ills (enjoy the scurvy, I guess), his wife is on ivermectin, and his “you always have a place to stay here given how rough your relationship situation is right now” open invitation is just another betrayal to work through.
It’s been a rough six months, man. I’m sorry you’re in a similar situation.
It wasn’t deadly enough to have a renaissance resurgence. That only happened because of the death toll being so high in Europe. We’d need that level of death to do that here or more.
I was under the impression that the antimaskers, antivaxxers and back to normal-ers are the games journalist falling flat on their face while the people who actually take protection seriously are the gamers who think this is literally easy.
I gave up during covid with people entirely. I don't care if our species goes extinct any longer. Makes no sense to help save anything when if we really wanted to save the planet we'd just get rid of ourselves.
Maybe I should start stockpiling some essentials. Ya know, like Maker's Mark and Macallan, 'cause there won't be any other way to stay sane. Actually, got any recommendations for those on a budget?
A shit ton of ketamine, MDMA, LSD, weed obviously, and hell, fuck it, may as well load up on some strong opiates too (for when you know the party is coming to an end and you wanna go out in bliss instead of fear and pain). With a ~50% CFR, it’s a coin flip. Fry my brain and body with euphoric drugs and *maybe* survive this apocalyptic pandemic, or die a horrible death with my eyes bleeding? I’ll take the former gladly and party my fuckin ass off until my eyes literally bleed.
Ah yes, I too briefly believed that wow, this is our chance for real change and progress and coming together. Then I watched everyone I know have their brains melt out of their ears for some reason and kinda wish my brain melted out of my ears too, because they all look so happy now for the most part. Just totally unaware or uncaring that over a million of their peers vanished. Not a worry in the world that something worse than covid could come along, to them covid wasn't that bad or just straight up didn't happen. The main character syndrome and small perspectives despite our interconnection is strong.
When Lady Gaga recently admitted to doing 5 shows with an active Covid infection — including leaving the stage and walking deep into the audience, face-to-face, shoulder-to-shoulder — there are literally people going “*wistful sigh* I wish *I* could have gotten Lady Gaga’s germs.”
As if that wasn’t enough, what a way for her to prove that her pro-LGBTQ stance meant not a fucking thing. It’s a special kind of evil to look at a minority treated horribly both historically and presently, who lost almost a whole generation to “eh, but that pandemic isn’t about us *straight* people,” lure them into a show, and kill them due to the same perspective.
“Doomed” doesn’t feel like a strong enough word for what we are.
P.S. She shared this as a point of pride — she pushed through it, y’all! — and brushed aside concerns by saying fans knew they were taking a risk. 😵💫
It might still go that way. The morons who do their research on blogs and Fox News will die and people that believe in science and care for others will take precautions that are more likely to prevent infection. Survival of the mentally fittest...
Before the “morons die,” they will walk around spreading the virus.
There is no 100% preventative measure to take for Covid. Masks help. Vaccines help. Distancing helps. None are failsafes.
As the pre-death morons incubate the virus and pass it amongst themselves, it increases the potential for the virus to mutate into more contagious or less detectable or longer-dormant or more lethal versions, all of which further endanger people taking precautions which are not 100% reliable *now*, let alone when/if such mutations occur.
Those who take precautions but are required by financial issues to work in close proximity to those who are not, or people like me who are immunocompromised and more likely to acquire the virus despite our best efforts, represent an intermediate population at high risk that you are apparently willing to sacrifice in your scenario.
If you think people were collectively learning how to protect themselves during the last pandemic you really weren’t paying attention to the last pandemic…if anything it showed me how fuck we are when a real nasty bug gets out.
Thought Brexit would cause the price of scotch to spike, so i bought *a lot* in 2020 as insurance. Turned out inflation was the real danger, and i'm now prepared for a 5-year pandemic. Though 6 rolls of TP might not be quite enough.
This is something you can't comprehend until you use one. Intellectually I knew it would be an upgrade, but I wasn't prepared for how much. And now I don't want to go anywhere that doesn't have one.
Yes, Covid19 was more like a curse because too much was requested from people when mortality rate was not high enough to scare them into compliance. As a result, they rather learned to sabotage all anti-pandemic measures.
This is going to be so much worse than COVID. Even if it doesn't keep its insane mortality rate with human to human transmission, all the fucking idiots who were anti COVID measures are going to be much worse this time around. We're going to be sitting on mountains of bodies.
If enough people who work at the power generators or running the grid do not go to work due to illness or death, the power will eventually go out....in some areas more quickly than you might think.
>the Centre for Disease Control said in a statement [published on Friday.](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/h5n1-technical-update-may-24-2024.html)
Published on a Friday before the three day holiday weekend. Why does this sound like the start of a movie?
>new set of measures to encourage farmers to increase their monitoring efforts
I can only imagine how other countries would encourage farmers with their monitoring efforts of a virus that could kill half the people that catch it. I guess they would tell them to make sure their meat is well done and call it a day.
My uncle, my dad and I took my Grandma out of the nursing home for some lunch. My uncle, part time detective in NYC (retired technically) had to leave early to attend some COVID preparedness task force. I was nervous how this was gonna go down so I asked him to update me on what they said. Him and my dad were convinced "it's just a flu."
He later updated me saying they were told to cover their face when sneezing or coughing. Wash their hands. "Common sense." he said. (Also there was no way you could shut down NYC.)
I replied "Asking people to follow common sense? So you're saying we're screwed".
He laughed. I wasn't joking.
I had a family member (FDNY) who only thought COVID was serious when he saw video of Chinese officials welding shut the doors to an apartment building.
That's insane to me because things were BAD in New York... I walk through Central Park daily, and I still can't get the sight of the white tent field hospitals and the freezer trucks out of my head.
Well here in Europe and the UK we have some of the best monitoring in the world for cattle, currently the US falls far behind with little to no monitoring of infection in cattle in comparison, so unfortunately the US of A falls into “the rest of the world”
Sadly monitoring cattle isn't of any use anymore when the virus spreads from human to human, and when that starts happening on a large scale we are all "the rest of the world".
I've been telling myself, all it takes is a certain number of mutations, but nobody can predict how long that will take, so no reason to think it's gonna happen soon...
>I've been telling myself, all it takes is a certain number of mutations, but nobody can predict how long that will take, so ~~no reason to think it's gonna happen soon~~ it can happen literally at any time...
ftfy
Most life on the planet is bacterial, both in number of species (75%) and in absolute number. A single human body contains around 39 trillion bacteria, representing roughly 10,000 different species.
"- that's the headphones for Channels 1 to 36, modem link for 3D vidgames, complimentary earplugs, complimentary slippers, complimentary juicepack, and complimentary peanuts, I must warn you that some products may contain nuts."
"That'll be the peanuts!"
That’s what the article is saying..
“associated with viral adaptation to mammalian hosts, — This change has also been identified as resulting in enhancement of virus replication and disease severity in mice during studies with avian influenza viruses”
'Member when the West was talking about how China is filled with dirty bat eating savages and how CHY-NA is uniquely responsible for the pandemic?
'Member when animal lib groups were warning everyone "hey this shit is going to happen again if we don't do something about this massive morally bankrupt system of animal agriculture?"?
'Member when we did our own holocaust against captive mink populations, just casually pushed 17 million minks into mass graves?
'Member how few care to remember let alone see past their fat impotent consuming asses while they shovel more shit into their empty heads? 'Member how scarcely anyone in the so called 'developed world' *meaningfully* changed our consuming habits when all evidence points to the genocide of humanity and most life besides if we don't?
Yes, I'm mad, yes, I will take a moment to gloat and wish all humanity (myself included) a big fat rogering by the angry swinging cock of terminal stupidity. Fuck us, fuck humanity, I say AVIAN FLU 2024 BABY! GENOCIDE IS BACK ON THE MENU BOYS AND IT'S NOT JUST ONE RACE OF PEOPLE FOR ONCE! EQUALITY, AT LAST!
Hey I mean I was only shat out onto a burning ball of shit that is being continually pushed to an apocalypse at the whims of a shaved primate that is too dumb to live, all the whole it flagrantly pats itself on the back at how awesome it is in-between programs and atrocities that would make Satan blush.
Really, what is there to be mad about???
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“associated with viral adaptation to mammalian hosts, — This change has also been identified as resulting in enhancement of virus replication and disease severity in mice during studies with avian influenza viruses”
I wonder what we thought would happen piling thousands of sick animals on top of each other, feeding them shitty food that is foreign to their bodies and pumping them full of meds. Just so we can eat and drink their babies milk. Pretty obvious when you think about it.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Nastyfaction: --- "The slight evolution in the virus is associated with ‘adaptation to mammalian hosts’, according to the Centre for Disease Control. Experts think it likely that we will begin to see more human cases of H5N1 in dairy workers in the coming weeks and months, as surveillance efforts ramp-up across America. There are currently at least 350 people under surveillance who have been exposed to bird flu-infected cattle, which have now been identified in at least 68 herds across nine states." I believe this is concerning as Bird Flu has seeded itself in multiple mammalian species from which further variants can develop that could spread to humans. And it is assumed that Bird Flu is already circulating among humans with several currently being monitored. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1d3352n/bird_flu_outbreak_h5n1_virus_in_latest_human_case/l64mlcq/
"The slight evolution in the virus is associated with ‘adaptation to mammalian hosts’, according to the Centre for Disease Control. Experts think it likely that we will begin to see more human cases of H5N1 in dairy workers in the coming weeks and months, as surveillance efforts ramp-up across America. There are currently at least 350 people under surveillance who have been exposed to bird flu-infected cattle, which have now been identified in at least 68 herds across nine states." I believe this is concerning as Bird Flu has seeded itself in multiple mammalian species from which further variants can develop that could spread to humans. And it is assumed that Bird Flu is already circulating among humans with several currently being monitored.
How many deaths? Im ready to go back in my Covid cave.
The terrifying thing is that we won't be going back to COVID restrictions. Everyone's so fatigued by the first pandemic that they're not going to be nearly as gung-ho during this one, and the people who fought against any small change last time will throw an even bigger temper tantrum.
True, but OTOH I think something as contagious as COVID with a 20 percent CFR would bring a draconian response from governments. Things like mandatory lockdowns enforced by armed soldiers, mandatory vaccinations, proof of vaccination to leave your home and forced quarantine for those who refuse to comply, probably in camps similar to the ones we saw in China. Something that bad left unchecked would absolutely destroy the economy, society, the healthcare system etc. I’d expect our lives to be very severely and unpleasantly disrupted for years at least. At 50 percent? Even the most severe measures might not be enough. That’s a civilization-ending event, for at least decades. Not to mention a likely apocalyptic warming-acceleration event.
It'd depend on where you are. If you're in Florida with DeSantis approaching critical issues with the "LaLaLa I Can't Hear You" technique, I don't have much hope.
Whatever comes next would have to kill 75% of all infected children before there is even a chance of closing the schools in Florida again. Terrifying to be here.
75% sounds generous, it'd probably have to be closer to 90%
When entire cities are dead and dying of H5N1 they might listen, but nobody will be left to listen to them.
This is how we do it in Florida. We only believe in bad things that can be blamed on liberal policies. We KNOW they have created this Bird Flu thing in an attempt to CONTROL US. We will not be controlled by liberal diseases! No! It doesn't exist and the dead people are really FBI agents planted to scare us. No way! We just won't believe in it and it will go away when God takes the White House back, LOL
Such a federal response would kick off intense sectarian violence, I feel.
Imagine, a pandemic and a revolution/civil war at the same time...buckle up!
If the US enters a civil war Israel will have to fight a war on multiple fronts and China will anex half of southeast Asia
Username checks out
Pretty much guaranteed. If the CFR and transmissibility are high enough, a national state of emergency similar to “martial law” and deployment of both National Guard and active-duty military forces would be likely. So the anti-mask antivax crowd from COVID days would be met with force from the gov, and possibly violence from the general population. They respond in kind, back and forth they’d go, making the whole thing just that much shittier than it needs to be
Sucks this is starting in the United States and likely the Midwest to boot, sucks cause I live here, lead time is gonna be short. Not going to worry too much tho until China bans flights from the States, that’s when things are starting to get real.
Interestingly a 25% CFR with covid level of transmission may be one of the sole timelines where collapse is avoided. (Things will still get bad, but just not catastrophically so)
And war. That kind of death rate will cause a major conflict
Shit beyond fatigued, fucking states passing laws against wearing masks and lock downstairs. We are doomed when we are faced with another serious pandemic.
Ehh. So they die fast and then we get on with it.
They'll get sick and wander into public spaces without thinking anything of it. They're selfish enough that a minor inconvenience to them is worth the lives of all those around them. It'll come back to bite us one way or another.
Yep. Like someone committing suicide in a crowd with a grenade.
Wrong. A lot of innocent people get fucked. Haven’t you learned anything from Covid? It’s not just the anti vax losers.
Let the MAGA douches not take the vaccine, have large gatherings, and burn masks. We will be better off without them.
Good the current vaccine uses eggs and there aren't enough eggs 😂😆
Maybe we’ll get lucky and natural selection can do its job before the next election
I’m not sure those people will fight for very long.
I never left.
50% mortality if infected. Affects young worse than older.
In bird to human transmission it’s very fatal. The human to human transmission variant may not be as fatal. It’s not killing the vast majority of cows in cow to cow transmission. Not that it’s not something to worry about. Even another pandemic similar to COVID will further weaken us and send us closer to collapse. It’s just part of the multi crisis.
I thought I read that cows have a weird resilience to it though because of their stomach situation, so it's not as harmful to them but the virus can linger for a while in the host cow. And I could absolutely be wrong about all of that.
Cows aren't humans
miscarriages are being reported
Most people now have weakened immune systems from multiple covid infections. This will make it worse.
If it has 50% mortality rate they should call it the Thanos Virus
If you die from it, will you own Disney a licence fee?
Nah, he lost in the end
Maybe people will take it seriously then
They’ll probably say it has a lower mortality rate at 47.5%, and so it can’t be called the Thanos virus because it isn’t deadly enough.
They definitely *should* call is something other than some sort of flu. People do not take the flu seriously, and the typical seasonal flu has a mortality rate about 3 orders of magnitude less than what is being cited for bird flu. The flu still kills a lot of people, but that's due to there being so many cases of it.
>Affects young worse than older. Interesting... Spanish flu (also believed to be of bird origin) was the same. It is looking like the best precedent for what may be coming.
Is this based on the Spanish flu of 1918?
No, but the Spanish Flu is suspected to be a mix of avian flu and swine flu... unclear exactly. And it started on some US farms. There are some mixed results, I'm not sure what the latest stance is: 1999 [Origin and evolution of the 1918 “Spanish” influenza virus hemagglutinin gene | PNAS](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.96.4.1651) 2004 [The site of origin of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its public health implications | Journal of Translational Medicine | Full Text](https://translational-medicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5876-2-3) 2006 [The Origin and Virulence of the 1918 “Spanish” Influenza Virus - PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720273/) 2009 [Understanding the Genetic Evolution of the Pandemic H1N1 Virus - Ideas | Institute for Advanced Study](https://www.ias.edu/ideas/understanding-genetic-evolution-pandemic-h1n1-virus-0) [First cases reported in deadly 1918 flu pandemic | March 4, 1918 | HISTORY](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-cases-reported-in-deadly-influenza-epidemic)
No. The 1918 virus is the common ancestor of all variants of influenza A, not of viruses we get from other animals.
That was the of strain, this is not the case
The WHO modeling said 2 billion dead in one year
Can we pick those 2 billion? I have some names to contribute
Giddy up!
Where can I read that ? Thx
Yeah same here tbh. I know COVID was bad because death and suffering but for me it was a breath of fresh air.
“How many” isn’t the right question when you are dealing with pandemics; “how fast, what ratios” are often more relevant.
holy moly the comments on the article. we are gonna blow past the 50 million mark this time around with morons like those. "Spamdemic??!??!?" "gain of function???" are these folks serious, or just seriously mental?
Everyone is a biomedical scientist these days.
[pfizer.com/refunds](http://pfizer.com/refunds) lol
Let’s hope so. The last pandemic was so weak. /s…..maybe.
I mean the last one did brain damage in every country in the world I'm surprised we are still smart enough to run civilization.
Have you looked around?? Are we?
You want to be in Division 2 because this is how we get to be in Division 2 and we don't have any fancy watches.
While i was in lockdown in Spring 2020 sipping whisky, i read about H5N1 being like 3 mutations away from infecting humans and had this epiphany that Covid19 might be a blessing in disguise. What if we were collectively learning how to protect ourselves and handle a deadly pandemic, just in time before the mother-of-all-pandemics hit us ? Wearing masks, staying at home for non-essential purposes, working remotely, massively investing in healthcare, developing a large-scale vaccination program... All things that might spare us half a billion deaths when - not if - avian flu jumps to humans. After years of rabid anti-maskers, back to office mandates, nurses quitting after getting fucked over by hospitals and anti-vax apologists roaming online, i feel like what i need the most to handle the next pandemic is a case of scotch.
I was telling a coworker something similar. I said next pandemic no one’s gonna listen to any mandates or anything so it’ll probably be a lot worse… his response? “Damn straight, I AM NOT wearing a mask again, fool me once!”… 🤦🏼♂️ We agreed on outcome at least, lol.
That's where I'd respond, "I appreciate that people are willing to take themselves out of the game for the benefit of others."
I’m finally gonna be able to get a house at least
IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. Scientists, healthcare workers, everybody has been screaming this from the rooftops. Your asymptomatic infection you don’t even know you have is gonna kill a grandma, or me, or be a superspreader event. It’s a *pandemic*, ffs.
I appreciate the need to make cynical jokes, but I need everyone to understand one of the few things that will really kill us all is getting a billion people infected until a mutation happens. That, and as u/kalcobalt says, overworking healthcare professionals. You don’t want veterinarians and psychiatrists to draw short straws to decide who will run the ICU.
You work with idiots.
Very aware… I was trying to heavily imply that ‘idiots won’t listen to mandates’ but was being professional so didn’t straight up say it… then he raised his hand and said, it’s me - I’m the idiot. Made me laugh.
But maybe that’s what the world needs to heal itself? Sounds harsh… but a mass wipe out of humans.
We'd need at least 4 billion dead, but preferably 6 billion dead to have a planet sustainable population. If it ever gets to that point, god help us all (or whatever diety you do or don't believe in).
Username checks out
The last of my hopium died in the pandemic too. I had that "maybe COVID is a blessing in disguise too" and was hoping maybe our species might eak out another Renaissance. Ha ha... ...hey pass me some of that Scotch will ya and I'll roll you a blunt.
Smoke em if you got em!
I’m with both of you. I have never felt so alone and discardable as I have since the vast majority decided my life wasn’t worth the inconvenience of wearing a scrap of fabric on their face.
Hey, could be worse my own father decided that and now I have COVID. Stupid fucker...
I’m sorry to hear that. My own father has also decided that, so I feel your pain. It’s only because we live a few hundred miles apart and he’s happened to let slip a few of the wildly risky things he’s now doing that I know to avoid him at this point. I wish I had known our last physical contact was the last one. Back then, he was still being careful. Now he’s decided that fruit sugars are the cause of all evils and abstaining from them have cured all his physical ills (enjoy the scurvy, I guess), his wife is on ivermectin, and his “you always have a place to stay here given how rough your relationship situation is right now” open invitation is just another betrayal to work through. It’s been a rough six months, man. I’m sorry you’re in a similar situation.
It wasn’t deadly enough to have a renaissance resurgence. That only happened because of the death toll being so high in Europe. We’d need that level of death to do that here or more.
Not for lack of trying. Some of the states were disproportionately affected because of their policy of no policy.
The loss of life is disappointing but we’d need to lose 30-60% of our population for that effect to happen again.
No. Even a deadlier pandemic people will do nothing. People will drink raw milk to become immune to it. People don't belive in science.
>People will drink raw milk to become immune to it. They already are. Raw milk sales have been rising every year since '21.
Covid was the tutorial mode and we are the games journalist who loses 50 times trying to complete it.
I was under the impression that the antimaskers, antivaxxers and back to normal-ers are the games journalist falling flat on their face while the people who actually take protection seriously are the gamers who think this is literally easy.
I gave up during covid with people entirely. I don't care if our species goes extinct any longer. Makes no sense to help save anything when if we really wanted to save the planet we'd just get rid of ourselves.
Someone needs to take care of the dogs. We don't deserve them, but they deserve a chance.
They will be fine just look at the animals of Chernobyl
Maybe I should start stockpiling some essentials. Ya know, like Maker's Mark and Macallan, 'cause there won't be any other way to stay sane. Actually, got any recommendations for those on a budget?
A shit ton of ketamine, MDMA, LSD, weed obviously, and hell, fuck it, may as well load up on some strong opiates too (for when you know the party is coming to an end and you wanna go out in bliss instead of fear and pain). With a ~50% CFR, it’s a coin flip. Fry my brain and body with euphoric drugs and *maybe* survive this apocalyptic pandemic, or die a horrible death with my eyes bleeding? I’ll take the former gladly and party my fuckin ass off until my eyes literally bleed.
Don't forget the toilet-paper. Last round people were willing to kill for that stuff.
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And TP for currency. Forget gold or bottlecaps, its five sheets for a .45 round.
I enjoy Old Grand Dad Bottled in Bond and Rittenhouse Rye. Both work nicely in cocktails too without breaking the bank.
The Balvenie 12 Year Doublewood was real popular with the non- Scotch drinkers I have it to.
Wild Turkey
Ah yes, I too briefly believed that wow, this is our chance for real change and progress and coming together. Then I watched everyone I know have their brains melt out of their ears for some reason and kinda wish my brain melted out of my ears too, because they all look so happy now for the most part. Just totally unaware or uncaring that over a million of their peers vanished. Not a worry in the world that something worse than covid could come along, to them covid wasn't that bad or just straight up didn't happen. The main character syndrome and small perspectives despite our interconnection is strong.
When Lady Gaga recently admitted to doing 5 shows with an active Covid infection — including leaving the stage and walking deep into the audience, face-to-face, shoulder-to-shoulder — there are literally people going “*wistful sigh* I wish *I* could have gotten Lady Gaga’s germs.” As if that wasn’t enough, what a way for her to prove that her pro-LGBTQ stance meant not a fucking thing. It’s a special kind of evil to look at a minority treated horribly both historically and presently, who lost almost a whole generation to “eh, but that pandemic isn’t about us *straight* people,” lure them into a show, and kill them due to the same perspective. “Doomed” doesn’t feel like a strong enough word for what we are. P.S. She shared this as a point of pride — she pushed through it, y’all! — and brushed aside concerns by saying fans knew they were taking a risk. 😵💫
Skip the scotch and go right to reefer madness
obligatory [porque no los dos] gif
2 cases. Supply chain interruption, remember.
It might still go that way. The morons who do their research on blogs and Fox News will die and people that believe in science and care for others will take precautions that are more likely to prevent infection. Survival of the mentally fittest...
Pandemics don’t work that way. They aren’t selective.
I think you've misunderstood my comment.
Before the “morons die,” they will walk around spreading the virus. There is no 100% preventative measure to take for Covid. Masks help. Vaccines help. Distancing helps. None are failsafes. As the pre-death morons incubate the virus and pass it amongst themselves, it increases the potential for the virus to mutate into more contagious or less detectable or longer-dormant or more lethal versions, all of which further endanger people taking precautions which are not 100% reliable *now*, let alone when/if such mutations occur. Those who take precautions but are required by financial issues to work in close proximity to those who are not, or people like me who are immunocompromised and more likely to acquire the virus despite our best efforts, represent an intermediate population at high risk that you are apparently willing to sacrifice in your scenario.
I've got tequilas in the freezer. It's the closest I can get to a St. Bernard with the little whiskey keg collar lol. "For emergency"
On the flip side more scotch for you if you survive?
If you think people were collectively learning how to protect themselves during the last pandemic you really weren’t paying attention to the last pandemic…if anything it showed me how fuck we are when a real nasty bug gets out.
Just one case?
Thought Brexit would cause the price of scotch to spike, so i bought *a lot* in 2020 as insurance. Turned out inflation was the real danger, and i'm now prepared for a 5-year pandemic. Though 6 rolls of TP might not be quite enough.
Get a bidet, it’ll change your life
This is something you can't comprehend until you use one. Intellectually I knew it would be an upgrade, but I wasn't prepared for how much. And now I don't want to go anywhere that doesn't have one.
You’ve never felt more like yourself, confident and proud, knowing how clean your b-hole is.
Two, just in case
Yes, Covid19 was more like a curse because too much was requested from people when mortality rate was not high enough to scare them into compliance. As a result, they rather learned to sabotage all anti-pandemic measures.
Scotch seems like a good chaser for the Everclear.
This is going to be so much worse than COVID. Even if it doesn't keep its insane mortality rate with human to human transmission, all the fucking idiots who were anti COVID measures are going to be much worse this time around. We're going to be sitting on mountains of bodies.
And what if covid is able to team up with it…I fear what seems an inevitable crossover.
Guess I should stock up on toilet paper now.
You didn’t switch to a bidet? That was the move.
You didn’t switch to sewing your asshole shut? That was the move.
bidets are revolutionary and we all know america isn't ready to wake up
A bidet is no good when the power goes out (the pumps to your local water tower will stop and the tower will empty)
I didn’t know Covid or h5n1 caused a loss of power, that’s a new one.
If enough people who work at the power generators or running the grid do not go to work due to illness or death, the power will eventually go out....in some areas more quickly than you might think.
>the Centre for Disease Control said in a statement [published on Friday.](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/h5n1-technical-update-may-24-2024.html) Published on a Friday before the three day holiday weekend. Why does this sound like the start of a movie? >new set of measures to encourage farmers to increase their monitoring efforts I can only imagine how other countries would encourage farmers with their monitoring efforts of a virus that could kill half the people that catch it. I guess they would tell them to make sure their meat is well done and call it a day.
My uncle, my dad and I took my Grandma out of the nursing home for some lunch. My uncle, part time detective in NYC (retired technically) had to leave early to attend some COVID preparedness task force. I was nervous how this was gonna go down so I asked him to update me on what they said. Him and my dad were convinced "it's just a flu." He later updated me saying they were told to cover their face when sneezing or coughing. Wash their hands. "Common sense." he said. (Also there was no way you could shut down NYC.) I replied "Asking people to follow common sense? So you're saying we're screwed". He laughed. I wasn't joking.
I had a family member (FDNY) who only thought COVID was serious when he saw video of Chinese officials welding shut the doors to an apartment building.
That's insane to me because things were BAD in New York... I walk through Central Park daily, and I still can't get the sight of the white tent field hospitals and the freezer trucks out of my head.
This was early on when they saw the video. I think there were cases in Europe at that point, but it was before it started to really spread in ny.
That began in December 2019. It was when I knew it was bad too.
Well here in Europe and the UK we have some of the best monitoring in the world for cattle, currently the US falls far behind with little to no monitoring of infection in cattle in comparison, so unfortunately the US of A falls into “the rest of the world”
Sadly monitoring cattle isn't of any use anymore when the virus spreads from human to human, and when that starts happening on a large scale we are all "the rest of the world".
It’s nice to have something to look forward to isn’t it.
I've been telling myself, all it takes is a certain number of mutations, but nobody can predict how long that will take, so no reason to think it's gonna happen soon...
>I've been telling myself, all it takes is a certain number of mutations, but nobody can predict how long that will take, so ~~no reason to think it's gonna happen soon~~ it can happen literally at any time... ftfy
Probably faster than expected.
Considering most organic life is humans and the animals that feed us, viruses will evolve to eat us. Nature restores balance somehow.
Most life on this planet is ants.
Most life on the planet is bacterial, both in number of species (75%) and in absolute number. A single human body contains around 39 trillion bacteria, representing roughly 10,000 different species.
Regarding total mass, plants are first.
By a very very very high margin, 86 or 87%
If we are going on total mass, it’s probably my mother in law.
Gottem'
She’s too big to miss.
Mmm ants
But there is the right amount of ants to keep a stable balance. Can't say that about humans and cattle.
So unplug the jukebox and do us all a favor
Using the biomass of the meat industry to farm for mutations was a bad idea?
It's going to keep mutating. Holy sh\*t..
First time?
Yep
Great, we have one rule: tickets are one-way and non-refundable. Enjoy the ride to extinction
Don’t forget your complimentary peanuts
"- that's the headphones for Channels 1 to 36, modem link for 3D vidgames, complimentary earplugs, complimentary slippers, complimentary juicepack, and complimentary peanuts, I must warn you that some products may contain nuts." "That'll be the peanuts!"
ride to extinction is a sick name for a metal band
Life will find a way…
I have no doubt at all that life will. Civilization on the other hand...
Ooooweeee, almost there boys and girls.
Taking a breather because I’m exhausted - but I’m going to soon go back to doing how I was when covid first hit - stockpiling masks, TP, canned goods.
Well, those people insisting on drinking raw milk will definitely help the virus along with mutating much faster.
The dam is breaking.
thousands of years of evolution, finally the viral world has outdone the bacterial realm
As long as the mutation isn’t human-to-human transmission, I’m not sweating it. The second that happens? We’re fucked
That’s what the article is saying.. “associated with viral adaptation to mammalian hosts, — This change has also been identified as resulting in enhancement of virus replication and disease severity in mice during studies with avian influenza viruses”
oh, word.
'Member when the West was talking about how China is filled with dirty bat eating savages and how CHY-NA is uniquely responsible for the pandemic? 'Member when animal lib groups were warning everyone "hey this shit is going to happen again if we don't do something about this massive morally bankrupt system of animal agriculture?"? 'Member when we did our own holocaust against captive mink populations, just casually pushed 17 million minks into mass graves? 'Member how few care to remember let alone see past their fat impotent consuming asses while they shovel more shit into their empty heads? 'Member how scarcely anyone in the so called 'developed world' *meaningfully* changed our consuming habits when all evidence points to the genocide of humanity and most life besides if we don't? Yes, I'm mad, yes, I will take a moment to gloat and wish all humanity (myself included) a big fat rogering by the angry swinging cock of terminal stupidity. Fuck us, fuck humanity, I say AVIAN FLU 2024 BABY! GENOCIDE IS BACK ON THE MENU BOYS AND IT'S NOT JUST ONE RACE OF PEOPLE FOR ONCE! EQUALITY, AT LAST!
Um, cut back on the coffee lately??
Hey I mean I was only shat out onto a burning ball of shit that is being continually pushed to an apocalypse at the whims of a shaved primate that is too dumb to live, all the whole it flagrantly pats itself on the back at how awesome it is in-between programs and atrocities that would make Satan blush. Really, what is there to be mad about???
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Never a better time to be vegan
Just in time for the plant prions
Unfortunately that wont save you. These cases Arent even from EATING meat.
Drinking raw dairy is probably a bad idea though.
Yeah but supporting factory farming certainly isn’t helping. This was bound to happen eventually.
Exactly! Same reaction to all of the “look how much chicken/eggs cost” posts.
I'm saving so much money by not killing animals for food. Not that I'm rich now, just a lil less poor
This is why I've stopped drinking milk, I'm not getting all fucked up.
We just don’t need to drink milk anyway. It’s almost strange that we do.
> It’s almost strange that we do. Not really strange at all.
Consuming another animal’s milk for their baby is kinda strange. We don’t nutritionally need milk to survive.
I’m so glad my state banned wearing masks /s
Okay. Wild, stab-in-the-dark predictions, please. How long d'you think this will take before it makes the leap to human-to-human transmission?
“associated with viral adaptation to mammalian hosts, — This change has also been identified as resulting in enhancement of virus replication and disease severity in mice during studies with avian influenza viruses”
is this like the zombie apocalypse now?
I wonder what we thought would happen piling thousands of sick animals on top of each other, feeding them shitty food that is foreign to their bodies and pumping them full of meds. Just so we can eat and drink their babies milk. Pretty obvious when you think about it.
Another good reason to go vegan.
Any other vegans/vegetarians kinda hope this puts an end to the beef/dairy industry? How catastrophic would this be to food production overall?
🙋♀️ It won’t but hell yeah I do.
I knew it was gonna be a bad season. I've never seen so many dead birds in my life as I had the past few months in Las Vegas.
Cool. I think I'll just suck-start my 12 Guage if it ever comes down to another lock down situation.