outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

but when will they wave them like they just don't care

btw sorry kim i realized my post was in error the moment i clicked "submit"

Mutated?

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/03/04/coronavirus-chinese-scientists-identify-two-types-covid-19.html

this... seems good?

The more aggressive type of virus was found to be prevalent in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan — the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected late last year.

But the frequency of this type of virus has since decreased from early January, the scientists said.

Yes it would seem like it but then:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/confirmed-coronavirus-death-rate-3-020009251.html

Is this the first of these global flus/viruses to hit in the age of peak internet?

Is it ever.

if jamband music has taught us anything, the next mutation will be most intense

Guys have we considered ILX might be infected

Every post might be contaminated

Cape of Good Hope might be a quarantine area

fret not

VP Pence: "The greatest concern is testing. I am pleased to report we have 2500 kits available that we will distribute. We approved a process that will allow testing at state and university laboratories."

2500.

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 4, 2020

https://i.imgur.com/nR0vims.gif
From gisaid.org

Dozens of mutants found to date. ssRNA viruses have really shoddy replication. Most mutants wouldn't change behavior enough to be called a strain. And in large host populations, there's not much selective pressure to lower lethality. If some mutant arises that more transmissible, that would be favored (a branch that grows to dominate the phylogenetic tree).

Coool. Cool cool cool. It's like the thing after the hurricane in PR where they had like twelve meals to hand out or whatever. Just the coolest.

I'm not going to be alarmist and say we're all gonna die but I'd say the majority of us in the US will contract this shit.

The clamour for testing kits seems misplaced. If you get a cough and a fever right now you should go home and stay there for a couple of weeks. If every person with those symptoms decided to go to the doctors to get tested that would actually be bad.

My understanding is that symptoms in the vast majority of people are not usually bad, and that those that get it bad are in conspicuously at risk (for everything) groups, like 80-year olds.

As far as I can tell, each of those testing "kits" above is a set of lab reagents required to do 500 to 1000 tests in individuals. So we're looking at ~1.25 million tests.

Given this bug is infectious in the nonsymptomatic, widespread testing of anyone whose suspicious they had contact is a really good idea. Providing some sense of security for the anxious, identifying those that need to self-quarantine and getting them under medical surveillance for contacts, permitting most society to continuing function.

Korea has done >90k tests to date, and is probably doing much better than otherwise for the effort. They just really got screwed by the Shincheonji cult situation.

xpost I wouldn't call 80% a vast majority. A majority, sure, but not all that vast, especially given the numbers we're talking about.

80% is a vast majority

4/5

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_1600/k56uryal1yejdimkk8mf.jpg

I mean... it depends what you're talking about. If you win an election with 80% of the vote, yes, it's a vast majority. If you're talking about rates of severe illness requiring hospitalization, in a population where a lot of people are going to get the virus, 20% of illnesses being severe seems pretty significant.

I know everyone here is taking this seriously, I'm just getting really frustrated with being in Seattle and having people around me downplay this.

I feel like the prediction (mentioned by someone way upthread) that this will eventually become like the flu, sort of an ongoing and omnipresent risk that many people get at some point in life (but that we develop reliable treatments and periodically-administered vaccines for), is probably sound.

My thinking also.

Maybe washing my hands with habanero seeds would be effective aversion training. BRB.

Its weird, I'd started to get myself into the "wash hands often, especially just after public transport use, and STOP TIOUCHING YR FACE" like a year ago, because I was tired of getting colds - and it worked pretty well too, so I'm already in good habits but now I also have severe eczema on my hands :(

Guessing we'll see a lot fewer "Kiss Me - I'm Irish" t-shirts at St. Patty's Day parades this year.

"Kiss Me; I'm Virus Free."

"Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me; Your Tongue's Like Poison"

Oh shit, have you ever touched hot peppers with your bare hands? It hurts! Ironically enough, one of the few things to make it feel better is rubbing alcohol, so not only will you not touch your eyes or face (more than once), you'll be constantly disinfecting your paws.

Public Health Seattle & King County has issued guidance that all employees should work from home if they are able.

xp. umm, no it doesn't hurt?

unless you have cuts on your hand or like eczema or something

i used to be obsessed with putting fresh hot peppers on everything. I had to stop because I wear contacts and you also can't get busy as often.

Thanks, silby, I sent that to my housemates. Maybe this will help persuade the holdouts to start taking it seriously.

It totally hurts! Not, like, handling them whole, but cutting them? Absolutely!

pepper empathy

poor little guys

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-we-can-eat/post/should-you-wear-gloves-while-handling-hot-peppers/2012/10/30/de6134b2-22d7-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_blog.html

Coon said she once had students helping her harvest super-hot peppers, including the Bhut Jolokia (or ghost pepper) and the hottest of all chilies, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, which averages 1.2 million Scoville heat units. They were all wearing surgical latex gloves.

“Within 20 minutes, everyone’s hands were burning,” she says. “It was a little miserable harvesting that stuff.”

Coon’s story supports some online anecdotes that make the same claim: Wearing latex gloves while handling super-hot peppers is not enough. The capsaicin will burn right through the latex. This About.com writer suggests wearing rubber dishwashing gloves, which might protect your hands but, I suspect, would make handling peppers akin to trying to deal blackjack with astronaut’s gloves on. A gardening forum suggests nitrile gloves, the kind used for medical examinations and oil changes.

wait it doesn't "burn right through the latex"

also. the eventual plan is to put that shit in your mouth, right?

Yeah, and when you do it hurts! But imo the burn I got on my hands from habeneros felt more like a, well, burn.

Anybody else visually creeped out by the coronavirus "avatar"? I just did a double-take at a dragonfruit display at Whole Foods.

yeah, it's too much work to wear gloves if it's just one pepper at a time. but you really feel it later when you accidentally scratch or stick your finger in your eye.

or take a pee

I have a great story about making ghost pepper salsa I should share sometime

I use nitrile gloves to cut anything hotter than a jalapeño now

I can imagine that ghost peppers are a whole different story. I was thinking about chopping up say scotch bonnet or something never burned my hands.

have had some very bad experiences with chili tainted hands, which belong in ILTMI

we might've had a case in clinic today

i watched a cbs news clip on youtube about this poor guy in new rochelle who spread it to his family and neighbors and they put his name and photo in the story? wtf. i'm beginning to accept i'm just going to get it. i'm reading the internet too much. i work with numerous diverse members of the public every day, and by the time they close my job for the emergency it'll be too late. my bf does too, even worse. he's not gonna know he has it and he'll give it to me. good luck usa