outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

A weird libertarian acquaintance of mine said this: "I’ve always felt like Primus wrote the line, 'I’d rather regret something I’ve done than something I haven’t done,' for me."

isn't that "Satan" by Orbital

Linvoy Primus lol

which was taken from Sweat Loaf by Butthole Surfers

xp

oh i was thinking about the memes that libertarians really just want to do drugs and have sex with children with no consequence.

― Yerac, Monday, July 6, 2020 4:30 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not a joke! Ime Gen-X libertarians in the 90s were just republicans that smoked too much pot and thought they were "too smart" to join a political party.

Sure I've heard the spice girls say it
Google says it's from Lucille Ball

NYT on aerosolization:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/health/coronavirus-airborne-aerosols.html

Keisha Bottoms has Covid.

I mean, c'mon, even the Red Hot Chili Peppers knew enough to credit the Surfers:

10 years ago in Hollywood
We did some good
And we did some real bad stuff
But the Butt-hole Surfers said
It's better to regret something you did
Than something you didn't do

In case it hasn't been posted yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZgDsyTbFCo

this airborne thing is infuriating because it's being presented (via headlines at least) as though this is new news, when in fact, everyone already fucking knows this, it's why people should wear masks. I agree though that the CDC at least muffed it either intentionally (because they didn't want to freak people out and have everyone buy up the PPE) or via stupidity (because of course).

but I really don't know why 'airborne' is so much scarier to people than everything else about the virus. that doesn't mean it's an airborne toxic event hovering over the population and floating from suburb to suburb.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/entertainment/tollywood/230320/clapping-will-have-magical-effects-residents-feel.html

xp

isn't this exactly what we were arguing about yesterday?

the important aspect isn't whether it is new news or not, but rather how it guides policy and safety measures, which in many cases are lagging the general consensus.

I really don't know why 'airborne' is so much scarier to people than everything else about the virus.

They say that a person can catch the measles just by entering a room that an infected person walked through an hour earlier. COVID-19 isn't as infectious as measles, but that sort of invisible presence whenever you enter a public space can be rather unnerving. Community spread, where people become ill with no known contact with another ill person, accounts for a sizeable portion of new COVID-19 cases. Wearing a (non-N95) mask in enclosed public spaces is unlikely to prevent your becoming infected from someone else.

If those facts don't make you a bit uneasy when you enter enclosed public space, it may be because you don't quite appreciate their import.

also we should be keeping in mind this is not the same strain we were discussing when originally debating all these measures—it's *more* contagious

"but I really don't know why 'airborne' is so much scarier to people than everything else about the virus"

it's pretty fucking scary

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/health/coronavirus-airborne-aerosols.html

would be interesting to find out what the NYT has to say about this

sorry, I see morbs already posted that

:)

Here’s the latest.

any thoughts on this? paywalled for me.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/05/covid-19-may-not-have-originated-china-elsewhere-emerged-asia/

Last week, Spanish virologists announced that they had found traces of the disease in samples of waste water collected in March 2019, nine months before coronavirus was seen in China.

Italian scientists have also found evidence of coronavirus in sewage samples in Milan and Turin in mid-December, many weeks before the first case was detected, while experts have found evidence of traces in Brazil in November....

"traces" sounds like fragments of genetic material having covid signatures, since a complete virus is not much more than genetic material packaged so that it can plug into receptors on a cell's surface and gain entry. seems like it would be difficult to make an airtight identification.

not helpful, as usual

you could subscribe and get something more helpful. possibly.

any thoughts on this? paywalled for me.

https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome

also we should be keeping in mind this is not the same strain we were discussing when originally debating all these measures—it's *more* contagious

It is the same though, the more contagious strain is the one that has been active in the US this whole time.

The study, published in the journal Cell, confirms earlier work suggesting the mutation had made the new variant of virus more common. The researchers call the new mutation G614, and they show that it has almost completely replaced the first version to spread in Europe and the US, one called D614.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/health/coronavirus-mutation-spread-study/index.html

cancelled my travel plans for July, not sure when I will travel again

fragments of genetic material having covid signatures

any covidvirus would have “covid signatures” which is the most hand-wavey thing, they specifically said covid-19

the version of the article I found (paywall, etc) said it was a not-yet-reviewed single study, which is suspect. seems kind of spurious until peer review so I’m skeptical but the guess that they found *a* covidvirus is as likely as contaminated or misdated samples

piece of shit

https://www.wtxl.com/news/local-news/fl-education-commissioner-requires-all-florida-school-districts-to-reopen-campuses-in-august

any covidvirus would have “covid signatures"

sorry, I was employing shorthand, in the same way the journalist writing the news story said:

Italian scientists have also found evidence of coronavirus in sewage samples

instead of saying specifically COVD-19 or SARS-CoV-2. These days there is only one coronavirus of consuming public interest and such shorthand gets used constantly by non-scientists such as myself. I apologize for "hand waving".

xp

Net approval for governor’s handling of COVID-19

Whitmer (MI) +18
Cooper (NC) +10
Evers (WI) +10
Wolf (PA) +6
DeSantis (FL) -6
Ducey (AZ) -26https://t.co/FC2GkgBVpA pic.twitter.com/SLlPllfkQc

— Change Research (@ChangePolls) July 4, 2020

xp that is helpful, thank you, good call

seriously starting to despair based on the evidence that 1) antibodies don't stay in your system very long, 2) asymptomatic people still seem to develop lung damage and 3) a vaccine may not be all that effective

It sounds like you’re reading too much. Try learning less for a while.

Like you know enough not to go to the bar, tune it out for a bit.

yeah was all good to just stay in and shut it down for a few months but school is starting & my wife has to go back to work, something's gotta give here

there seems to be a lot of optimism about a vaccine in the scientific community, idk where you're seeing that the vaccine won't be effective.

it seems likely that the eventual covid vaccine will be more similar to a flu vaccine than an MMR vaccine, offering immunity for a short time but needing regular boosters. we're gonna get used to hearing 'get your rona shot' at seasonally appropriate times.

The thing about antibodies not staying in the system for long appears to be for very mild or asymptomatic cases and from what I can see it's disputed. We simply don't know enough yet.

Always bear in mind that the median value of any single peer reviewed scientific study is zero

Yeah, I gotta say that stepping back from reading every article and poring over the data daily has done wonders for my not freaking out over things. Do I feel "better"? I don't know. But the bouts of hopelessness are spacing further and further apart.

yea idk it might just be I'm absorbing info from headlines which are increasingly pessimistic

just frustrated b/c things are really gonna hit the fan soon. I don't want to send my kid to school. There have been outbreaks in the neighborhood. one of my neighbors (who is 41) was hospitalized for over a week and nearly hit the ventilator. four of our day care teachers caught it. nobody here is taking any precautions, you see the occasional mask but that's it. my friends and family are starting to get frustrated with us cuz we don't wanna do anything. it just sucks

friend of mine in the atl region is thinking of having his high-school-aged kids take the year off because it's going to be so fucked.

all this talk about anti-bodies where is the pro-body community

dude, trump admin is hella pro-bodies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxkQXK0kRd0

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/sweden-economy-coronavirus.html

Ever since the coronavirus emerged in Europe, Sweden has captured international attention by conducting an unorthodox, open-air experiment. It has allowed the world to examine what happens in a pandemic when a government allows life to carry on largely unhindered.

This is what has happened: Not only have thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that imposed lockdowns, but Sweden’s economy has fared little better.

“They literally gained nothing,” said Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “It’s a self-inflicted wound, and they have no economic gains.”

"self-inflicted wound" doesn't seem like the right phrase - the thousands of people who died didn't choose that policy

This doesn’t bode well

It's not enough to crush the virus once. You have to keep crushing it. You have to remain vigilant.

Look at Israel. After doing a great job during the first wave, it tried to reopen too fast, and now its outbreak, in per capita terms, isn't far behind ours. pic.twitter.com/9zNbnQjgqJ

— Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) July 7, 2020