H5N1 political spin

[billvon 2,435]

As I mentioned in the thread over in Bonfire, the H5N1 virus has jumped to humans (2 so far) and thus now poses a real public health threat.  We can hope that it 1) it has difficulty jumping to humans, 2) that if it does it causes only minor symptoms or 3) that it's hard to pass from human to human, but if any one of those assumptions is wrong then it will present a significant health problem, and will likely lead to a pandemic.

I have already seen a few Facebook memes where the first frame is Biden saying "we have to force everyone to vote by mail, else we will lose" and in the second someone is yelling "release pathogen X!"

Trump supporters are going to want to see H5N1 get as bad as possible for two reasons:

1) They can spin this as "the government released H5N1 to try to steal the election!"
2) Chaos helps Trump; the more he chaos he can point at, the more he can say that only he can solve it.

Hopefully there will be more reasonable republicans who can drown him out, but at this stage I doubt it.

 

[tkhayes 140]

21 hours ago, billvon said:

 

pretty sure whatever major pandemic happens whenever in the world, it will be a respiratory virus that does not respond to treatment.....

[SkyDekker 1,147]

1 hour ago, tkhayes said:

pretty sure whatever major pandemic happens whenever in the world, it will be a respiratory virus that does not respond to treatment.....

10 years between SARS and MERS

8 years between MERS and COVID

4 years between COVID and new respiratory virus would somewhat fit

[tkhayes 140]

2 minutes ago, SkyDekker said:

10 years between SARS and MERS

8 years between MERS and COVID

4 years between COVID and new respiratory virus would somewhat fit

SARS killed less than 1000 people, and every year we have new versions of pretty much everything. 

It is just a matter of time before another COVID/SARS/Flu/MERS comes along and kills millions worldwide.  but yeah, it will be respiratory, and it will be unresponsive to normal treatments, and it will be easily spread due to the world we live in and the amount of travel and interaction that we do.

[johnhking1 76]

On 5/3/2024 at 1:11 PM, tkhayes said:

comes along and kills millions worldwide

You say that like it is a bad thing. Fewer people, less energy use, less CO2 in the atmosphere, global warming slowing down, less traffic on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Disney World. 

[billvon 2,435]

29 minutes ago, johnhking1 said:

You say that like it is a bad thing. Fewer people, less energy use, less CO2 in the atmosphere, global warming slowing down, less traffic on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Disney World. 

Fewer Kardashians.

[JoeWeber 2,330]

On 5/3/2024 at 9:16 AM, tkhayes said:

pretty sure whatever major pandemic happens whenever in the world, it will be a respiratory virus that does not respond to treatment.....

Lucky for me I still have a box of masks.

[wolfriverjoe 1,352]

2 hours ago, johnhking1 said:

You say that like it is a bad thing. Fewer people, less energy use, less CO2 in the atmosphere, global warming slowing down, less traffic on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Disney World. 

I don't disagree, but I'm not narcissistic enough to think I'm guaranteed survival of any new virus.

I did ok during Covid, masking in public and staying the hell away from everyone as much as possible.

I'd be willing to take those precautions again if necessary.

But we found out in the past few years how stupid some people are.

And if it gets bad enough, precautions aren't going to be enough.

[kallend 1,651]

12 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

But we found out in the past few years how stupid some people are.

 

A certain prominent GOP pol who publicly shunned precautions, then caught COVID and promptly died, comes to mind.

[BIGUN 1,075]

15 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

Lucky for me I still have a box of masks.

KN95 masks have a 3-5 year shelf life - their expiry date is on the box. 

[JoeWeber 2,330]

54 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

KN95 masks have a 3-5 year shelf life - their expiry date is on the box. 

I have the N95's and I'm guessing they'll be just as effective at 10 years as ten days. But none of that matters to me, I'm just happy I'll get to wear a mask into the bank again.

[winsor 187]

1 hour ago, BIGUN said:

KN95 masks have a 3-5 year shelf life - their expiry date is on the box. 

The expiry is for certification purposes, and does not relate to functionality.  If  you have 10 year old N95s, odds are they will still pass relevant tests.

[BIGUN 1,075]

7 minutes ago, winsor said:

The expiry is for certification purposes, and does not relate to functionality.

You're mistaken. 

The materials and the elastic bands used in the mask can degrade over time, making the mask's ability to filter out particles decrease as it ages.

The truth is expired N95 masks may still provide some level of protection, but the mask's ability to protect is greatly reduced as the filter media becomes clogged with particulate, the mask's elastic bands may lose their elasticity, making it less secure on the face and less effective at preventing the inhalation of harmful particles. And so, it is highly recommended that you just discard them once they reach that date.

That is all - it's your choice Mr. Cain. 

Edited May 5 by BIGUN

[JoeWeber 2,330]

23 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

You're mistaken. 

The materials and the elastic bands used in the mask can degrade over time, making the mask's ability to filter out particles decrease as it ages.

The truth is expired N95 masks may still provide some level of protection, but the mask's ability to protect is greatly reduced as the filter media becomes clogged with particulate, the mask's elastic bands may lose their elasticity, making it less secure on the face and less effective at preventing the inhalation of harmful particles. And so, it is highly recommended that you just discard them once they reach that date.

That is all - it's your choice Mr. Cain. 

Maybe the filter will media degrade meaningfully over the study period, for that matter even the staples that hold the degrading elastic bands will rust. I still think those protections are small compared to how wearing one keeps people at a distance and stops all totally gross hand shaking. Those I think are the major benefits. 

[BIGUN 1,075]

5 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

how wearing one keeps people at a distance and stops all totally gross hand shaking.

Joe, I found a mask that not only keeps people at a distance, but makes them run in the opposite direction - for your consideration -

 

[JoeWeber 2,330]

1 hour ago, BIGUN said:

Joe, I found a mask that not only keeps people at a distance, but makes them run in the opposite direction - for your consideration -

 

Excellent. How many per box?

[SkyDekker 1,147]

18 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

Excellent. How many per box?

You can fit a few: