Pandemics and Epidemiology (COVID-19, monkeypox, etc.)

x4 at the moment its limited to 4 months max. Then it dries up unless extended.

I hardly think that is 'incentive' really aside from getting them to stay home RIGHT NOW, which they should for more reasons than that.

Edited by Memers on Mar 25th 2020 at 7:06:57 AM

It should incentivize you to stay home and not work. Coz there's a goddamn pandemic going on outside!

Even jerks can make a good point sometimes. We even have a trope for that.

Optimism is a duty.

American economic fallouts aside, I'd like to tell everyone that it's my 24th birthday today. My mother just ordered some Thai to celebrate it, and my family members are sending me messages from places as far away as California and Australia.

I know it's a lousy time to be celebrating birthdays, but it's small comfort in times like these.

...

Will we make it, guys?

Edited by Lazlo74 on Mar 25th 2020 at 7:21:34 AM

Scaled seeker

If we don’t, you’re buying the drinks.

Edited by fredhot16 on Mar 25th 2020 at 7:30:27 AM

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Happy Birthday. Don't feel bad about taking the small comforts, it's important.

We'll make it. Humanity survived worse. Maybe we'll even be better afterwards.

Edited by nightwyrm_zero on Mar 25th 2020 at 7:21:14 AM

Wander over Yonder is great, if anyone here need something light and feel-good. Now only if they would put it on Disney Plus.....

Edited by megaeliz on Mar 25th 2020 at 10:29:53 AM

Happy birthday, and yes, you're buying all our drinks!

Thanks, everyone ;)

I'll keep doing my best to stay clean and healthy, in the meantime, I wish you all the best too

Scaled seeker

x6 That's, what, the tenth time someone in this thread has asked that question?

We'll make it. The Spanish Flu didn't wipe humanity off the map. The Bubonic Plague didn't wipe humanity off the map. So this won't either.

Edited by kkhohoho on Mar 25th 2020 at 9:30:05 AM

This really makes one feel a sort of connection to those who suffered past outbreaks of plague. Cholera, smallpox, Spanish Flu, the Black Death...people who suffered and died to those went through what we're going through. The fear, the anger, the uncertainty. But in the end, they overcame these plagues.

So we can overcome this.

Disgusted, but not surprised

I wonder if people back then reacted with the same level of defiance, perhaps strengthened by religious conviction.

Optimism is a duty.

It seems like this video is relevant to why diseases like COVID-19 can turn so virulent when they move from other species to humans.

I imagine there's a certain level of also knowing these things happen.

This is a huge surprise because a lot of people believed pandemics were a thing that no longer happened.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

On a similar note, here's a vid explaining why plagues never seemed to originate from the American continent (North and South).

tl:dw; the lack of large scale domestication and cities in the American continent meant fewer chances for zoonotic transmission.

The vid also explains why zoonotic transmission is so bad. Essentially, the microbes aren't really trying to kill the hosts for the same reason people don't usually burn down their houses. They are just trying to make the hosts a little sick (relatively speaking) so they infect other hosts.

The problem with plagues is that due to zoonotic transmission they end up in the wrong host species. So the stuff they do that makes their original hosts a little sick makes their new hosts very sick and even dead.

Edited by M84 on Mar 25th 2020 at 10:50:53 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised

We've had a few close calls, though.

Also, aren't things like AIDS technically pandemics?

Optimism is a duty.

I’m not sure what that’s classified as. The rate of infection is relatively slower than a traditional outbreak, since it can only be transmitted through bodily fluids, and not physical contact or airborne proximity, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be just as devastating.

Edited by megaeliz on Mar 25th 2020 at 11:00:58 AM

AIDS is a pandemic

Watch me destroying my country

In the case of bats, it's especially noticeable since bats have one of the most impressive immune systems on the planet. They also have a generally higher body temperature than humans thanks to all the time they spend flying. Meaning any viruses that can survive in a bat have to be suitably tough and aggressive. So on the off chance said viruses end up in hosts whose immune systems aren't as robust as bats' like, say, a certain hairless ape...

Disgusted, but not surprised

Most mammals, not just humans.

It looks like a lot of these bat articles that are coming out now are responding to the Berkeley research I mentioned a while back.

I've been following it because I used to work in conservation and I still follow a number of conservation groups around the world. Bat rescuers in various countries have been struggling since this news started to circulate because they often take in rescues to their own homes, causing neighbours to now start panicking that they're all going to catch COVID-19 from these bat rescuers.

It's been quite bad in Australia because the bat rescue groups got so inundated with orphaned juveniles because of the fires that there are an enormous amount of bats in care in residential and semi-residential areas right now. Just as they were starting to come out the other side of this, they're now getting hit by COVID-19 fears based on misunderstanding of the bat connection or media articles that have explained it poorly. So, it's one thing on top of another for bat conservation in Australia right now.

Just one of the lesser known impacts of the coronavirus.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Mar 25th 2020 at 3:17:47 PM

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Another major bump in Venezuela: 106 cases.

Also, the White House stated that the US should be ready for a second cycle of the virus' spread. Um, I didn't even know the first cycle had even ended, because new cases have been reported daily.

135 - 169 - 273 - 191 - 188 - 230 - 300

On the subject of government text alerts.

This is the one the UK government sent to everyone's phones on Tuesday:

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

. Bats are sadly very misunderstood creatures.

Speaking of Australian Bats, Flying Foxes are actually adorable. They look like Puppies with wings.

Edited by megaeliz on Mar 25th 2020 at 11:27:44 AM

I don't even need to click the link to know exactly which bat rescuer you've linked to there.

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

They are just total sky-puppers, and I am very okay with that.

My favorite thing is when they have their cheeks stuffed with food!

Edited by megaeliz on Mar 26th 2020 at 9:29:49 AM