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

@ fruitpork

I doubt it will be forever, it's completely possible that those senses could return in the long run or with treatment, the problem is that COVID is a recent disease and therefore we have no idea of its impact on someone's body in 10+ years.

Edited by raziel365 on Feb 25th 2021 at 5:51:14 AM

I mean for some people it may be permanent. I’m especially worried on how it may affect children.

New York Covid variant reports divide officials and health experts

A tricky situation overall: being too optimistic about vaccines' efficacy and timeframes could cause people to lower the guard and expose themselves to more risks. On the other hand, being too pessimistic and insisting too much on the danger of the variants and other problems (such as that other posted article about the new super-germs generated by overly sanitized environments) could cause people to think that they're screwed either way and that masks and distancing are not worth it anymore.

I wonder how it is to live in a country where a single clear voice is able to communicate effectively with the citizens. Dunno where you live, but here the more time passes, the less I understand about the rules and how they're implemented. Feels like we're back to square one after a year.

There's a lot of medication out there that can destroy someone's sense of smell or taste forever. It happened to my mother nearly a decade ago from some medication she was given that had it as a known side effect. The most common or well-known threat is chemotherapy or radiotherapy, but there are a number of other medical treatments that run the risk, too. The immunizers who administered her COVID jab made a note of the fact she's already got anosmia.

The biggest impacts she's experienced from anosmia is that you lose all enjoyment of eating food. It becomes a chore, something you have to do. She's prone to under-eating as a result. She also can't smell if food has gone off, taste-test when cooking or smell if she's left the gas on after cooking.

I'm officially her scenthound. I have to sniff or taste things for her. I think most people don't realise how important smell and taste are until they lose them — or see what happens when someone does lose it.

She still recommends people get the vaccine, however. Her philosophy is that, given the range of potential side-effects from having COVID, she'd rather have the anosmia than some of the long-term or potentially permanent heart, lung and neurological damage that's being reported.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Feb 27th 2021 at 4:15:43 PM

Reports from Dublin are out regarding anti COVID lockdown restriction protests.

A friend of mine just passed from covid. I feel very low right now...

I'm sorry to hear that.

It looks like the vaccine rollout in Brazil is being a mess, if this op-ed is to be believed. One guess as to who is responsible.

Is it perhaps the crocmen enthusiasts?

CDC endorses use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A number of states are starting to loosen covid restrictions so let's hope this helps.

Manila got Sinovac, so rollout’s the last one in Southeast Asia.

Next is Astra.

Duterte wants to thank Xi for the shipment with no strings attached.

A random musing.

So I'm writing an Alternate History fiction that is set in the early 20th century America, featuring the main character, an Asian-American born in San Francisco.

In the process of researching, I learned that San Francisco actually had a bubonic plague outbreak in 1900-1904...which started in the Chinatown (of course, the truth was more complicated), adding fuel to the fire that was anti-Chinese sentiment and giving even more justification to the Chinese-Exclusion Act.

So I thought, man, when I thought that COVID-19 in America was history repeating itself, it actually went even further than the Spanish Flu.

It was part of a larger plague pandemic that had its start decades before.

The channel Ask A Mortician did an in-depth video on the San Francisco plague, too, if you're curious. Though this isn't really the right thread for that.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210301/p2g/00m/0na/097000c

Tokyo is protesting the anal swabs Beijing mandated.

Speaking at a press briefing Geneva, Dr Michael Ryan said while vaccinating the most vulnerable people, including healthcare workers, would help remove the "tragedy and fear" from the situation, and would help to ease pressure on hospitals, the "virus is very much in control".

I get that the world has to be united against a common enemy, but I don't like the tone of these articles, they show the virus as almost a sentient being who toys with people and mocks their effort to get rid of it. It can't be good for the morale that is already at a low level in most of the countries.

Not necessarily. People tend to unite better against enemies that have motivations and goals. Personifying the virus might help people who are otherwise unable to understand get the motivation to fight back.

Spite is a very strong motivator.

Well, what else are they supposed to say? "We can beat this thing, but only if we listen to the science instead of wishful thinking?"

I read an article in New Scientist about how various viruses that cause colds were once likely much more deadly, and that this is similar to how this pandemic likely will play out. An example given is the Russian flu from 1889. These older coronaviruses also tended to cause more severe diseasee in adults in the past, whereas they are now mostly childhood diseases. The upshot being that COVID 19 will eventually follow a similar path, becoming yet another vector for the common cold.

And here we fucking go, Texas governor Greg Abbott has announced that all COVID-19 restrictions and mask mandates will be lifted next Wednesday.

And reminder that today is Texas Independence Day. I guess Abbott wanted people to be independent from life.

EDIT: Here's the full PR from Abbott on Texas lifting restrictions.

The final paragraph does say that if COVID-19 hospitalizations get higher than 15% of capacity for 15 days in any one of the 22 hospital regions of Texas, than County Judges can start invoking mitigation strategies, but they also cannot impose penalties for not wearing a mask and cannot restrict businesses more than 50% capacity.

Edited by tclittle on Mar 2nd 2021 at 2:43:10 PM

President Biden said that the U.S. will have enough vaccines for every adult in America by the end of May.

Lets hope he can keep that promise.

Didn't he say July earlier?

He did, he stated that that was the original time with what they currently had but now that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been approved the rollout can go much faster.

I have literally never hated anyone or anything in my entire life as much as I now hate Greg Abbott. We are literally within months of being able to safely mostly reopen the state, but he's going ahead and throwing open the death floodgates now because Republican sociopathy.

He should be arrested for mass murder.

Edited by nrjxll on Mar 2nd 2021 at 7:06:47 AM