Scientists: we have some good news and some bad news on the pandemic front.
Public: Gimme the good news first.
Scientists: We're going to solve the housing crisis really quickly.
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this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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"Top virologists raise alarm" ..... that didn't help last time. People and government won't take notice or want to take action until we see people with blood coming out of their eyes and dying in the streets, and even then, everyone will be more worried about the economy than in the body count.
at least worrying about the economy would be an improvement to just worrying about their personal freedom
In the U.S., RFK has promised to personally consume every dead bird he finds on the side of the road.
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I have a buddy who is a virologist. He sends me shit all the time about bird flu. The gain of function tests on it is wild. Also, note that we have seen this shit coming since 2012
- Fouchier, R.A.M., et al. (2012). "Airborne transmission of influenza A/H5N1 virus between ferrets."
Published in: Science
Summary: Demonstrated that a small number of mutations could allow H5N1 to spread via respiratory droplets in ferrets.
Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1213362
- Herfst, S., et al. (2012). "Airborne transmission of influenza A/H5N1 virus between ferrets."
Published in: Science (companion to Fouchier’s work)
Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22723413/
- Imai, M., et al. (2012). "Experimental adaptation of an influenza H5 HA confers respiratory droplet transmission to a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus in ferrets."
Published in: Nature
Summary: Kawaoka’s lab showed that reassortment of H5N1 with pandemic H1N1 genes could enable airborne spread in ferrets.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10831
- Zhang, Y., et al. (2013). "H5N1 hybrid viruses bearing 2009/H1N1 virus genes transmit in guinea pigs by respiratory droplet."
Published in: Science
Summary: Chinese researchers found that hybrid viruses combining H5N1 with H1N1 pandemic genes could spread between mammals.
Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1243362
- National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) Reports (2012).
Summary: Initially recommended redacting details of GoF studies due to bioterrorism concerns, later reversed.
2012? Bird flu been warned about since 2005 at least in my memory
The first case was in 1959 in Scotland. The first human case was in 1996 or 1997 in China. Then around 2002, there was an outbreak in SE Asia that caused alarm then in 2005 it spread by wild birds into Europe and triggered a big WHO warning. The first gain of function tests was in 2011 and 2012. My comment was about the gain of function tests. I probably could have worded it better
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I just hope it kills a lot more Nazi antivax idiots this time
There will probably be some slant in that direction, but there'll be a much bigger slant towards killing the elderly, the immunocompromised, those who can't afford medical care and time off, etc. As usual.
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Meanwhile my country's most powerful public health official: "vaccines are dangerous because they train viruses to be stronger, we should instead simply infect as many birds as possible"
Future historians will say that Donald the dumb was a plague spreader.
Im just worried how bad it can get. 90% fatalities to pregnant women, that high. That's not the COVID 1-2%
don't forget RFK Jr who suggested that people drink raw milk amidst an H5 breakout
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Not now
This is literally the worst possible time for it to happen. If you think global trade and prices are fucked right now then just you wait.
- the case mortality rate is, by far, one of the worst we've ever seen for an influenza. https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/wpro---documents/emergency/surveillance/avian-influenza/ai_20250131.pdf
- we already have a vaccine for it https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H5N1_vaccine
- don't panic but be educated https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5CyVi4UzKxE
Having a vaccine, and getting it sufficiently wide deployed under a known antivaxxer "health" minister are two different kinds of shoes.
And: The virus is currently trying to overcome species barriers, which might reduce an existing vaccine less useful. AFAIK you need a different vaccine for poultry than for cows, and some infections have made it across to humans, also AFAIK, from cows.
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The fucknut RFK will tell the AmeriKans to drink fish tank cleaner or bleach and shove a UV light down their throats. When this things slams into the USA, Krasnov will continue to fail.
I'm ok with this.
We've known about vaccines, germ theory, and virus for quite some time now. If they want to kill themselves because they choose to not follow the science, so be it. I'm tired of having this conversation with the wilfully and proudly ignorant tomato soup brained infants.
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Ugh, do we really need Trump + Pandemic again?
It's entirely avoidable, if only Trump would have actually learned something from his first term and actually funded research and prevention teams. Sadly, he only has the foresight to see how cutting those programs saves the US Govt. a penny now, and not the wisdom to see how that panny would have been money well spent if it prevented us from having to spend thousands on recovery efforts.
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The US will end up with the highest fatality ratio than any other country and Trump will still blame Biden and Hillary's emails
How to prepare for this shit again? I guess I can start by storing some masks, and a lot more food.
Any advice or thoughts? I can work from home fulltime, and grocery deliveries is possible.
My recommendation is to honestly just do what we did during covid. The government likely won't be enforcing anything this time so we're probably gonna be on our own. Also I recommend stocking up on things asap. We're already having supply chain issues and it's gonna get infinitely worse if or when this pops off.
I live in Norway, so the government will do everything in it's power to protect its citizens probably. Like it did during COVID.
Theres no supply chain issues here currently either. During COVID pretty much everything was available besides acceptably priced GPUs
The best thing to prepare is to not be fearful and to not panic.
I suggest that everybody protest against factory farming and participate in boycotts. Call lawmakers and regulators to take direct action against these companies and their dangerous practices (and hold them responsible).
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Thankfully the US has a president who is deeply experienced in pandemic management and bringing society together in common cause so I should manage ok. 😭
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Don't worry, I'm sure Trump and his cultists will fuck this one up for us too.
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Uh oh... Please don't tell me I was correct about another pandemic...
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I wasn't expecting my bingo card to fill up so fast.
Don't worry, just inject bleach! It worked last time. /s
Well that drinking raw milk is paying off, congrats. Someone should strap RFK Jr to a chair and make him drink gallons of infected raw milk.
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COVID2 Electric Boogaloo
This Week in Virology talks a bit about this at the 10min mark TWiV 1214: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin
Episode webpage: https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-1214/
Media file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/twiv/TWiV1214.mp3?dest-id=25528
Also worth bookmarking the CDC summary... For as long as it's up. https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
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