outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

every time this stuff gets in the news i have an anxiety attack just reading about it

do you think we're all going to die of a plague, soon?

I watched Contagion 2x in a row on a recent intercontinental flight and within 24 hours of landing I was sicker than I can ever remember being.

-Peter

that was a scary one because you know that's exactly how it's going to go down, too

my dad is of the opinion that we're all gonna drop dead from mad cow disease eventually from a lifetime of pink slime exposure

Ebola in Uganda, new flu killing East Coast seals...

Who the HECK would choose Contagion for in-flight programming???

-Peter

There is still this other side of me that wishes I'd embarked on one of my many fig tree dream careers of epidemiologist. I really get a kick form this kind of thing. Someday we will all be dead.

So how worried should we be now, anyway.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/25/us-heath-ebola-nigeria-idUSKBN0FU1LE20140725

Fanning flames, paranoia: http://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/New-fears-about-Ebola-spread-after-plane-scare-5651721.php

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — No one knows for sure just how many people Patrick Sawyer came into contact with the day he boarded a flight in Liberia, had a stopover in Ghana, changed planes in Togo, and then arrived in Nigeria, where authorities say he died days later from Ebola, one of the deadliest diseases known to man.

Now health workers are scrambling to trace those who may have been exposed to Sawyer across West Africa, including flight attendants and fellow passengers.

Health experts say it is unlikely he could have infected others with the virus that can cause victims to bleed from the eyes, mouth and ears. Still, unsettling questions remain: How could a man whose sister recently died from Ebola manage to board a plane leaving the country? And worse: Could Ebola become the latest disease to be spread by international air travel?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/ebola-virus-top-sierra-leone-doctor-shek-umar-dies-of-disease-9636406.html

Sierra Leone's top virologist has died in the current outbreak.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/health/patient-at-mount-sinai-has-ebola-like-symptoms-hospital-says.html

This is terrible, reports of hospitals shutting their doors, infected rotting corpses in the streets and ebola nurses downing tools after not getting paid measly $30 a week risk money pledged by the Sierra Leone gvt. Conditions described as "medieval" in parts where the health system has totally collapsed.

i heard a woman talking on the radio about it the other day and she was not holding back about how grim it was -- she was a reporter but i don't remember her name
she used the same analogy, like it was medieval in terms of what people believe about medicine as well as the degree to which people receive/shun medical care when they need it

Little did we know all the right wing survivalists had the right idea for the wrong reason. It's not Obama they should fear, but ebola.

I read an article about the stress of being an ebola nurse. Encased in completely enveloping PPE in a hot climate for 12 + hour shifts. Dealing with infectious, dying patients that constantly fall out of beds, spray blood and diarrhea all over the place. The people that deal with these patients ... I just have no idea where they get their courage from.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-armed-men-attack-liberia-ebola-clinic-freeing-patients/

holy shit

Yeah,

Plague Inc is my favorite game

http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/08/19/341412011/shadow-and-d-12-sing-an-infectious-song-about-ebola?

dr. brantly speaking now, was just discharged from emory

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/tests-under-way-for-ebola-following-donegal-death-1.1904073

Shit got real. school with this guys sister

Pharmeceutical industry person tries to defend the industry re charges they have not done enough re ebola because it is in poor countries

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2014/08/18/washington-post-off-base-in-critiquing-pharma-efforts-in-ebola/

the incentives for the pharmaceutical industry are what they are, unfortunately

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/ebolanomics

Irish guy didn't have Ebola. Was a false alarm.

South Africa and Senegal trying to bar some folks from countries at issue from entry

First US case in Dallas. Take that NYC & LA! We're number one!

Yikes!

I wonder how many crisis of this kind will happen before countries take the WHO seriously and decide to invest in a proper international health structure to prevent this kind of outbreak. Freaking hate to see institutions like the FMI giving up to 130 millions $ but then pressure politicians in the region to go for austerity, it's a waste of money for everyone.

ebola USED to be at the top of my list of irrational fears. presbyterian hospital is about 5 miles north of where i'm sitting right now.

welp

#patientzero

The Frontline piece on this a week or so ago was eye-opening. Hospitals that are barely more than cordoned off fields, mass graves, disinfecting the back of trucks (where patients ride, near death) by tossing in buckets of bleach, doctors and other aid workers more or less forced to visit villages free of any special suits for fear of scaring the shit out of everyone, children orphaned and alone overnight. Just heartbreaking. It's both a matter of doctors struggling to keep up with a rapidly and easily spreading illness and a population almost impossible to isolate. Bodies being dumped and left by the side of the road, families taking members out of quarantine, superstitious treatments co-mingling with modern medicine ...

Here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ebola-outbreak/

The saddest bit may be at the end, where grave diggers, one by one, list all their families members who have succumbed.

I'm just a few miles further away, art. Drive by it almost every day as I head up to Richardson.

Your risk of dying from ebola (total confirmed 2014 ebola deaths: a few thousand worldwide) is still lower than your risk of dying due to complications related to seasonal influenza (on average, 5800-7500 a year in the US). Get a flu shot. Don't get too preoccupied by ebola.

wanna c&p that on every damn facebook post I see for the next week

be my guest

i have total confidence in the medical system to properly handle any other arising cases. that said, i am still illogically terrified

Sick Burn I saw on FB:

Don't worry about Ebola spreading in Dallas. The Cowboys have shown us that people in Dallas can't catch anything.

Ebola spreads by physical contact with bodily secretions and fluids. That makes it easier to contain in a place like the USA or Europe, where there are lots of medical facilities and a patient's recent contacts can be quickly discovered and tracked down.

Even so, if ebola strongly establishes itself in Africa, with a reservoir of infected people who keep the virus continuously viable and circulating, then not only will massive numbers of africans die, but ebola will keep leaping to other parts of the world, including the USA and Europe. It can be compared to sparks thrown out from a wildfire, which land on tinder and start other fires away from the main fire. You can put out many of these small satellite fires, but it is hard to extinguish all of them, and the more new places that start burning the harder the firestorm is to keep contained.

That's a good analogy. I really wish international focus between the Ebola outbreak and ISIL was better divided.

run for the hills imo

*not the hills of West Africa, tho*

http://i.imgur.com/LHm72Rq.png

ugh goddamned parody accounts :(

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa.html

this is a very difficult article to read

apparently the problem is not money but organization and time

Oh jeez:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/texas-ebola_n_5919522.html

at what point is it ok for me to start panicking?

supposed to go to the state fair this weekend and have resolved not to touch any surfaces and to bathe myself in hand sanitizer after it is all over.

the panic is hilarious. Especially from folks who drive on the streets of Dallas. You should be much more afraid of north Texas drivers than ebola.

until there is an effective vaccine I consider ebola as a threat, but in the USA it is a long term threat, which gives the researchers plenty of time to develop that vaccine.

truly despicable imo for rand paul, a physician, to be saying things like this to score political points

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-rand-paul-sounds-ebola-alarm/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa.html

this is a very difficult article to read

apparently the problem is not money but organization and time

― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, October 1, 2014 7:27 PM (Yesterday

disorganization and lack of preparedness (not to mention distrust of medical authorities, belief in traditional healing, etc) are consequences of poverty, though. this was from a few weeks ago but i think it's a good primer

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1409494

First, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are resource-poor countries already coping with major health challenges, such as malaria and other endemic diseases, some of which may be confused with EVD. Next, their borders are porous, and movement between countries is constant. Health care infrastructure is inadequate, and health workers and essential supplies including personal protective equipment are scarce. Traditional practices, such as bathing of corpses before burial, have facilitated transmission. The epidemic has spread to cities, which complicates tracing of contacts. Finally, decades of conflict have left the populations distrustful of governing officials and authority figures such as health professionals. Add to these problems a rapidly spreading virus with a high mortality rate, and the scope of the challenge becomes clear

free testing and shots in US:

The ICATT program will continue to provide no-cost COVID-19 testing for uninsured people that are symptomatic or exposed. More than 19,000 ICATT sites will offer no-cost COVID-19 vaccines under the CDC Bridge Access program to adults without health insurance and adults without full vaccine insurance coverage. An estimated 10,000 ICATT sites continue to support testing and disease surveillance needs at non-emergency levels. A list of no-cost COVID-19 testing sites can be found on the COVID-19 Testing Locator website. To find a no-cost COVID-19 vaccine near you please visit vaccines.gov.

Novavax is starting to be rolled out. According to this page it's currently only available at Publix but lots of other places say "coming soon."

https://us.novavaxcovidvaccine.com/find-a-vaccine

cvs and walgreens have it in NYC

bump
while a lot of people are logged in
for those who haven't seen recent post re free tests and shots.

got my novavax today :)

i got one on monday at my doctor's office. felt crappy all day yesterday. fine today. i have to go back there in 6 weeks and i'll get a flu shot then. maria and my dad got both shots yesterday and are fine today. i can't do that. i get ill. maybe cuz i'm a redhead.

i got moderna.

for the record: the nurse was NO on getting covid vax for herself. my doctor was YES.

Nursing has for some reason some of the dumbest employees to breathe air.

lol my CVS got ten (10) doses of novavax and expect to get no more

nursing is such a wild job space. overworked, dealing with people
having the worst days. no time for
food and the break room is just snacks on snacks. a crazy percentage of smokers. complete fatalism about some medical risks. overrepresented among careers on the lowest tier of dating apps

i always feel good when i read stuff like this. i am always the only one in the house who gets sick for a day or two after a covid shot.

"The good news: new research shows that more side effects might be beneficial because they reflect greater production of virus-fighting antibodies after vaccination."

“The more symptoms people reported, the higher their antibody levels were,” says Aric Prather, a clinical psychologist at the University of California San Francisco, who led the study."

https://www.bu.edu/neidl/2023/12/its-good-to-feel-bad-after-your-covid-shot/

so if you feel shitty after a shot just remember this:

A study found that people who reported more symptoms after receiving a COVID shot had higher levels of antibodies that fight viruses.

In a study of adults with heart failure who received a flu vaccine, those who experienced side effects were less likely to be hospitalized or die prematurely

i still - i shouldn't say this out loud - have never had symptomatic covid. i also never get the flu and i get a flu shot every year. flu is my least favorite thing. that nurse the other day said when she first got covid it felt like "the flu on steroids". ahhhhh! so scary. i'm so sorry for anyone who has gone through that. i have had insane flus in my life where i honestly felt like i should go to a hospital and i just suffered them out alone. but its been years. i love flu shots.

FWIW, I’m no-vid too. Last time I got the flu was maybe over ten years ago? I get the shot…

I get almost zero side effects post-vaccine but have had covid twice. My friend feels like crap for two days after a vaccine but her brother died of covid and she’s never had it. That’s my anecdotal data.

I’d say my cases were mid, in the grand scheme of things

That case I had about a month ago was the first time I've had symptomatic Covid as well. The one thing that seems to be lingering is the dry eyes, and they're severe enough to feel like I have glass splinters in them at times. I'm starting to use artificial tears, and that seems to be helping.

i've never had covid either as far as i know. about 15 years ago a bad flu triggered my alopecia and i lost all the hair on my body, seemingly permanently. so basically i take every precaution to make sure i don't get covid / long covid. once bitten...

speaking of which, gotta get my shot. i think it will be moderna.

think of all the money you've saved on shampoo? hair brushes? there must be a silver lining somewhere! fun wigs? but yeesh yeah that must have been very alarming! the flu is no joke.

i worry about my dad obviously. he's never had covid either and if he ever got a bad case...well....he's 89 and three days in the hospital last month for a stomach obstruction left him weak for a month or more. can only imagine what a bad virus would do. actually i don't want to imagine.

Tracked down a Novavax shot today and got it along with flu. They had it at CVS but apparently CVS doesn't take my insurance, which is wacky because I work for the state university system that has like 50k employees and excellent coverage. Ended up getting it at a grocery store pharmacy, where, because my wife and I both got covid and flu shots, gave us a $40 rebate that we can use on anything at the store. So it a way we got paid in groceries to get the shots! I'm gonna buy wine.

triggered my alopecia and i lost all the hair on my body, seemingly permanently.

There’s hope still… my sister lost all her hair and then went on this trail treatment for alopecia and all her hair is back now. They are bringing it into market and wanted her paying full price for it, but they made a big stink, so the trail people get to stay on it (either free or very cheap). So it might be costly, but there should be an option for you soon.

Tracked down a Novavax shot today and got it along with flu. They had it at CVS but apparently CVS doesn't take my insurance, which is wacky because I work for the state university system that has like 50k employees and excellent coverage.

My story three weeks ago exactly.

Increasingly concerned about the H5N1 bird flu that's making the rounds...one friend of mine, who granted is a huge hypochondriac, seems to think it's the next pandemic and we'll all be dead next year.

We should all be so lucky.

speak for yourself.

your friend is right that, of all the viruses currently identified and tracked, H5N1 avian flu is the virus most likely to cause another human pandemic. but right now it hasn't made the leap to enough humans or with enough virulence to require all of us to write our wills. it is a major concern and placing HHS under RFK Jr means public health officials have an enemy rather than an ally in the federal agency that would be responding to a bird flu outbreak. that's very worrisome.

I mean, the chances are still low (though far from negligible) of this specific thing being the next big pandemic, but given we seem to have learned fuck-all from COVID that's hardly much of a reassurance.

less than fuck-all

the first scene in the movie: blankly staring at a TV headline and not comprehending just how much everything is about to change

Unknown disease kills 143 people in south-west DRC, local authorities say

Infected people described as having flu-like symptoms including high fever and severe headaches

An unknown disease killed 143 people in a south-west province of Democratic Republic of the Congo in November, local authorities told Reuters.

Infected people had flu-like symptoms including high fever and severe headaches, Remy Saki, the deputy governor of Kwango province, and Apollinaire Yumba, the provincial minister of health, said on Monday.

concerning, particularly for the people in that area, but worth nothing we are working with an absolute dearth of info at the moment other than the above, so...waiting until one of the resources I read picks it up. one of the symptoms is also anemia, which would suggest something more closer to dengue or malaria than flu (not that these are, like, not scary in themselves)

https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinrivers/p/understanding-mysterious-outbreaks

Seems the DRC thing is just really nasty malaria

A previously unknown disease making the rounds in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a severe form of malaria, the country’s health ministry has announced.

“The mystery has finally been solved. It’s a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory illness,” the Ministry of Public Health said in a statement, adding that malnutrition in the area had weakened the local population, leaving them more vulnerable to disease...

Had a long day of meetings and finally logged in to Bluesky and had to check the calendar quick to make sure it wasn’t actually March 3, 2020 somehow.

I don’t wanna dismiss the seriousness of the risks of bird flu or anything but, wow, it’s like suddenly a flip was switched today and everyone is doomposting as if we’re already in a pandemic.

Narrator: We were not in a pandemic.

i had no idea what your first paragraph was about until I read the second paragraph. you might want to unfollow some people.

Yeah, I unfollowed the two worst offenders in sharing the doom-y stuff, but it was more that it just seemed to come out of nowhere to pop up yesterday.

My wife mentioned the same thing about Facebook in the last 24 hours, just filled with doom-y posts about the bird flu and lockdowns. I'm guessing the death of the person in Louisiana sparked a lot of it, but the sudden volume of noise about it surprised me. Out of (morbid) curiosity, I scrolled through some of the replies to legit news stories about the Louisiana case and it's eerie how similarly worded the doom-posting is. Just one of those times where I don't doubt the bad actor troll farms cranking messaging out through fake accounts.

And we're developing a bird flu vax.

Your Local Epidemiologist, which I probably learned about from this thread during the pandemic, is unsurprisingly very good on H5N1

Yeah, that's always a good read.

Just to be clear, I'm not sharing in the panic or concerned, I was just struck to suddenly see a noticeable uptick in the doom-y ("stock up on toilet paper", "another Trump presidency, another pandemic!") posts.

I have a pretty modest bluesky presence, but I've started to unfollow posters who have, as I understand the phrase, main character syndrome.

seth abramson on their describing himself as a biographer of Elon musk

I saw that and was all "Oh ARE you."

I've never heard the phrase "main character syndrome" until listening to a podcast this morning (Chris Fleming on Mike Birbiglia) and it's got me thinking lots of thoughts.

But in NYC we're currently battling a norovirus more than bird flew. Lots of kids in school throwing up. Neighbors quarantining kids. etc.

> And we're developing a bird flu vax.

we're going one better in the uk (news from 2 days ago)

https://metro.co.uk/2025/01/07/black-death-vaccine-developed-fears-plague-reemerge-22308503/

They have to make the injectors for that one wear Plague Doc outfits.

Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been ordered to immediately stop engaging with the World Health Organization, a move that affects critical work on influenza surveillance and disease outbreaks across the globe, according to emails sent to staff Monday that were reviewed by The Washington Post.

President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. exit from the global health body last Monday, citing what he described as a mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and other international health crises. This is Trump’s second attempt at withdrawing the United States from the WHO.

According to an email sent from CDC’s deputy director for global health to staff Monday morning, “effective immediately all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual — must cease their activity and await further guidance.”

The memo continued: “Please ensure your impacted staff receive this message. CDC detailees to WHO have been instructed to pause engaging in any work on behalf of WHO as part of their respective details, and to no longer go to WHO offices until further notice.”

“This goes beyond what they tried to do in 2020,” said one federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “Last time, they didn’t forbid us to engage or even talk. That’s what’s unusual in this circumstance now.”

I'm sure y'all will love to hear this, but we know someone with a child that I believe works as a zoo vet, or something like that to do with non-pet animals, and she said the bird flu is going to be baaaaaaaad ...

It for sure will be if motherfuckers won't wear a mask.

I mean, it’s a dice roll. If it mutates to person-to-person, we are in deep shit

It took 3 months but the virus has now hit domestic Japan hens and eggs are now disappearing from shelves due to the virus.

https://i.imgur.com/dYijjfJ.jpeg