Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/06/man-dies-of-bird-flu-in-mexico.html
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I immediately perked up with this part. With the underlying health issues, a bad outcome does not necessarily mean panic is warranted, but lack of clear vector in a patient who (it appears) was not in a condition to go out and chase cows or chickens (or cats, mice or ferrets) the possibility of human-to-human transmission raises its ugly head. More data is required, of course. Maybe he has a cat, or some less panic-inducing mode of transmission, maybe he was drinking raw milk as an attempt at cure, but maybe this bug has learned a new trick. Just watching and waiting. We already know influenza can jump species, it has shown this repeatedly. Just has this particular variant done so. Sigh, I really hate this timeline. As for the antivaxxers, dealing with covid, then measles and now pertussis, I am all out of patience with them.
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Don’t think it’s a cause for panic, but it is quite concerning. I just hope that other folks elsewhere take this potential danger more seriously.
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I just had the most replies and post engagement ever by casually shit posting on some goon’s post about this. The shit storm of posts calling me a retard and slurs was truly impressive.
We are going to be fucked next time there is a bad pandemic. I don’t know what the percentage is - but I would guess around 25% of people who won’t do jack shit in the efforts of public health. “It’s a hoax.” “The government wants to control you.” “It was just the flu.” “Covid didn’t kill me.” Yadda, yadda.
It would take something super severe to shake these people awake, but even then, maybe not.
Hopefully if there is a bird flu outbreak it won’t be too major and people wanting to protect themselves at least have the knowledge and means to do so, unlike early on in the Covid pandemic where it wasn’t super clear what to do, and there was an N95 mask shortage.
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IMHO, part of the reason for the success of idiocy in regards to covid was that it was too mild. Ridiculous to say about something that killed millions, but given a case fatality rate of under 3%, and probably much less, it was way too easy to say “I got it and all my friends got it and none of us died!” The current iteration of avian flu has a CFR of over 50%. Plug that into the covid stats and it’s world changing. But by the time it finally sinks in with the pro-pandemic crowd, it will be too late. We are as ready as we can be, but it is not enough. Stay alert.
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I agree with that. AND we have a lot better medical care than 100 years ago where more people would have died. AND it hurt old people more than the young (so you had a sense of safety if you were say 26 or 32 vs 65). AND it did peter out with the varietals instead of getting worse. Those early strains were no joke compared to the later ones.
Combine that with selective memory/cognitive dissonance and you get people thinking everything we did was pointless and it was a big nothing burger. While I remember people losing loved ones. Healthy people having to re-learn to walk because they almost died. Teenagers having slower run times in cross country because their lung function was still not 100%. Etc etc.
And sure, you can look at the memes of people doing over the top things and laugh. Or point to half measures (like wearing part of a mask but have a cut out so you can play the trumpet at a concert) or “within the letter of the law, that sides steps the reason for it” (like enclosing tables on the side walk was “ok” because it was outside seating) and say that was stupid and did nothing. That doesn’t take away from the good measure in place.
The thing is - you don’t KNOW how bad something is going to be until it is too late. It’s like seeing rain is coming and you decide to take an umbrella or rain coat. It turn out that it just sprinkled and you carried it around for nothing. But if it pours you are going to wish you had it. I got hit with the flu hard like 10 or so years ago. I decided to start getting the flu shot after that because that suuucckkked.
One last note, for people who don’t trust the government (and that is me, to a degree), when it comes to public health I ask people “If you had cancer, where would you go if money was no option? Mayo Clinic? Cleveland Clinic? Johns Hopkins? Some local religious based hospital? Look at what they are recommending. If you trust them to save your life if you have cancer, then trust them that their health precautions are warranted.”
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For me who doesn’t trust the government at all my guiding star over the past 4+ years has been to find multiple knowledgeable experts in the relevant fields to follow online. Unfortunately if people haven’t already done so already after four years of a pandemic they aren’t likely to start now though.
“Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult the architect or the engineer.” - Mikhail Bakunin
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