D&D and the rising pandemic

[Maxperson]

US did not do well at all with travel bans, because they're inconsistent, and being handled in a way basically calculated to maximize the spread of the virus in the US. Look at pictures of people stuck in wall-to-wall standing room only for multiple hours at various airports because they announced a ton of new restrictions requiring manual checking, and didn't add enough staff to the federal-only process. So if even one or two of the people coming in did have the virus, now a heck of a lot more of them do, but will have gotten it right there so it won't show up in the superficial checking for symptoms being done on-site.

The travel bans are pretty much irrelevant I think. The virus would have started and been completely unknown for a month or two at least before anyone even thought to check and see why more people than usual were dying in Wuhan. That's at least two months of people getting it and traveling around the world infecting others, then it spreading locally.

 

[Maxperson]

Yep. I read that article yesterday and couldn't believe he had done that. Then after a few seconds thinking about it, I was not surprised anymore. It's very tragic to watch this unfold.

That's because surprise only lasts until your initiative comes up.

 

[Maxperson]

With respect, this is my normal retail supermarket yesterday:

Spoiler

View attachment 119936

Yep. That's our store and various other stores in the Los Angeles area that my friends have been going to. One of my D&D group texted yesterday that the Trader Joe's near him shut down for an hour so that they could restock a bit without masses of people being in the way.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I saw something the other day I wish would happen. That stores open for the first two hours for only those who are elderly and on assistance. All these panic buyers buying up all food, even WIC labeled food, and people on WIC can’t buy non WIC labeled food so they are screwed.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The basic issue around such conspiracy theories is simple - anyone smart enough to pull it off will know that a bioweapon is too difficult to control to be reliable.

I mean, it'll kill old dependents? You realize that the upper levels of government is disproportionately populated with high-risk folks over 60? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

PLUS:

1) you can’t deploy it until you have some kind of treatment, vaccine or cure
2) it WILL mutate at some point, so you need to keep doing research on treatments, vaccines and cures
3) horizontal gene transfer from the weaponized microbe to other microbes might render other treatments, vaccines or cures less effective or even utterly useless

Etc.

IOW, engineered plagues are, in some way, the most dangerous of all WMDs, not just to the enemy, but to the people who contemplate deploying them. It’s not just a double edged sword, it’s a double edged sword wit a sword grip that can do Autofire with a hair trigger.

 

[Zardnaar]

Supermarkets don't put limits on what you can buy?

Here you can only buy 2 bottles of sanitizer. Not that it's on the shelf.

Buy as much toilet paper as you want.

 

[Zardnaar]

PLUS:

1) you can’t deploy it until you have some kind of treatment, vaccine or cure
2) it WILL mutate at some point, so you need to keep doing research on treatments, vaccines and cures
3) horizontal gene transfer from the weaponized microbe to other microbes might render other treatments, vaccines or cures less effective or even utterly useless

Etc.

IOW, engineered plagues are, in some way, the most dangerous of all WMDs, not just to the enemy, but to the people who contemplate deploying them. It’s not just a double edged sword, it’s a double edged sword wit a sword grip that can do Autofire with a hair trigger.

They also gave access to nastier stuff than this.

They have had accidents over the years though. Soviets had multiple accidental CBN oopsies. Chernobyls just the most famous.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How TP is being sold in Australia at some places now:

 

[Zardnaar]

How TP is being sold in Australia at some places now:

Crazy. Wonder if they will do rationing eventually.

 

[Dausuul]

How TP is being sold in Australia at some places now:

And the folks in that line are perfectly set up for one person with COVID-19 to cough and spread it to half a dozen people in one go.