D&D and the rising pandemic

[Thomas Shey]

In the UK we've gone the route of getting the first round of injections out ASAP, with the second set to be deployed as-and-when, despite the WHO advising that this hasn't been shown to be effective.

The exponential spread of the virus is definitely starting to feel more palpable. One of the members of our D&D club is currently hospitalised in the local COVID ward, and another is awaiting the results of a self-test kit.

If the new strain has as much additional infectiousness as has been reported, its hard to see how it couldn't.

 

[CleverNickName]

And now apparently there is a new strain of avian flu in India.

Bird flu: India to cull poultry amid fears of virus

Avian flu has so far been detected in wild geese, crows and ducks in various parts of the country.

www.bbc.com

 

[ccs]

And now apparently there is a new strain of avian flu in India.

Bird flu: India to cull poultry amid fears of virus

Avian flu has so far been detected in wild geese, crows and ducks in various parts of the country.

www.bbc.com

Oh good, the sequel begins....

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Oh good, the sequel begins....

We seriously don't need a second pandemic right now. Things are chaotic as it is.

 

[ccs]

We seriously don't need a second pandemic right now. Things are chaotic as it is.

What we need & what we get might not be the same.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

What we need & what we get might not be the same.

Unfortunately true. I do hope that this new bird flu scare isn't anything serious, but we need caution.

 

[NotAYakk]

So if we accept that in 1918 health care sucked, and that people going to an ICU today just died, and that malnutrition was way more common...

1918 flu only killed 0.5% of US citizens. Covid 19 puts 2%-5% of the infected in the ICU.

Measures that merely suppress covid wipe out the seasonal flu.

A new flu strain is almost certainly less dangerous than covid 19. Even a return of a 1918 scale flu wouldn't be as big.

It might even just go extinct without us noticing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

As viruses go, flus are nasty, and avian flus are among the nastiest in the family. Very contagious. Very durable. Very prone to mutation. Saying it would be less dangerous than C19 is as problematic a comparison as calling C19 just another flu.

Let’s assume the new avian flu was essentially identical to the 1918 variant. You’re looking back at stats from 100 years ago, but important things have changed. While our practice & science of medicine have improved, so has the speed of travel. A person infected with the flu today could be spreading it on the other side of the world tomorrow. That was impossible in 1918.

 

[ccs]

So if we accept that in 1918 health care sucked, and that people going to an ICU today just died, and that malnutrition was way more common...

1918 flu only killed 0.5% of US citizens. Covid 19 puts 2%-5% of the infected in the ICU.

Measures that merely suppress covid wipe out the seasonal flu.

A new flu strain is almost certainly less dangerous than covid 19. Even a return of a 1918 scale flu wouldn't be as big.

It might even just go extinct without us noticing.

Maybe.
But we just played a round of such wishful thinking this time last year..... Hasn't turn out so well.
How about this time we take things more seriously & see how that works?

 

[Eltab]

How about this time we take things more seriously & see how that works?

If there is another epidemic, we won't have Nixon to kick around any more.
So when the plans do not work out as envisioned, will the "experts" use data from past experience to change adapt and (we hope) improve The Plan, or will they stand on the sidelines, point fingers at each other / everybody else, and complain?