Strange how nature works sometimes. An arrangement of proteins sheathed by a layer of lipids can kill billions of people.
That's what we all are.
God be with you till we meet again (1918)
91–100 of 120 posts
Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yet we call Ebola that name, because of a place. Lyme disease, same thing. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - obviously.\ This isn't some condemnation of the place, and its pretty silly to think of it that way. Doctors go to pains to have diseases named after themselves, proudly. Folks are over-thinking this.
Ebola is actually an example in the opposite direction you think it is. https://www.livescience.com/48234-how-ebola-got-its-name.htm... > But naming the virus Yambuku ran the risk of stigmatizing the village, said another scientist, Dr. Joel Breman, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This had happened before, for example, in the case of Lassa virus, which emerged in the town of Lassa in Nigeri…
Yeah maybe a tiny village in Africa has an issue. But I imagine the entire nation of China would survive it. E.g. the German Measles haven't impacted tourism in Munich...
And to be frank, if this virus was in fact generated by the markets in Wuhan (like so many other flu viruses over the years?) then maybe they should own it. Housing mammals and birds so closely together in large numbers is a health hazard to everybody, as we're learning to our dismay. They've had 20 years to do something about this.
Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Marburg's name is at least accurate . There are two separate issues here: Place-based names cause a stigma (an issue for new diseases, less so for historical ones) and that "Spanish flu" is actually completely wrong on the origins of that specific disease.
So why the timing to rename it? Why now? I am asking that because you did not address it in my original comment, so I am going to harp on it again. Why now ?
Why not?
It was a global pandemic that didn't even start in Spain. We happen to be paying a lot of attention to it because it's the last really global pandemic of similar severity/spread to the COVID-19 outbreak. The increased attention to this little bit of history has us asking whether we should correct the inaccuracy in its name.
Even the CDC calls it the "1918 flu pandemic". https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoratio...
Not as a reaction to COVID-19, either: "Page last reviewed: March 21, 2018"
Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
The canary I'm watching is the whole "Chinese" or "Wuhan" vs. "COVID" virus naming issue. I think it is very clearly not the right time to point fingers. But when this is all past us, a post-mortem and finger pointing is probably warranted. I don't think we need to resort to name calling, but I'm curious to see how much people bend over backwards to absolve China of responsibility.
Amusingly, if you look at the talk section [1] of the Wikipedia article on the Spanish flu, some folks really (suddenly, recently, completely by coincidence) want to call it the 1918 flu. There's no con job like a retcon job. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Spanish_flu
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Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#95Just a usage note for grammar/spelling obsessed. Is the usage of till correct? Yes it is.
Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ebola is actually an example in the opposite direction you think it is. https://www.livescience.com/48234-how-ebola-got-its-name.htm... > But naming the virus Yambuku ran the risk of stigmatizing the village, said another scientist, Dr. Joel Breman, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This had happened before, for example, in the case of Lassa virus, which emerged in the town of Lassa in Nigeri…
Yeah maybe a tiny village in Africa has an issue. But I imagine the entire nation of China would survive it. E.g. the German Measles haven't impacted tourism in Munich... And to be frank, if this virus was in fact generated by the markets in Wuhan (like so many other flu viruses over the years?) then maybe they should own it. Housing mammals and birds so closely together in large numbers is a health hazard to everybo…
> And to be frank, if this virus was in fact generated by the markets in Wuhan (like so many other flu viruses over the years?) then maybe they should own it.
The US currently has the worst infection curve and the most cases, despite months to prepare. Should it be called the American virus because of our fuckups here?
(No.)
Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
A shrimp vendor at the Wuhan seafood market reported symptoms starting Dec. 10, so unless someone finds earlier cases elsewhere, I think that's as good a place as any to call the starting point. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/cor...
https://www.foxnews.com/world/coronavirus-investigators-one-... Reports of a 70+ year old that had the disease on Nov. 17th. Patient zero probably originated in October or thereabouts, and was probably never tested for it.
Better article: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coro...
But website has a touch of ad cancer.
Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#98Just a usage note for grammar/spelling obsessed. Is the usage of till correct? Yes it is. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%27til
Thanks for sharing. I'm a complete etymology nerd and myself had no idea.
Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah maybe a tiny village in Africa has an issue. But I imagine the entire nation of China would survive it. E.g. the German Measles haven't impacted tourism in Munich... And to be frank, if this virus was in fact generated by the markets in Wuhan (like so many other flu viruses over the years?) then maybe they should own it. Housing mammals and birds so closely together in large numbers is a health hazard to everybo…
> And to be frank, if this virus was in fact generated by the markets in Wuhan (like so many other flu viruses over the years?) then maybe they should own it. The US currently has the worst infection curve and the most cases, despite months to prepare. Should it be called the American virus because of our fuckups here? (No.)
Red herring? Flu viruses are created by irresponsible livestock management, costing billions in lost work every year. Now, possibly millions of lives. All avoidable at the source, and well-know for decades.
Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ebola is actually an example in the opposite direction you think it is. https://www.livescience.com/48234-how-ebola-got-its-name.htm... > But naming the virus Yambuku ran the risk of stigmatizing the village, said another scientist, Dr. Joel Breman, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This had happened before, for example, in the case of Lassa virus, which emerged in the town of Lassa in Nigeri…
That said, we do still name individual species of ebola by where breakouts were discovered. Ebola Zaire & ebola Sudan were the first species identified after their respective outbreaks. There's even ebola Reston, because of a breakout in Reston, VA. Reston infects humans (we develop antibodies), but does not cause Ebola virus disease in us.
Ebola is a relatively local disease, since it travels by animals and direct contact, not couhing, and because it so dangerous that it kills or incapacitates before people travel too far.
Even so, it's misleading because Ebola doesn't care about geographic boundaries.