Live data from Hacker News

Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

bt.dk

31–40 of 60 posts

Re: Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

#31
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does other food. A fur coat provides a lot of warmth. So does other clothing. Let's not go down the motte-and-bailey rabbit hole of suggesting our vices are simply utilitarian.

meat isn't a vice. It's a traditional part of the diet of the majority of human civilizations. Stop creating vices just to be against them.

Indeed, not only the majority of human civilizations but no evidence of a single paleolithic pre-"civilized" group that didn't consume meat or seafood.

Choosing a vegetarian diet is something we can do now, and is always an ideological or religious choice. It was not a choice for our ancestors, even if they often ate way less of it.

Re: Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

#33
post #25
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But at least making coats from them mean they will be around. Being around means nothing to the individual minks being caged and slaughtered

"Being around" as a farmed animal may bear little relation to being around as a free, wild creature. Given a few generations, we tend to turn the animals we farm into a parody of the original creature. How well would the average battery chicken survive if it were set free?

> How well would the average battery chicken survive if it were set free?

This was tested in a Dutch TV program some years ago ("Keuringsdienst van waarde") where they got some newborn battery chickens and placed them on a regular farm, amongst healthy free-roaming chickens. They got the same food, but still 'exploded' in size until they couldn't walk. Their feathers look awful. On the whole they looked sick and miserable. Just like battery chickens, actually

Re: Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

#35

So if I'm understanding this correctly, it sounds like we gave the minks COVID-19, the virus mutated and then the minks gave it back to the Danes. Yikes. I wonder what challenges we'll unlock on chapter 12 of Apocalypse 2020.

Well, what good can possibly come from packing as many animals as possible in as miserable living conditions as possible while there is a virus going around? Minks apparently have a very similar upper respiratory system as ours, so what could possibly go wrong?

Chinese people eating wild cute animals were being finger pointed at the beginning of this pandemic but that’s really not much better.

It’s not like it’s a surprise either, ask anyone researching viruses and they’ll tell you one of the worst case scenario is a virus that migrates back and forth between humans and animals as it’ll mutate into very interesting strains in the process.

But we must have our fur coats, our 1$ burgers, and our meat every day.

Re: Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

#36

from the article: "Health authorities found virus strains in humans and in mink which showed decreased sensitivity against antibodies, potentially lowering the efficacy of future vaccines, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference." “The mutated virus in mink may pose a risk to the effectiveness of a future vaccine,” Frederiksen said, adding that it “risks being spread from Denmark to other countrie…

> Poor minks. They lived in cages and were destined to be turned into fur coats. I'm not disagreeing, just pointing out that their situation was already messed up to begin with.

Sad but true. They’re probably better off dead at that point.

How is animal farming still a thing for the “advanced” race we are is quite a paradox.

Re: Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

#37
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont know why you are being downvoted but yes minks are caged just so celebrity/rich people can show off their shiny fur based cloths. And later they blame minks is a threat lol. Human spread-ed them virus, tortured for whole life, killed them mercillesly and now minks are thread? Common just wear faux based clothing and problem solved.

My mother and father were born in 1930. Being from that era, my mother always wanted a mink coat because it would mean she had "made it", but it wasn't until they were about 60 and all the kids were grown and out of college that my dad bought one for her birthday. She wore it once and was so self-conscious that people would think her callous that it stayed in the closet until she died 20 years later.

> She wore it once and was so self-conscious that people would think her callous that it stayed in the closet

Good.

Re: Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

#38
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But at least making coats from them mean they will be around. Being around means nothing to the individual minks being caged and slaughtered

Dennet wrote a lot about animal perceptions and self consciousness It's hard to tell if the life they live makes some difference for the individual It's hard for us humans to fathom it, but is it for them? We still don't know for sure. https://lafavephilosophy.x10host.com/dennett_anim_csness.htm...

If in doubt, why not err on the side of caution and just not inflict animals this existence, just in case they might care?

Re: Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

#39
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least a fur coat lasts longer than the 10 minutes of pleasure that eating meat gives you.

Meat provides a lot of nutrition.

You don’t need meat to get nutrition. It was fine to eat meat when it meant hunting it and eating it once in a while. Not so much anymore when the environmental cost is so high and we eat meat every single day.

Re: Mutated Coronavirus from Minks is a threat to Humans

#40
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does other food. A fur coat provides a lot of warmth. So does other clothing. Let's not go down the motte-and-bailey rabbit hole of suggesting our vices are simply utilitarian.

meat isn't a vice. It's a traditional part of the diet of the majority of human civilizations. Stop creating vices just to be against them.

Considering how much environmental damage and how much suffering our modern day meat eating generates, it’s not that much of a leap to see it as a vice: it’s unnecessary and does a lot of collateral harm; mostly benefiting the individual who indulges in it at the expense of everyone and everything else. Isn’t that what a vice is?
Post reply on HN