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Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
31–40 of 98 posts
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#32I've always wondered if we could have venom vaccines using repeated micro doses.
There’s been some interesting self experimentation in that direction. Unclear if the startup Tim Friede was involved with actually has gone anywhere yet, but he was basically dosing himself with a plethora of snake venoms to build immunity.
See: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-...
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#33Why don't we do with (problem) snakes what we do with the mosquito, specifically releasing either a) irradiated males who are sterile that produce offspring that do not hatch, or b) males with an installed gene drive that can only sire males for all future generations? Either case results in a population crash. I don't know if gene drives have been used against wild populations as yet (although there is great interes…
99 times out of 100, snakes leave you alone if you leave them alone. Most snake bites occur on the hands or face because they happen when people are messing with them. It's extremely unethical to kill snakes. If you have a venomous snake somewhere on your property that you cannot tolerate it, you should call an expert to come move it for you.
In Arizona snakebites happen on average to 50+, not really a demographic known to fuck with snakes.
Snake shot should definitely not be carried in rattlesnake territory. Definitely not.
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
99 times out of 100, snakes leave you alone if you leave them alone. Most snake bites occur on the hands or face because they happen when people are messing with them. It's extremely unethical to kill snakes. If you have a venomous snake somewhere on your property that you cannot tolerate it, you should call an expert to come move it for you.
It is not unethical to kill an invasive species. The invasive snakes in Florida would better serve their local biosphere if they ceased to exist, no question. For the 50k annual human fatalities from snakes, that is a matter of personal opinion. https://digg.com/data-viz/link/deadly-animals-kill-most-huma...
The invasive snakes in Florida aren't venomous. I'm not aware of any invasive snakes with medically significant venom anywhere in the world, but killing invasive snakes is fine.
The snakes which kill people virtually always fall into one of two categories; native species and pets. These shouldn't be killed except in the most dire of contrived circumstances (e.g. "what if there is a cobra poised to strike my child who cannot run away?"). Leaving the snake alone is always a better choice.
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's go over the numbers. Snakes: 50,000. Seems fair game to me. How would you feel if you had lost a loved one to a viper, even if they engaged in rock climbing or another dangerous activity? Convictions crumble before personal adversity. https://digg.com/data-viz/link/deadly-animals-kill-most-huma...
To 1 million deaths by mosquito and exponentially more infected by Malaria. Again, it’s just not close, and it’s going to be vastly fewer when you think about rattlesnakes in the US or whatever in Australia. And, as above, mosquitoes are largely eco-irrelevant. Snakes are not. Anti-venom seems like the better solution.
Notice first the text from the original article:
"The World Health Organization estimates that 138,000 people are killed by venomous snakes annually."
While that may be irrelevant to you (even in the face of personal affliction), the cost of surviving this interaction is also high:
"During that time, he was administered 28 vials of antivenom intravenously at a cost of $3,400 per vial... They are also species-specific, meaning selecting proper antivenom requires knowing which type of snake bit you... As a result, survivors of rattlesnake bites in Southern California, for instance, get a second painful surprise when presented with hospital bills totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars."
I applaud you for your willingness to undertake this burden for yourself, but I am afraid that I am not.
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#36It's unclear to me how much damage the pill prevents versus simply delaying it. I didn't see any clear statements on that in the article and there are a few quotes like, "intended to at least buy victims enough time to get to the hospital." If victims still need anti-venom to prevent serious injury then the drug is much less exciting. As the article points out anti-venom treatments are expensive, unreliable, and hard…
In the US that's still crazy exciting. Most of my hikes (at least, before I moved to the Bay), I'd rarely be within a 3h jog of the closest place a chopper could land, and that's assuming you have a satphone or something to actually contact the outside world.
Plus, in a ton of states, driving is a privilege, not a right. I've lost my license a few times after the judge in question said I was justified but some bureaucrat in "public safety" or whatever didn't care about the life-threatening issues at hand and just yanked that privilege. Bureaucracy is hard to undo, and even if it weren't strictly a matter of improving my chance to live I'd much much much rather take a pill and a slow, safe route to the hospital than spend one more God-forsaken winter biking to work in -20F.
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#37> he was administered 28 vials of antivenom intravenously at a cost of $3,400 per vial. As someone who lives in Australia, who grew up with aggressive and deadly snakes, what the actual hell? Nobody is out of pocket in Australia following a snake bite and we have many more species and all of the geographic remoteness of the South Western US. Is this just another case of a side effect of the state of the USA healthcar…
If you're in Sydney, Australia, head an hour north to visit the Australian Reptile Park. It's a small zoo that additionally specialises in snakes and spiders that can kill you. It is the sole source of the venom that gets used to make Australia's anti-venoms [1]. The Australian Reptile Park may be related to the cost aspect, in that their program provides a ready supply of the raw materials needed for anti-venom. Inc…
That site left too much to the imagination as to how they collect the spider venom. Or is it from a dissection to collect the entire venom containing organ?
Was also smirking that the snake venom collection the visuals were either of a person wearing no gloves or easily punctured latex.
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
99 times out of 100, snakes leave you alone if you leave them alone. Most snake bites occur on the hands or face because they happen when people are messing with them. It's extremely unethical to kill snakes. If you have a venomous snake somewhere on your property that you cannot tolerate it, you should call an expert to come move it for you.
In Arizona snakebites happen on average to 50+, not really a demographic known to fuck with snakes. Snake shot should definitely not be carried in rattlesnake territory. Definitely not.
Most of them are men with old fashioned attitudes towards snakes who aren't as young and spry as they used to be, who fuck with the snakes and get rewarded with a bite.
Rattlesnakes are perhaps the most courteous of all venomous snakes; they are named for their instinctual habit of making a lot of noise to warn you away. Unfortunately their rattling often gets them killed by ignorant people (particularly those old people) and so some populations of rattlesnakes are now less inclined to rattle. This puts humans at greater risk, so particularly in the case of rattlesnakes you should leave them alone.
If you step on one that didn't rattle and you kill it after getting bitten then I could forgive you, but killing any random rattlesnake you happen across is an asshole move.
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Arizona snakebites happen on average to 50+, not really a demographic known to fuck with snakes. Snake shot should definitely not be carried in rattlesnake territory. Definitely not.
Most of them are men with old fashioned attitudes towards snakes who aren't as young and spry as they used to be, who fuck with the snakes and get rewarded with a bite. Rattlesnakes are perhaps the most courteous of all venomous snakes; they are named for their instinctual habit of making a lot of noise to warn you away. Unfortunately their rattling often gets them killed by ignorant people (particularly those old pe…
I don't care about ethics nor being an asshole. Curious what remaining methods of shame are incoming.
Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I was told in the military that snakes cant bite through a regular army boots. Maybe... I definitely stepped on a honey locust thorn in boots tougher than standard army issue and had it pierce the bottom of the boot, my foot, and the top of the boot. Rattlensake teeth have different geometry and force profiles, so they might not penetrate, but I wouldn't want to prove that fact in person.
> honey locust thorn > pierce the bottom of the boot, my foot, and the top of the boot Oh dear god. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_locust#/media/File:Honey... > These thorns are thought to have evolved to protect the trees from browsing Pleistocene megafauna Did your foot heal alright?
Yep, no problem. I was still a teenager, so basically every injury I sustained then is just a tiny scar now, along with a mental note of activities to avoid.