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Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

latimes.com

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Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#81

Post by QuarterReptile »

femto wrote: post #73
m0zzie wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They antagonise the funnel-web until it begins striking and the venom is dripping from its fangs, and then they use a liquid dropper to suck that venom up. It is wild. Here's a video of the place near where I live doing it: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tN-mHIXoXlQ

And here's a video of them milking the snakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JDwMDlcBhE It's nuts. Hats off to Zac the snake handler. Stats from the video: 1 vial of antivenom requires 20 milkings. Worst case, a treatment requires 10 vials. This is part of the reason antivenom is expensive. Seeing this process, one can appreciate the attraction of a manufactured pill.

>1 vial of antivenom requires 20 milkings. Worst case, a treatment requires 10 vials.

That really takes me back to my World of Warcraft days.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#82

Post by QuarterReptile »

cuonic wrote: post #65
chasil wrote: post #26

Earlier 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...

Car related deaths worldwide in 2018: 1.35 million (Source: https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index... ) How would you feel if you had lost a loved one to a car, even if they engaged in walking around at night or another dangerous activity ? I don't see any one rushing to eradicate cars...

I don't drive a snake to work. I don't use a snake for my livelihood. I don't take my snake down the hill for groceries. I can't load all my kids and their stuff in the snake to go see family.

Your comparison is lazy and ridiculous. Nonetheless, there are people trying to get cars out of cities (and I wish them luck).

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#83

Post by willcipriano »

cf1241290841 wrote: post #51
dx034 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can't give pain meds in the US? I believe in most of Europe, there's always a doctor on board of rescue helicopters, so they routinely administer drugs on board or on site of the accident.

You need that doctor and put him on the ground. That is often not the case in Europe or the US if the terrain is considered unsafe. The scene for the national geographic clip starts at 7:30. The situation is even more drastic for cave rescues, there its not unusual to take days for a doctor to arrive.

At least these laws have saved us from having streets full of opioid addicts.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#84

Post by bluGill »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #20

I was told in the military that snakes cant bite through a regular army boots. Thankfully, I have never had it proven to me. The snake can bite above the boot, or on other parts of the body so I am not saying it provies that much protection. I used to do a bit of hiking in Colorado. Using advanced open sandals. I can't remember the manufacturer. I was inches from stepping on a rattlesnake on one hike. I got out my ar…

That is why real western cowboys wear cowboy boots: snakes cannot bite through. (of course cowboy boots are in style for non-cowboys, but real cowboys wear those boots because they are functional not because they are stylish)

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#85

Post by beaeglebeached »

lupusreal wrote: post #67
beaeglebeached wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't care about ethics nor being an asshole. Curious what remaining methods of shame are incoming.

No further need, you've done my work and neatly discredited yourself and the premise of needlessly killing snakes.

An ad hominem, even against myself, would be fallacious when used to discredit factual statements. You're also inventing a strawman of 'needless' killing.

In any case I've seen small children playing in places I 'formerly' saw a snake, and I'm willing to take all the 'discredit' in the world to not live with the guilt of finding out they were bit not long after I encountered the venomous snake. I don't give a shit about some snake off the beaten path far from where the vulnerable roam, and indeed I leave those alone.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#86

Post by jmye »

ghaff wrote: post #64
jmye wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given he’s most certainly on Medicare Advantage at 74, and the context of the article, I think that’s the sticker cost from the manufacturer, not the patient-billed cost. His bill was, most likely, in the hundreds.

Minor nit. Medicare Advantage is an optional thing people can buy into. The standard is Medicare A&B although you can also buy Medicare Supplemental (Medigap)to cover some of the deductibles (and foreign travel) and D for prescription drugs.

Totally! You caught me assuming MA given the baseline enrollment is slightly higher, and that number is also slightly greater in CA, but valid thing to note.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#87

Post by rurp »

southernplaces7 wrote: post #79
dghughes wrote: post #74

I don't know about snakebites but recently I read about a man who ate a Destroying Angel mushroom by mistake. He was given an antidote for the toxin which amazed that me such a thing existed. I wonder how similar if at all amatoxin and snakebite venom are? One is venom and one is a poison so maybe not much. https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/29/health/mushrooms-poisoning-fo...

As I’m mowing the ditch, I go by them three or four times, and I’m like, ‘Man, those look good,’ ” the 55-year-old said, closing his eyes as he remembers the day. For generations, the Hickman family has foraged for mushrooms. Unlike his great-grandparents, who had to study which ones were safe to eat, Hickman thought he had an advantage: He pulled out his smartphone, photographed the fungi and uploaded the image to a…

No kidding! I briefly looked into mushroom foraging, but after learning how similar tasty mushrooms and you-will-die-a-quick-painful-death ones looked, I quickly lost all interest. The payoffs are about as asymmetric as it gets. Blindly following a random phone app identificaton makes it even worse.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#88

Post by rurp »

keepamovin wrote: post #78

It's amazing to watch evolution create a biochemical cocktail that substitutes for all the power snakes lose by being limbless slithering rubber hose animals. If you can condense all the bodily and kinesthetic intelligence and capability that humans (or say Belgian Malamutes) have developed in a single biochemical cocktail that would effectively pay off the tech debt of dispensing with limbs and power...it's pretty i…

I don't think the tradeoffs really work that away, especially given how many succesful snake species have no venom at all. Biological traits are too conplicated and contextual to boil down to a single stat.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#89

Post by rurp »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #20

I was told in the military that snakes cant bite through a regular army boots. Thankfully, I have never had it proven to me. The snake can bite above the boot, or on other parts of the body so I am not saying it provies that much protection. I used to do a bit of hiking in Colorado. Using advanced open sandals. I can't remember the manufacturer. I was inches from stepping on a rattlesnake on one hike. I got out my ar…

Venemous snakes come in enough variety of types and sizes that most boots probably provide some partial protection. The venom of a baby rattlesnake for instance is much more potent than that of an adult; footware that can only stop small fangs would still be helpful.

Snakes are almost never aggressive though. A significant portion of snake bites happen to drunk people being stupid. The general guidance is to avoid putting your limbs anywhere you can't see and to leave snakes alone when you encounter them.

Re: Can a pill prevent deaths from venomous snakebites?

#90

Post by keepamovin »

rurp wrote: post #88
keepamovin wrote: post #78

It's amazing to watch evolution create a biochemical cocktail that substitutes for all the power snakes lose by being limbless slithering rubber hose animals. If you can condense all the bodily and kinesthetic intelligence and capability that humans (or say Belgian Malamutes) have developed in a single biochemical cocktail that would effectively pay off the tech debt of dispensing with limbs and power...it's pretty i…

I don't think the tradeoffs really work that away, especially given how many succesful snake species have no venom at all. Biological traits are too conplicated and contextual to boil down to a single stat.

Good counter example. It was a neat idea, and it could be true in some cases, but your counter is pretty strong! :) hahahaha
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