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WHO says avian flu cases in humans ‘worrying’ after girl’s death in Cambodia

theguardian.com

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Re: WHO says avian flu cases in humans ‘worrying’ after girl’s death in Cambodia

#21

Post by eganist »

kaushikc wrote: post #11

[flagged]

It's been a slow transformation, but one that nevertheless has been happening as reddit itself devolves and people on that platform look for alternate homes.

But for what it's worth, the moderation team (dang etc) has been doing a good job of clamping down on unproductive or non-contributing comments. And I think the best we can do at this point is to just downvote or flag (as appropriate) anything that either doesn't contribute or just goes against the spirit of HN.

Anyway, this is entirely off topic. If my point is well made, you and I should both be flagged to death for breaking an HN rule about meta discussion.

Re: WHO says avian flu cases in humans ‘worrying’ after girl’s death in Cambodia

#23

Post by timr »

graeme wrote: post #20
timr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To worry? Yes, it's unreasonable, because there's not a thing the WHO can do about it. "Worrying", in particular, does nothing. For that matter, pretty much anything involving a PR spokesperson from the WHO does nothing. But that goes 10x for hyperbolic articles from the Guardian, which are the real problem here. They take the inanities from the PR person, and twist them into hysterical headlines that panic people fo…

> Yes, it's unreasonable, because there's not a thing the WHO can do about it. The WHO exists to contain such things so as to minimize the risk of wider harm. It is not inevitable that every new disease spreads widely and becomes endemic. SARS and MERS were contained, for example. If this new bird flu started transmitting human to human and was as lethal as it is in birds and animals there would be efforts to contain…

> SARS and MERS were contained, for example

No, they weren't. They spread widely, and then simply petered off for reasons we don't fully understand.

To conclude that we therefore "contained" these viruses via some bureaucratic measure is a classic example of human hubris with regards to our power over nature.

Re: WHO says avian flu cases in humans ‘worrying’ after girl’s death in Cambodia

#24

Post by wheelerof4te »

graeme wrote: post #20
timr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To worry? Yes, it's unreasonable, because there's not a thing the WHO can do about it. "Worrying", in particular, does nothing. For that matter, pretty much anything involving a PR spokesperson from the WHO does nothing. But that goes 10x for hyperbolic articles from the Guardian, which are the real problem here. They take the inanities from the PR person, and twist them into hysterical headlines that panic people fo…

> Yes, it's unreasonable, because there's not a thing the WHO can do about it. The WHO exists to contain such things so as to minimize the risk of wider harm. It is not inevitable that every new disease spreads widely and becomes endemic. SARS and MERS were contained, for example. If this new bird flu started transmitting human to human and was as lethal as it is in birds and animals there would be efforts to contain…

"The WHO exists to contain such things so as to minimize the risk of wider harm."

The WHO exists to do nothing but spread panic and chaos across the globe.

They are morally and humanly corrupt people.

Re: WHO says avian flu cases in humans ‘worrying’ after girl’s death in Cambodia

#27

Post by timr »

happytoexplain wrote: post #17
timr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably, but it's rare and hard to confirm. Animal-to-human transmission is also rare, for that matter. The headline is irresponsible and fear-mongering clickbait, even just by referencing the contents of the article below it.

Even just probably-unwarranted "worrying" is now "fear-mongering clickbait"? I feel so genuinely sad about the feverish level of shitflinging that so many topics are subject to due merely to their proximity to social politics.

Read the article. The headline is not at all supported by the content, which itself is based on a single-word quote from a WHO spokesperson that leaves a great deal of doubt about the intent of the comment. Literally the first paragraph of the story contradicts the headline:

> The discovery of two cases of bird flu within the same family in Cambodia has highlighted the concern over potential human-to-human spread of the virus, although experts have stressed the risk remains low.

By the third paragraph, you will know that human-to-human transmission hasn't even been confirmed in this case. By the fourth paragraph, you will know that the thing "worrying" the WHO is the growth of human cases, not this particular case.

Unfortunately, most people don't read past the headline, and the Guardian knows it.

Re: WHO says avian flu cases in humans ‘worrying’ after girl’s death in Cambodia

#29

Post by timr »

fwungy wrote: post #26

[flagged]

Anything involving viruses has become a hot-button political issue (at least in the USA). There is a significant faction of people who want to panic at any suggestion of a new pandemic, and refuse to be mollified by any contradictory facts. There is also a significant faction who want to ridicule public health authorities, and refuse to believe that there might be any who are acting in good faith. Anyone in the middle -- like actual scientists, who tend to be skeptical of hyperbolic claims -- gets torched by both groups.

Unfortunately, also in the US, these two factions break down almost perfectly along party lines.

Re: WHO says avian flu cases in humans ‘worrying’ after girl’s death in Cambodia

#30

Post by bsaul »

timr wrote: post #29
fwungy wrote: post #26

[flagged]

Anything involving viruses has become a hot-button political issue (at least in the USA). There is a significant faction of people who want to panic at any suggestion of a new pandemic, and refuse to be mollified by any contradictory facts. There is also a significant faction who want to ridicule public health authorities, and refuse to believe that there might be any who are acting in good faith. Anyone in the middl…

The fact that covid happened during the us presidential campaign is probably the second largest reason why the pandemic has been so poorly handled in the world (the first major reason being that it emerged from china and its very problematic regime)
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