Live data from Hacker News

Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

hardtowrite.com

41–50 of 60 posts

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#41
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "rural squalor" assumption doesn't help with the downvotes. That's a fairly derogatory blanket generalization, and whether or not statistics back OP up they could choose better verbiage.

Oh, I didn't think that part would be controversial, its where you get parasites and why the combination is a hit with one political party. A subset live in the middle of nowhere with poor infrastructure, the people out there aren't of other political parties because those other parties dont acknowledge them as well. I thought that would be clear. Its not about people that dont live in those environments and are also…

>You have to understand us identity politics to know why that wasn’t supposed to be derogatory.

For what it's worth, I live in the US, completely understand identity politics and am fully aware of the stereotypes - accurate or not - about how right-leaning individuals largely live "in squalor" relative to other political parties. I understand where you're coming from, I would just suggest that you be a little more thoughtful in how you approach that subject next time.

Saying, "Ivermectin saves republican lives because they already have worms in their body (from living in rural squalor)," sounds a lot like you've generalized every single Republican in the country as both having worms and "living in squalor". In point of fact, not every Republican has worms, and certainly not every Republican lives in squalor. Living in squalor is also not a prerequisite for getting worms.

A better way to approach it would be to say something along the lines of, "It's my understanding that states whose climates are more prone to worms are red states, so - correct me if I'm wrong - I would assume that we're more likely to see worm infections in Republicans than Democrats. This is also bolstered by the fact that 3 million more Republicans live in poverty compared to Democrats[1]."

[1]https://www.brookings.edu/research/poverty-crosses-party-lin...

Just a thought.

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#42
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I didn't think that part would be controversial, its where you get parasites and why the combination is a hit with one political party. A subset live in the middle of nowhere with poor infrastructure, the people out there aren't of other political parties because those other parties dont acknowledge them as well. I thought that would be clear. Its not about people that dont live in those environments and are also…

>You have to understand us identity politics to know why that wasn’t supposed to be derogatory. For what it's worth, I live in the US, completely understand identity politics and am fully aware of the stereotypes - accurate or not - about how right-leaning individuals largely live "in squalor" relative to other political parties. I understand where you're coming from, I would just suggest that you be a little more th…

thanks, I'll consider that tact

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#43

I have no proof (or way to test this), but I’ve thought for a while that some pathogen has infected a good number of people, and damaged their brains. I find it hard to understand many people’s transition into madness any other way. I am not talking about “I believe bubble up economics you believe trickle down so you’re crazy” kind of disagreements, I mean stuff like “lizard people from planet nibiru are eating the c…

Anyone that has had to deal with any sort of customer support after Covid knows that things just aren’t right. It’s like talking to people from another planet. I don’t know if it is Covid brain or what.

Have noticed that. Also, some agencies that are required to work with people (no way to automate that) remain incredibly under-staffed and/or have huge work backloads piled up. One told me the other day (after a two-hour phone battle to reach a real person) that there were no appointments available for 'over a month'.

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#44

I have no proof (or way to test this), but I’ve thought for a while that some pathogen has infected a good number of people, and damaged their brains. I find it hard to understand many people’s transition into madness any other way. I am not talking about “I believe bubble up economics you believe trickle down so you’re crazy” kind of disagreements, I mean stuff like “lizard people from planet nibiru are eating the c…

I unironically blame the pervasiveness of drugs, namely cannabis and alcohol. They seem to be causing serious damage in a large subset of the population. Perhaps it has always been the case but we are more aware of such issues now.

However I know several people who are not drug users have similarly sunk into a state of paranoia or madness. Truly a sad state of affairs and I hope we can identify it, and treat them if possible because it seems telling them outright their thoughts/actions are manic is perceived as an insult.

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#45

This is highly speculative stuff, but... that's the point. I think people sometimes forget that the was a time when nothing was scientifically proven. I'm surprised Lyme disease wasn't mentioned, as I think it also falls into the bucket of latent diseases that can cause unquantified effects much later down the line.

At least the title, "Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy And Then Killing You", can be accepted as a default prior, rather than an extraordinary claim. Many diseases are both prevalent and not under heavy study. Funding and interest in studying a disease is partially caused by individuals being able to link the disease to a symptom, and this is hard without data. (You rolled a 4, but is the die biased toward 4? It's impossible to tell from a single roll.) When these diseases are occasionally looked into, such as with hookworm and toxoplasmosis, the track record finds harms at an alarming rate, so we should expect the remaining diseases, which are not yet looked into, to have similar rates of danger.

Thus, without making assertions on the article's individual claims, the general thrust is broadly true. The reason people hold the "these diseases are generally harmless" prior is likely from another prior, "if X disease were so harmful, doctors would be studying it", and that unfortunately does not match current practice.

Covid-19 provides an example of how hard it is to link symptoms. We know now that anosmia is solidly connected to Covid-19, but this was not known for a while. The CDC only listed three official symptoms six months after the outbreak [0], reflecting the understanding at the time. Doctors talked about their patients and found commonalities; this bubbled anecdotes into attention. So even with intense and joint attention by the world, with a clear and reliable symptom, the symptom can evade notice for a while. When nobody's attention is on a disease, and the symptoms are chronic, the symptoms become invisible.

Caveat: this is not my field, and I do not study it. An epidemiologist could likely present a more accurate picture.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20200415000910/https://www.cdc.g...

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, what is the treatment?

I’d assume ivermectin, since it’s a parasite treatment.

Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine would be the other likely candidates. A quick web search suggests they've been tested and found ineffective for Babesia. Of course, their being found ineffective for treating a disease in a scientific study does not always stop people from trying them.

There's a mouse study from 2019 suggesting ivermectin is likely to be effective against Babesia, but it is not a standard treatment as far as I can tell.

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#48

Quoted post unavailable.

> they arent checking people with worms because nobody knows they have worms, thanks to the state of our healthcare I have decent healthcare. I don’t think I’ve been explicitly checked for worms recently. Maybe in the bloodwork? This is honestly one of the better ivermectin hypotheses I’ve come across. It doesn’t deserve to be downvoted, particularly within the context of the article, which set a low bar for evidence…

Hookworm infestations are pretty common in the south. Ivermectin is a potential treatment for hookworm, so that part makes some sliver of sense.

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#49

I have no proof (or way to test this), but I’ve thought for a while that some pathogen has infected a good number of people, and damaged their brains. I find it hard to understand many people’s transition into madness any other way. I am not talking about “I believe bubble up economics you believe trickle down so you’re crazy” kind of disagreements, I mean stuff like “lizard people from planet nibiru are eating the c…

Lead poisoning combined with elder brain makes more sense

Leaded gasoline wasn't banned till the 70s and only really eliminated by the 90s.

Re: Endemic Pathogens Are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You

#50
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "rural squalor" assumption doesn't help with the downvotes. That's a fairly derogatory blanket generalization, and whether or not statistics back OP up they could choose better verbiage.

Oh, I didn't think that part would be controversial, its where you get parasites and why the combination is a hit with one political party. A subset live in the middle of nowhere with poor infrastructure, the people out there aren't of other political parties because those other parties dont acknowledge them as well. I thought that would be clear. Its not about people that dont live in those environments and are also…

Some small subset of the US doesn't have indoor plumbing and electricity. People don't live in squalor. This article says that not having working plumbing is more common in cities:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/27/water-almost...

And then there's the problem where the ivermectin studies apparently went out of their way to have a statistically significant portion of those people?

Post reply on HN