outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

Lol, no problem, Tracer.

sure map, sure

Too late, the Freudian slip hath spoken.

2xp

lol not even gonna put up that much of a fight about it

I have no opinion on whether the population is too high or too low or what.

There's an emotionally-appealing (ie, "it sounds right") argument that the increase in population has increased the number of pandemic-style viruses insofar as there is a larger, more varied population on Earth for viruses to mutate within, giving more space for multiple viruses to mutate concurrently and increasing/accelerating the likelihood that one of them will be pandemic-worthy.

We come from Mother Nature so everything we do is perfectly natural, including matricide.

my feeling is "humans are inherently bad and shouldn't exist but since we're here and can all feel pain, let's try to minimize extinction level events...unless they're funny"

the Fleshlight Massacre of 2021 will be here for you, Neanderthal

It isn't that there are too many humans on earth but rather that there are too many humans on earth living the way that humans do. The same would be true if, for example, there were a particular species of turtle that spent all of its time emptying aerosol cans into the morning air.

But I fear that we may be straying from the topic at hand.

Turtle waxing nest pas

a particular species of turtle that spent all of its time emptying aerosol cans into the morning air

this is one of the strangest euphemisms for "mitch mcconnell" that i've read, but i agree

i meant to add a fart joke in there, but whatever

the last hour of posts here really feel like oldskool ilx, right to the bit where I come in and contribute nothing but an uninteresting illegible and possibly false point.

Needs more Jay-Z/Nas beef discussion

I see I didn't even have to say anything to be here.

;)

oldskool ilx is returning, we are the virus

*grabs throat, unable to speak*

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12/eu-throws-shade-as-uk-approves-covid-19-vaccine-after-10-day-review/

Others in the EU were more even more direct in their criticism of the UK’s approval.

“I consider this decision to be problematic and recommend that EU Member States do not repeat the process in the same way,” EU Parliament Member Peter Liese said, according to Reuters. “A few weeks of thorough examination by the European Medicines Agency is better than a hasty emergency marketing authorization of a vaccine,” Liese added.

Good thing Europe has borders, o wait

I think that's been provoked by the implication that the UK has Brexit to thank for the rapid authorization of the vaccine.

Brexitfest 2021, syringes, blue passports and bunting for all

it's gonna be our year guys

Just in case you were wondering...

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/03/gavin-williamson-britains-a-much-better-country-than-all-of-them

These are iPad stations being prepared for virtual ICU end of life visits by a palliative care doc I know. Jesus. pic.twitter.com/lIgbg0FhaL

— i cant drive, n95 (@roto_tudor) December 3, 2020

.

xp... and a 9/11 Memorial-style Covid 19 memorial park that will be a forest of blank iPads on stands

sorry that's pretty fucking dark, I preemptively denounce myself

Kinda hit me hard that as I keep forgetting it's not just infected covid folk that are dying alone staring at screens. No-one gets family.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/03/gavin-williamson-britains-a-much-better-country-than-all-of-them

cool story bro

We're the best because we were first to accept this thing all the other countries made and tested.

https://i.imgflip.com/1xvnfi.jpg

lol, that's a great cartoon

daily tests have dropped significantly in illinois over the past 2 weeks. at first, i thought that might be because the rest of the U.S. is spiking so tests are in short supply. but overall U.S. tests are down, too:

https://i.imgur.com/PVh2w5C.png

so, repeating this...does this mean that that the whole world is spiking so global tests are scarcer?

Honestly I think it's because tons of people got tested before Thanksgiving travel and that's the spike you see right before the last two weeks

It doesn’t really make sense for tests to go down while presumably the prevalence of the disease is going up. It would make sense for tests to flatten out if there’s a supply chain problem.

The simplest explanation for a drop is slow reporting of data that will likely later get backfilled. I’m guessing tests in particular are subject to backfill because they get reported more slowly than eg deaths (especially negative tests). I bet if you come back in a month and look at the data for the last two weeks of November that drop will have disappeared.

but would you bet 1 million dollars on that?

actually, make that a $4-10 bet, or a beer on me, sometime after all this. miss you, old friend.

Hello, looking forward to beers!

Me and Karl malone after we get the vaccine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fenXptAOBY8

i think that's the closest i've gotten to an authentic pub experience, other than a bunch of french dudes in my apartment singing their national anthem in the kitchen in the middle of the night, at my housemate's party, a few years ago!

also i'm sure you're right about the reason behind the testing drop, i just wanted to bet :)

Things escalated quickly on CNBC this morning....way to go @andrewrsorkin keeping that idiot Santelli in check pic.twitter.com/MD2zzfQxVk

— Icculus The Brave (@FirenzeMike) December 4, 2020

why do all of these people act like kindergartners

"I don't want to, waaaah!"

I'm getting vibes of complete covid burnout even by nominally smart people who have followed basic quarantine through the summer. Quarantine is over and all covid mitigation efforts might as well be in the garbage until a vaccine is successful and widespread.

A lot of vaccine sceptics popping up on Facebook, mostly because my sister keeps talking about it and, unfortunately, a lot of her FB friends seem to be Tory voting Rangers fans in their 50s (she isn't btw).

lately I've heard Joe Exotic's name pop up as a potential pardon and every time I hear that name I just think of the early days of this when people were just like "well let's make the most of this, maybe it'll be fun to stay home for a month, I mean how long is this really gonna last?"

there's this confirmation bias type thing as well, like - well, nothing bad's happened TO ME so far, so i've probably already had it / i won't get it / etc

part of it is just this slow acceptance that this is just what life is now. you can wrap your head around doing something different for a month but I feel like we're probably not gonna be vaccinated until 15 months into this and life probably won't be "normal" until a year after that, and that's a really long period of time to just put half of your life on hold. kinda feel like a lot of people are gonna have some sort of low-level trauma from all this when it's all said and done

normalization and legitimization of voices like those of the Santelli person from that tweet upthread are among the greater sins this administration has perpetrated on the human race

he's the tea party guy from 2009 right?

Sure is!