outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

every time this stuff gets in the news i have an anxiety attack just reading about it

do you think we're all going to die of a plague, soon?

I watched Contagion 2x in a row on a recent intercontinental flight and within 24 hours of landing I was sicker than I can ever remember being.

-Peter

that was a scary one because you know that's exactly how it's going to go down, too

my dad is of the opinion that we're all gonna drop dead from mad cow disease eventually from a lifetime of pink slime exposure

Ebola in Uganda, new flu killing East Coast seals...

Who the HECK would choose Contagion for in-flight programming???

-Peter

There is still this other side of me that wishes I'd embarked on one of my many fig tree dream careers of epidemiologist. I really get a kick form this kind of thing. Someday we will all be dead.

So how worried should we be now, anyway.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/25/us-heath-ebola-nigeria-idUSKBN0FU1LE20140725

Fanning flames, paranoia: http://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/New-fears-about-Ebola-spread-after-plane-scare-5651721.php

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — No one knows for sure just how many people Patrick Sawyer came into contact with the day he boarded a flight in Liberia, had a stopover in Ghana, changed planes in Togo, and then arrived in Nigeria, where authorities say he died days later from Ebola, one of the deadliest diseases known to man.

Now health workers are scrambling to trace those who may have been exposed to Sawyer across West Africa, including flight attendants and fellow passengers.

Health experts say it is unlikely he could have infected others with the virus that can cause victims to bleed from the eyes, mouth and ears. Still, unsettling questions remain: How could a man whose sister recently died from Ebola manage to board a plane leaving the country? And worse: Could Ebola become the latest disease to be spread by international air travel?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/ebola-virus-top-sierra-leone-doctor-shek-umar-dies-of-disease-9636406.html

Sierra Leone's top virologist has died in the current outbreak.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/health/patient-at-mount-sinai-has-ebola-like-symptoms-hospital-says.html

This is terrible, reports of hospitals shutting their doors, infected rotting corpses in the streets and ebola nurses downing tools after not getting paid measly $30 a week risk money pledged by the Sierra Leone gvt. Conditions described as "medieval" in parts where the health system has totally collapsed.

i heard a woman talking on the radio about it the other day and she was not holding back about how grim it was -- she was a reporter but i don't remember her name
she used the same analogy, like it was medieval in terms of what people believe about medicine as well as the degree to which people receive/shun medical care when they need it

Little did we know all the right wing survivalists had the right idea for the wrong reason. It's not Obama they should fear, but ebola.

I read an article about the stress of being an ebola nurse. Encased in completely enveloping PPE in a hot climate for 12 + hour shifts. Dealing with infectious, dying patients that constantly fall out of beds, spray blood and diarrhea all over the place. The people that deal with these patients ... I just have no idea where they get their courage from.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-armed-men-attack-liberia-ebola-clinic-freeing-patients/

holy shit

Yeah,

Plague Inc is my favorite game

http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/08/19/341412011/shadow-and-d-12-sing-an-infectious-song-about-ebola?

dr. brantly speaking now, was just discharged from emory

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/tests-under-way-for-ebola-following-donegal-death-1.1904073

Shit got real. school with this guys sister

Pharmeceutical industry person tries to defend the industry re charges they have not done enough re ebola because it is in poor countries

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2014/08/18/washington-post-off-base-in-critiquing-pharma-efforts-in-ebola/

the incentives for the pharmaceutical industry are what they are, unfortunately

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/ebolanomics

Irish guy didn't have Ebola. Was a false alarm.

South Africa and Senegal trying to bar some folks from countries at issue from entry

First US case in Dallas. Take that NYC & LA! We're number one!

Yikes!

I wonder how many crisis of this kind will happen before countries take the WHO seriously and decide to invest in a proper international health structure to prevent this kind of outbreak. Freaking hate to see institutions like the FMI giving up to 130 millions $ but then pressure politicians in the region to go for austerity, it's a waste of money for everyone.

ebola USED to be at the top of my list of irrational fears. presbyterian hospital is about 5 miles north of where i'm sitting right now.

welp

#patientzero

The Frontline piece on this a week or so ago was eye-opening. Hospitals that are barely more than cordoned off fields, mass graves, disinfecting the back of trucks (where patients ride, near death) by tossing in buckets of bleach, doctors and other aid workers more or less forced to visit villages free of any special suits for fear of scaring the shit out of everyone, children orphaned and alone overnight. Just heartbreaking. It's both a matter of doctors struggling to keep up with a rapidly and easily spreading illness and a population almost impossible to isolate. Bodies being dumped and left by the side of the road, families taking members out of quarantine, superstitious treatments co-mingling with modern medicine ...

Here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ebola-outbreak/

The saddest bit may be at the end, where grave diggers, one by one, list all their families members who have succumbed.

I'm just a few miles further away, art. Drive by it almost every day as I head up to Richardson.

Your risk of dying from ebola (total confirmed 2014 ebola deaths: a few thousand worldwide) is still lower than your risk of dying due to complications related to seasonal influenza (on average, 5800-7500 a year in the US). Get a flu shot. Don't get too preoccupied by ebola.

wanna c&p that on every damn facebook post I see for the next week

be my guest

i have total confidence in the medical system to properly handle any other arising cases. that said, i am still illogically terrified

Sick Burn I saw on FB:

Don't worry about Ebola spreading in Dallas. The Cowboys have shown us that people in Dallas can't catch anything.

Ebola spreads by physical contact with bodily secretions and fluids. That makes it easier to contain in a place like the USA or Europe, where there are lots of medical facilities and a patient's recent contacts can be quickly discovered and tracked down.

Even so, if ebola strongly establishes itself in Africa, with a reservoir of infected people who keep the virus continuously viable and circulating, then not only will massive numbers of africans die, but ebola will keep leaping to other parts of the world, including the USA and Europe. It can be compared to sparks thrown out from a wildfire, which land on tinder and start other fires away from the main fire. You can put out many of these small satellite fires, but it is hard to extinguish all of them, and the more new places that start burning the harder the firestorm is to keep contained.

That's a good analogy. I really wish international focus between the Ebola outbreak and ISIL was better divided.

run for the hills imo

*not the hills of West Africa, tho*

http://i.imgur.com/LHm72Rq.png

ugh goddamned parody accounts :(

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa.html

this is a very difficult article to read

apparently the problem is not money but organization and time

Oh jeez:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/texas-ebola_n_5919522.html

at what point is it ok for me to start panicking?

supposed to go to the state fair this weekend and have resolved not to touch any surfaces and to bathe myself in hand sanitizer after it is all over.

the panic is hilarious. Especially from folks who drive on the streets of Dallas. You should be much more afraid of north Texas drivers than ebola.

until there is an effective vaccine I consider ebola as a threat, but in the USA it is a long term threat, which gives the researchers plenty of time to develop that vaccine.

truly despicable imo for rand paul, a physician, to be saying things like this to score political points

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-rand-paul-sounds-ebola-alarm/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa.html

this is a very difficult article to read

apparently the problem is not money but organization and time

― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, October 1, 2014 7:27 PM (Yesterday

disorganization and lack of preparedness (not to mention distrust of medical authorities, belief in traditional healing, etc) are consequences of poverty, though. this was from a few weeks ago but i think it's a good primer

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1409494

First, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are resource-poor countries already coping with major health challenges, such as malaria and other endemic diseases, some of which may be confused with EVD. Next, their borders are porous, and movement between countries is constant. Health care infrastructure is inadequate, and health workers and essential supplies including personal protective equipment are scarce. Traditional practices, such as bathing of corpses before burial, have facilitated transmission. The epidemic has spread to cities, which complicates tracing of contacts. Finally, decades of conflict have left the populations distrustful of governing officials and authority figures such as health professionals. Add to these problems a rapidly spreading virus with a high mortality rate, and the scope of the challenge becomes clear

(consults his lawyer in a rapidly whispered exchange)

On advice of counsel, I recommend you should ask your physician.

I got the latest booster in September, got COVID in December, should I boost again?

It me.

I think I'm going to wait a bit, since I assume I have some protection from the infection.

legend

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/german-man-got-217-covid-shots-over-29-months-heres-how-it-went/

Last, multiple types of testing indicated that the man has never been infected with SARS-CoV-2. But the researchers were cautious to note that this may be due to other precautions the man took beyond getting 217 vaccines.

Lmao

just recovered from a truly brutal few days after the PCV20 pneumonia vaccine (which most people don't need, but I needed for reasons), thinking about side effects.

if you struggled with Pfizer or Moderna side effects (or if you have any kind of autoimmune thing, or you have relatives who believe MRNA vaccines put super soldiers from the IRS in your veins), consider the novavax shot. CVS won't take reservations for it, but it is carried at all their locations and they take walk ins. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-novavax-latecomer-covid-vaccine-worth.html, https://www.science.org/content/article/should-you-pick-novavax-s-covid-19-shot-over-mrna-options.

My most recent shot was the Novavax, and the process you describe was pretty accurate: make an appointment, then when you get to CVS specify you want the Novamax. But the experience is not universal. Some months back when my mom went to get her latest shot she looked online and saw that CVS had the Novavax, but when she got there they said they didn't, supposedly because demand was so and/or their allotted doses had expired. So I guess caveat emptor/call first.

The current situation is they don't let you pick Novavax when making an appointment, and I don't think they actually want you to make a Pfizer/Moderna placeholder appointment. There is a big banner that says

"Trying to schedule a Novavax vaccine?
Novavax vaccine is carried at all locations.
Appointments are not required. Visit the location of your choice and talk with the Pharmacist in person.
Continue scheduling your appointment online for a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine."

"carried" sounds a bit aspirational, but I think the idea is "walk in and there's a decent chance we'll have it".

I'm trying to remember from when I made my own appointment, but I'm pretty sure they make you pick a vaccine type when you are making a vaccine appointment online. I ended up calling them afterwards and asking, and the guy at the pharmacy told me just to put down one of the other vaccines but to tell them when I checked in that I wanted the novavax. Maybe they have changed procedure? Anyway, just relating my mom's experience, since apparently just because CVS claims to carry the vaccine isn't a guarantee that they actually have it, and to call first.

Good to know. I'm getting a jab this week, probably Novavax, maybe Tanqueray.

You do have to choose a vaccine to make an appointment with cvs. You can’t choose novavax at the time you make the appointment though. They want you to just call in.

Reading this Medium blog about the Foo Fighters' early '00s advocacy for a group that denied the link between HIV and AIDS. Somehow I have never heard about this?

https://medium.com/the-monthly/the-foo-fighters-aids-denialism-should-be-on-the-record-6e33666fdc3c

Alive and Well was not your usual celebrity charity then, but it was nonetheless amplified by one of the biggest bands in the world. In early 2000, President Clinton’s director of AIDS policy admonished them: “For the Foo Fighters to be promoting this is extraordinarily irresponsible behaviour. There is no doubt about the link between HIV and AIDS in the respected scientific community and it’s quite unfortunate that a band reads one book and then adopts this theory. To say [that HIV does not cause AIDS] is akin to saying the world is flat.”

That “one book” was What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong? — self-published pseudo-science written by Alive and Well’s founder, Christine Maggiore, a woman diagnosed with HIV in the early ’90s — and it fell into the idle hands of the Foo Fighters’ bassist, Nate Mendel. After devouring it, Mendel conscripted his bandmates in his advocacy for Maggiore’s group.

too much time on the bus

I remember there was a writer for SPIN magazine in the early 90s, Celia Farber, who penned many articles questioning the HIV-AIDS link. Always thought it was a weird thing to read in a music mag.

Celia Farber is more awful than you think (a galaxy brain thirty years ago can only get exponentially worse)

https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/a-family-that-lost-their-daughter

and on and on

She was Bob Jr’s girlfriend when I was interning at Spin.

fuck

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/01/first-human-avian-flu-case-texas-00149949

Good news:

1/n update on Covid in U.S. first some good news, latest from CDC shows we’re now at about our lowest levels of new COVID hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic… pic.twitter.com/yhTVKi0EN3

— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) April 26, 2024

Looks like the spectacularly well-named FLiRT variants are the next ones for which we'll need a fall booster.

Roffle. But yeah, things are definitely calmer. My hospital has been in low single digits for a while. Thankfully masking is still required in the main building; I work at an outlier with a window I prop open right behind me so in combination with relatively lower usage levels compared to pre-pandemic that enables me to split things nicely, since I only use the main building to grab lunch most days.

Pfizer’s own large clinical trial of paxlovid, the first since the vaccines and omicron just came a couple of weeks ago.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/paxlovid-covid-treatment-most-beneficial-for-unvaccinated-people-with-risk/

They found no evidence it has any effect on their subjects, which were vaccinated people with risk factors, and vaccinated and unvaccinated people without risk factors.

Basically seems like the only people who should bother taking it are unvaccinated people with risk factors (age, immunosuppresive drugs, etc.)

But if you’re immunocompromised there’s a new prophylactic in town that replaces Evushield https://www.statnews.com/2024/03/22/covid-immunocompromised-antibody-protection-invivyd/

New bird flu vector just dropped

"Since March 25, when the bird flu virus was confirmed in U.S. cattle for the first time, weekly sales of raw cow’s milk have ticked up 21% to as much as 65% compared with the same periods a year ago."

This is why we can't have nice things. pic.twitter.com/04ajQJXs7m

— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) May 14, 2024

well anecdotally I'd say Paxlovid had a huge effect on me. Maybe placebo effect. Who cares. Both times COVID symptoms disappeared almost immediately after starting it.

same as dan.

my symptoms went away immediately and my path to a negative test was halved in time.

^ hard statistics, hard science

I'd like to think that raw milk uptick is anti-vaxxers trying to own the libs.

Study still in Infancy and this is based on a mega small trial so grain of salt and all but

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/never-covid-1.7248039

respect to Affleck and J-Gar's daughter

Violet Affleck: "To confront the Long COVID crisis I demand mask availability, air filtration and far-UVC light in government facilities, including jails and detention centers and mask mandates in county medical facilities. We must expand availability of tests and treatment.… pic.twitter.com/zg4b7Z9vxy

— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) July 10, 2024

Now I forget where they 'when you've got COVID' thread is but my last week and a half was sitting around at home. (Got through it okay, it seems! I'm glad to have had a four year run without.)

Glad to hear. Symptoms?

Basically a bit of sinus inflammation -- no flat out classic 'cold' symptoms as such, wasn't sneezing my brains out at any point -- plus fever and aches on the day I tested positive, both of which were cut thoroughly with DayQuil, with a Paxlovid regimen taking care of the rest over subsequent days. No loss of taste or smell, happily, and that first day was the worst, it was mostly about resting at home after that, which I was able to do to the full.

I got it two weeks ago and my symptoms were a very snotty head cold and painful sinuses, no fever or fatigue. Lasted a week, fucked up my vacation.

Ned how's the lay of the land at the hospital? Wastewater numbers out West are sky-high...

Just two weeks ago, during an uptick in the DC area, I tested negative for COVID three times in a row but I had a headache and sinus pressure for 24 hours it sucked, whatever it was.

i know the at home tests are only moderately accurate but i'd think 3x consecutive negatives pretty conclusive...

As soon as I was done with Covid, I got a sinus infection. Blah.

Ned how's the lay of the land at the hospital?

I'll double check numbers later today.

it's everywhere out here now. my wife's entire company appears to have it, and if they don't they have a virus that her boss' doctor diagnosed him with. it's one he's seen arriving in the immediate wake of covid in a lot of his patients. he was prescribed with an inhaler to help combat it.

On a plane yesterday (and last Thursday) I noted more masks on than anytime since 2022. Reassuring.

yeah this wave is about to arrive at last summer's peak, but it started earlier than last summer. Caitlin Rivers doesn't believe it's peaked in any region yet.

know the at home tests are only moderately accurate but i'd think 3x consecutive negatives pretty conclusive...

3x negative with 24 or 48 hours between them is indicative if not conclusive. 3x negative b2b is in no way conclusive.

oic

since Q2 2022 there have been variants that won’t nec. pop a rat for several days of symptoms / being contagious

I think I had Covid last month and never tested negative (I did four tests over a week). I think I had Covid because - although my cold symptoms were mild and sinusy - I had that weird, uncomfortable, non-enjoyable tiredness for several days, that seeems uniquely Coviddy to me. I quite like being rundown with a cold - I can stay at home and watch TV all day and veg - even the aches are oddly satisfying. But Covid tiredness is draggy and boring and uncanny-feeling.

_ know the at home tests are only moderately accurate but i'd think 3x consecutive negatives pretty conclusive..._

3x negative with 24 or 48 hours between them is indicative if not conclusive. 3x negative b2b is in no way conclusive.

I didn’t do them in one sitting, I can read directions

👍

just clarifying for anyone reading

I wish you would have told me before I crushed this sixer of Covid tests.

Your nose is just in absolute shreds now

Anyhoo, the last time I got a Covid was last December and I tested while I had symptoms—negative. But 48 hours later my symptoms were already long gone and I tested positive.