tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4062334622304514923.post705792730728076108..comments2024-02-23T03:15:18.221-08:00Comments on Rule of 6ix: Will viruses eventually hail our destruction?Connor Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08132413724023944783noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4062334622304514923.post-11556820202631117202011-08-08T01:04:19.364-07:002011-08-08T01:04:19.364-07:00@contagions/Michelle,
You're right with the H...@contagions/Michelle,<br /><br />You're right with the HIV example although I bet if everyone in the world who didn't have natural resistance to infection/AIDS died, society would pretty much collapse across the board. <br /><br />I like to think of some of these pathogens as handy regulators of the human population. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if we were doomed.Connor Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08132413724023944783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4062334622304514923.post-51289608149365902152011-08-06T08:30:51.275-07:002011-08-06T08:30:51.275-07:00I think HIV is instructive here. When HIV first em...I think HIV is instructive here. When HIV first emerged it was thought to possibly be the virus that could be a species killer. Natural selection will always win. As we've seen with HIV there are some people with genetic immunity - not many but enough to keep our species going. Maybe it would be better to think of viruses as potential mega-bottleneck producers. <br /><br />Also, the 1918 virus lasted more than one year. I think we have to remember that most people who caught that virus survived just fine. Influenza has a really complicated history. <br /><br />I think air travel allows viruses to make larger leaps or hops but the main spread is still on the ground. The 1918 and 1889 flu pandemics traveled by railroad and the plague made its leaps by sea. Global transport isn't new.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4062334622304514923.post-13741367278275894562011-08-02T01:09:05.962-07:002011-08-02T01:09:05.962-07:00Tom, you're correct, I think the swine - and b...Tom, you're correct, I think the swine - and bird - flu cases really highlighted our weaknesses on this front, namely: our dangerous methods of farming animals that led to the initial emergence of the viruses; our inability to detect the viruses early and allowing it to rapidly spread through air travel etc and then the over-the-top media response. This also happened with the 2002/3 SARS outbreak if you remember.<br /><br />The only solace I could find in this is that if it were really bad, those infected would be too ill to transmit it very far. <br /><br />And, as I alluded to in the post, at least now we sort of know where we went wrong - it's just trying to get the right people and the right time to listen that is the problem.Connor Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08132413724023944783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4062334622304514923.post-13437287842028649492011-08-01T20:01:02.237-07:002011-08-01T20:01:02.237-07:00What we've gained in medical research - will i...What we've gained in medical research - will it be offset by transportation-facilitated transmission? Isn't global air travel a game-changer?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4062334622304514923.post-13104380734846786132011-08-01T14:16:20.057-07:002011-08-01T14:16:20.057-07:00The reaction to the swine flu epidemic was not par...The reaction to the swine flu epidemic was not particularly edifying. If that had been a really serious one, I'm not confident that it would have been controlled. Maybe not all of us would have been doomed, but it would have led to some pretty nasty scenes.Epiphenomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05420404206189437710noreply@blogger.com