Climate Change Can Make Most Human Diseases Worse (theverge.com) 85
Polio is back, monkeypox isn't slowing down, COVID-19 is still around -- and now there's more not-so-good news on the infection front: over 200 human diseases could get worse because of climate change, according to a new study. From a report: Researchers have known for a long time that the changing climate affects disease. Warmer temperatures can make regions newly hospitable to disease-carrying mosquitoes, while floods from more frequent storms can carry bacteria in their surges of water. Most research, though, only focused on a handful of threats or one disease at a time. The new study, published in Nature Climate Change, built a comprehensive map of all of the ways various climate hazards could interact with 375 documented human infectious diseases. The authors reviewed over 77,000 scientific articles about those diseases and climate hazards. They found that, of those 375 diseases, 218 could be aggravated by things like heatwaves, rising sea levels, and wildfires.
The study found four main ways climate change exacerbates diseases. First, problems happen when changes cause disease-carrying animals to move closer to people. For example, animal habitats are disrupted by things like wildfires that drive bats and rodents into new areas, increasing the likelihood they'll transmit diseases like Ebola to people. Other research shows that climate change makes viruses more likely to jump from animals to people, as happened with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That phenomenon also likely contributed to the 2016 Zika outbreaks.
The study found four main ways climate change exacerbates diseases. First, problems happen when changes cause disease-carrying animals to move closer to people. For example, animal habitats are disrupted by things like wildfires that drive bats and rodents into new areas, increasing the likelihood they'll transmit diseases like Ebola to people. Other research shows that climate change makes viruses more likely to jump from animals to people, as happened with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That phenomenon also likely contributed to the 2016 Zika outbreaks.
Anti-vaxxers (Score:4, Insightful)
Polio isnâ(TM)t back because of climate change, but because of fuckwits who wonâ(TM)t vaccinate their children. Letâ(TM)s stop looking for excuses for these people.
Re: Anti-vaxxers (Score:2)
Thereâ(TM)s certainly a long standing trust issue, but has vaccination rates decreased in that demographic at the same rate as it has amongst white people?
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Yes it is well-known that if you are vaccinated there's 100% chance of you not catching the disease the vaccination was for.
Now, onto other news: The Rotfang conspiracy is planning to take over the world with a combination of dark magic and gum disease. Fox is all over this.
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Stop spreading misinformation! The Covid Vaccine does not prevent you from getting Covid. The vaccine helps keep you out of the hospital or dying.
Is this true for all vaccines or just the COVID-19 vaccines? Which one is most effective in preventing a breakthrough infection? How can I know if the vaccine is working if I still get the disease? Do we know how long these vaccines are effective? As I recall most vaccines are effective at preventing disease for years, perhaps one's entire life. Which vaccine lasts the longest?
I ask because I have only had two shots of a vaccine, and I'd consider another if I thought I needed it. It appears to me that
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after the Trump admin scared them into thinking they were being experimented on and were going to die of blood clots.
Trump was pro vaccine [cnn.com].
Re:Anti-vaxxers (Score:4, Informative)
People of color are more likely to be vaccine hesitant. We saw that with Covid vaccines.
Depends on what you mean by "people of color". Whites are 64% likely to be vaccinated, Blacks 59%. Not really a huge difference. Hispanics and Asians are MORE likely to be vaccinated than non-hispanic whites. https://www.kff.org/coronaviru... [kff.org]
Also they're more likely to be vaccine hesitant (Score:2)
What's the #1 thing that fights vaccine hesitancy? Talking to your doctor. If you're doctor is likely to blow you off instead of spending that extra 15 minutes explaining the need for vaccines then that would neatly explain the difference.
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For Polio, it's more because it's literally not a conspiracy to say vaccine doctors are CIA agents [scientificamerican.com]. People don't trust vaccine workers, because those vaccine workers were literally trying to kill someone. The CIA fucked it up for all of us.
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Re: Anti-vaxxers (Score:1)
Indeed. Weâ(TM)ve seen recently amongst the Covid generation a sudden surge of meningitis, death and liver transplants due to very young children missing out on infections normally spread child to child.
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Re:Anti-vaxxers (Score:5, Informative)
Polio isnâ(TM)t back because of climate change, but because of fuckwits who wonâ(TM)t vaccinate their children. Letâ(TM)s stop looking for excuses for these people.
The people who are contracting polio [go.com] are the same people who brought measles [cbsnews.com] to the U.S.
And yes, this same group has the lowest vaccination rate in Rockland County.
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From the article:
The outbreak was centered in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community where many residents had not been vaccinated.
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Flooding comes to mind.
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Border security (Score:2, Interesting)
Polio isnâ(TM)t back because of climate change, but because of fuckwits who wonâ(TM)t vaccinate their children. Letâ(TM)s stop looking for excuses for these people.
Polio is back entirely due to our lax border security.
We were well on the way to eliminating polio worldwide. There hasn't been a polio case in the US for over 40 years, we only recommended the vaccine for travelers, and then only people traveling to specific areas of the world.
Today 1 person in NYC has contracted polio from an unknown person, and polio monitoring of the sewage system shows that the virus is circulating somewhere in the population. Most polio infections are asymptomatic, so there is an expe
Re:Border security (Score:4, Informative)
Today 1 person in NYC has contracted polio from an unknown person, and polio monitoring of the sewage system shows that the virus is circulating somewhere in the population.
...
If we simply secured the border and doubled the number of legal immigrants, then we would have the same number of immigrants, but we could test the health of everyone coming into the country.
The anti-vaxxer groups and ultra-orthodox religious groups in which polio and measles are actively spreading consist almost entirely of natural-born American citizens. Illegal immigration is, for the most part, not how diseases spread. They almost always spread because somebody flew on a plane from an area where a virus is actively spreading. Hint: Neither Canada nor Mexico has polio (since 1979 and 1990, respectively).
Yeah, yeah, TB infections. Fluoroquinolones are a wonderful thing.
I mean, you're right that we should make legal immigration easier, but we should do it because it is the morally just thing to do, not because you think it will somehow reduce transmission of disease by a large enough amount to matter; it probably won't.
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I mean, you're right that we should make legal immigration easier,
Absolutely not! The USA needs its armies of undocumented workers to do all the shit jobs for shitty wages & get treated like shit by abusive employers. Yeah, it's illegal & immoral but it's just soooo profitable!
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Fluoroquinolones are a wonderful thing.
They are, in that they can wreck some really nasty infections that could otherwise kill you. They're also quite good at wrecking the human body. Tendon ruptures, aortic aneurysm, detached retinas, mitochondria malfunction; the list goes on and on, lots of fun and not terribly uncommon side effects come along with those drugs, and remarkably, a surprising number of physicians aren't aware of it.
it's all the globetrotting anti-vaxers and ultra-maga religious mega-conser
Re: Anti-vaxxers (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Anti-vaxxers (Score:4, Informative)
Polio was deemed to be eradicated from the Americas in the 1990s. In the 2000s more people got polio from the vaccine than from catching it from other people. This means that until polio was re-introduced into the Americas it was safer to not be vaccinated.
That's not a correct way to interpret that data. Nearly everyone who gets vaccine-derived poliovirus, statistically speaking, is an unvaccinated person who got sick from someone who just got vaccinated. So it most certainly is *not* safer to not be vaccinated.
??? We do regularly vaccinate against polio. Every single person is still required to be vaccinated [immunize.org] before attending any public school or childcare facility in any state in the U.S.
It might also be caused by the tooth fairy. The odds of an illegal immigrant bringing in polio are almost zero, given that wild poliovirus has been eradicated everywhere in the world other than Afghanistan and Pakistan, and I'm pretty sure nobody from either of those countries swims across the Atlantic ocean to immigrate illegally, no matter what Google Maps might have suggested back in the day.
Polio cases in the U.S. are likely caused by large unvaccinated communities being exposed to someone shedding the remnants of an OPV vaccination given overseas in a country where that is still used.
If COVID-19 was President Trump's problem to solve then should not we hold President Biden to solve the problem of monkey pox and polio? Or are we taking it easy on Biden because he's an old man with COVID-19? Oh, wait, Trump was also an old man with COVID-19. Must be something else that causes our news networks to hold them to a different standard.
Everybody born before 1972 is already immune to monkeypox, and at least historically, almost all of the non-childhood deaths have been in people who were immunocompromised from HIV. In fact, in this round, 41% of cases are in people who are HIV-positive. And it is not likely to be (meaningfully) airborne, given its low R0 (estimates seem to mostly be from about 1.2 to 1.6 for the current strain, and even lower for historical strains).
This is a very different animal than COVID-19, and a similar level of panic would be unjustified. Just make the vaccine available to anyone under 51 who is immunocompromised, and you're done. And that's already happening. So why do you think we're taking it easy on Biden?
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So it most certainly is *not* safer to not be vaccinated.
For a time that was the case, at least according to people that aren't randos posting to Slashdot.
I've spent hundreds of hours reading research articles on infectious diseases specifically so that I can have intelligent conversations on the subject during the pandemic and can counter anti-vaxxer trolls with some degree of certainty in my statements. What credentials do the rando anti-vaxxers who made the claim you're repeating bring to the table? I'm guessing none.
It might also be caused by the tooth fairy. The odds of an illegal immigrant bringing in polio are almost zero, given that wild poliovirus has been eradicated everywhere in the world other than Afghanistan and Pakistan, and I'm pretty sure nobody from either of those countries swims across the Atlantic ocean to immigrate illegally, no matter what Google Maps might have suggested back in the day.
I agree that's not how they got to the USA. They likely got on USAF cargo planes out of the area as friendly locals were airlifted out as the US military left.
ROFL. There have been zero wild poliovirus cases in the U.S. since 1993. So no. All cases in the U.S. since 1993 have been vaccine-deriv
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Indeed the person presenting with polio was not vaccinated but that person got the virus from someone that came into the USA, from a nation using OPV. That person coming into the USA was vaccinated, but with the OPV vaccine that hasn't been used in the USA for at least a decade before the incident precisely because of cases of the OPV vaccine mutating into active and infectious forms of polio. In the USA OPV hasn't been used for a very long time, instead IPV (injected/inactive polio virus) was used. IPV
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Indeed the person presenting with polio was not vaccinated but that person got the virus from someone that came into the USA, from a nation using OPV. That person coming into the USA was vaccinated, but with the OPV vaccine that hasn't been used in the USA for at least a decade before the incident precisely because of cases of the OPV vaccine mutating into active and infectious forms of polio.
Actually, the patient in question traveled abroad this year, and is believed to have contracted it while overseas. However, it has now spread among unvaccinated people in the area, and there are samples showing up in other places nearby, which is a great demonstration of what happens when you live in a pocket of the world where only 60% of the population is vaccinated against polio and you bring back a strain.
In the USA OPV hasn't been used for a very long time, instead IPV (injected/inactive polio virus) was used. IPV won't mutate into an infectious disease. As I understand it IPV is dead proteins from polio to trigger an immune response while OPV is a weakened, and still alive, virus to trigger an immune response. OPV can mutate into an infectious disease, IPV cannot.
Correct.
It appears that to be opposed to OPV was interpreted to being opposed to all vaccines. Why would you make that assumption?
To be clear, I didn't say you were an anti-vaxxer. I've heard similar claims about OPV be
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So you want them to give a Monkeypox test to over a million people every day just in case they happen to have it? And a million COVID tests per day? And a million tests for polio?
Screening for a disease does not mean swabbing noses and taking blood samples. It's not illegal to ask questions at the border about risk factors that could spread disease, even for a US citizen entering the country. I recall being asked some questions about disease risk factors when returning to the USA from Europe, an odd one I recall was if I had contact with farm animals. I guess stepping in a cow pie could spread some disease.
If someone donates blood, or even goes to a dentist, then people are asked
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Wow. How the heck did I post that as an AC?
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The former alleged president was pilloried for first claiming Covid wasn't a problem, then it would be gone by spring, then by summer (the sun, y'know), then by autumn, then he caught it himself and proceeded to put his staff at risk on a joy ride around the medical center. Along the way, he encouraged quack remedies like Hyrodychloroquine.
Monkey pox is all of what, 2 months old in the U.S. and the U.S. is buying monkey pox vaccine. But due to the conservatives whining about how the federal government was u
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Along the way, he encouraged quack remedies like Hyrodychloroquine.
Quack remedy?
https://www.mayoclinic.org/dru... [mayoclinic.org]
Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria. It is also used to prevent malaria infection in areas or regions where it is known that other medicines (eg, chloroquine) may not work. Hydroxychloroquine may also be used to treat coronavirus (COVID-19) in certain hospitalized patients.
Right, the Mayo Clinic is full of quacks.
I suspect someone might ask why I picked the Mayo Clinic since there might be another website that says different and I might have cherry picked. I guess it's because Mayo Clinic website is easier to read and navigate than others I tried before this, and they appear to be a well respected clinic. It looked to me that other results I got agreed with Mayo
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Not directly, but one could argue that the anti-science propaganda of climate change deniers has inadvertently given the antivax nuts a signal boost. And vice-versa, judging by how much anti-EV propaganda I've seen recently from the Qanon nuts I keep tabs on.
Re:Come on now (Score:5, Informative)
We found that 58% (that is, 218 out of 375) of infectious diseases confronted by humanity worldwide have been at some point aggravated by climatic hazards; 16% were at times diminished.
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The people in Florida or Louisiana will probably be ok due to air conditioning, but when 25 million Indians die maybe you'll think about it differently?
Of course their crops will have all died, so they'll be starving too. Depending on where they live the might also be trying to cope with 190 million Bangl
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>but when 25 million Indians die maybe you'll think about it differently?
From an environmentalist standpoint, that means the problem will be self-correcting. Climate change will kill hundreds of millions. Those hundreds of millions will stop requiring long-sequestered carbon from fossil fuel sources once they decompose, thus reducing the rate at which new carbon is added to the carbon cycle.
From a humanitarian standpoint, that sucks. Though as the climate changes areas that were previously uninhabitable
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I can't see that happening though.
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Not just temperatures. (Score:4, Informative)
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When the grand solar minimum kicks in soon, everyone is going to be wishing for the good ol days of "global warming".
Here's a hint: the sun drives the earth's weather, and the sun is always going through cycles, short and long. humans are irrelevant in this and it is only human arrogance that could think otherwise.
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Lets assume your claims are true for the moment. Would not it still be beneficial to end the practice of burning fossil fuels? Or at least that of burning fossil fuels imported from other nations?
We've seen petroleum exporting nations use the over reliance on importing these fuels against other nations. Russia is getting much of Europe in a panic on having enough natural gas for the winter to provide enough heat with enough left over to provide backup electricity production for wind and solar.
My thesis i
This is genuinely funny (Score:2)
I don't think you have to wait for "climate change" to eat your brain. That's already happened. Zomg! It's flesh-eating "whatever"!
we need a good dose or polio (Score:2)
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Two months into 2022 season, nary a hurricane ... (Score:3, Informative)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/U... [upi.com]
I was told that global warming would make hurricanes like Katrina a practically-daily occurrence
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I was told that global warming would make hurricanes like Katrina a practically-daily occurrence
And yet, if you had bothered to read that article you linked to, you'd see that it was a warning. About delayed or the lack of hurricane activity in the early months of the season being a forecaster of stronger storms in later months. Your linked article also says that there may be a storm forming in the Atlantic this week.
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I was told that global warming would make hurricanes like Katrina a practically-daily occurrence
It depends on which year you are looking at. Right now, it's making storms slightly stronger. If we keep this pace, by mid century it will be a different story.
There have been plenty of hurricanes but we simply haven't been impacted in the first two months out of good luck. Don't count your chickens though because hurricane season isn't over until it's over. For all we know, there could be a storm system building up energy this very day and about to transform into a large hurricane that leaves amazing am
Re:Two months into 2022 season, nary a hurricane . (Score:4, Informative)
It depends on which year you are looking at. Right now, it's making storms slightly stronger. If we keep this pace, by mid century it will be a different story.
You are stating this way too confidently given our current level of confidence in hurricane strength.
You can dismiss the facts but it's not going to change the fact that a weather system with more energy is more violent and that the more CO2 we put in the atmosphere, the more energy goes into weather systems.
It's energy differential that matters, not the overall energy.
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And it is a no brainer that this can not happen.
A hurricane is simply the function of high water temperatures over a big enough area. As long as the water stays cold enough, and the area is small enough: hurricane.
And after a storm it takes a while to warm up again.
The only possibility is a relatively quick succession of storms that formed at different places, and wander to the same destination.
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I was told that global warming would make hurricanes like Katrina a practically-daily occurrence
I was told that it was the cooling of the atmosphere that drove hurricanes. There's warm water below, an insulating blanket of air, and the cold of outer space above that. When the difference between the warm water and the cold of space got enough of a temperature difference it would overwhelm the insulating barrier and create a kind of heat engine that would pump warm water from the sea to the upper atmosphere to cool and fall back down.
A warm but cooling planet drove hurricanes. That is a planet headed
What's the evidence? (Score:4, Informative)
Its not credible, is it? How much warming has there been, and since when, in the applicable areas - those where COVID-19 and Zika originated?
Very little, if any. And ask yourself also, if the small degree of warming is so dangerous, what about the change in temperatures from winter to summer?
To show this, you would have to show that there is some critical parameter in temperatures at which a step change happens. It could be number of consecutive days of a certain level of warmth, it could be absolute high temperatures reached.
Whatever, you then have to show a causal relationship between this parameter and the events leading to the creation and/or spread of the diseases. In the case of Covid, if you buy into the Wuhan market account, you would have to show that something different happened there which was caused by the higher temps. Or you'd have to show that the virus became more common among the bats because of some identified temperature parameter. Or that it mutated more because of some identified temperature parameter.
If you can't do any of these things, and I have seen no peer-reviewed research to this effect, its just hand waving. Global warming becomes the default explanation for everything alarming that happens in the world.
It may be that if the world warms a lot, like 3-4C, over the next 50+ years there will be impacts on pandemics. This isn't the question. The question is to show, based on the amount of warming we have currently experienced, pandemics have become more likely. And to show this you have to show that (for instance) a rise in average temps of 1C has a plausible causal connexion to a given disease event.
Remember, when trying to do this, the great pandemics of the past. Cholera, Plague, Typhoid... No evidence they were attributable to historical warming.
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Global mean temperature is not a thing. Its an average of readings obtained from many different localities - which have not even remained the same for the last 100 years. Global mean temperature cannot cause anything, its not a physical entity. Its not even a temperature.
Think about it. A substantial contributor to global mean temp is the temps across the various stations in the US. Its impossible to argue that changes in US temperatures caused anything to happen in the Wuhan market. As a for instance
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Trees (Score:2)
IP concerns. (Score:4, Funny)
There are other alternatives (Score:1)