Newly Identified Langya Virus Tracked After China Reports Dozens of Cases (theguardian.com) 97
Researchers have begun tracking a newly identified virus in China, with dozens of cases recorded so far. From a report: The novel Langya henipavirus (LayV) was first detected in the north-eastern provinces of Shandong and Henan in late 2018 but was only formally identified by scientists last week. The virus was likely transmitted from animals to humans, scientists said, and Taiwan's health authority is now monitoring the spread. The researchers tested wild animals and found LayV viral RNA in more than a quarter of 262 shrews, "a finding that suggests that the shrew may be a natural reservoir." The virus was also detected in 2% of domestic goats and 5% of dogs.
From the CCP (Score:5, Funny)
This virus came from scorpions in a web market that is usually cooked with soup and MSG. Unfortunately, one person ate the scorpions raw.
If you ask any more questions we will build more nuclear weapons and threaten you with them!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Those scorpions were over 0.5 miles away from the infectious disease facility that specifically studies how to make scorpion diseases infectious in humans. That's VERY far away and has NOTHING to do with the outbreak, you bigot! To prove it we won't let any researchers in for over a year to check for themselves!
and (Score:4, Insightful)
here we go again....
The US fumbled Covid and monkeypox, wanna see if we can really strike out?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: and (Score:2)
Re: and (Score:4, Insightful)
And most important, be a role model , don't be the asshat that tells them to wash their hands before eating, but you don't wash yours...
Re: (Score:2)
"Your suggestions won't work"
Every one of his suggestions are useful in a society with large populations. Hell, small populations. F'rinstance, my farmer relatives are religious about washing up before dinner.
But, common-sense suggestions won't solve for all disease. Still, I don't think "why bother?" is optimal.
Re: (Score:2)
NPIs reduced COVID-19's R0 a bit, but it was still way, way over 1.0. His suggestion is cope. Even in EXTREMELY restrictive countries with aggressive COVID-19 has spread.
His suggestion is cope. It's not reflected by reality.
Re: (Score:2)
NPIs reduced COVID-19's R0 a bit, but it was still way, way over 1.0. His suggestion is cope. Even in EXTREMELY restrictive countries with aggressive COVID-19 has spread.
His suggestion is cope. It's not reflected by reality.
No, his suggestion wasn't "cope", it was follow basic prevention procedures with any communicable disease.
A lot diseases will be prevented by being hygienic. COVID was an exception to the rule, not the rule and precisely because it was so contagious and spread so easily was why washing your hands, keeping distances from each other and wearing face masks were such important measures. They weren't meant to stop COVID but to retard it's growth and they did that, the problem is until we developed a vaccine a
Re: (Score:2)
>No, his suggestion wasn't "cope", it was follow basic prevention procedures with any communicable disease.
He's not advocating for following basic prevention procedures. He's saying that basic prevention procedures can eradicate the disease. "How do YOU plan to stop the virus?" "Easy. Just educate our kids more." It's deluded.
I agree that our NPIs definitely helped make the impact of the disease far less than it would've been had our healthcare system been overrun. People generally got treatment they nee
Re: (Score:2)
Fair enough, I understand your points.
GP's statement was "how do YOU propose to "stop" a virus from spreading?". With quotes around the "stop", for various values of the the word "stop" I guess. OP's response then discussed how education of and execution of enhanced hygiene slows the spread of disease. Or, "stopping" it from escaping into different communities, if you will.
And I see that OP did indeed preface his response with "Easy". I missed that the first time through. None of this is easy, and saying so
Re: (Score:2)
It is _now_, it wasn't at the start. If we'd all gone full-on China at the _start_ - actual lockdowns, no air travel - it would have been contained and forced back to animal reservoirs (until next time). Once the rest of the world dithered for a few months it was over. There were a sufficient number of infections, especially infections of people with compromised immune systems, that better adaptation to humans was inevitable. The real kicker? If the world had done that and contained it, it would have been c
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:and (Score:5, Insightful)
Emerging zoonotic diseases are an inevitable feature of a world with almost eight billion people.
I worked in public health for some years, and decades ago scientists in the field understood it was only a matter of time before something like coronavirus emerged, and it's still only a matter of time before something similar in its impact or worse emerges again.
The reason this awareness never gets translated into preparation is that scientists aren't in charge of preparing for science-based threats. Politicians are. And to politicians everything looks like a messaging problem. As long as they can get the public to blame someone else, their job is done. One prominent politician, pre-pandemic, seriously suggested that it would be more efficient to cut preparations for pandemic diseases and then hire doctors when a pandemic happens, which is so dumb explaining why it is dumb makes your head hurt. That's kind of like cutting the navy and planning to hire pilots to fly off air craft carriers if a war breaks out... which it will.
Re: (Score:3)
Emerging zoonotic diseases are an inevitable feature of a world with almost eight billion people.
Weeelllll. Almost. It's what you said, but also throw in that there are no barriers to human populations intermingling. I have personally crossed the border from Mexico and stood on both coasts of the United States in a single day, and I have also visited five countries across three continents in the course of a few months. In the 22nd Century, the idea that this is possible shouldn't shock anyone. So it seems almost implausible that we could contain any new disease in its early stages.
Re: (Score:2)
Every generation has its issues and problems. But reading "I have personally crossed the border from Mexico and stood on both coasts of the United States in a single day, and I have also visited five countries across three continents in the course of a few months" makes me realize that humans can do amazing things, too.
Re: and (Score:1)
Progressives are always the ones wanting to either disband the military completely or reduce its spending to be comparable to Europe, which likely couldn't even defend itself against China, let alone contain it.
Re: (Score:3)
I worked in public health for some years, and decades ago scientists in the field understood it was only a matter of time before something like coronavirus emerged, and it's still only a matter of time before something similar in its impact or worse emerges again.
It already has. Fecebook has been around for nearly 20 years now.
Virus origin is unknown (Score:1, Funny)
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
It does seem odd that China was the source for another virus from animals. And in only how long? Three years?
Maybe China needs to work on their public health standards. Maybe they should stop playing with viruses in a lab. Whatever the cause maybe the USA needs to put as much distance as possible between themselves and China.
I keep seeing news articles about the dire economic problems in China, that the whole thing is going to collapse in any minute. That might be the best thing to happen to the Chines
Re: (Score:3)
SARS, MERS, Covid-19, and now Langya henipavirus (LayV)... all in less than 20 years.
Even without my tinfoil hat attached securely to my head, this is starting to look suspicious.
Re: Virus origin is unknown (Score:3, Interesting)
BTW let's just stop being xenophobic, and racists. (Godwin's law here) That way of thinking got us the KKK, Nazis, Rwandan genocide, the Rubber massacre, and the current crop of Karens that can't stand when someone speaks Spanish in a Walmart o
Re: Virus origin is unknown (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Who's being xenophobic and racist?
Re: (Score:2)
If we get suspicious of China, then we're racist? OK, great logic there. I'm very suspicious of China, and the US for that matter, I must be quite the racist.
That being said, it doesn't seem that surprising that a lot of new diseases would appear in the most populous countries, so nothing triggers my suspicion here.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. I find that going with "everyone is a racist" saves a lot of time. Also agreed that it's not surprising one of the world's most populous areas would have an issue with disease.
I wonder how another populated area, India et. al., is doing with disease generation? The last I heard, still working on a lot of the old, boring diseases. I wish them success.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
It does seem odd that China was the source for another virus from animals. And in only how long? Three years?
Maybe China needs to work on their public health standards. Maybe they should stop playing with viruses in a lab.
Maybe the US should stop funding the Chinese research into enhancing viruses.
https://www.vanityfair.com/new... [vanityfair.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe the US should stop funding the Chinese research into enhancing viruses.
I agree. Dr. Rand Paul wants it to stop. But it appears he has little authority to do so because he is in the minority party in a highly partisan Congress. Republicans want it to stop, Democrats don't. Democrats control Congress so China gets funds for virus research. But somehow Democrats funding Chinese virus research gets twisted into Republicans funding Chinese virus research in news reporting. How does that work when it is Democrats in control of federal funds? At least one Democrat had to be in
Re: (Score:2)
A billion people in dense cities alongside huge areas of sparsely populated wildlands keep finding weird viruses?
I'd find it odd and worrying if they weren't finding viruses and trying to keep tabs on them.
What should be keeping you up at night is the pandemic that'll originate in India.
Timeframe (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
A different, slightly less steamy, hot take is that the virus has been unidentified and poorly tracked for the last 4 years.
Re:Timeframe (Score:5, Insightful)
Any virus that can hop between species is a worry. Transmission to humans may be exceedingly rare, but evolution, particularly at the pathogenic level, is an arms race between the pathogens and our immune system, and viruses and bacteria can replicate, mutate, even recombine genes from variant strains, at an incredible rate.
And honestly, after pandemics like the Black Death, the Spanish Influenza, and now COVID-19, I would rather be monitoring these things, informing the politicians, health authorities and the public, rather than just sitting on it because some contrarians seem to have an emotional allergy to being told about potential risks.
Re:Timeframe (Score:5, Insightful)
The real damage from COVID wasn't from the virus, it was from the over-reaction to COVID.
6.4 million people [bing.com] - if they weren't already dead from COVID19 - might disagree with you on this point.
In what reality do you live in where the US's reaction to COVID19 was an overreaction? The then-president did everything he could to downplay the problem.
Re: (Score:3)
So what you're saying is that you value your personal wealth and comfort above the lives of other people, is that what you're saying?
What's a million dead people as long as you have access to buffets and haircuts, is that your point?
Re: (Score:2)
Trump was in charge when everything was shut down. Biden has specifically said he would not order a shutdown. Perhaps you should take your grievance up with Trump.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Trump was in charge when everything was shut down. Biden has specifically said he would not order a shutdown. Perhaps you should take your grievance up with Trump.
Neither Trump nor Biden ordered a shutdown. All the action and inaction were done at the state and local levels.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure wherever you live, any shutdowns were also legal there.
You don't get to call anything you disagree with illegal, it's fucking stupid.
Re:Timeframe (Score:4, Informative)
Covid is not the first thing to kill six million people whose very existence was denied by conspiracy theorists.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah. 6.4M or so. And somewhat over 1M for US, a bit over all war deaths in US history, including the Civil War, I believe. I wonder how many Covid Memorial Stadiums and statues will be built? There's a piece of modern art in town that looks like a melted orange poop that I feel could be easily replaced by a giant Covid molecule.
Re: (Score:2)
Ouch.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Oh fuck off. The excess death rates alone demonstrate that the US didn't go nearly far enough.
Idiots like you really are impenetrable to reality. Imagine being so addicted to magical thinking that even hard data gets tossed over your shoulder.
Grow the fuck up, you pathetic piece of shit.
Re: (Score:2)
Because we never found a variant of COVID-19 that could do one trick (hop from an animal to a human) but not the other (hop from human to human). And just to be clear, we have always been able to find such variants before for other pathogens.
Incorrect.
That is not the pathway of a zoonotic virus.
They perform trick 1, and they do it repeatedly.
Eventually one of the ones that succeeds at trick one creates a variant that can now accomplish trick 2.
Original trick 1 performing virus was never capable of trick 2 off the bat (hah, I kill me).
Re: (Score:2)
"Because we never found a variant of COVID-19 that could do one trick (hop from an animal to a human) but not the other (hop from human to human)."
What?
Re: (Score:2)
I'm good! (Score:5, Funny)
All stocked up https://www.tractorsupply.com/... [tractorsupply.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Zero Covid policy (Score:1, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
You do know that a virus that originated in China does not mean it suddenly sprouts from Chinese people in USA, right?
Absolutely does not know and likely never will.
Re: (Score:2)
nCov-2019 began spreading in locales that had people traveling from China. Italy in particular, then Seattle, San Francisco, Japan, Vancouver, and New York. Your question is disingenuous considering that viruses don't sprout from anyone, anywhere. They're infectious diseases that are transmitted.
Re: (Score:2)
lol you're getting downvoted for remembering things
Italians had a "hug a Chinese person" day. Democrats in the US called Trump racist for wanting to stop travel from China. At the same time the CCP allowed people to fly out of Wuhan if they were going to other countries but not to travel within China. What a joke
Re: (Score:1)
Confusing idle speculation with reality sounds like ... religion.
Re: (Score:1)
You're downmodded but correct. I'm old enough to remember Biden blaming COVID on Trump and saying he had a plan to eradicate it. That plan didn't work. It also didn't make sense, considering COVID is literally in every country on Earth
Shrews? (Score:2)
The Chinese are down to eating shrews now?
It's China's buddy, the Russians, that are blockading Ukrainian grain. I suggest that they have a few words with Putin about this.
Re: (Score:2)
Just in time for the coming election (Score:2, Interesting)
Who could have predicted that?
Re: (Score:2)
If you destroy habitat and have more shrews and voles leaving the forest and interacting with humans, you're more likely to see zoonotic outbreaks.
Imagine if climate change only affected the weather. We could deal with that. But sadly the environment is a multifaceted problem, you can call it a house of cards. Whoever designed it is an idiot, because it was way too easy for us to break.
Also we can have a real climate crisis while at the same time major world governments are using it for political jo
Where's the failure? (Score:2)
Also we can have a real climate crisis while at the same time major world governments are using it for political jockeying and exploitation of the working class.
How does a crisis go unmitigated by a government elected by popular vote? Especially when that government protects the right of a free press, right of peaceful assembly, and right to petition the government? If we have a crisis and the government is passing laws that is only making it worse then would not this be news that is reported widely? Would not people be holding up picket signs outside the buildings where the legislators meet? It's getting real difficult to believe there is a crisis if the elect
Re: (Score:2)
You know that the reason the Democrats needed Manchin to get this to pass. Republican obstruction.
I know that. But to get Manchin the Democrats agreed to allow coal mining. If the bill was supposed to lower CO2 emissions then how does more coal mining help? Then to get agreement from other Democrats on a "climate" bill there's money for oil drilling and natural gas pipelines. It's so important to get this CO2 reduction bill that they had to agree to flush all CO2 reduction efforts down the toilet?
Wow, you really drank the kool-aid.
With Democrats like this, who needs Republicans?
Re: (Score:2)
What did the Republicans do? They sold our future for some liberal tears.
No, the Republicans forced the Democrats to agree to what Republicans wanted by negotiating with a handful of "centrist", "center-left", or whatever they might be called, that wanted some concessions on fossil fuels. This is opposed to negotiating with Republicans for concessions on fossil fuels, so by just walking away from the bill with it's huge tax and spend amendments they can sit back and watch half the things they wanted anyway to show up in the bill. Now should any Democrat say they don't like coa
Re: (Score:2)
Democracy is not a perfect system, it's just the best system we've found so far. We like to assume that voters weigh the pros and cons and make rational decisions. In practice it's quite a bit more complicated than that. Not only do voters fail to vote according to what is best for the world, they sometimes fail to even vote in their own self interest.
Every time my parents voted down a property tax increase I made note the next time they complained that the schools where no good. I have no explanation other
Why is it always China? (Score:3)
There are other densely populated countries like Japan and India.
Why is it always China?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It isn't always China if you look at the data. 'Why is it often China' would be fair, and the reason there is statistics - look at the population figures. Cultural factors play into it as well.
Re: (Score:2)
There are other densely populated countries like Japan and India.
Why is it always China?
Because the Chinese eat everything. The Japanese and Indians will make sure things are either cooked properly or have a good chance of killing you before becoming infectious.
There is only one answer (Score:2)