Originally published at: Hantavirus, Ebola and Our Dark New Era of Virus Conspiracy Theories - TPM – Talking Points Memo
In Rough Edges, Mike Rothschild writes about fringe groups, conspiracy theories and how the Internet broke our brains. This column is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. Before COVID-19 had reached the United States in significant numbers, there were countless conspiracy theories about what it “really” was and who was behind it. The “infodemic”…
Frist!
Is this article contagious? Nobody has commented but me.
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It only has 16 views, as of 10pm est.
And charlatans on the internet making wild conspiracy pronouncements and in the next breath selling snake oil supplements, 5 gal buckets of “survival mac and cheese” and other tin foil accessories is sadly not new.
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What’s with the poor fact-checking in this article? Andes hantavirus doesn’t have “a much shorter incubation period” than COVID, it has a much longer one (4 to 42 days, with a median of 18 days). (Neither is there clear evidence that it’s “much more difficult to transmit,” and indeed there’s some evidence against, but that’s at least not definite—but it would still be more appropriate to note that this is not definite.) With that kind of incubation period there’s also no way to know yet whether or not the outbreak will reach beyond the ship.
Ironic for an article about disinformation to also contain disinformation.
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Unfortunately, the somewhat overblown media response to hantavirus may make people complacent to news of the much more serious threat of the current Ebola spread.
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Depends on which expert you consult.
I believe that the experience we have with these outbreaks is highly contingent. For me, when someone says Hanta Virus, I immediately think Four Corners, although it seems to have a wider provenience given the Yosemite outbreak. Andean Hanta virus is another matter, a different vector than the relatively widespread deer mouse. I do not anticipate that the incubation period to be well understood given we lack sufficient events over time to allow parameterization or characterize changes in rate of infection due to mutations. Minor quibble. Covid is highly mutable, and it is also not clear which strain is being referred to.
Rodent to human mediated transfer would seem more difficult that human to human, especially upon a cruise ship. That is where the mystery lies, and that is where I am looking for to be answered. We have already seen what havoc Covid had upon cruise ships, it may just be that vacationing in this manner anticipated Laurie Garret’s book.
The incubation period is definitively established as being much longer than COVID, regardless of its precise length (WHO and a couple of other sources actually note that the maximum is 8 weeks rather than 6, though this appears to be rare). The article is wrong + the risk of uncontrolled spread with that kind of incubation period remains seriously alarming, even if the news cycle has already forgotten about it.
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i first read about this virus from a HIILERMANN book..i do read a lot..i have never travelled in the SW, so it was interesting., since i live in FLORIDA and we have ticks, mosquitoes and roaches,plus many more biting insects,roaches don’t bite but they do spread disease..
lol, speaking of snake-oil..that video of RFK was the funniest thing i’v seen in a long time. anyonr who has been around snakes knows the those tiny black snakes are fake… you can buy them in any tourist store..i see live ones every day when walking my dog…i guess OZ could have borrowed them from a kid who has them as pets..my kids did..a fully dressed, shirt and tie guy, picking up a tiny black snake would be laughed at here.
Kennedy is a dangerous quack and should be behind bars.
During Covid we had a functioning CDC lead by respected scientists. Now we have a mob of grifters and quacks lead by RFK jr. and Dr. Oz. God help us if a virus gets loose in America.
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before trumpf, i actually believed info i read on line.now i scrutinise every thing to get the scource and then google the scource; i,m sort of old, so i actually know about most diseases that we have to cope with..thats why i am thoroughly vaxxed; RFK is a fool of the worse kind, so its every one for hemsleves..i do not trust a person i the current admin..fools and liars.
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The Hill:
Ebola outbreak zone cases up almost 40 percent in a week
The Ebola outbreak in Congo that’s spread across parts of Africa has killed more than 200 people in its first month and is considered the worst known outbreak at this stage, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday.
Ebola cases have surged 38 percent since last week, spreading across 32 health zones in eastern Congo. Health officials at Africa CDC said the current outbreak, with 894 confirmed cases so far, is three times worse than Uganda’s previous Ebola outbreak in 2000, which had 281 confirmed cases at the same stage.
Congo’s eastern province of Ituri accounts for more than 90 percent of confirmed cases. Infections have also been reported in Congo’s North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and have spread into neighboring Uganda, where health officials recorded 19 confirmed cases and two deaths.
But contact tracing efforts have been hampered by the remoteness of the outbreak zones, funding and personnel shortages, as well as displacement, according to Dr. Wessam Mankoula, a medical epidemiologist at Africa CDC.
Years of conflict in Ituri province have displaced nearly 1 million people, complicating efforts to track potential exposures as residents flee.
“For those 800 confirmed cases, we should have between 17,000 to 35,000 contacts that should be in our contact list,” Mankoula said. “We are still far from controlling the situation of this outbreak.”
Only 4,000 people so far have been identified and are being evaluated.
(Sorry if this post should be in a different thread that has subsumed this topic.)
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i want to thank all the people who have written about the Hanta and Ebola virus’, unless you haved lived with it in,one form or another, you canno really know what it is all about..so -called experts sound off on it.but they are only talking about general information.
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The doctor, who is the first known case in France, is in a stable condition and receiving specialist hospital care, government officials said.
The unidentified male clinician had returned from the DRC, where he had been working in an area battling a major outbreak of the deadly virus.
The French Ministry of Health said the doctor was isolated as soon as he arrived in France and transferred to a specialist facility “under secure conditions”.
Public health officials are tracing people who may have had contact with the clinician, and any identified will be instructed to isolate at home for 21 days.
Archive of NYT:
Ebola Symptoms in Current Outbreak May Be Milder Than in Previous Ones
That is good news for patients, but officials fear it will make controlling the spread of the disease harder.
Doctors treating Ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo say the symptoms may be milder than in previous outbreaks of the disease.
There is too little data yet to be certain, but an assessment by the ministry of health in Congo suggests that about 90 percent of patients do not seem to develop the extensive internal and external bleeding that can arise in the disease’s horrific end stages, according to Dr. Marie-Roseline Belizaire, who leads the World Health Organization’s response to the outbreak. Some early data also suggests that fewer people may be dying this time compared with previous outbreaks.
Milder symptoms, and perhaps a lower chance of death, are undoubtedly good news for the patients. But they could paradoxically make it harder to control spread and end the outbreak.
“That’s really what I’m a bit anxious about, that this might be an indicator for an outbreak that lasts a lot longer,” said Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, the executive director of the W.H.O. Health Emergencies Program.
The current outbreak, which was detected in mid-May, has already sickened more than 1,000 people and killed more than 250, according to Congo’s health ministry. The true numbers are likely much higher. Public health experts believe the outbreak simmered undetected for months; the milder symptoms may partly explain why.
The virus causing the outbreak, Bundibugyo, is distinct from the virus, often known as Zaire, that caused most previous epidemics of the disease. But all Ebola patients generally progress from what doctors call “dry” symptoms — fever, body ache, fatigue — to “wet” symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting.