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[Max™]

Yeah, if some cunt like Shkreli tries to profit off a vaccine for anything, even if he somehow invented a vaccine for the illness he himself is a superspreader for: douchebaggeritis, pass me a pitchfork once I get this torch lit.

One for a fucking lethal and ongoing pandemic? I just hope the crowd has enough control to take their time when they find them.

[Starver]

Right now, I'm more interested in better testing (of current infection, of course, but also prior infection and recovery).

A polio/smallpox effort of mass eradication is possible (though given current problems with polio-doctors being attacked, already seen extended to corona-screening ones...) but we don't know enough about reversion to susceptibility with either natural recovery or after any such innoculation/vaccination.

We need to know who has(/had) it, without concentrating even on those with symptoms or even full ICU-need and be able to observe if the virus appears in someone new (find the latest reservoir they were infected from) and discover if the immune system ever has a chance it "forgets" it afterwards. With flexibility to deal with the few mutations we currently expect, if only to highlight when it decides to H1N1->H1N2 (or at least the equivalent).

(I know we also need to protect the vulnerable but, once they are proven susceptible by being in a bad way, it might not be the right time to give them a prophylactic injection on top of therapeutic care. Less blanketed isolation also improves the general QOL of the population, including those who would be vulnerable, and so I consider more knowledge a vital step on the way to emasculating the threat entirely.)

[Trekkin]

I'd hope that most people unsatisfied with things like that understand that it's just a symptom of the system being sick and not a conspiracy among the people who are actually trying to help. But maybe I'm too optimistic.

It only takes one, though. Case in point:

Yeah, if some cunt like Shkreli tries to profit off a vaccine for anything, even if he somehow invented a vaccine for the illness he himself is a superspreader for: douchebaggeritis, pass me a pitchfork once I get this torch lit.

One for a fucking lethal and ongoing pandemic? I just hope the crowd has enough control to take their time when they find them.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The current stage of capitalism means an eradication campaign like with past diseases is impossible - capital comes first. I can only imagine the dirty shit they'd pull on Salk if he'd invented polio vaccine in the modern day.

Regardless, if a COVID vaccine is found they'll absolutely do the top 15% of the population and then squeeze the rest long past the emergence of new strains.

[Egan_BW]

It only takes one, though. Case in point:

An angry mob of one is really more of an enraged loon.

[wierd]

Internet echochambers are a thing.

It can galvanize, the way "AntiVaxxing!!" did.

[ChairmanPoo]

I dont think we are getting any vaccine in the next few weeks. IIRC there are 60?  candidates or so. With a few of them in phase I.
Having any of these candidates rushed to the clinic in  6 months would be unprecedently fast in itself, and it'd require cutting a lot of corners and having the vaccine work unusually well...

[wierd]

OK, here's something hilarious.

We had a conversation at work that led to the topic of sanitary napkins.  Apparently, there are reusable ones that are super cheap, and look a surprising amount like the cloth face masks going around.

They contain several layers of microfiber cloth, so the idea of using them as facemasks has us laughing hysterically, especially since they are 1) cheap, and 2) in stock from online vendors.

Spoiler: Image inside (click to show/hide)

In other happy news-- our BVM has been found!  I am tots gonna grab those STLs and order some parts!

[Reelya]

You mixed up the img tags there. You just put the url inside the tags, no need for the = sign. Ninja by you fixing it.

EDIT: probably don't spread the idea around. If that got around at the moment there might be run on people getting them to modify them into facemasks, and then we'd all have a shortage of female sanitary products to cope with as well. Not pleasant for anyone.

[wierd]

I actually *AM* kinda curious what particulate sizes they could filter to, and would laugh hysterically if they worked better than other DIY masks, (Due to having essentially 3 filtering layers inside them), but not enough to go spreading the idea around, no.

For me it was just a hilarious idea, as a total joke. 


The real thing I am happy about is finding that Bag Valve Mask. (BVM).  It's the thing that can be refitted into a poor man's ventilator.   We still have 0 cases of covid in our facility-- AND I own a 3d printer, and have the requisite skillset to build the DIY kit.  I am gonna order some parts, and grab the STL files.  This has me super excited, I really can't lie on that. (Not that I *WANT* to use it, but because I want at least some kind of padding under our asses for when the mexican beer virus shows up.)

[martinuzz]

In our healthcare institutions (youth care, elderly care, psych wards), staff are resigning from their jobs for lack of protective materials.
Of those that don't quit their job, 14% have called in sick.
I really wish people would stop wearing facemasks in public and donate them to healthcare institutions.

[Trekkin]

It only takes one, though. Case in point:

An angry mob of one is really more of an enraged loon.

Yes, and I've met a few in my time. Junkies, mostly, but also a few people who just wanted someone to help their loved ones, found my name somewhere connected with the science behind treating their illness, and acted in a way they understandably thought could help. They weren't stupid or insane, just under too much stress to understand the intricacies of modern drug development. The Dunning-Kruger effect and desperation are a dangerous combination.

Plus which, things are especially complicated right now, and that complexity can easily breed misunderstanding. For example, it's conceivable that Max, per his post, could want a mob to torture to death anyone who's received COVID-19 grant money or venture capital and subsequently succeeded in developing something, on the logic that they've somehow profited off the pandemic. Sure, that's nonsensical, but anger has a way of making violent nonsense feel comforting, and a lot of people will be very angry in the near future -- and one motivated loon with a big rock can still do a lot of damage in the wrong place.

[Frumple]

In our healthcare institutions (youth care, elderly care, psych wards), staff are resigning from their jobs for lack of protective materials.
Of those that don't quit their job, 14% have called in sick.
I really wish people would stop wearing facemasks in public and donate them to healthcare institutions.

Eh, the requests I've seen have been less that, and more "keep the good shit for the hospitals". People being encouraged to wear masks, but like homemade ones and crap. Don't go without, but leave the high end stuff to folks on the front lines. The problem isn't really lack of facemasks for medical folks -- any old bugger can rip up an old towel or blanket or summat and wrap it around their head -- it's lack of the N95 tier stuff for them.

Or in other words, don't get antsy about joe blow wearing any old face covering. We want that, and want that en masse. Get pissed if you see one walking around with a N95 respirator or summat (well, assuming they're actually joe blow and not someone working with high risk populations).

it's conceivable that Max, per his post, could want a mob to torture to death anyone who's received COVID-19 grant money or venture capital and subsequently succeeded in developing something, on the logic that they've somehow profited off the pandemic. Sure, that's nonsensical, but anger has a way of making violent nonsense feel comforting, and a lot of people will be very angry in the near future -- and one motivated loon with a big rock can still do a lot of damage in the wrong place.

Woah, hold up, that's not the logic Max is presenting at all, though. Shkreli tier is not "somehow profited off the pandemic", like, at all. Nor is it just anyone who's received grant money or venture capital. Pharmabro fucker was something fairly specific, and not something that includes researchers or the actual ground level folks in its ire.

[Starver]

An angry mob of one is really more of an enraged loon.

Pratchett: "The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member divided by the number of mobsters." And anyone who thinks they alone are a mob starts off low.

(There's also, in Jingo I think something like "...the square root of the number of people in it" regarding a crowd/mob, but I think that quip lacks the intended mathematical gradient. Twitter mobs of 10k+ Followers defiitely can be seen not to be necessarily intelligent.)

[Frumple]

Seriously though, just don't price gouge the lifesaving medicine to the point it's literally criminal and you're probably going to manage to avoid the pitchfork and torches. A moderate profit probably won't get much remark, especially if it doesn't meaningfully impact distribution. But if it's not moderate and it's pricing people out of not fucking dying, well. If your pricing scheme is functionally murderous people are probably going to get pissed at whoever's setting the prices :V

Usually they don't seem to get pissed much at the people who made the stuff that aren't involved with said pricing, though? I've never noticed that being much of a thing, though the desperation and scale of the current situation might change that.