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A world-class city deserves world-class panic mongering
By adamg on Sat, 02/01/2020 - 5:04pm
As news spread today that a UMass Boston student had become the state's first victim of the 2019 novel coronavirus, a fast-buck artist set up shop on Boylston Street in the Back Bay. Finn reports his wife snapped him hard at work around 4 p.m.
Maybe now we know who's been buying up all the surgical masks at local CVSes.
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Comments
LOL
Masks can keep you from picking your nose and sneezing on and getting sneeze in your face from other people.
That's about it.
He needs to be careful about what he is claiming.
Oh, and FLU SHOTS!
While I guess being snarky
While I guess being snarky about the spread of this virus amuses some, please stop with the flu shot cracks... it's been done over and over again.
And yet ...
Based on the number of people now coming down with the flu, it still needs to be said.
Yes, however the patronizing
Yes, however the patronizing tone is annoyng.
It isn't patronizing
Panicking over the coronavirus while ignoring the flu is just dumb.
Go ahead, enjoy your misplaced panic
Will you be professionally obligated to be part of the response if this becomes a massive local public health emergency?
I will.
Which is why I'm going to take it one epidemic at a time, based on surveillance data and professional understanding of what is going on.
I'm not reading comments on
I'm not reading comments on this thread from anyone who is in a panic, nor anyone who is objecting to getting a flu shot. Remain calm, swrrly.
know-it-all
you are an insufferable know-it-all with every single one of your comments. especially this one. we get it, every opinion is wrong except yours on literally every single UHub topic.
Gentle reminder:
Your opinion is not equal than her education.
didn’t question
didn’t question her credentials. merely pointing out that she is a patronizing douche over, and over, and over again.
The problem is
That when it comes to shit like this, she kind of is an expert.
Sometimes it’s called for
When uninformed people deliberately promote ignorance, being a patronizing douche is an entirely appropriate response.
true
but when that's your everyday attitude you should just GFYS
Boy oh boy.
You seem nice.
Well, considering
Well, considering that the commenter is apparently a hybrid of three of the planet's most vicious predators, I'd say he's showing remarkable restraint.
Sorry forgot to add: there's
Sorry forgot to add: there's a strain of the flu going around that the flu shot didn't cover; so, not everyone who gets the flu didn't get a flu shot.
I don't think that's true,
I don't think that's true, per https://www.mass.gov/info-details/weekly-flu-report-january-31-2020
Remember that there are plenty of viruses that cause flu-like symptoms, including high fever for multiple days, that are not the flu. It's not possible to self-diagnose the flu. The only way to know whether or not you have it is to test for it.
Got the vaccine in September.
Got the vaccine in September. Still came down with the flu last month.
I don't think the shot does much good this time around.
Remember, anecdotes are not data
The flu vaccine is not 100% effective for everyone every year. In order for it to work, there needs to be enough group protection to prevent spread.
The influenza B strain that seems to be prevalent this year is affecting young children particularly severely. So, please do get them vaccinated and get vaccinated yourself — even if some year you happen to get the flu anyway.
no, anecdotes *are* data.
no, anecdotes *are* data.
they're a small set of data, yes, but still count as data.
Your one anecdote is datum.
Your one anecdote is datum. It would count if someone were to collect a set of data. But I don't see that collection happening here.
I got a flu shot (and remember, there are several different but functionally equivalent versions made by different manufactures) and I have not gotten the flu.
The recent student at Northeastern with measles was vaccinated, but still got measles. I've been vaccinated against measles and I have never had measles. [And I work at Northeastern, so I could have even crossed paths with the student while they were infectious!]
Boston student with measles
How do you know that Boston student with measles was vaccinated?
Lots of people who got the
Lots of people who got the flu shot have gotten the flu this year. Myself included. The flu shot is a guess as to which strain or strains will spread. Somethings they get it right, sometimes not. But I always get a flu shot. It doesn’t hurt.
Parainfluenza
There are several strains of virus that produce flu-like (although milder) disease that the CDC tracks and which are not covered in the flu shot. Thus you might think you have had the flu, but have a very different virus.
You can also get the flu if you have had a flu shot and have a compromised immune system.
https://www.cdc.gov/parainfluenza/about/symptoms.html
https://www.cdc.gov/parainfluenza/hcp/clinical.html
HPIVs are structurally quite different than influenza viruses, and are only called parainfluenza because they produce similar symptoms: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/types.htm
So you are over ruling a
So you are over ruling a medical doctors diagnosis based on a very general post I made on a comment section of uhub? Or do you have this overwhelming desire to be right all the time and feel entitled to be smug while doing so?
We have flu test kits
Most doctors will just say "sounds like the flu or something like it" and will test for flu if they have a kit around.
Meanwhile, unless that test comes back positive, it could be a substantial zoo of viruses responsible for making you feel like shit, none of which are covered by a vaccine.
Huh?
I just reread the post to which you are replying, twice, and I can't find anything in it that could remotely be construed as "over ruling a medical doctors diagnosis"
Nowhere
in your post did you indicate that it was a medical diagnosis. You just said 'myself included'. Add in the fact that it was truly diagnosed, we might begin to believe you. Then again, you are an anon.
I’m willing to buy you a
I’m willing to buy you a plane ticket, one way, to Wuhan so you can put your expertise to good use.
Cheap offer
On what airline are you going to buy this imaginary ticket? None are flying into Wuhan.
Help me understand you
Is it your hatred of women or your hatred of expertise that motivates you here?
porque no dos?
hatred of women with expertise
A coworker and I both came down with the flu
He got the shot, I didn’t. We both missed a week of work. Anecdotal I know but the flu shot isn’t a cure all.
Are you a nurse?
I am. We are seeing a lot of people in the hospital for the flu.
The flu is killing people in Boston right now.
It isn't "snarky" to mention it. Especially since you can protect yourself from both viruses in the same way. Wash your hands.
Killing people in Boston?
The flu? I was only able to find a report of a teen in Worcester county. How many flu related deaths have there been this flu season?
If we don't call witnesses...
We don't need flu shots...
Not getting your sneeze on
Not getting your sneeze on other people is an important thing. Wearing a mask is a pretty effective way of avoiding spreading cold/flu/coronavirus, but not a particularly efficient way to avoid getting it.
I'm not sure that's even the right kind of mask, though. That looks like a dust mask, which isn't really the same thing. (Viruses are way smaller than dust particles, so there's different principles at work.) Flu masks have layers to absorb your coughs and sneezes. And also, just looking online they're usually way cheaper than that. And I mean, someone in a hazmat-style suit selling out of the back of a car is transparently trying to scare people.
way cheaper
Of course they are. What this guy s doing is classic profiteering. Exploiting a shortage to supply a needed item at vastly inflated prices. Maybe a flash mob will appear, steal all his masks, and hand them out for free. He'd deserve it.
C'mon Swirly
The general public doesn't follow recommended health practices and you're admonishing a charlatan hustling on the street?
I respect his initiative. rubes on the street need to be careful. Of this scam and how to actually protect themselves.
Looking forward to your prompt response.
Could be worse -- Google Corona-beer virus
Could be worse than just a person pushing masks -- hopefully they are good masks which can be used around people with the Flu
Google has reported that one of the popular things people are searching for these days is Corona Beer Virus
Not totally clear who thinks there is a link and who just is screwing around
Apparently -- a lot of people in Cambodia have been doing the "Corona Beer Virus" search
I googled it
I did an image search hoping to find a spiky corona bottle ball that someone with image manipulation talent/software had already made.
I thought it was the Smith-Corona virus
spread by typewriters
What's a typewriter?
Is that something like an abacus?
I am going to suggest a provincial name..
Storrow Flu
"Dude, I've been Storrowing for a week now, it's pretty grim"
"H8 Mom, this woman on the Orange Line won't cover her f'ing mouth when she coughs, OMG she just wiped her hand on the strap, we're gonna get Storrowed"
"So sorry I won't be able to pitch today, O got Storrowed by the obnoxious BDR on the sales team. Why the F must we hire these losers?"
a little dog whistlin’
mixed with that late capitalism. goes down easy.
good for them
probably will make a few bucks down near the hotels. during snowmaggedon a few years ago, roof rakes were sold out everywhere. Two guys drove up from CT with a van full of them and sold them in the back of the Home Depot parking lot on the VFW. Sold them all at about 50% premium.
They underpriced themselves, then.
Could've sold them at 100% markup.
Get your flu shot, wash your
Get your flu shot, wash your hands.
If you've never watched an otherwise healthy 20-something die of fulminant complications from influenza it's not fun.
Don't Panic and set up your kit
Here's something that we all should do - be it for staying inside our homes due to horrible weather or epidemics, it helps to be ready to hang tight for a couple of weeks without going out.
Here's how to put together a shelter in place kit.
FTR, I really believe that coronavirus can be slowed down, but not stopped. SARS wasn't infectious until someone was already symptomatic - and it was also debilitating. That made it possible to contain. Wuhan is more infectious, infectious before it is symptomatic, has a long incubation period and doesn't debilitate its host in most cases. It will get here eventually. It will hit vulnerable people hard, but we do have time to prepare. It might even lag behind vaccine development, which is good for us.
But even if it rampages through North America, it isn't the plague. It isn't good, but it isn't a smallpox epidemic or a measles epidemic - both are debilitating and extremely infectious.
In the meantime, if you are concerned, follow the recommendations for protecting yourself against the flu. It also works for colds, and handwashing prevents norovirus transmission, too.
I see "dust mask" is on that list
so that guy is serving a real need. :-)