Charlie StrossDec 27, 2022

Reminder, folks: the COVID19 pandemic is NOT over, it's just that the big commercial landlords decided it was hurting their business rents so leaned hard on the politicians and media to SAY that it's over.

Right now China is in the FO phase of FAFO, and involuntarily providing an amplifier for a new extra-virulent strain that'll make an end run around our half-assed vaccines AGAIN.

Stay safe in 2023!

Show threadCharlie StrossDec 27, 2022
I will add that masking/distancing/vaccination is all good, but what we REALLY need is forced PM2.5 air filtration in all public spaces. Schools, hospitals, universities, shops, restaurants, cinemas: on trains, buses, planes, and passenger ships. And ESPECIALLY schools and hospitals. These premises have always been viral disease amplifiers, but filtration stops it spreading at source.
Show threadacbDec 27, 2022
@cstross What happened with the ultraviolet light that was supposed to kill airborne Covid whilst being harmless to humans? That could be handy right now. (Or even the non-harmless varieties, bathing the interiors of air recirculation ducts.)
Show threadGraydonDec 27, 2022

@acb @cstross There's some positive early results!

BUT, and this is a great big BUT, do please stop thinking of single solutions. Survivability Onion needs multiple layers; policy failure after policy failure with SARS-CoV-2 has a root cause of "this one thing will fix it".

We need to apply all the things, and keep them applied.

This isn't the last plague.

Show threadDwight Williams (💉 x9)+😷🇨🇦Dec 27, 2022
@graydon @acb @cstross Most definitely NOT going to be the last plague we have to cope with as a species. The measures we adopt now can help cut down the severity of the ones coming for us next if we're sufficiently careful as well as lucky.
Show threadgzuckier
@DEWLine @graydon @acb @cstross
Article in the NYTimes today about 6 recent epidemics that got stopped in their tracks, by the much reviled health-care systems of third world countries, no less. The most recent ebola outbreak in the DRC, for instance, which was stopped with only 11 deaths because they learned from the previous outbreak.
But because these outbreaks get stopped, they don't get as much press.
Dec 27, 2022 at 7:57pmWeb