• Norgur
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    212 years ago

    No, it’s not just “a matter of time”. While there are loads of pathogens that jumped to humans they were originally incompatible with, there are.myriads more that didn’t and likely never will. The jump to humans is not a given.

      • Icalasari
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        22 years ago

        That doesn’t hold with prion diseases as they often lay dormant for years, and prions themselves are nigh indestructable, lasting for years or even decades in the environment

        Prions are misfolded proteins - The diseases they cause are because they cause other proteins to break and misfold to match the prion, so the traditional biological machinery doesn’t matter, just that a protein is close enough in shape to break and misfold in response

    • Remmock
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      52 years ago

      Prions are not a disease like bacteria or viruses. They’re abnormal protein chains that slowly cause a cascade of breakdowns in your brain. This had happened before. It’s not really something you have a defense against, but it easily jumps the typical species barrier. Our best defense is containment.

    • Melkath
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      22 years ago

      Given infinite time, infinite possibilities present.

      Quite literally, it IS only a matter of time, unless you are really good at standing in the corner with a bag over your head saying “nuh uh. Things that I dont like and that I am afraid of will never happen,” in which case it still is only a matter of time, you are just ignorant and argumentative.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Good thing there isn’t infinite time. Fun fact, at any point in time, a finite amount of time will have passed

      • littleblue✨
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        102 years ago

        Says the one invoking infinity to support a juvenile argument, not unlike “saying ‘nunh unh’”. How apropos.

      • Brawndo
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        42 years ago

        By this logic because there is infinite time and infinite possibilities, we could develop a cure or a virus that kills this prion and avert this crisis. We could also not and just die. Then there is a possibility that none of this exists and this is a simulation and the developers haven’t added this as a feature yet.

        • Icalasari
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          42 years ago

          Then there is a possibility that none of this exists and this is a simulation and the developers haven’t added this as a feature yet.

          Earth v.AD2024.1.1 - Began “Zombie Deer Event” on North American Servers

          Earth v.AD2024.1.2 - Fixed bug where “Zombie” status would not jump species

          Earth v.AD2024.1.8 - Reduced “Zombie” status infliction rate as players intentionally ate tainted meat to spite developers

        • Melkath
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          22 years ago

          Yup. Precisely.

          My main point is that, in general, it is better to prepare for the more problematic eventualities than to go “nuh uh, that isn’t going to happen. Everything is going to be fine. Don’t touch my cheese.”

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            That is not the debated point. The point is that winning the lottery is just as much not a question of time.

            • Melkath
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              12 years ago

              I feel like you are missing the point.

              People win the lottery every day.

              There are far more CWD prions than lottery players, and it would only take one of those prions to mutate into a form that could infect humans.

              Again, I will reiterate, putting on a blindfold, putting your fingers in your ears and going “it won’t happen, lalala!” is a pretty dumb way to approach it.

              We just saw the masses do it with Covid.

              We had a novel disease, we just needed to behave for a couple months, the sweeping majority did, but the remainder of fuck-nuts out there went “it’s not a problem, lalala!” and now we have endemic covid, sweeping segments of the population struggling with long covid, infection rates are going through the roof again, and now new even more severe consequences like epilepsy are showing up in children post infection.

              2 of the rules of life. 1) Microorganisms will mutate. 2) People will be aggressively ignorant and will make sure the mutated microorganism will do as much damage as possible. Because they certainly cant miss that Blink 182 reunion tour…

              • @[email protected]
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                22 years ago

                It could happen, the same way a specific person could win the lottery. But it is not a question of time. It could also not happen in 100 billion years, even if the chance of that is essentially 0. But it is not exactly 0. Time only increases the chance, it does not guarantee it. That is the difference between statistical and deterministic events.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        On a finite world, full of life competing everywhere all the time? It’s still a matter of chance if it would happen in infinite time

        Most diseases die out

    • Match!!
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      112 years ago

      Moreover, there’s no expectation that a prion disease like CWD can ever spread from person to (non-cannibal) person

      • Cosmicomical
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        42 years ago

        So you are saying that the people infected with the zombie disease are all going to be cannibals? Somehow this doesn’t sound like a good news.

        • Match!!
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          22 years ago

          Should be fine unless the protein in question is found in saliva – Oh. Oh no

        • @[email protected]
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          42 years ago

          and don’t eat meat from dubious sources.

          Have you ever actually seen the inside of a factory farm? Things don’t get more “dubious” than that.

          • the post of tom joad
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            32 years ago

            Well im with you on how gross factory kill floors are but I’m still recklessly confident that one thing i won’t find in there is a deer.

            • @[email protected]
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              2 years ago

              If there is a super-pathogen spreading amongst wild animals the chance that this pathogen mutated in a factory farm is much, much higher than it mutating in the wild.

              Of course, we’re talking about a prion here and not viruses or bacteria… but the point still stands.

        • Flying Squid
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          42 years ago

          Sounds to me like venison is out of the picture in general right now.

          Too bad, venison is the best chili meat IMO.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            Get the hunter or butcher to yank the lymph nodes and have them tested.

            For the most part tho hunters don’t harvest visibly sick animals … for good reason.

            • Flying Squid
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              22 years ago

              Farmers don’t harvest obviously sick cows, but BSE still spread in the UK.

              I don’t know that I would be willing to take the risk right now.

              • @[email protected]
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                32 years ago

                You’re right. Part of that was due to some capitalist who decided that all the leftovers fom butchering cattle could be ground up and made into cattle feed … and all the sick and dead cattle were added into that as well (so the yards wouldn’t have to lose any money).

                They don’t do that anymore for obvious reasons, so BSE is still found occasionally but no where near the numbers we had in the 90’s.