Is this THE pandemic?

[vixb1]

Towards the beginning of the pandemic, I remember reading something about us being "due" a pandemic, but this wasn't it - ie this was all a bit tame.

I keep thinking about it. Now that it's got way more serious - is this now it?!

I think I'm just having a day where I'm struggling to come to terms with the direction this is all going in and the thought of having to face something worse in the future is just unthinkable :-(

I'm sure it'll be a deeply unhelpful post for some people. But for me, I think I need it laying out for me!

What do we think?

Now envisaging brexit boxes (seasons1-4 - season 4 currently on with future episodes releases imminently i think?) being joined by a ‘pandemic box’ - masks and meds and washes and gels etc.
Blimey this could all have lasting effect on domestic architecture. New usage for ‘box room’ label.

Nikedelaswoosh: Yes, why are more people not worried about the pole swap?!!! Freaks me , and the dolphins/whales etc, out!

@willloman

Nikedelaswoosh: Yes, why are more people not worried about the pole swap?!!! Freaks me , and the dolphins/whales etc, out!

Don’t read up on the bees then.

Remember the year 2000 and how the world was going to end at midnight then.....?
I’m not downplaying the very real threats people have posted, but I can’t spend my life worrying about asteroids and volcanoes.. agreed we are so insignificant, and the chances of us being born were so tiny .. we are lucky to be here, however that looks.

This is definitely not THE pandemic. I think there'll be some sort of virus, natural disaster, or bio warfare in the near future (50-100yrs) that wipes out 80%+ of the global population.

Remember the year 2000 and how the world was going to end at midnight then.....?
Remember how much money had to be spent to stop that from happening?

I reckon what will finish us off will be our polluting the planet to the point we can no longer live on it.

We'll die out, the planet will eventually recover and maybe something else will do a better job. Tbh, it'd be hard to do a worse one.

Remember the year 2000 and how the world was going to end at midnight then.....?

It wasn't, but people who use this example forget how many people worked long and hard to make sure there weren't problems. It's not an example of unfounded doomongering, but of working properly to prevent identified problems.
Pisses me off when people get it wrong.

@NikeDeLaSwoosh

Never mind OP, the magnetic poles of the Earth are due to flip anytime now.

Now that really will be fun!

What does that mean??

It's when the earth's poles swap. It's happened many times over the planet's history. It causes utter mayhem.

FFS! - well, reading this thread will teach me to skive on a Friday afternoon! 😯

www.who.int/health-topics/nipah-virus-infection#tab=tab_1

👆I’ve heard that this is the one to worry about. BUT there are people working very, very hard to limit the damage caused. Larry Brilliant is a world-reknowned epidemiologist and said in the wonderful Radio 4 programme How To Vaccinate the World that he was involved in modelling to curtail such a pandemic as Covid 19 but what they didn’t take into account was the ineptitude of the Western governments.

I’ve also heard that AIDS is a huge threat as it mutates but has thus far been contained.

If I spent all my time worrying about the above, I’d go crackers. So I choose not to worry because there’s very little I can do.

It is what it is.

@willloman

Nikedelaswoosh: Yes, why are more people not worried about the pole swap?!!! Freaks me , and the dolphins/whales etc, out!

Why - it's happened many times before - we may end up with less protection from magnetic field meaning higher levels of radiation so possibly more cancers and possibly power grid issues. There's not much we can do about it but deal with any consequences.

Nationalgeographic: No, We're Not All Doomed by Earth's Magnetic Field Flip

THE pandemic will be the one that wipes us all out if a meteorite doesn’t beat it to the finale. So no, this is not THE pandemic.

@LyndaSnellsSniff

www.who.int/health-topics/nipah-virus-infection#tab=tab_1

👆I’ve heard that this is the one to worry about. BUT there are people working very, very hard to limit the damage caused. Larry Brilliant is a world-reknowned epidemiologist and said in the wonderful Radio 4 programme How To Vaccinate the World that he was involved in modelling to curtail such a pandemic as Covid 19 but what they didn’t take into account was the ineptitude of the Western governments.

I’ve also heard that AIDS is a huge threat as it mutates but has thus far been contained.

If I spent all my time worrying about the above, I’d go crackers. So I choose not to worry because there’s very little I can do.

It is what it is.

That’s the one Contagion is based on.

@LyndaSnellsSniff well I regret reading that. We really are going to be the makers of our own destruction

Fembot123 the poles swap places every 200,000 to 300,000 years it's recorded in some rocks - certain minerals align with the magntic field as they form forming a permant record of where the poles were.

As they change over it's likely magnetic field, that offers some protection from radiation coming form outter space, will weaken.

www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012-poleReversal.html

Apparently there's been some recent doom mongering on internet about how catastrophic it would actually be.

@NikeDeLaSwoosh

Never mind OP, the magnetic poles of the Earth are due to flip anytime now.

Now that really will be fun!

Not helpful but did make me burst out laughing 😆

Pandemics are always going to come and go. It's the natural order of things. Only there is a lot of evidence is suggest that this isn't a natural pandemic.

I don't know if we were 'due' a pandemic because there are too many variables to apply a rigid timeline, if that makes sense?

I mean, the last bad pandemic was spanish flu which was just over one hundred years ago. The one before that was probably the great plague, which last affected the whole world in the 1600s. So three hundred years prior to spanish flu. Based on that, there is no 'set' pattern.

@Laurapink0

I think if there was another pandemic and it was more serious in terms of death / mortality rates (obviously everyone who’s lost their life with Covid is devastating however I mean if it was like a 90% death rate or if children regularly died from it) then we would have very little problems in compliance with lockdowns and could get it under control more easily ?

You have to be scared to lockdown properly, and our problem is most people aren’t scared of this but if they felt there was a real risk of danger they would actually do it

But conversely if it was a more deadly virus and risky to children, people may comply with lockdowns more, but fewer people would be willing to go out to work and keep the country going. My whole household caught covid from my doctor husband - we knew that it was a risk he would bring it home, but none of us are vulnerable. It didn’t occur to us he shouldn’t work, he’s one of thousands of thousands putting themselves in harm’s way to try to help with the virus response.

If it was a virus which killed 10% of people, including people, not sure there would be as many people willing to do so and the country would grind to a halt.

well I regret reading that. We really are going to be the makers of our own destruction

@Banana0pancakes yes, we really are. I think it’s a blimmin’ miracle this hasn’t happened more often. There’s almost a wanton arrogance in the way we zoom all over the world: we can transfer a virus within hours. Sometimes I think we really need to slow down and live much more simply.

A family member has been saying for many years that the human race is at the mercy of viruses and the containment thereof.

Hey ho. I urge you all to listen to Larry Brilliant. He really is brilliant and although he is very matter of fact, and it’s not easy listening, he’s actually very reassuring.

The world seems to have a new pandemic every 2-5 years. It feels like The Pandemic to us in the UK as we were really affected by previous outbreaks like Ebola, Zika and SARS

@donewithitalltodayandxmas 😂 I thought the same.

Covid-19 is nowhere near "The Big One". Just look at history for examples of what can happen.

The Plague of 1348 is estimated to have killed up to 75million - half the population of the whole of Eurasia, plus millions more in more recent outbreaks. Populations and international travel were nowhere near what they are in the 21st century.

In June 1952, Dr. Paul-Félix Armand-Delille, the owner of an estate in northwestern France, inoculated two wild rabbits with the Lausanne strain of myxoma virus. His intention was to only eradicate rabbits on his property, but the disease quickly spread to Western Europe, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Some dissemination of the virus was clearly deliberate, such as the introduction into Britain in 1953 and the introduction into Ireland in 1954. Strenuous efforts were made to stop the spread in Europe. These efforts were in vain. It was estimated that the wild rabbit population in the United Kingdom fell by 99%, in France by 90% to 95%, and in Spain by 95%. This in turn drove specialized rabbit predators, such as the Iberian lynx and the Spanish imperial eagle, to the brink of extinction.