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?

@Marvelina

That's how I felt too *@squishedblueberry* 💐

But why take no responsibility for what you read? Surely you are not prone and passive whilst it’s forced into your eyeballs.

[quote squishedblueberry]@Marvelina back. Maybe we need to start our own lovely things thread [/quote]
Or stop reading things you can’t cope with

It’s not only pandemics.

It’s the climate change and overdevelopment that will be the big one.

Drought and pollution. And all that self inflicted in the name of the meat industry and cheap flights for the holidays we can’t live without.

@Fembot123 that too, I openly admitted this in my earlier post. You didn’t have to read or respond to my post either. That’s the joy of mumsnet.

@MagentaDoesNotExist

I take it nobody read the link I posted about the Fermi paradox then? 👽

I did actually! Absolutely fascinating.

I have decided I favour the uniquely life-friendly conditions on Earth theory! Wishful thinking of course but I watched a documentary which suggested earth is very unusual, and may be a second generation planet ie formed when the original planets got smashed to shreds by Jupiter migrating or something

@Fembot123 I’m curious, what do you mean when you say why take no responsibility for what you read? I shouldn’t have read this thread as I suffer with anxiety, but I said as much in my post. I’m not blaming OP for the way I feel about what I’ve read. What I am saying is there is a definite superior/gleeful tone from some posters. Others are factual and backed up with interesting links but not all of them

@puffinkoala

Well given the last one was in 1918 I am not going to worry too much about the next one.

Both the 1957 and 1968 viruses caused more deaths worldwide (adjusted for a smaller worldwide population back then) than Covid so far.

I always think that these pandemics are nature's way of culling the parasites we humans actually are. Of course with modern science this pandemic is not the cull nature wants. Same as - so far - Ebola and other things have been contained recently.

I know it doesn't sound nice and maybe a bit bonkers but I've always believed in Mother Nature having the upper hand.

Worry about what you can change, and forget about what you can’t. The best advice given to me by a dear family member in his 80’s

@MagentaDoesNotExist yes I’ve jumped down a research black hole love these type of things! Especially when bored as they just eat up time.

We must stop funding this horrifically cruel meat industry. The way we keep these animals is inhumane and proven to have caused far too many infections viruses. No Red tractor/RSPCA/Organic/Local sticker detracts from that.

@Fridget I am so glad that somebody read it! I find it absolutely mind blowing. But then I was the kid who wanted to be an explorer and then, when I found everywhere on Earth had been mapped, wanted to be an astronaut instead. I now have two small children determined to be astronauts. 👨‍🚀🚀

I reeeeeeeaaaaallly hope that your conclusion is right, and not just the most optimistic one.

Thank you for reading it and I'm so glad someone else found it as fascinating as me!

I have bought my son a telescope for his birthday. 😊

MagentaDoesNotExist

I take it nobody read the link I posted about the Fermi paradox then? 👽

Nope, everyone looked at my sad sad picture though 😁

Lol!!

[quote squishedblueberry]@Fembot123 I’m curious, what do you mean when you say why take no responsibility for what you read? I shouldn’t have read this thread as I suffer with anxiety, but I said as much in my post. I’m not blaming OP for the way I feel about what I’ve read. What I am saying is there is a definite superior/gleeful tone from some posters. Others are factual and backed up with interesting links but not all of them[/quote]
Aaargh really? If the discussion is upsetting you then stop reading it.

[quote Sittingonabench]@MagentaDoesNotExist yes I’ve jumped down a research black hole love these type of things! Especially when bored as they just eat up time.[/quote]
Yes!! So glad it is interesting for people. There are so many interesting ideas to find and I am glad other people love this too.

I am 56 and when I was at school the threat of a nuclear war was the big concern, I remember being very scared by it all.

No, this pandemic won't be the last. A virus arising from our proximity to animals and farming isn't anywhere near a "once-in-a-lifetime" event. We've already had swine flu and avian flu in my lifetime, the only difference is they weren't as bad as this one. But the next one could be even worse and could happen pretty soon based on the regularity with which they've happened over the last 30 years.

If we put just a fraction of the money and effort that we've put into a vaccine into developing lab-grown meat (which is already on the cusp of being viable en-masse and really is just being slowed down by lack of funding/research and push-back from traditional farming industries), we could just stop mass-farming animals within a matter of years. I don't know why there's not more of a push for that.

@Arcadia

You can't live your life worrying about what's next. We've lived under the threat of nuclear war for decades - that could happen at any time. Global warming already happening - we could feel the effects here more directly soon. Antibiotic resistance - huge threat to lives, could be imminent. Terrorism - could get into our water supplies for example. It's totally out of our control so what's the point of worrying? I used to be an anxious person but I'm actually an optimist now, my worries have sort of burnt themselves out.

Same! I had huge anxiety over pretty much everything illness/death/awful events related for about 13 years. Was awful. Now I'm ridiculously laid back and rarely worry about anything. It's very odd! Who knows what the future will hold? I very much live in the present. There is nothing I can do to change anything outside of my own little life. I just ignore most of it and concentrate on my family and friends. Makes for a happier life I think.

If we hope for life on this planet to survive, or indeed for humans to one day life elsewhere aslo (as is essential if our species is to survive in the long-term) then we have to widen our scope of thought a little beyond the immediate problems and focus on sustainability and the climate. Otherwise our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are fucked, and it's likely very optimistic to assume anybody beyond that will exist.

I know it upsets people to think about difficult things, but Covid is a walk in the park compared to what the climate change we are doing will cause in just 100 years. Our children's lifetimes! 8 or the 10 largest global cities may end up underwater. Many of the places that produce the world's food will become desert. The impacts will be far worse than any virus and are not reversible.

Sadly, I believe the truth is group 1, type 3.

Another candidate is the possible inevitability that nearly all intelligent civilizations end up destroying themselves once a certain level of technology is reached.

The saddest and most pathetic thing will be if we know this, but still let it happen. When we absolutely can stop it. David Attenborough's most recent documentary, "Life on Planet Earth", I think everyone should watch. Seeing a man who has spent his life studying the Earth crying tears at its destruction, and issuing a last plea to stop it and a plan for us to do it, should not be ignored.

@Titsywoo I totally understand this and have done this myself at times through necessity, to look after myself and that's ok. But if we all do that all of the time, everything will go to shit.

@vminkookie

I always think that these pandemics are nature's way of culling the parasites we humans actually are. Of course with modern science this pandemic is not the cull nature wants. Same as - so far - Ebola and other things have been contained recently.

I know it doesn't sound nice and maybe a bit bonkers but I've always believed in Mother Nature having the upper hand.

I agree.

We humans have lulled ourselves into a false sense of security, and think that we are in charge of the planet and do what we like to it with impunity.

We're not. We can't. We are spectacularly puny in comparison with what this planet could throw at us. Mother Nature is just giving us a gentle reminder this time.

And mother nature is not iust this planet which we do not cherish enough. Our spinning globe of oxygen and sea and land and life exists in this void where we know of no other place yet where that can happen, and certainly none that we can reach. If we do not start to treat it with respect, it will treat us accordingly.

[quote squishedblueberry]@Fembot123 I’m curious, what do you mean when you say why take no responsibility for what you read? I shouldn’t have read this thread as I suffer with anxiety, but I said as much in my post. I’m not blaming OP for the way I feel about what I’ve read. What I am saying is there is a definite superior/gleeful tone from some posters. Others are factual and backed up with interesting links but not all of them[/quote]
I mean you’re an adult, why read the whole thread? It makes zero sense. As for people being gleeful, I don’t see it.

@Fembot123 you're speaking from a very privileged position of not suffering from anxiety! You don't just avoid reading in these situations, but the opposite. No need to show such a lack of compassion for somebody who has a young baby and is quite legitimately sensitive about the discussion.