Being a bit spooked by having literally a rabid raccoon outside our house which the police ultimately decided *not* to deal with, I'm a bit anxious about animal-to-person disease transmission right now

[3wordchant@social.coop]

@cwebber "COVID was" friend, the COVID pandemic is still ongoing

[cwebber@social.coop]

Buy a few extra jars of pasta sauce and pasta and make sure you've got toilet paper on hand. Don't go out panic buying, just make sure you're better prepared this time, because if things get bad, it could be really bad. It probably, more than likely, won't. But if it is, it'll quite possibly be a disaster, especially if it's a 50% (50%!!!) mortality variant that spreads.

And just keep moving forward. I don't know what else to do or say. That's what I'm doing.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@3wordchant yes that's true

[dcbaok@fosstodon.org]

@cwebber and a few extra n95's if you don't already

[cwebber@social.coop]

And to everyone saying "COVID isn't over!"

You're right of course. It's endemic now. Which is sad that it ever happened.

But the start of this could be worse than the start of COVID. And there's *no* chance of us having learned our lessons, society-wise, from last time. That's what I'm saying.

[cwebber@social.coop]

Also if you're vegan, props, hi-5, thank you

If you want to be the most socially conscious you can be to not spread the risk of transmission and you can, be as vegan as you can be

Thank you to vegans everywhere

[mpotter@social.coop]

@cwebber If bird flu or the zombie raccoons don't get you, hopefully the drones will be merciful and quick.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@mpotter god willing

[cwebber@social.coop]

Also please remember I am *not an expert* on this topic

It's hard to find anything, that's why I'm sharing what I've seen.

Please also read @wordshaper's posts over here, who points out that early statistical morbidity rates are probably higher than a widespread version of the disease would be, because of selection of who gets tested in study https://weatherishappening.network/@wordshaper/113680515876299317

Still, it's a high mortality rate, even for that, so that doesn't mean don't worry about it!

[bujold@dice.camp]

@cwebber on the topic of toilet paper, I hate to be the stereotypical bidet guy that pops up every time something vaguely related is mentioned, but: I had some incredibly lucky timing and bought a bidet attachment in February 2020, and if I hadn't heard about it via memes I never would have known about the early COVID TP shortages. They cut down on TP use so much that I'd low-key consider them a good disaster-preparedness investment

[wordshaper@weatherishappening.network]

@cwebber Oh, yes, this level of mortality is, I expect, borderline *terrifying* for epidemiologists. As long as the spread is both only animal->human *and* very hard then it's a concern but not a worry. If we get human->human transmission or animal->human gets easier... yeah, that'll be a very bad day.

Hopefully this is a MERS situation, with low transmission and some care kept it from being bad. It is, though, influenza and the flu is an absolute bastard virus

[mlemweb@social.coop]

@bujold @cwebber

We had a bidet installed (as part of a bathroom remodel) in December of 2019 out of sheer luck. (We also accidentally had a hoard of toilet paper because we hosted a mini-conference at our house in December of 2019 and I bought the amount of toilet paper we needed for that, then @cwebber decided it wasn't enough and bout an extra 3x that amount ... between that and the bidet we didn't need to buy toilet paper until close to 2022)

[cwebber@social.coop]

@mlemweb @bujold my tendency to Go to the Extreme does pay off sometimes!

[mlemweb@social.coop]

@cwebber

We're also *driving* home for the holidays. It's a 16-18 hour drive, but it reduces the amount of exposure we have compared to flying. (Plus then we've got our car on us so we can get between families once we're there, and I need to travel with my own sheets so it's easier to bring more stuff in a car)

[alienghic@octodon.social]

@cwebber

Also its probably useful to learn more vegan recipes because milk, cheese, and eggs are all likely to keep getting more expensive because of H5N1

[3wordchant@social.coop]

@cwebber I appreciate the followup but I think you missed what I was saying. Using the past tense for COVID plays into the popular dangerous "post pandemic" misinformation. And giving out travel/gathering risk assessments without mentioning the present-tense giant risks of COVID seems weird at best.

[be@floss.social]

@dcbaok @cwebber Get more than a few, and give them away! N95s are so cheap, you can get them for less than a dollar each! Here's a pack of 50 comfortable N95s for just $35 https://www.zoro.com/3m-n95-disposable-respirator-universal-white-pk50-9105/i/G0862784/

[sleepfreeparent@kolektiva.social]

@cwebber wait what? If you mean "over the holidays" then sure, but over the next few flu seasons it's almost certain we'll get a full blown H5N1 pandemic. We're simply doing too many of the things that make it more likely, and almost none of the things that stand a chance of preventing it

[cwebber@social.coop]

@sleepfreeparent Yes here I meant over 2025's holiday, next few months.

[wronglang@bayes.club]

@cwebber @wordshaper I'm much closer to an expert on this topic and your summary gets my stamp of approval (for what that's worth).