Elena

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed- 2 Cor 4.8-9

[slime propagandist @possumpraxis]

The long term death toll from the demonization of PPE is going to be astronomical

[Mx. Inevitable: Cease and De-Cis @MxInevitable]

Delta getting the quarantine for covid cut to five days should've been a much clearer moment for lots of people: all your public health standards is at the whim of the bosses who want you to die on the clock

[Elena @_exeter573]

@TheMemeticist Without the cruise ship though it may not have had such quick global reach

[Nukit @NukitToBeSure]

We're firmly in POSIWID territory now.

https://t.co/NSpOHnOcfs

[🔻agitprop + absurdity🔻 @agtprpnabsrdty]

Andes virus persists in human semen for six years after recovery, and the finding was buried in a virology journal while cruise ships sailed

The Swiss federal laboratory that documented it works for civil protection, not public health theatrics. The virus did not get the memo about the incubation period.

The reservoir no one wanted to find:

A 55-year-old man recovered from hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome in 2016. Researchers from Spiez Laboratory tracked viral RNA in his semen for 2,188 days — just under six years. The virus sat inside cells of the reproductive tract, not integrated into host DNA, with only two single nucleotide variants and one small deletion across its entire genome in all that time. RNA viruses mutate fast. This one barely moved. It was not replicating in the conventional sense. It was waiting.

The mechanism of persistence:

The testes are an immunologically privileged site. Six orthohantaviruses, Andes among them, actively inhibit apoptosis — they prevent infected cells from dying. The patient developed neutralizing antibody titers above 30,000 within three weeks and maintained them for years. The immune system threw everything it had and the virus sat through it, restimulating the B-cell response rather than succumbing to it. The researchers note repeated symptomatic hantavirus infection has never been documented, which sounds reassuring until you consider that the virus may not need reinfection — it may never leave.

Sexual transmission is no longer a hypothesis:

Andes virus was already the only hantavirus with confirmed person-to-person transmission. Prior epidemiological work identified being a sex partner of a patient and exposure to body fluids as risk factors. This study provides the missing mechanism. The authors state their results explicitly: ANDV has the potential for sexual transmission. Virus isolation in cell culture failed, but the authors note that unsuccessful isolation is not evidence of absent infectious particles, and orthohantaviruses are notoriously difficult to isolate. They lacked the Syrian hamster model in which the virus is lethal and from which isolation might succeed. The sample size is one.

Twenty-seven viruses are documented in human semen. Ebola, Zika, Lassa, Chikungunya. The order Bunyavirales now has its longest-known persistence record, and the public health apparatus learned about it from a paper published in November 2023. The timeline is the indictment. The virus took six years to reveal its strategy. The institutions took seven.

https://t.co/YtFwW8FSne

[Gwen B. with LC 🍂🫖🌬☕𓅓 @PenGwenWithLC]

It's important for people to remember that a single negative test at one point in an 8 week incubation period doesn't clear someone of having been infected and mean that they should be allowed out of quarantine

[Ξpi-Yeti @TheMemeticist]

🚨 here it is folks! We have some statistical evidence showing there may be a larger epidemic brewing in Argentina!

[Dr. Sean Mullen @drseanmullen]

The coverage on this is an absolute joke. And the “do not comply” clowns and bots are back out in full force.

The only reason we even have to entertain catastrophic spread scenarios is because society treated basic concepts like airborne transmission and viral incubation as optional knowledge.

We passed people through school without scientific literacy, then handed them smartphones and a podcast app.

[tern @1goodtern]

Pretty soon they're going to be holding the world cup in America,

Teams from 48 counties.
Fans from all around the world.

Public health there in shambles.
Public opposed to mitigations.

Not a good mix.

[James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath @JamesThrot]

The immunological landscape has also drastically changed.

Billions of people have now succumb to repeated infections with a virus (SARS-CoV-2) known to impact immune & neurological function.

Reckless assumptions are being made at every turn of this rapidly evolving situation.

[𝓝𝓸𝓼𝓯𝓮𝓻𝓪𝓽𝓾 @ActualNosferatu]

Governments seem intent on ensuring as much spread of the Andes virus as possible.
This is not hard to stop with strict adherence to proper measures; but I am seeing very little indication this is happening.
I am seeing half assed attempts like they are dealing with a cold.

[Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing]

LET THIS SINK IN—the U.S. now has no confirmed CDC director, no FDA commissioner, no Surgeon General, an NIH director with no medical license, and the last Acting CDC Director was a George Bush speechwriter. In fact—the only doctor/scientist we have in the White House is… Dr Oz.

[En(during COVID) @DEC0L0NIZE]

what shishi.rose said!

[Ivan l'Africain @AlterIvan1]

She almost died from Covid and is immunocompromised. So I have a lot of empathy for her for threatening to sue people who got hantavirus and may not respect their quarantine and infection control.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... YES OFC! Normalize suing disease spreaders!!!

[Martha-JD, MBA, PCC-😷🇺🇦 @mryoung151]

🚢 3 ppl exposed to Andes strain of hantavirus in Kansas. exposure took place internationally after contact was made w person who had contracted the virus on the MV Hondius.The KDHE says the person was confirmed to have tested positive for the virus later https://t.co/UsPT0TFCPN

[Hello it is me Kira :)🍉 @kirabira]

Something I think many of you don’t understand is that after multiple Covid infections you’re immune compromised now. Have you had a bizarre series of illnesses in the last few yrs? Feel like you’re catching everything? That’s a fucked immune system, babe. That’s chronic illness.

[James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath @JamesThrot]

Just a friendly reminder that a few weeks before the lockdowns of 2020, the risk to the public from COVID on a Cruise Ship was “extremely low” according to the WHO and other international public health bodies.

They’ll tell you it’s “low” when it isn’t.

Worth remembering.

[Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 @_CatintheHat]

🚨BMJ Opinion:

“Hantavirus outbreak should reset WHO’s default approach to airborne risk”

“For pathogens with documented person-to-person spread […], the initial assumption should be AIRBORNE risk unless and until evidence supports easing back.”

https://t.co/BK9Dr0a4cA