There’s good info and there’s fear mongering
We’re a long way to going in getting any sort of understanding of this strain (we don’t know its R0, we don’t know if this is a mutated version of the Andes, nothing) and yet some will be quick to jump to conclusions about its spread, someone literally said it’s incubation period is 1-2 days. Where?? Where are your sources. Back it up or shut up.
The other excuse I get is, “oh the WHO is lying”. I swear to god COVID brain has really made people lose all sense of nuance.
I’d like to add that the WHO is not above criticism. But when the criticism starts to devolve into, “hey man they want to control us. They can’t be trusted for the one thing that happened five years ago but let’s ignore SARS, AIDS, MERS, Ebola and the countless other infectious outbreaks that you have to give the WHO its due credit for. I don’t want this to turn into a WHO post. Yet some folks will only take this away.
I literally read about a WHO scientist mention its spreadability is lower than COVID and someone still went, oh yeah that’s what they said about COVID. EXCEPT COVID was a totally new form of coronavirus. We have more info on hantavirus than we did SARS nCOV 2.
- Hantavirus is endemic in some parts
- Hantavirus has also existed for centuries
Even the bleeding tracker that was posted here is using past cases totally outside of this crisis to inflate cases.
As per usual the articles have come out thick and fast: one mentioned a men in Israel got it. But what it fails to mention that this was a normal infection akin to Gene Hackman and his wife and NOT from this cruise ship hotspot. Seeking context is important. The media have learnt well from COVID and the last five years is that sensationalist stuff gets clicks.
It’s about how this time disinformation and a need to feed off of AI slop and armchair scientists more than anything will make people lose faith in certain institutions and not the institutions themselves.
I know we’re all hoping for the best but I can’t help but feel that some are low key deep into the pits of fear mongering and prepping. A lot of folks will use the lessons of COVID (a totally novel form of coronavirus) and use it to discredit the WHO. Sure it has flaws but I’m still going to trust scientists in the field that specialise in pandemic threats over armchair scientists here or elsewhere. Sources sources sources. That’s king. Verify and cross verify.
Yes it’s hantavirus dangerous, yes it’s scary but can we at least have some nuance.
And again this isn’t a dig at this sub per se but more like the general barrage of people that’ll start with their fear mongering bs as per usual.
Edit: In absolutely PREDICTABLE fashion, all some of you have got from this post is “hey man the WHO is not to be trusted” when I’m talking about being aware, checking your sources, using a bit of nuance, listening to the WHO while ALSO using other key sources instead of using just media fear mongering, misleading headlines and armchair analysts
u/Ancient-Dot3310 ‘s reply to one of the comments here is the comment I feel also encapsulates what I’m getting at the best