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midsumernighttts@reddit

i doubt it. covid felt once in a lifetime

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COVID is ongoing and still killing and disabling people as we speak. And with climate change and expanding human settlement to all corners of the planet, pandemics are expected to increase. Likely exponentially.

COVID has made us all immune deficit. Next up, a simple flu becoming captain tripps because we are killing our defenses with each reinvention.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

COVID is ongoing and still killing and disabling people as we speak.

At a far, far, far lower rate than in 2020-2021. At this point it literally is about the same odds as dying of the flu, and the same population is vulnerable for each.

https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/mortality.html

(click the radio button labeled "Pneumonia, Influenza, and COVID-19 (PIC)").

And you can't blame it on Trump coming down on the CDC to mess with the numbers to make himself look good because that's the trend since the disease started, all the way through the Biden administration: COVID-19 has become much less virulent, or we have developed more immunity to it, or (probably) both.

That doesn't mean it's not a concern for certain populations, it absolutely is including for both myself, the distaffbopper, and especially my very octogenarian father.

But it's an "OK, I'm going to get a shot for it at my semi-yearly doctor visit, and if I get any symptoms I'll stay home like with the flu" kind of disease now.

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Wellslapmesilly@reddit

Yeah the way forward is more of a middle path but good luck finding many people following it.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

Yeah, I find people, if they have an opinion, are either on the side of "It's worse than Ebola!", or are "What, it's just the sniffles.".

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Wellslapmesilly@reddit

Yeah both sides are pretty locked in their position. I still wear a mask when necessary, care about ventilation, ask if a people are sick before getting together, get vaccinated etc. It’s way too many precautions for the average person and not enough for the purists.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

If I have to go out when I have any symptoms, I definitely wear a mask.

But I still occasionally see people wearing a mask while driving around with their windows up.

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Wellslapmesilly@reddit

I mean in all fairness, people who do that are usually driving somewhere quick and don’t want to hassle with readjusting their mask. It’s not that they think they need to wear a mask in their car.

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Empty_Put_1542@reddit

Covid has been around for a while referred to as other names: sars and whatnot.

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Wellslapmesilly@reddit

More like a trial run.

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emseefely@reddit

With the way 2026 has been going? Sure why not

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KingMario05@reddit

We dunno. But I'd bulk buy your masks, remote work materials, and... toilet paper (?!?!) now if you can. Beat the rush.

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FriendToPredators@reddit

What’s more likely? Hantavirus is suddenly easy to go person to person or there is a rodent infested area in an air duct on the ship?

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canadiangeek2@reddit

The theory is patient zero contracted it in Argentina, and boarded the ship, setting off this chain of events.

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OutlandishnessHour19@reddit

Apparently there's a hantavirus (Andes virus) that can go from person to person. Someone in a comment above cited the research paper that shows this

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AndersDreth@reddit

Most likely a rodent infestation, but that said it's still harrowing to think about the possibilities here.

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holypiefatman@reddit

Found this in a fb group I’m part of

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holypiefatman@reddit

Someone else posted this from the ship

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canadiangeek2@reddit

Contact ypur next of kin....that sentence gave me chills :(

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flaginorout@reddit

Has a 50% fatality rate. Probably higher in old people who would take a trans Atlantic cruise.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

This is an adventure cruise on a ship built to withstand ice collisions. It's limited to under 200 passengers, and the entertainment is things like lectures, not Circe du Soleil acrobats. No casino on board, but it does have a ramp in the stern so you can go ashore on some God-forsaken part of Antarctica in an immersion suit, sitting in a Zodiac inflatable boat.

I'm sure there are older people, but this seems more geared to the people who don't need walkers and canes to get around.

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flaginorout@reddit

Two of the victims were 69/70.

They might have been in great shape. I dunno. But like most serious illnesses, old age is not on your side.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

My father was quite spry when he was in his 70s. He used to compete in primitive biathlons where you run around in the Vermont woods in February, wearing snowshoes, and shooting at targets using a flintlock rifle.

He’s 88 now, and needs a walker or a cane. It wasn’t until his early 80s that he stopped competing.

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DownwardSpirals@reddit

They left out one very significant detail here.

The ship originated from Patagonia, which is the endemic range of the Andes Virus, which happens to be the one and only Hantavirus that breaks the rules and may be spread from person-to-person through close contact. The incubation period is about 9 to 40 days. (source)

That sounds about right, given where they are in the cruise schedule, for it to have originated from the port of origin. It carries about a 30 to 40% case fatality rate.

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bluelily216@reddit

I wonder if they'll keep everyone on the cruise for the whole forty days?

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Hoyeahitspeggyhill@reddit

Hopefully they’ll be quarantined through incubation period.

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rosefire257@reddit

Depends on the strain. Not much can be done until they determine how it’s spreading, and if the remaining passengers are contagious.

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Alert-Star-5381@reddit

News just said they were going to evacuate the passengers but not where or how long. I feel another dumpster fire starting

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kezfertotlenito@reddit

40 days?????? That is an INSANE incubation period.

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Objective_Bad9244@reddit

If that became highly contagious, it would become real trouble.

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FluentFreddy@reddit

Right? Quaranta (Venetian) is 40 days. Ain’t nobody got time for that

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goldmund22@reddit

Chuck Berry needs to rewrite "30 Days"

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TexasRN1@reddit

This seems not good.

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Ornery-Sheepherder74@reddit

I mean, sucks if you’re on the boat or near these people. Otherwise, I highly doubt there is going to be a sudden worldwide hantavirus event from a virus that has been known to only intermittently spread since 2014.

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RicardoHonesto@reddit

The wife of one of the deceased left the ship and died trying to board a flight...

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nukedit@reddit

I mean, the people are going to leave the ship. Do we know if it spreads asymptotically at all?

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emseefely@reddit

I’m sure RFK Jr will know how to fix this

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RhinoPillMan@reddit

Tonic made out of raccoon pecker.

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an_insignificant_ant@reddit

Just dont take any fuckin Tylenol for God sakes.

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butkusrules@reddit

Lol

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Curious-Donut5744@reddit

The spread asymptotically approaching infinity would definitely be problematic…

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DLegghead@reddit

theres a math joke here but im too dumb now to get it i think

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One-Employment3759@reddit

That's what we thought about corona viruses too.

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Aviacks@reddit

I mean not really. We’d already lived through one SARS outbreak and knew how easily it could spread. In the very very beginning of covid it we saw huge news coverage in quarantining passengers from a cruise ship to prevent it from spreading like wildfire.

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johnwickcz@reddit

Don't jinx it

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Wellslapmesilly@reddit

The only upside to a mortality rate this high is that it inherently slows spread.

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RunMysterious6380@reddit

Not with a 9-40 day incubation period.

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The_F1rst_Rule@reddit

Nuke it from orbit

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sweetness1969@reddit

Only way to be sure

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anuthertw@reddit

Whats freaking me out is that the incubation period for the airborne type lines up for the couple that both ended up passing :/

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AxolotlinOz@reddit

Uhh so pandemic potential?

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ctilvolover23@reddit

No.

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OrneryZombie1983@reddit

"That's why god gave me an immune system!" - MAGAs

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Sodoheading@reddit

Keep trying

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livelotus@reddit

youll be okay

….or maybe not

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Coz131@reddit

How to avoid this?

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

It carries about a 30 to 40% case fatality rate.

That's no joke. I had hantavirus pulmonary syndrome after cleaning up my father's basement a few years ago. About two weeks after cleaning it up my lungs started filling up with fluid. Got to the point I couldn't breathe, so I went to the emergency room. I'm lucky, it was apparently a "mild" case. Some diuretics and oxygen support got the fluid out quickly and kept my O2 level up, and I managed to walk away after a few days.

To this day my cardiologist doesn't think that's what it was because he thinks hantaviruses are a desert southwest thing, despite the fact that there is a New York variant that is hosted by the white-footed mouse which is probably the most common mouse in this area.

He doesn't have any other explanation for why I got weakened left ventricle ejection leading to pulmonary edema just 2 weeks after cleaning up a basement that absolutely reeked of mouse urine once we started sweeping.

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femanonette@reddit

Get a new cardiologist!

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

Nah. He's good. I wouldn't even be going to a cardiologist if it weren't for that particular event. I had mentioned the possibility afterwards, and didn't press it with him. At the time it happened I had no idea, it was only after reflection and doing some research on the symptoms, and remembering what I had been doing prior, when it clicked.

At this point I go once a year for a follow-up and every couple of years to get an ultrasound to check my ejection fraction. Which is back up to normal, having dipped down to around 30% back then.

Just to mess with him about a year after that, I hiked the roughly 3.5 miles there from my home carrying a 50 lb pack on my back, then walked home. Just to show how much better I was.

I think I'm the only one of his patients who has done anything like that.

BTW my brothers and I are going to be cleaning up most of his house (including the basement again) at the end of this month. I'm going to be wearing an N95 mask when I work in the basement.

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Lady-Blood-Raven@reddit

I’m from New Mexico. We’ve had outbreaks here. This is the virus that killed Gene Hackman’s wife.

Fast. Deadly.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation/gene-hackmans-wife-researched-symptoms-of-illness-days-before-her-death-report-says

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Think_Bread6401@reddit

That's a different hantavirus

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katarina-stratford@reddit

uuhhh holy fuck.

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banned4violence@reddit

So this pretty much means that the whole ship is infected.

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KingMario05@reddit

Aw, fuck me. Not this shit again...

Welp. Get yer TP and masks now, lol.

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Random_182f2565@reddit

How many people are in the cruise ship?

It's the ideal place for the virus to perfect person to person transmission :C

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Alert-Star-5381@reddit

If it the Andes strain, it is personal to person. Can take up to 8 weeks before sick. This could be horrendous

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Wellslapmesilly@reddit

Don’t you imagine most people will continue to be under observation during the incubation window?

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Random_182f2565@reddit

That is what I'm thinking, the more the virus jump from person to person, the better it becomes.

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AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit

Ok... so they became sick from South America going to Africa?

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Ok-Web-2657@reddit (OP)

I guess you can get it anywhere. It killed Gene Hackman's wife last year.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

It’s also a suspected cause of English Sweating Sickness.

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Ornery-Sheepherder74@reddit

I’m sorry WHAT lmao that sounds like a joke about English people in the summertime without AC 😂

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon-day Sun.

But no, sweating sickness was a very real thing with outbreaks in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Then it just vanished. No outbreaks since 1551, which was almost 500 years ago.

The rapid onset of symptoms that lead to either death or recovery in less than 12 hours is a real mystery. Few diseases kill that quickly.

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litreofstarlight@reddit

Nah, it's legit. Thomas Cromwell's family were likely killed by it.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

It was a serious disease that killed thousands of people in the 15th and 16th centuries. You’d be fine in the morning and dead by dinner.

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Think_Bread6401@reddit

The hantavirus the Hackmans died from is from the deer mouse and it’s prevalent in the Four Corners, Nevada, and Northern Ca. It’s not really everywhere

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Short-Personality398@reddit

Forgot about this!

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KeyCold7216@reddit

You get it from field mouse droppings. It is everywhere, but in the US most cases are in the south west near Arizona and New Mexico. Cases have been popping up further north in recent years though.

It's more of a danger in enclosed spaces with poor airflow, like sheds. It's not "airborne" but when droppings dry out and get disturbed the particles will get kicked up into air then you breathe them in.

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adoradear@reddit

Exactly. It’s infected fried rodent feces/urine that gets kicked up like dust when people go in to clean indoor spaces that are contaminated. Then they breathe it in and get sick. It’s very unlikely to pass between humans (although there’s a comment upthread that apparently theres a place whwre there is H2H hantavirus endemic to the region, as a doc I’ve never heard of that but I’m not infectious disease or tropical medicine). There’s a lot of viruses I’m concerned about in the world (influenza being number 1, 2, and 3….if we get a major antigenic shift in the next couple years w the way the world is right now we are super super fucked) but this one is not high on my list.

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kiyoshi4570@reddit

Fried? What drive through are you going to?

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

D and F are next to each other on the keyboard, so I'm assuming it's a typo for "dried".

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Koraxtheghoul@reddit

All hantavirus requires is a mouse. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more.

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MeatMarket_Orchid@reddit

I first learned about hantavirus watching a show, can't remember which, but a sort of reality show or doc. I vaguely remember this guy was renovating his house for he and his wife. It ended on what seemed a happy note and then when the screen went black it was "(name of person in show) died from hantavirus from mouse dropping encountered during the renovation." Like it was an insane footnote. It's crazy it can happen anywhere like that.

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