Is This The Last Pandemic?

[WHITT]

Author Andy Weir, who is known for his science-based fiction, tells CBS News that he thinks this may well be our last pandemic. Weir's debut space adventure rocketed to the top of the best-seller lists and inspired the Oscar-nominated film, "The Martian". His new book is "Project Hail Mary," about a lone astronaut's last-ditch effort to save humanity from a mortal threat.

Weir suggests that mRNA technology, which is sort of like a bio-medical version of LEGOs, would allow a rapid response that could cut any new virus off at the pass. Eventually, there could be a one-time vaccine that addressed the part of the virus that does not mutate, as has been suggested for the annual flu. It would mean the end of these types of viruses.

[link:https://www.cbsnews.com/video/author-andy-weir-on-new-novel-and-why-he-believes-covid-19-will-be-the-last-pandemic/|

[abqtommy]

1. I had to check to see if this was from The Onion 'cause it sure sounds like parody/comedy to me.

[Goonch]

2. Viruses "God's LEGOS"

"An estimated 10 nonillion (10 to the 31st power) individual viruses exist on our planet—enough to assign one to every star in the universe 100 million times over. Viruses infiltrate every aspect of our natural world, seething in seawater, drifting through the atmosphere, and lurking in miniscule motes of soil."

[WHITT]

7. But What Percentage Are Pandemic Inducing?

[Aristus]

3. I don't agree.

There will always be people willing and eager to stand up for their right to die of preventable illnesses...

[relayerbob]

6. True, but at least it's going to be a gradually shrinking pool

Or more quickly, if the virus turns out to be more lethal

[WHITT]

8. Of Course

Thankfully 100% participation is not required for herd immunity.

[LisaL]

18. You need at least 70% as far as I can tell.

NT

[left-of-center2012]

4. No, the last pandemic was in 1918

This is the current pandemic

[FreeState]

5. HIV/AIDS is still ongoing n/t

[left-of-center2012]

11. The world health organization labels HIV/AIDS ...

As a global epidemic and not as a pandemic.

At least that's what I just read on Google.

[WHITT]

12. Yes

But if you had a mRNA vaccine that worked against the body of RNA viruses, not just the mutations, then that would include sars, merv, covid, ebola, hiv, hep c, influenza, and the common cold.

[left-of-center2012]

15. Are you saying the common cold is a pandemic?

The world health organization doesn't even call HIV a pandemic.
They classify it as a global epidemic.

[WHITT]

20. Did I Post

that the common cold is a pandemic?

[left-of-center2012]

22. thanks for the laugh

[Crunchy Frog]

14. There was an H1N1 pandemic in 2009, it just wasn't a particularly deadly one. nt

[Iggo]

9. No. That'll be the one that kills us all.

[jalan48]

10. The belief that human's can control nature. Only that will never happen.

[intrepidity]

13. I very much appreciate the sentiment about mRNA technology

and it may even turn out to be mostly true.

But Nature has a way of continuing to surprise us, doesn't it?

We'll just have to wait and watch the story unfold.

[Blue Owl]

16. Not if someone like tRump is ever in office again

I sincerely believe that he made it exponentially worse due to his ego, hubris, ignorance, and dishonesty. And his racism. He undid everything Obama had set up to prevent such an outbreak. Which, ultimately is fueled by his white supremacy.

Fuck that fat piece of shit Donald tRump and every goddamned thing he stands for.

[LisaL]

17. How are you going to vaccinate anti-vaxxers?

They will certainly ensure this is not going to be our last pandemic.

[Midnight Writer]

19. We are exposing ourselves to more dormant viruses than ever before.

There are viruses beneath the polar ice caps that are being released as they melt. We are encroaching more and more on forests and jungles, exposing us to viruses there. We are excavating more land for development, unearthing even more viruses.

I predict a steady train of new viral diseases, most not as dangerous as Covid, some maybe more.

How we handle them will be the determining factor.

Our vaccine breakthrough is certainly good news, but there is no silver bullet for human behavior.

[Hortensis]

21. May not even be the last one this year. We've been very fortunate so far.

It's not always one at a time. In 2013 MERS and a new lethal variant of bird flu both broke out. That was before the current Republican insanity. They could have killed hundreds of millions, but nations working together, with the United States leading, and some good luck, stopped them both.

Many have been worrying the entire time that another, even more lethal virus, and/or which killed children, might be spread out of control before out-of-control disease-spreading factions learned to fear.

The WHO's lists of scariest and next scariest possibilities name dozens of lethal viruses, whose effects are horror stories, plus there are another 1.5 million or more viruses "out there." Disease X is always on the short, scariest list. In 2019 that turned out to be SARS-CoV-2.