Do people know that the 1890 pandemic was likely caused by another coronavirus, OC43 (that was then novel?) Nowadays, no longer novel, it is one of the causes of the common cold. We're obviously not living in the OC43 pandemic since, and we won't live in a COVID pandemic forever.
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@dylanhmorris on why the *novel* part of the phrase "novel coronavirus" is key. There are two ways to make the virus no longer novel to one's immune system: vaccination (yay lowest risk) or infection (the risky, dangerous path).https://www.theinsight.org/p/novelty-means-severity-the-key-to …10 replies 118 retweets 513 likesShow this thread -
Of course, OC43 remains dangerous to the elderly—especially those living in nursing homes—because humans aren't immortal and our immune systems fail as we age, and congregate living is especially dangerous. For the immunocompetent: OC43 causes the common cold and no crisis.
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Personally, I'm for aggressive public health measures—too much preventable suffering. We don't put up with food poisoning, so why not better ventilation or other measures against respiratory illnesses, for example. But SARS-CoV-2 isn't some virus that stands against all biology.
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Also, flu pandemics happen, of course, but they too end once it is no longer novel to enough people. (And flu has a lot of tricks this virus does not have). Plus, we have vaccines now (we did not for flu for 1918 but that one ended, too). It sucks, truly, but it's not endless.
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Unlike many terrible *past* pandemics (yes, past), we have vaccines now. Ideally, we move forward by learning from all this: how to get ready for next time, and how to reduce disease burden from all respiratory illnesses. But viruses do not stand outside biology and history.
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zeynep tufekci Retweeted Prof Francois Balloux
One informed dissent to my "likely"—though I'll keep the original point: pandemics end and viruses don't stand outside of all known biology or history. We're facing a coronavirus (not the first time), and there are already vaccines.https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1442534762783072259 …
zeynep tufekci added,
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zeynep tufekci Retweeted Bloom Lab
Another informed perspective on what else it may have been. (I'll repeat: it ended!)https://twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1442541684651225088 …
zeynep tufekci added,
Bloom Lab @jbloom_labReplying to @zeynepI think evidence for 1889-1890 pandemic being caused by OC43 is pretty dubious. There is good seroarchaeology evidence (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2557748/ …) that there was a flu pandemic (probably H3N8) in 1889-1890. In addition, ... (1/3)3 replies 8 retweets 104 likesShow this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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