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0 pointsmlsu2mo ago0 comments

Covid, ahem, could have been designed in a lab to be an "ideal" bioweapon. As far as viruses go it approximated just about the best bioweapon we could have made with current technology.

- very deadly

- asymptomatic spreading for a couple days

- spreads easy

- no tests/vaccine (early on)

It did kill a lot of people, that's for sure, and caused a huge disruption. But was far less disruptive, imo, than e.g. a nuke in multiple big cities would have been, even if the death toll was similar.

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drnick12mo ago

> very deadly

Covid wasn't "very deadly" at all.

laughing_man2mo ago

The base variant killed millions of people. It wasn't the Black Death, exactly, but it was pretty dangrous.

Now, if you want something that will keep you up at night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npf-B5Av7aQ

thfuran2mo ago

It was too contagious and not nearly virulent enough to be an ideal bioweapon.

eszed2mo ago

GP put "ideal" in inverted commas, and qualified with "best we could make with current technology". I doubt they disagree with you.

femto2mo ago

This paper puts some numbers around that, looking at death rates before a vaccine was available.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S120197122...

Without a vaccination, it killed 12.9% of people who were infected, killing mostly older people and people who had multiple pathologies (eg. hypertension).

thfuran2mo ago

That’s 12.9% of hospital inpatients. All estimates I’ve seen for infection fatality rate — that is, mortality rate among all those infected — place it around 1–2%

cthalupa2mo ago

Something that contagious that kills ~13% of people infected is something I would argue is quite deadly.

Especially when half of adults in america are hypertensive.

thfuran2mo ago

It doesn’t kill 13% of people infected, only about 1%. Just look at the number of cases reported compared to the number of deaths. That paper was reporting 13% mortality rate among those admitted to the hospital, not among all those infected.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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drnick12mo ago

> very deadly

Covid wasn't "very deadly" at all.

laughing_man2mo ago

The base variant killed millions of people. It wasn't the Black Death, exactly, but it was pretty dangrous.

Now, if you want something that will keep you up at night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npf-B5Av7aQ

thfuran2mo ago

It was too contagious and not nearly virulent enough to be an ideal bioweapon.

eszed2mo ago

GP put "ideal" in inverted commas, and qualified with "best we could make with current technology". I doubt they disagree with you.

femto2mo ago

This paper puts some numbers around that, looking at death rates before a vaccine was available.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S120197122...

Without a vaccination, it killed 12.9% of people who were infected, killing mostly older people and people who had multiple pathologies (eg. hypertension).

thfuran2mo ago

That’s 12.9% of hospital inpatients. All estimates I’ve seen for infection fatality rate — that is, mortality rate among all those infected — place it around 1–2%

cthalupa2mo ago

Something that contagious that kills ~13% of people infected is something I would argue is quite deadly.

Especially when half of adults in america are hypertensive.

thfuran2mo ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse