Saturday, March 26, 2022

So, About This Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever

More accurately, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever

The introduction to a February 1, 2020 post: 

....I've mentioned that one of my doctors has a tropical medicine sub-specialty. His verdict:
Coronavirus is virulent, but not that virulent. It's deadly but not that deadly.[*]
His advice? Stay away from areas with active Ebola and Marburg, in fact all the hemorrhagic fevers; don't smoke, lose five or ten pounds.
He tells everyone to lose 5 or 10 pounds.
He doesn't seem all that impressed with Wuhan coronavirus.

And yes, yes Covid-19 has killed 400,000 people in the U.S. under President Trump, and 600,000 under President Biden and 5,145,239 people in the rest of the world but the last time I saw him he said the jury was still out on just how deadly the coronavirus is and he's part of a group working on why white folk seemed so much more susceptible than people on his native continent, Africa, and I should see if I could drop another 5 - 10 pounds. 

From The International Business Times March 26  (you can find the story elsewhere but IBT had the headline):

UK Woman Gets Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever; Kills 30% of People it Infects While Making Them Bleed From Eyes

A UK woman is diagnosed with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in London, a severe disease that kills 30 percent of people it infects while making them bleed from the eyes. This is the third time that a person in the UK has been diagnosed with the disease that is usually transmitted by ticks and livestock animals in countries where it is endemic.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has revealed that the patient was diagnosed at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS foundation trust, and is now receiving specialist care at the Royal Free hospital in London, according to The Guardian.

Lower Risk of Spreading
However, the disease does not spread easily between people and the overall risk to the public is very low. Previously, Britain witnessed similar cases in 2012, and 2014 and none of those cases spread....

*for chronological reference, six weeks after the good Doctor told me that, Dr. Fauci was saying: "COVID-19 Travel Update: Fauci Says Cruising Is OK If You Are Healthy" - Forbes, March 9, 2020

All of which reminded me that early on in the Covid-19 pandemic (Feb. 29, 2020) we linked to an article that looked at possible futures if society were confronted by really bad diseases rather than one where we have the luxury of not vaccinating the elderly as a priority because those cohorts are too white*

"Social Responses to Epidemics Depicted by Cinema"

A great resource for portfolio risk managers.

As just one example, what is the trade if the world is confronted by a real-life version of  "Blindness (2008, Fernando Meirelles), which deals with a fictional disease that causes epidemic blindness, leading to collective hysteria?"
I mean beyond the simplistic "short Luxottica." Duh.

From Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, Volume 26, Number 2—February 2020:....MORE

*"Harald Schmidt, an expert in ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said that it is reasonable to put essential workers ahead of older adults, given their risks, and that they are disproportionately minorities. “Older populations are whiter, ” Dr. Schmidt said. “Society is structured in a way that enables them to live longer. Instead of giving additional health benefits to those who already had more of them, we can start to level the playing field a bit.”

But to protect older people more at risk, he called on the C.D.C. committee to also integrate the agency’s own “social vulnerability index.”

NYT, Dec. 5, 2020

Absolutely vaccinate healthcare workers first. It's like the flight attendants say: "Put on your oxygen mask first cuz if you pass out you're no help for the kids" Gotta have those doctors and nurses healthy.

But if you are messing with vaccine queuing based on race as some sort of restorative justice you are straight-up, a racist.