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HanaBothWays t1_iwskt0u wrote

Oh God oh shit this is how Train to Busan starts.

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Stefanz454 t1_iwsmy69 wrote

Aaand it’s hunting season…

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swing_axle t1_iwsnnz7 wrote

They've known covid had spread to deer for a while. It's one of the reasons we're probably never really getting rid of it. But the fact that it's becoming widespread and common enough in deer populations to make new variants is concerning.

Relatedly, don't fucking feed deer. It makes them congregate and increases the chance of spread! No backyard feeders, no feeding stations, no bait stations.

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embertml t1_iwsnre9 wrote

American horror story season 11 anyone?

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LeapIntoInaction t1_iwsnxd3 wrote

Maaaan, I have got to stop hanging out at those deer bars.

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FuckedYourSandwich t1_iwsoj8l wrote

I hope reindeer don’t get it. No kid’s naughty enough to have Santa bring them a slow asphyxiation death for Christmas.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwsotrz wrote

I would just wear an N95 while there is any sort of aerosol risk. Once the meat is cooked its no big deal, but any droplet hazards when processing the meat should be mitigated. I'm not trying to scare people just be careful.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwsoyya wrote

I would say wear a mask if you go hunting and take one down. That way any droplet hazard is minimized. I'm sure COVID can't survive being cooked it's not like prion disease.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwspfo1 wrote

Ya just wear a mask if you bag a deer. You don't want to be the person infected with a new version of this disease. When diseases circulate in animals for a while they tend to get adapted to that animal. So when cross species transmission happens the virus tends to be more dangerous because it's no longer adapted to humans.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwspttu wrote

Did he get sick by chance? Just tell him to wear a mask if he goes again. He doesn't even have to wear it the whole time. Just if he gets close to an injured dear. Please make sure it's an N95 since the blue ones don't stop you from getting sick.

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ivey_mac t1_iwsqjxf wrote

All because Rudolph refused to cover his nose with a mask.

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Litup-North t1_iwsr04k wrote

Article states it was an isolated incident without any known further transmission.

I can totally relate.

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HardlyDecent t1_iwssdq6 wrote

Deer COVID? Sure, put it in the basket and let's go.

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imgurNewtGingrinch t1_iwsse4h wrote

In 2020 at the start of the pandemic, Midwests White tailed deer populations had antibodies at higher rates than humans had initial infections. Deer were spreading this thing long before 2020. This isnt new news to anyone that was paying attention.

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Akipac1028 t1_iwsvcs9 wrote

They take plenty of caution. Hunters are usually on the look out for CWD (chronic wasting disease) that’s been spreading in the deer pop for the last few years.

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raphaelseptien1 t1_iwsvmp2 wrote

I'm sorry you're experiencing that, and I don't doubt that you are. Given the gigantic number of people who have had COVID, I'm curious what percentage of people are suffering from long-haul... there are a lot of other diseases out there in this world that can cause long-term issues as well. I feel bad for folks who are still losing sleep over this stuff. Bad things can happen to any of us at any time.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwsvne1 wrote

COVID isn't blood borne thankfully. I would try to protect myself from those, but I would be more worried about Lyme disease from ticks then COVID. Just wearing a mask and if you really want to take this seriously a face shield to stop splatter from inside the deers lungs. I would say when your first starting to gut it that would be the most hazardous period.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwsw52q wrote

Well ask him how he's feeling. If he does have a cold ask what symptoms he's had. I don't know if he would be open to take a test if he is sick. If he won't then just stay away for a bit maybe. You could also just warn him about it for future information. A face shield and mask would also probably make gutting the deer a bit less unpleasant. So it's not like there is no benefit to it. I hope no one you know gets sick. I hope this dies out in deer.

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pattydickens t1_iwswtj3 wrote

People are still being hospitalized at a much higher rate than car accidents yet you probably wear a seat belt and stop at stoplights right? Why is basic safety when it comes to Covid so hard for people to understand? Nobody is " freaking out" by practicing basic hygiene around a deer carcass.

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radicalelation t1_iwsx3gn wrote

No, not at all. That is chronic wasting disease, an infection caused by prions, a much more scary contagious entity separate from viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc.

Prions, unlike COVID, are not a virus, but a misfolded protein that prompts others to misfold. The most commonly known prion disease is Mad Cow Disease.

They have a nasty habit of surviving for a very long time outside of a body, can't be sanitized away with anything short of undiluted bleach or similar, and need high, continuous temperatures to incinerate. They propagate in the infected for years before any symptoms show, and there is no known cure.

I mean, now that I've taken a look at that article, it kind of explains quite a bit there to tell you it's not a virus like COVID.

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that_yeg_guy t1_iwsxfql wrote

“B. 1.641 was effectively wiped out by blood samples of people either vaccinated two to three times or who have already recovered from infection, the study found.”

Nothing to see here. If you’re not an idiot and got vaccinated, you’re safe from this.

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CritaCorn t1_iwsyxv4 wrote

Let’s go! Covid for life baby!

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raphaelseptien1 t1_iwsyyr8 wrote

That's an interesting statistic; would you mind sharing the source with me? I'm also curious how it compares with the flu and other viruses currently going around. In my area, adenovirus warrants far more concern right now, as it hits young children the hardest and can easily result in an overnight or multi-night stay at the hospital. Yet we all continue to let our kids go to school and daycare, and society continues to function.

The current COVID death rate sits at 1.3%, which is very comparable to the flu. As someone who's had his ass kicked by the flu previously, I take precautions such as getting my flu shot, not licking door handles, etc. But I can't say I let my concern about the flu weigh on me very heavily. I feel sorry for people who become consumed with such fear.

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bloodmonarch t1_iwsz8g6 wrote

How about the eleventeenth pandemic?

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datfngtrump t1_iwt16jr wrote

So the deer have covid, the deer have CWS orD, not sure if it chronic wasting syndrome or disease. Currently CWS isn't transmisable to humans, but.....

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raphaelseptien1 t1_iwt29yf wrote

A quick search of Google regarding car accidents yielded data from the CDC... https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db410.htm. According to their data, in 2017-18, car accidents resulted in a hospitalization rate of 5.3 hospital visits per 1000 persons, so just over half of one percent. That's a pretty low bar for you to cite. Also, seatbelt wearing is pretty much the norm today, not that everyone does it, but it's not much of a burden to pull your seat belt over and click it. Takes all of 3 seconds. I'm not sure how that compares to someone living in fear of COVID several variants down the line, with a 1.3% overall death rate (since early 2020). I suspect that the death rate is appreciably lower than that if you just looked at the last 12 months.

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Ok_Improvement_5897 t1_iwt6agj wrote

I live right next to a nature preserve with no hunting on one side...and the state gamelands on the other. The deer know exactly where the line ends and get super duper tame around people for much of the year. People love it, makes for great photos - and some people like my neighbors down the street have literally gotten to the point where they're handfeeding them. We're fucked - if the deer that come wandering up to me by my house looking for cookies(I never ever everrr feed wildlife) don't get me, my neighbors will lol.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwtjizc wrote

Ya I'm sure that will happen. It's funny because now the deer can take revenge from the grave. Sorry for my gallows humor. The hunting community may get hit hard by this. Lots of white face on FacesOfCovid recently. They all look like republicans.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwtju6f wrote

That would be smart. I'd say a face shield, because I'm not sure if blood from the lungs is infectious. Honestly I would just stay the fuck away from deer. I had this long conversation with an AI once about what would happen to mammalian life if multiple species could get it. The thing said one word and it sent chills up my spine. Extinction

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Zargabraath t1_iwu2vn7 wrote

You literally couldn’t find a demographic less likely to wear a mask than American deer hunters

And to be honest the reasonable thing to do with any diseased game is to ban hunting of it at least until the issue is resolved. If China had done the same with their bush meat markets we likely wouldn’t even be in this mess

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LobbydaLobster t1_iwu6yat wrote

No way Santa Claus is landing on my roof now. Just send Amazon packages from now on Santa's.

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Zakluor t1_iwudvws wrote

Do you know of anyone who has had long-term effects from the flu? The two aren't as directly-comparable as people like you tend to try to make them out to be.

Either way, taking some basic precautionary measures shouldn't be confused with fear. While there are some people who seem over-the-top about it, most aren't. Many of those have their own reasons to want to avoid it, and really don't deserve to be shamed over it.

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borussiadortmund91 t1_iwuibne wrote

Leave the deer alone then for crying out loud. Meddling scientists.

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cryptockus t1_iwut8cl wrote

covid is here to stay, people with vulnerable immune systems or other weakness will die from it and the next generation of humans will be stronger, so is the game of life, can we stop talking about covid and pretend we can stop this... the arrogance of mankind is huge here, to think we can somehow still make a difference by throwing money at the problem is a waste of energy and ressources

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Ocyanea t1_iwv1ron wrote

Banning hunting is a great way to let the disease spread through the deer population. Hunters do take diseases in wildlife seriously — just look at CWD. We already have testing centers for it — there’s no reason the testing centers can’t just do a COVID swab too, since they have the whole head.

The best way to handle this is to cull local herds, test, and not bait this year until we find out how much of a risk it is.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwvmgpq wrote

How many did you actually look at? I look at them every single day. I almost died from this. I might have been a statistic to you. Respect for the dead shouldn't be hard. If your going to risk killing others then you owe them some of your time.

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hobowhite t1_iwvrwg8 wrote

Didn’t have that on my 2022 bingo card

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bwat47 t1_iwvvipy wrote

Bambi variant, you heard it here first

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sweetpeapickle t1_iwwf8fe wrote

A lot of deer meat now goes to the homeless. It does get thoroughly checked, just like in other processes. The only exception would be solo people doing the processing themselves. But then they really should not be giving the meat to anyone but family. No need to ban hunting.

And I know a lot of hunters, generational, who have been hunting for over 50 years. They all wore masks during the pandemic. Being how cold it is here, chances are their faces will be all covered up anyways.

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Memetic1 OP t1_iwwlvk1 wrote

I once asked a next generation AI chat bot what would happen if a virus could spread amongst mammalian life, and it responded with one word extinction. This was notable because usually it was pretty verbose. The damn thing sent chills up my spine despite having a basic understanding of how it worked.

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Zargabraath t1_iwwn39l wrote

Deer having COVID isn’t even the real problem here. As someone who hunts you are probably aware of the prion situation and how bad it is… for that reason alone hunting of ungulates should be banned throughout the US until (if) we figure out a solution to it

If those prions ever jumped from deer to humans it would make COVID look like a goddamn picnic. As a species we need to stop letting the 0.00001% of the population who run bat meat markets and hunt deer fuck up things for everyone else, that’s not a luxury we can afford anymore

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Zargabraath t1_iwwnn22 wrote

CWD is exactly why hunting should be banned until(or if) it is resolved

The more humans interact with deer the more likely it is that CWD can jump to humans. And that could be disastrous. The hunters can get a new hobby, the risk is too high. Just like the Wuhan wet market bat meat sellers can find a new job. We can’t keep letting 0.0000001% of the population endanger everyone else with this high risk stuff.

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Ocyanea t1_iwwpvqy wrote

Hunting is the biggest form of population control for deer. Deer population has exploded from about half a million a hundred years ago to 30 million today — without hunting those numbers would be even worse. Overpopulation spreads disease. Cutting the population down is the best way to prevent the disease from spreading.

Most hunters I know who get deer in CWD positive zones get their deer tested before eating it. Most of them are old enough to remember mad cow disease and to not want to fuck with it.

Hunters in my state killed nearly 400,000 deer last year. Ban hunting and the deer population will absolutely explode.

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Zargabraath t1_ix0n3qj wrote

or just allow the historical predators like wolves to recover and tell the ranchers to stop shooting them. that improves the environment across the board by the way, not just by controlling deer populations.

what do you think controlled deer populations for the 99% of the time that they've been on this planet that modern humans weren't around to hunt them?

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Ocyanea t1_ix0q4oi wrote

Unfortunately, wolves aren’t going to hunt deer in populated areas. They aren’t as adaptable as coyotes are, whereas deer are perfectly content to hang out in the suburbs.

A lot of people hunt just a few miles from population centers. That’s not the sort of place wolves are going to thrive. Repopulating wolves might work in some very rural areas, but it’s not a solution for suburban and semi rural areas.

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bnh1978 t1_ix6np3s wrote

People really need to stop fucking deer.

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Memetic1 OP t1_ix9cf5o wrote

Well COVID isn't transmitted sexually as far as we know. Simply wearing masks while your approaching a deer you shot would be a good idea. So many people don't seem to understand the unique risks that come with transmission from animals to people. Instead we get jokes. We get bullshit male toxicity so afraid of minorities that they need a gun, but refuse to wear a mask to protect them from a virus that has killed millions. I don't feel like jokes right now, because hunters are going to get us killed with their reckless behavior.

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