5 ms·
Human transmissible prions are the most terrifying non-extinction level event I could imagine for humanity. Prion diseases like mad cow kill within one year af
by diordiderot 5y ago
Human transmissible prions are the most terrifying non-extinction level event I could imagine for humanity.
Prion diseases like mad cow kill within one year after 5-10 years of infection.
The massive wave of death and terror would end society as we know it
- RyEgswuCsn 5y agoIt will be as "good" as extinction --- by the time we realised there is a prion pandemic, it will probably be too late.
- dtech 5y agoHey all the vegetarians and vegans will survive
- blip54321 5y agoCows are vegetarian, as are deer.
- dtech 5y agoI don't know deer, but cows get it from meat [1] > Cattle are believed to have been infected from being fed meat and bone meal (MBM) that contained the remains of other cattle who spontaneously developed the disease or scrapie-infected sheep products. The outbreak increased throughout the United Kingdom due to the practice of feeding meat-and-bone meal to young calves of dairy cows [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy#Cause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopat...
- Gare 5y agoIt is estimated around 400 000 infected cows entered human foodchain in the UK in the 1980s. Less than 200 people died. Samples from appendectomy imply many more are infected, but didn't develop symptoms (yet). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_BSE_outbreak https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_BSE_outbreak
- chmod775 5y agoHeat isn't kind to proteins (denaturing, and specifically unfolding them), so cooking that meat - as most people likely did - should have made it safer.
- rightbyte 5y agoYe a silent pandemic of "mad cow" would be terrifying, like those people who now carry it asymptomatic would spread it or something. I think there is a "mystery" brain disease in an area in the US somewhere, but I can't remember enough details to find it.
- diordiderot 5y agoI think there's one caused by blue alge in Canada