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There is no common cold. There are over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call "a cold."

by ZoomerCretin 4y ago

foobarian 4y ago
s/common cold/over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call "a cold."/
- echelon 4y ago
  Sure, but investigators need to treat this subject with reverence. Unlike pretty much every other discipline on earth, this one has the potential to disrupt billions of lives from a single mistake. Virologists were the first ones that jumped to say Covid wasn't a lab leak, yet what they should have been saying was, "we'll get to the bottom of this and then, even if wasn't a lab leak, work to make sure that outcome never comes to pass." Instead we got a blame game, accusations of racism, and everyone not in their field was called stupid or incapable of understanding the situation if we asked for more light to be shed in the subject. Also, what happened to the scientific method? There was a whole lot of certainty being prematurely thrown around. This hubris won't do. I don't know how Covid came about, and at this point the only reason to know is to prevent the next one. But no matter the case, whatever is next better not be from a lab.
  - varelse 4y ago
- John23832 4y ago
  You want a global replace, so the end is "/g"... but I feel you lol.
  - birdyrooster 4y ago
    This is incorrect. I have posted the correction. Which I will repeat here for convenience: s/is no common.*/are over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call “a cold.”/
    - John23832 4y ago
      Lol, I didn’t think this would be a thing… but I would think in your statement that you would want a fix for the multitude of viruses that are considered “conmmon colds” right? That’s what I meant. So you would want a global replacement.
- birdyrooster 4y ago
  s/is no common.*/are over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call “a cold.”/
spookthesunset 4y ago
> There are over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call "a cold." Probably far, far more than that if you count the inevitable mutations that occur during replication.
- echelon 4y ago
  It's a feature of how our language, labeling systems, and brains can only grapple with so many things. We rarely need to be so precise. There are millions of human cells in your body right now that don't share "your" DNA [1] due to mutation or specialization (somatic recombination, Barr bodies, etc.) We've known this since trying to apply species categories. [1] "your" DNA becomes a population average sometime after fertilization.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    Discrete classification of continuous phenomena is always going to be messy. Humans create discrete categories because they are useful to humans, but it's always important to remember the map is not the terrain.

There is no common cold. There are over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call "a cold."

foobarian 4y ago

s/common cold/over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call "a cold."/

echelon 4y ago
Sure, but investigators need to treat this subject with reverence. Unlike pretty much every other discipline on earth, this one has the potential to disrupt billions of lives from a single mistake. Virologists were the first ones that jumped to say Covid wasn't a lab leak, yet what they should have been saying was, "we'll get to the bottom of this and then, even if wasn't a lab leak, work to make sure that outcome never comes to pass." Instead we got a blame game, accusations of racism, and everyone not in their field was called stupid or incapable of understanding the situation if we asked for more light to be shed in the subject. Also, what happened to the scientific method? There was a whole lot of certainty being prematurely thrown around. This hubris won't do. I don't know how Covid came about, and at this point the only reason to know is to prevent the next one. But no matter the case, whatever is next better not be from a lab.
- varelse 4y ago
John23832 4y ago
You want a global replace, so the end is "/g"... but I feel you lol.
- birdyrooster 4y ago
  This is incorrect. I have posted the correction. Which I will repeat here for convenience: s/is no common.*/are over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call “a cold.”/
  - John23832 4y ago
    Lol, I didn’t think this would be a thing… but I would think in your statement that you would want a fix for the multitude of viruses that are considered “conmmon colds” right? That’s what I meant. So you would want a global replacement.
birdyrooster 4y ago
s/is no common.*/are over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call “a cold.”/

spookthesunset 4y ago

> There are over 200 distinct viruses that cause the illness we call "a cold." Probably far, far more than that if you count the inevitable mutations that occur during replication.

echelon 4y ago
It's a feature of how our language, labeling systems, and brains can only grapple with so many things. We rarely need to be so precise. There are millions of human cells in your body right now that don't share "your" DNA [1] due to mutation or specialization (somatic recombination, Barr bodies, etc.) We've known this since trying to apply species categories. [1] "your" DNA becomes a population average sometime after fertilization.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  Discrete classification of continuous phenomena is always going to be messy. Humans create discrete categories because they are useful to humans, but it's always important to remember the map is not the terrain.