5 ms·

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

by mlsu 7mo ago

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.

drnick1 7mo ago
> very deadly Covid wasn't "very deadly" at all.
- laughing_man 7mo 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npf-B5Av7aQ
thfuran 7mo ago
It was too contagious and not nearly virulent enough to be an ideal bioweapon.
- eszed 7mo ago
  GP put "ideal" in inverted commas, and qualified with "best we could make with current technology". I doubt they disagree with you.
femto 7mo ago
This paper puts some numbers around that, looking at death rates before a vaccine was available. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971222000492 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).
- cthalupa 7mo 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.
  - thfuran 7mo 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.
- thfuran 7mo 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%

by mlsu 7mo ago

drnick1 7mo ago

> very deadly Covid wasn't "very deadly" at all.

laughing_man 7mo 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npf-B5Av7aQ

thfuran 7mo ago

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

eszed 7mo ago
GP put "ideal" in inverted commas, and qualified with "best we could make with current technology". I doubt they disagree with you.

femto 7mo ago

This paper puts some numbers around that, looking at death rates before a vaccine was available. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971222000492 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).

cthalupa 7mo 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.
- thfuran 7mo 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.
thfuran 7mo 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%