‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to News@lemmy.world – 426 points –
‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans
theguardian.com
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By this logic because there is infinite time and infinite possibilities, we could develop a cure or a virus that kills this prion and avert this crisis. We could also not and just die. Then there is a possibility that none of this exists and this is a simulation and the developers haven't added this as a feature yet.

Then there is a possibility that none of this exists and this is a simulation and the developers haven't added this as a feature yet.

Earth v.AD2024.1.1 - Began "Zombie Deer Event" on North American Servers

Earth v.AD2024.1.2 - Fixed bug where "Zombie" status would not jump species

Earth v.AD2024.1.8 - Reduced "Zombie" status infliction rate as players intentionally ate tainted meat to spite developers

Yup. Precisely.

My main point is that, in general, it is better to prepare for the more problematic eventualities than to go "nuh uh, that isn't going to happen. Everything is going to be fine. Don't touch my cheese."

That is not the debated point. The point is that winning the lottery is just as much not a question of time.

I feel like you are missing the point.

People win the lottery every day.

There are far more CWD prions than lottery players, and it would only take one of those prions to mutate into a form that could infect humans.

Again, I will reiterate, putting on a blindfold, putting your fingers in your ears and going "it won't happen, lalala!" is a pretty dumb way to approach it.

We just saw the masses do it with Covid.

We had a novel disease, we just needed to behave for a couple months, the sweeping majority did, but the remainder of fuck-nuts out there went "it's not a problem, lalala!" and now we have endemic covid, sweeping segments of the population struggling with long covid, infection rates are going through the roof again, and now new even more severe consequences like epilepsy are showing up in children post infection.

2 of the rules of life. 1) Microorganisms will mutate. 2) People will be aggressively ignorant and will make sure the mutated microorganism will do as much damage as possible. Because they certainly cant miss that Blink 182 reunion tour...

It could happen, the same way a specific person could win the lottery. But it is not a question of time. It could also not happen in 100 billion years, even if the chance of that is essentially 0. But it is not exactly 0. Time only increases the chance, it does not guarantee it. That is the difference between statistical and deterministic events.