9 Viruses With Pandemic Potential

Are you worried about a new pandemic?

  • 41.9k
    jimK
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

    There are many interconnected factors at play that mankind has not had to deal with until recently. This earth is a finite place and mankind's abuse of it's finiteness has brought about many changes.

    For me, the greatest risk of a new pandemic comes from the rapidly changing climate which we are currently experiencing in the earliest stages of that which will assuredly rapidly get much worse before it gets better.

    Climate change will increasingly bring wildlife and humanity together as each will have to mgrate to find potable water, avoid flooding and severe weather events, and leaving areas of life-intolerant heat. As they populations mix there will be a much greater possibility of cross over viruses that come from wildlife to humans, novel viruses; novel in the sense that humanity has not developed any natural immunity to these viruses that can help ward them off.

    The viruses listed are of that ilk built there will be many, many more brewed up in the new mixing pots of humans and wildlife. Novel viruses will increasingly be cooked up as viruses cross back and forth between wildlife and humans - and some could become quite lethal.

    Other factor include such things as compromised human immune systems and the long term effects of such things as micro-plastics, PFA's and other chemicals that most human populations have ingested  to one degree or another.

  • 8,885
    M
    02/01/2023

    Seeing how completely unprepared the world was/is for dealing with pandemics, that got me concerned. Seeing how people refuse to be part of the solution. That is horribly concerning. 

    In all the movies the cdc had their act together, here without federal support, coupled with immediate supply chain issues for things like masks, etc. We all should be concerned.

    Also, and I say this in half jest, but not enough people apparently ever watched movies on this subject, because wth, if you had, you'd know some of the basics. Part of me at the time thought how can you not know some of how this all works? Go watch at least the movie Contagion and learn a thing or two. 

  • 1,299
    anihundt
    Voted No
    01/31/2023

    I am worried about how people will react to another pandemic. The one we still have could have been prevented. We could have had less death if the clown administration followed the pandemic policy that was put in place under the Obama Administration. 

    I am worried about the medical team being over worked and burnout.

     

  • 3,959
    Jim2423
    Voted Maybe
    01/31/2023

    I say maybe, only because I will follow all what my doctor and medical staff recommend. Vaccinations if recommended, mask if advised. 

  • 48.0k
    Brian
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

    It's pretty clear that our country was not and likely still is not ready for a pandemic on the scale that COVID-19 was, and I hope somebody in charge is planning for the next one.

    As we continue to encroach upon wildlife the way we are in areas of new logging and farming, the risk that we will contract viruses from other species grows. In addition, the changing climate is making some insects and viruses able to better thrive and spread, which could increase their risk to us.

    We don't know what or when the next pandemic will be, but if we don't improve our public health systems and emergency plans, we may not be ready...and the next one may not be so easily fought with masks and vaccines.

  • 25.8k
    Frank_001
    01/31/2023

    9 Viruses With Pandemic Potential
    Are you worried about a new pandemic?

    "Worried" is a triggering word more connected to anxiety than having reasonable concern and developing strategies and plans.

    See, for example

    Three practical actions could help prevent the next pandemic | News | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/three-practical-actions-could-help-prevent-the-next-pandemic/

    Reduced deforestation, better management of wildlife trade and hunting, and better surveillance of zoonotic pathogens before they spill into human populations are all key strategies that could help prevent future pandemics, according to a new report.

     

    Preventing RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) | CDC
    https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/about/prevention.html

     

  • 3,959
    Jean
    Voted No
    01/31/2023

    CAUSES ASKS:  "Are you worried about a new pandemic?"  ME: "Worried"?  Not particularly; I've more immediate things to worry about.  That said, I also see the inevitability of another pandemic given any number of reasons, from over-population, to environmental  destruction forcing subsantially inreased human/animal interaction, to climate- and war-forced migrations, to...to...to...  That there are things nations (and states, and individuals) can do to mitigate the severity of the next pandemic is one thing; however, that there is little global (or national, or state, or personal) political will to do so is quite another.  it's really up to we humans.

  • 795
    Scott
    Voted No
    02/15/2023

    I am worried that our country will politicize any new diseases or pandemics as they did with Covid. This was eyeing opening and so wrong. What a disappointment in our people and leaders.

  • 3,863
    Ronald
    Voted Yes
    02/03/2023

    1. Trump disbanded the US Pandemic Response teams and protocols that took 6 administrations to put into place.  We have terribly crippled our ability to detect epidemics before they become pandemics and help to treat and isolate them so they do not spread.  2. This article discusses 9 candidates, but there are MILLIONS of viruses in families that have generated deadly epidemics in the past and we have no way to predict if or when another one (or several) will make that jump.  One things  we DO know is that another WILL happen!  3. We need Congress to pass a law that will REQUIRE future administations to rebuild and maintain our ability to detect and respond to epidemics anywhere in the world.  That is the ONLY way to protect the USA, and the world, from future and worse pandemics. 

  • 8,978
    Charles
    Voted Yes
    02/01/2023

    Yes, research on control and  prevention measures needto continue so we are all better prepared.

  • 13.3k
    MrGeer
    Voted Yes
    02/01/2023

    yes, and we will have more in the future as the ice caps melt, releasing bacteria that has'nt seen the light of day in millions of years.

  • 3,697
    Kevin
    Voted Yes
    02/01/2023

    The longer a virus sticks around, the more people who are unvaxed, and the more mutations will arise.

  • 25.8k
    Frank_001
    02/01/2023

    Re:  The Way Causes Frames Its Questions

    Since I began visiting Causes, I have wondered why it chooses its questions and frames them the way it does.

    I have sometimes wondered if others also have similar questions and more.

    I have also occasionally wondered about the subgroupings certain kinds of questions are meant to elicit responses from.

    The question in today's lede is an excellent example.

    My previous response must include the following at the intersection of irony and sarcasm: 

    Fear and Anxiety Drive Conservatives' Political Attitudes | Psychology Today
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes

    It would be interesting to do a study substantiating the notion that the conservative mind / brain reaches for denial as its first response to perceived stress. 

    To me that notion would explain much in today's American Politics

  • 2,215
    wpeckham
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

    1. Trump disbanded the US Pandemic Response teams and protocols that took 6 administrations to put into place.  We have terribly crippled our ability to detect epidemics before they become pandemics and help to treat and isolate them so they do not spread.  2. This article discusses 9 candidates, but there are MILLIONS of viruses in families that have generated deadly epidemics in the past and we have no way to predict if or when another one (or several) will make that jump.  One things  we DO know is that another WILL happen!  3. We need Congress to pass a law that will REQUIRE future administations to rebuild and maintain our ability to detect and respond to epidemics anywhere in the world.  That is the ONLY way to protect the USA, and the world, from future and worse pandemics. 

  • 1,178
    sepena
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

    i am worried because there are so many anti-vaxxers and covid deniers in congress that could keep any action from being taken in the next pandemic. i'm sure that a democratic president and congressional democrats will do what they can but it is disheartening that republicans are so know nothing, do nothings.

  • 1,051
    ClydeK
    Voted Yes
    02/01/2023

    In the world we live in today with the ease of infected people to move around, I think another pandemic is almost certain.  And if you add in a dolt of a President that denies it is happening, it may be more than 100% likely.  Covid was already pretty much out of control in China before they knew they had a problem.  We were even worse in some ways due to #45.  Our farmers are dealing with the Avian Flu right now in our chicken producers.  It only takes a mutation for that virus to jump to the human population.

  • 12.0k
    Mary
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

    But, of course.  You'd have to be an ignorant idiot, not to after the last go round.

  • 461
    Steve
    Voted Yes
    02/01/2023

    I am very concerned about the Next pandemic due to the Republicans politicizing the Covid19 pandemic! I feel that we will have a large amount of the population that will ignore the warnings of future disease and that will result in a heavy death toll ! 

  • 1,696
    Kathleen
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

    Of course I am worried!  No one is wearing masks anymore.  Very few!  My husband and I still do. People coughing and sneezing but no masks. My question is, why?  I made the mistake of pulling down my mask in the grocery store because my glasses kept steaming up, did it a few times.  Guess what happened?  I ended up getting RSV.  Very scary because you can't breathe too well.  You can't lay down to sleep because it feels like you're drowning.  Almost landed in the hospital!  Then of course I gave it to my husband.  We stayed away from everyone and disinfected everything because we have a 94 year old at home.  Very difficult when you are their caregivers and she has dementia.  Thank God she never caught it!  So to everyone thinking, no mask for me, stop kidding yourselves. There will be more pandemics no doubt!  Do not take this as a conspiracy theory.

  • 1,927
    Paul
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

    I am less worried about the diseases themselves than I am about those who would deny or politicize health care surrounding them, including vaccinations. Health care is NOT politics; when I'm sick, I don't call a congressperson. (And when my country is sick, I don't call an MD. Regrettably, right now our country is very sick, and "the lines are down," no thanks to Republicans.) 

  • 239
    Jane
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

     

    too many people died from Covid due to misinformation, stupidity, and not listening to their MDs.

     

  • 6,674
    Bruce
    Voted Yes
    01/31/2023

    I worry about everything--the Climate Crisis, the Anthropogenic Mass Extinction, Famine, Wars Everywhere, Mass Migration and Pandemics one after another.  

    Remember that curse?  

    The one that says:  May you Live in Interesting Times...