I think “muzzi” virus would have been a better name.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my combined microbiology/immunology ping list.
“Worldwide, there have been 40 confirmed cases, WHO says, including 20 deaths.”
50 percent mortality rate ain’t good.
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the Bring Out Your Dead ping list (formerly the Ebola ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the Bring Out Your Dead threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
Sheesh, the location name is only an issue cause of jihadists.
Can’t offend the muzzies.
Get over it.
I am not yet deeply concerned with this, because it is not following the explosive growth pattern of a really deadly plague. Timetable does matter, because if growth is too slow, the number of infection “dead ends” eventually extinguishes the pathogen.
Several other variables are first, that infection favors milder strains, that pulmonary spread is greatest at 40F and low humidity, that the pathogen has common insect, animal, or contamination vectors, etc.
A plague like the Spanish flu was remarkable for *not* following these typical rules. Infection favored more lethal strains; it spread easiest in warm, humid climates; and it spread easily without obvious vectors (because of its novelty, much less of the virus was needed to infect).
Plagues tend to spread both like a wildfire, unevenly, and in waves, coming on strongly in an area, only to ebb, then returning strongly, over and over again.
Thus, added all up, this Saudi sickness might create a regional problem and kill several hundred, but as of yet it is showing no signs of turning into a pandemic or even a major plague.