Current Events > Can you imagine if COVID's fatality rate was closer to 90%.

(+) Yeah! (+)

You think people would have taken it more seriously? Specifically the Trump administration.

---

Absolutely not. I'm sure a lot of them would rather die than ever do anything to help others.

---

They'd be too dead to take things seriously.

---

Something like the black death would be pretty wild to see in the age of social media

---

I'd rather not imagine that.

---

Something with a mortality rate that ludicrously high would burn itself out before long. If the host can't survive long enough to pass it on, it won't spread very well.

---

There would still be downplayers. The same fucking people in fact. The same people would be antivaxx too.

---

Human society would completely collapse.

That could honestly result in us coming just short of extinction.

Assuming it progressed gradually enough with a high enough viral load to effectively spread that is. If it had everything covid does except the end result is deadlier but the lead up and everything else is largely the same.

If it just rapidly smacks you down with extreme symptoms it would be bad but limit its ability to spread greatly.

---

I'm curious if this guy's take would have changed in that situation.



---

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Something with a mortality rate that ludicrously high would burn itself out before long. If the host can't survive long enough to pass it on, it won't spread very well.

not necessarily, a long term progression or prolonged asymptomatic infectious phase would make up for that. an obvious example is covid, they've been saying for months that covid has a pretty long asymptomatic infectious phase so you can pass the virus on before you even know you're sick.

---

the government would say "peace out and good luck" if that were the case and anarchy would ensue.

---

It would be real different if a member of every single immediately family was dying. Most people just don't give a shit until it's really close. 90% is super close.

---

"Its only 1 in 10 people in the country, quit fear mongering."

---

Lmao, of course they wouldn't take it seriously.

Also Trump, Boris etc would all be dead anyway if it had such a high mortality rate so who knows what their replacements would do. Be hard to do worse though.

---

IShall_Run_Amok posted...

"Its only 1 in 10 people in the country, quit fear mongering."

People: "I think you got that backwards..."

Them: "Whatever, it's all the same."

---

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Something with a mortality rate that ludicrously high would burn itself out before long. If the host can't survive long enough to pass it on, it won't spread very well.

This, unless it was contagious for quite some time before it could even be detected, let alone fatal.

I would be more scared of "covid but with measles' level of contagiousness" than "covid but with MERS' level of deadliness".

---

Funkydog posted...

Lmao, of course they wouldn't take it seriously.

Also Trump, Boris etc would all be dead anyway if it had such a high mortality rate so who knows what their replacements would do. Be hard to do worse though.

Give Boris a little credit. He actually did take it seriously after he caught it.

---

creativerealms posted...

Give Boris a little credit. He actually did take it seriously after he caught it.

Sure, but in this case he'd be dead so a bit late.

---

If it's fatality rate was 90% it likely would have never gotten out of Wuhan (or where ever else it may have originated from).

Original SARS was only like 10% and it never even came close to killing 1000 people total world-wide.
---

I mean, we keep fucking around and it will mutate to that point.

---

Bio1590 posted...

Original SARS was only like 10% and it never even came close to killing 1000 people total world-wide.

To be fair, mortality rate wasn't the only factor there. MERS had a higher mortality rate but also spread more widely than SARS did (though also ultimately fizzled out).

A big difference is the asymptomatic spread. SARS patients usually weren't contagious until they showed symptoms, which made quarantining them much easier. It was also less contagious in general.

---

I took it seriously, and still ended up with it. I wore my mask 100% of the time I was in public. Constantly washed my hands and sanitized everything. Thought I caught it from work, but now the person who supposedly had it before I caught it is denying ever having it. So... I suppose I picked it up from a guest along the way? Idk.

Anyway, with that mortality rate, it would've ravaged my family. You guys might even have finally been rid of me.

---

The main reason so many people ignored lockdowns and mask requirements is because covid has such a high chance to be mild or asymptomatic. If it had that kind of fatality rate, people would have locked down and stayed locked down tight.

---

KogaSteelfang posted...

I took it seriously, and still ended up with it. I wore my mask 100% of the time I was in public. Constantly washed my hands and sanitized everything.

More-recent evidence suggests that surface transmission - which is what the handwashing / etc is meant to address - is a borderline negligable means of transmission for covid.

Basically - it spreads primarily via airborne transmission. You know, just like SARS, MERS, and the four common cold coronaviruses that it's closely related to. And yet for some reason, people were all hyped up about surface transmission to the extent that it was even claimed airborne transmission wasn't part of how it spreads for months at the start. (Heck, remember for a few months at the start when all the major authorities - even in mostly-sensible places like New Zealand - were saying that masks shouldn't be worn, or at most, "you can wear one if you like but it's not a big deal"? Imagine the reaction if someone made that ridiculous claim nowdays... oh right, some people still do.)

As for the masks - unless you're wearing N95s, they're not hugely going to reduce the risk of contracting it. They help a bit, but their primary advantage is that if you have the virus but don't know it, they greatly reduce your risk of infecting anyone else. That's why people think so lowly of anti-maskers - because they're not saying "I don't care about myself", they're saying "I don't care about others around me".

---

ThunderTrain posted...

Absolutely not. I'm sure a lot of them would rather die than ever do anything to help others.

dude the reason people are not taking it seriously is because death rate is so low that its barely noticeable if you dont watch the medias, of course at 90% people would act way differently

ROOTFayth posted...

dude the reason people are not taking it seriously is because death rate is so low that its barely noticeable if you dont watch the medias

Please stop saying things

---

90% fatality rate would be the second deadliest virus in history not even smallpox or ebola would compare. The only thing more deadly is rabies.

---

Assuming it still spread as widely (which is a big assumption, obviously), that would wipe out society as we know it. And I'm pretty sure we'd still have a fair number of people, including many politicians, who were sure it was all a hoax

---