re: Plague watch 2026 edition

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Using bioweapons doesnt work well because its tough to keep it from turning onto yourself

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And China certainly care to sacrifice their citizens with covid

They didn’t comply with the WHO at first and share the genome either

Now why wouldn’t a country want to share that vital information?

Hmmmmm really makes you think

Good link thx. Looks like one of the meds is the fish antibiotic, if I’m remembering correctly. Can grab that at the pet store if still otc for fish. I read a funny social media post once of those who stock up on it and it’s healed their fish’s toothaches, and so on.

I have a feeling tomorrow the prescriptions for fluoroquinolones will begin to increase at the pharmacy.

In 2020 when the news broke there were immediately increases in health care professionals self prescribing to protect themselves. Which I do empathize with.

The experience of working in the pharmacy during a pandemic was so stressful and chaotic. Non stop encounters with panicked people wanting to protect themselves. I do not want to go through that again.

Thats $30 a jar

The real thing is $4 with no insurance

How will that help me wipe my arse though?

Elections, Trump in office, I’ve seen this movie before

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Luckily we know about the plague, how it spreads and how to treat it.

Pretty much impossible to be a COVID situation

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It's not that simple. This is very serious. It has a long incubation period.

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That’s bullshite. Y pestis caused 2 of the deadliest pandemics in human history. Because just like covid a person is contagious before they are symptomatic.

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Not entirely true. Transmission was predominantly via tick vector as the only way it spreads between people is via respiratory droplets from symptomatic coughing carriers. It’s less virulent than covid which was spread via aerosols which can linger for hours in enclosed spaces.

From OpenEvidence:

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Bubonic plague spreads primarily through the bite of infected fleas, and its lethality in the historic pandemics came from the combination of an efficient rodent–flea transmission cycle, untreated progression to septicemic and pneumonic forms, and human-to-human respiratory spread once the lungs became involved.

How it spreads

Flea-borne (the usual route for bubonic plague): Y. pestis is maintained in nature in a cycle between rodents and their fleas (classically the Oriental rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis). When a flea bites, it regurgitates bacteria into the skin; the organisms migrate through cutaneous lymphatics to regional lymph nodes, producing the characteristic tender swelling (bubo). When a rodent host dies, its fleas seek new hosts, including humans.

Direct contact: Handling infected animal tissues or fluids can inoculate bacteria through skin, also causing bubonic or septicemic plague.

Respiratory droplets (person-to-person): Inhalation of infectious droplets causes primary pneumonic plague — the only form that spreads directly between people, and the mechanism that turns a localized outbreak into an explosive epidemic.

Why it became so deadly

Progression when untreated: In bubonic plague, rapid bacterial multiplication destroys lymph node architecture, followed by hematogenous spread to produce secondary septicemia, pneumonia, or meningitis. Septicemia leads to disseminated intravascular coagulation, small-vessel necrosis, and acral gangrene — the blackened extremities thought to give the "Black Death" its name.

Case fatality: Untreated bubonic plague carried case fatality rates above 75% in the preantibiotic era; modern WHO estimates range from roughly 17–26%, with a systematic review reporting ~15% overall. Pneumonic plague is near-uniformly fatal (approaching 100%) if untreated and still carries >50% mortality even with antimicrobial treatment. ?
Amplification by the pneumonic form: Once a patient develops secondary pneumonic plague, productive cough disseminates highly infectious aerosols, seeding primary pneumonic plague in close contacts and driving rapid person-to-person chains.

Pandemic-scale spread: Three pandemics — beginning 541 AD (Justinian), the 14th-century Black Death (which killed roughly a quarter or more of affected populations), and the third pandemic from 19th-century China spread by rat-infested steamships — were propelled by movement of infected rodents and fleas along trade and shipping routes.

Incubation periods

Bubonic plague: Commonly 2–8 days after an infected flea bite. Sources give slightly varying ranges — the CDC states symptoms appear 2–8 days after infection, the JAMA consensus statement cites 2–8 days, the Lancet review and an NEJM case cite 2–6 days, and one text cites 2–5 days (sometimes up to 10).

Pneumonic plague: Much shorter — a few hours to about 1–4 days. The Lancet review cites a few hours to 2–3 days, NEJM describes a typical 1–4 day incubation, and animal/bioweapon data describe 1–6 days (most often 2–4) after aerosol exposure.

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is it true that you basically have to be coughed on by a symptomatic person to be infected?

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Don’t go to Europe if so, these frickers will cough in your face in a heartbeat.