re: Would you vax for Hanta?

If Hantavirus had to be on a cruise ship, why not Carnival New Orleans?

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Hantavirus is nothing to be trifled with.

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Are you a virologist?

And you got your medical degree from which institution?

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Nope. Pureblood. Rather die on my feet than live on my knees

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No. But I am a biologist (by training) that spent a good portion of their career dealing (tangentially) in microbiology.

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A biologist of what? No offense, but a tangential relationship with the subject doesn’t instill a lot of confidence. My wife is a veterinarian. She has a tangential relationship with zoonotic diseases as well. But that doesn’t make her an expert on Hantavirus. And during Covid this site and (society in general) was littered with those who claimed to have authority on the subject but were only parroting whatever narratives fit their beliefs.
I’m not trying to be a dick, but we already suffered (quite literally) through plenty of “experts” during COVID who were all flat arse wrong. Not really in the mood to go through that again.

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A biologist of what? No offense, but a tangential relationship with the subject doesn’t instill a lot of confidence. My wife is a veterinarian. She has a tangential relationship with zoonotic diseases as well. But that doesn’t make her an expert on Hantavirus

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I don't think you're a jerk for pressing the issue. I think it's smart to vet people on the depth and breadth where their knowledge on a subject they talk about it. That being said, I'd say my knowledge of it is slightly above average but way, Way, WAY below anything approaching expert.

I have an advanced degree as well and deal generally with public health, but don't do real "science" anymore nor have i in quite a while. I've had all the microbiology/physiology/anatomy classes you'd expect as part of my training. This includes the appropriate subset of training on how viruses work/reproduce/spread as part of that curriculum (including the differences between DNA, RNA and reverse transcriptase viruses, but that was a LONG time ago and much of that knowledge has been erased from my brain). As i said, I'm no expert on hantavirus, but I have had more education in an advanced setting that a vast majority of the general population. I know enough about it to know it's a nasty disease. But I make no claims to be an expert on this or any virus.

I think your assessment of what happened during covid is fair. What's also fair is I never said if I would or wouldn't take a vaccine. Honestly i don't know at this point because there isn't enough information about the disease nor what a vaccine would look like. My ONLY statement is hantavirus, at least the N. American strain I'm most familar with, is not something you want to fool around with.

Now I might be hyper sensitive because one of my cohorts in grad school died in the 1990s from what they suspected was hantavirus we (his friends) never officially heard. They might have told his family, but they never shared that info with us if they did. When the CDC flies in from Atlanta and takes tissue samples of your lungs during an autopsy, it's serious. We never heard the official cause of death, but he went from a very healthy young person to intensive care to the funeral home in just over a week.

Please don't underestimate this disease because of our shared botched experience(s) dealing with covid. That was all I'm really trying to say.

I'm not sweeping rat dropping in a dusty enclosed building in southwest New Mexico.

nope

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And you got your medical degree from which institution?

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