Who Fell for the--Class Sick Blunders

"'YO, DAWG! I AM WAITING FOR HERD IMMUNITY!"

Who has heard that line from a person who has decided not to get vaccinated? Waiting for herd immunity? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

Rule Number One: if you don't know the science in a pandemic, the last thing that you should be doing is trying to impress anyone by using science terms that you do not understand, because a scientist will not tell you, but certainly joke all about you amongst his egghead friends.

Like the "asymptomatic infection" they used to convince you that you were radiating virus particles and accidentally killing folks--there is a difference to a scientist between an asymptomatic sign like sneezing, and a symptomatic presentation, like a fever, something that cannot be observed but must be uncovered through testing--in the popular press, and, daresay, even in some of the science literature of late, folks are doling out "herd immunity" like cough drops, but using the term incorrectly. Herd immunity is achieving a sufficient level of either vaccinations or exposure through prior infection so as to reduce or mitigate the probability of a future outbreak, which the CDC defines as two cases in the came location. Herd immunity is simply saying that the cluster outbreaks, statistically, have run out of fuel, but they are not saying that the person who is not vaccinated or who has not had a prior infection, is now immune from the virus. That unvaccinated person or person without a history of infection simply enjoys the herd effect of a reduced probability of being in a cluster outbreak. Think about the science. You have no antibodies and no developed immune response. You can and will get the sickness if you are exposed, and this is a general rule applicable to any infectious disease. So, stop sounding stupid to a scientist, even if your friends believe that you are spouting wisdom. Birds of a feather flock together. It's like a science.

One novel and unanswered question in science is whether the chicken coronavirus that was discovered in 1932 and which was similar to the first human coronavirus found in the cocktail mixture of pathogens that comprise the common cold was a zoonotic evolution or if it was a reverse zoonosis where, in a closed system, finding humans and chickens exposed to one another for extended periods, may have transferred that marginal coinfection element from our common cold to the chickens who may require a lower infectious dose before developing chicken bronchitis. This closed system analysis forms the basis of studying emerging mosquito borne illnesses, finding a repeated exposure and interchange of biological and genetic materials over an extended period presenting a higher probability for a mutant strain to develop and take hold, rather than having some randomly occurring virus strain first developing and then by serendipity finding a human host to continue the evolution of the virus into a zoonotic evolution. What came first> The chicken coronavirus or the human similar variant?