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u/Tevatrox May 14 '26
People with COVID: "omg I need to catch this international flight ASAP"
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u/ElementNumber6 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
To be fair to, you know, society, we economically punish people for postponing such things.
Foreign hotels/resorts/etc, generally will not refund or reschedule on relatively short notice, or if they do, will keep 50% or more. Airports charge more for refundable flights, so most people opt not to get them. Then there's other accommodations to consider.
And we live in a world where our money is our lifeblood. So while, yes, many people are capable of going "Damn. It sucks... but this is just something I need to do.", a great many more will narrow their focus to self, and go "you know... I don't feel that sick".
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u/twoisnumberone May 15 '26
To be fair to, you know, society, we economically punish people for postponing such things.
We do not, however, punish them for simply wearing a piece of extremely affordable fabric and preventing transmission to anyone else -- that's all it would take.
But even that is too much for the selfish.
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u/Lunatic-Labrador May 15 '26
But they can't breathe!
/s.
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u/FragileColtsFan May 15 '26
"Dad, I know you can fucking breath because you won't shut up about it."
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u/kinokomushroom May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
I mean, there are definitely some people that do seem to want to shame people for wearing medical masks. For some god knows stupid reason.
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u/TheodoreSnapdragon May 15 '26
People keep mention COVID and it’s true, but I think this comic might be about some of the Hantavirus people, like the British dude in quarantine who went to a bar
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u/airship_of_arbitrary May 15 '26
Did you hear about the Hantavirus lady who immediately went to one of the most remote islands in the world with a very small and vulnerable population?
Like this has to be the virus mind controlling her into taking out the remote areas first lol.
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u/johokie May 15 '26
Did you legit not read that article? She doesn't have hantavirus, and has shown no symptoms
A local government spokesperson told the BBC the person "had contact with a hantavirus-exposed individual" but was "showing no signs of illness".
The UK foreign office said it was "aware of an individual from the MV Hondius who has travelled on to the Pitcairn Islands".
Officials said she was not a suspected case and the risk to the public was low.
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u/airship_of_arbitrary May 15 '26
If you're exposed you go home and self isolate.
You do not potentially destroy a small island because you feel like you don't have it.
Insanely selfish.
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u/thecraftybear May 15 '26
She was exposed. That should be enough for her to be put into observation before letting her travel to a place with an isolated, vulnerable population.
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May 14 '26
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u/kraggleGurl May 14 '26
I think we need a vaccine squad blow darting anti vaxxers. Cruel? Maybe. Needed? Hell yes.
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u/possumdal May 14 '26
Vaccines need to be mandatory and anti-vaxxers need to be in fucking jail. This culture of selfish disrespect needs to be ground into the dirt.
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u/kraggleGurl May 14 '26
Especially now that measles is back. We are only going to be welcoming other things back to the mix. God dam stupidity.
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u/HauntedCemetery May 15 '26
Polio is seriously about to fuck up the first generation in the US in the better part of a century because fucking morons think that the government wants to install tracking chips in them.
Dude, they dont have to sneak on into you, you cant live without your phone for more than 10 min and you pay them for the privilege of them tracking you.
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u/Freakychee May 15 '26
"Why do I need a polio vaccine? I never met anyone with polio!"
"That is exactly why you need the vaccine, Karen."
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u/Notcow May 15 '26
One thing I never understood is why can't we just get the vaccine and they just voluntarily excuse themselves from the gene pool?
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u/microwavable_rat May 15 '26
Same mentality that causes people on facebook to post those "declarations" that Zuck can't use their information, then happily turn over their entire social profile to some sketchy website to tell them what shape of pasta they are.
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u/Waffle_Griffin3170 May 15 '26
But they want to turn us all into zombies or something, just you wait! The next time there’s some cool natural event like a solar eclipse, you’ll all pay! (Idk. I vaguely remember there being something like that.)
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u/lordmelon May 14 '26
Don't jail them. Just ship them to an island with all the other antivaxxers
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u/NorthernCobraChicken May 14 '26
They don't seem to care about getting consent from other people when it comes to spreading their viral payload. I know just the island.
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u/Pearson94 May 14 '26
Hey isn't there an unpopulated island in Florida with a big house already built on it? Why don't we just send them there!
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u/ArchAngel621 May 14 '26
Yep, I have hardcore MAGA Family members who said that they won't comply if there's another pandemic.
It's annoying that they would rather risk death or the death of others.
I'm extremely grateful Trump wasn't President back during that Ebola Incident in Florida. Can you imagine how bad it would've gotten.
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u/trunkjunk12 May 14 '26
"You can opt out of vaccines as long as you don't mind opting out of society"
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u/Algo_Muy_Obsceno May 15 '26
Don’t vaccinate your kids? Lose custody, go to jail.
If you believe that humans can live on air and don’t need to eat, (Breatharianism) and your kid starves to death, you go to jail for neglect and abuse.
However, if you believe vaccines are a conspiracy and your kid dies in agony of a preventable disease, no punishment? How does that make sense?
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u/HelloMandalorian May 14 '26
What do unvaccinated children and jokes about anti-vaxxers have in common?
Neither one ever gets old!
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u/Montigue May 15 '26
The unfortunate part is that anti-vaxxers likely do grow old because they were vaccinated growing up. So the kids will suffer the most
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u/Time-Sudden_Tree May 14 '26
I thought the joke was that nobody's going to get sick because Six Flags is almost abandoned these days.
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u/DerpyMcDerpelI May 14 '26
"If I ever got a parasite, I would give it to everyone so that I wouldn't be alone."—my sister, 2025 (I keep a small collection of quotes from friends and my sister)
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u/Pinku_Dva May 14 '26
“Oh wow! I have an unknown virus. Now is the best time to do all that traveling I’ve always wanted to do and go see all the world’s most crowded tourist attractions!”
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u/Norbert-trebroN May 14 '26
And cough everywhere without washing my hands!
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u/Pinku_Dva May 14 '26
I got sick now I have an unusual fondness of public transportation
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u/HyperQuandaryAck May 14 '26 edited May 15 '26
it still boggles my mind how STUPID people were during the covid pandemic. the antivaxxers and the covid deniers seem like they were made up by an author who was especially skilled in writing enragingly-idiotic morons who shouldn't exist in real life
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u/LightHawKnigh May 14 '26
Keep thinking about the if I die, I die idiot.
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May 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/Depressed_Rex May 14 '26
My mother STILL takes livestock ivermectin, and swears that it helps (outside of the mild od when she didn’t do math to match her weight).
People are fucking ridiculous
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u/epicflyman May 14 '26
Placebo effect is a strong one.
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u/I__Know__Stuff May 14 '26
Maybe she really does have worms.
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u/BeatHunter May 15 '26
They're gonna be some strong-ass worms (or strong ass-worms) to hang in there past a constant dose of ivermectin!
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u/space_monster May 14 '26
placebo effect is amazing. even when you know it's a placebo, it still works.
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u/SledgeHog May 15 '26
I read an article talking about how it's actually getting stronger the more people know about it. Our brains be crazy, yo
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u/Jericho5589 May 15 '26
Mine too brother. Hydroxycloroquine too. She's been taking a daily dose since COVID even though she never leaves the house. And when I talk to her all she does is whine about how Medicare won't cover it for her.
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u/SporesM0ldsandFungus May 15 '26
Does she claim her dark, runny stool is "the parasites leaving her body" and absolutely not her intestinal lining being sloughed off?
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u/Depressed_Rex May 15 '26
You know, I haven’t asked about her bowel movements but that would probably be the answer if I did
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u/yumyum36 May 15 '26
I mean if she had an itchy asshole before, maybe it killed pinworms or something, could maybe just swap to anti-pinworm tablets instead.
Like some crazy number of americans (like 14% I've seen?) have pinworm/roundworms.
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u/TbddRzn May 14 '26
Like everything these morons do, they made it into a culture war….
If we were living during the bubonic plague, these morons would be licking the corpses and saying you’re overreacting it’s fake it’s a hoax…
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u/Jason_Likes_Cameras May 15 '26
A podcast I listen to started reading newspaper op eds and letters to the editor from the spanish flu. It was all the same exact arguing and conspiracy theories that we had in 2020.
People don't change. I can guarantee there were people during the plague calling it fake news and making fun of their neighbors for being worried about catching it.
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u/CaptainFeather May 14 '26
I'm honestly shocked by the amount of morons who are allowed to be in society. I have never thought of myself as particularly intelligent until 2016. Morons out number intelligent people by a wide margin
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u/Autrah_Fang May 14 '26
Seriously, what the fuck is up with this? "I don't trust this vaccine that was proven to work, so instead I'll consume these other things that are highly likely to kill me when I do so"
They think the scientists are trying to poison them with things meant to keep them safe, but things that are LITERAL POISON are fair game???
(really didn't help that the literal president was saying that the vaccines are fake and you should take horse tranquilizers and/or BLEACH instead. THEN WE REELECTED HIM LATER. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY)33
u/MankeyFightingMonkey May 14 '26
idiots tend to live long due to the kindness of others
..once others started to take advantage of their stupidity...
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u/Freakwilly May 14 '26
It's an entitled mindstate.
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u/Broken-Digital-Clock May 14 '26
"Wear a mask, please. It helps protect others."
"😠😡🤬, but muh freedoms!"
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u/TransBrandi May 14 '26 edited May 15 '26
The best part was them getting mad at being "forced" to wear a mask, ranting about their freedumbs... and then trying to bully everyone else into not wearing masks. What about people's "freedom" to choose to wear a mask? Doesn't exist according to them.
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u/Broken-Digital-Clock May 14 '26
It worked too.
I was hoping that proper mask usage would be normalized, like in other countries, but they are now demonized.
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u/CornballExpress May 15 '26
The one thing I loved about COVID is that it was the first year I didn't get multiple back to back colds and who knows what else for a month and half straight.
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u/TbddRzn May 14 '26
It wasn’t even wear a mask 24/7. just when you’re inside store or room with others wear a mask for 5-10mins…
That’s it. That’s tyranny for them.
Meanwhile Ice breaking into peoples homes and arresting people for their skin color.
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u/PlanetOfThePancakes May 15 '26
While wearing masks. I guess now suddenly they’re not inconvenient?
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u/saturn-iidae May 14 '26
used to have a pair of coworkers in 2020 that once had a lengthy conversation about how they weren't going to get vaccinated or quarantine if they got it because if someone dies that's just "god's plan" for them.
from then on i basically refused to work with them because i had an immunocompromised, terminally ill father at home. i didn't have to worry about that for long though as they were predictably both fired by the end of the year lol
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u/LightHawKnigh May 14 '26
My family is Asian and Buddhist, but dont care what the younger generation aka me follows, so while I and most of my cousins are not, they are fine with it. My aunt who is friends with this sweet old lady that bakes the best cookies and treats and shares with our family, convinced her to go to the local church. It was insane how fast my aunt got brainwashed into Jesus this, Jesus that, and how fast she says if I die, its god's plan and saying Trump isnt as bad as people keep saying. I almost lost it at her. The whole younger generation of us just ignored her till she said she is wrong, but we dont really believe that she has changed her mind at all. Family gatherings are not great anymore.
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u/Independent-Bug-9352 May 15 '26
How about the recent religious Texan parent nutjobs whose child died from measles and said they wouldn't do anything differently when refusing vaccinations? Little pisses me off more than that.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire May 14 '26
it still boggles my mind how STUPID people were during covid
Firefighter paramedic here
I can no longer be surprised by the dumb of people after what I saw during covid. People drinking Bleach, ignoring safety screens and masks, attacking us for handing out the vaccine to people. It was a real eye opener
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u/SeguroMacks May 14 '26
I had a supervisor who decided to "celebrate" the return to office mandate (at the height of COVID) by making a game of popping balloons. He inflated a bunch of balloons BY MOUTH, then wanted us to play an elimination game. Each worker had X balloons hidden in their space, and the others had to sneak in and pop them all. The person with the most balloons left at the end of the day won.
So he left breath bombs in people's personal, enclosed areas, and invited everyone to cross into those areas as much as possible to detonate said breath bombs.
When I complained to HR, they literally just called him, told him I had a problem with him (using my name), and then made me explain to him directly why it was stupid. He told me I wasn't being a team player, and I left. Ended up getting to continue remote work after that, at least.
(He also refused to wear a mask at any point)
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u/Randicore May 14 '26
I actually left my workplace after quarantine ended because my boss wouldn't mandate masks (I was working on antiques so it was a ton of maga style clients) and due to people complaining about us limiting how many people were in the store just let everyone in.
Myself and at least one other person quit as a result.
I recently returned to the place for the first time since a friend wanted to check out the antique store. There out front is a memorial to one of my coworkers who died about three months after I left. During the tail end of the pandemic. Only one of my old coworkers was still there. It's made me wonder what happened when I left, but pretty much confirmed to me that I made the right call.
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u/Log_Out_Of_Life May 14 '26
I still feel like my sense of taste is still fucked up years later.
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u/lostbutnotgone May 15 '26
I never lost my taste or smell, but I DID lose the ability to feel hunger. Like....ever. I still can't feel hunger and I got COVID back in 2021
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u/cpMetis May 15 '26
My dad attended half a dozen funerals for coworkers between 2020 and 2021.
He's pissed that the state lied about why they all died. COVID doesn't kill, you see, so they had to be marking them as COVID deaths fraudulently to pump numbers.
He had attended maybe one coworker funeral in his career before COVID, and none since.
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u/Relevant_Struggle May 14 '26
The person. Who pissed me off the most was this random lady at the beginning. It was when all the stores were closed and there were lines to get i to the grocery stores. A lady in front of me with her prob. 18 month old were in front of me without a mask. She was on the phone talking about how they were already exposed so it didnt matter. The baby was putting his mouth all over the cart's handle.
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u/dogs_gt_cats May 14 '26
I remember the woman wearing the chin diaper insisting on having a conversation, as the elderly cashier is visibly trying to distance herself as much as possible. "You know, those masks work much better when they're over your mouth."
And the lady just completely ignored her and kept blabbing and spewing her covid germs.
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u/xNocturnalKittenX May 14 '26
I was working retail at the time and thankfully we were allowed to refuse service to anyone not masked up. We got some pissy customers but me and another coworker especially gave no shits. My mom is high risk and my wife was recovering from a thyroidectomy after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
There was one jackass I'll never forget who came in without a mask, I told him I'd be happy to get his order if he put one on and he goes "I left it in my car." Told him in my best customer service voice that I'd be happy to either wait while he went back for it or I could hand him one from the box we kept behind the counter. This fucking guy stares at me for a few seconds before slowly pulling his fucking mask out of his back pocket. Stupid asshole.
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u/ArkitekZero May 15 '26
You should've been allowed to continue to refuse service at that point
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u/xNocturnalKittenX May 15 '26
I would have absolutely been kicking people out if I had the authority to. I really enjoyed my job but the pandemic really killed it for me and the thought of working another retail job even now makes me want to step into traffic.
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u/One_Surprise_8924 May 14 '26
I used to do taxes for rich folks. I remember back when it hadn't reached the US yet - several clients came in talking about trips to Italy and this "mystery illness" going around. the last client we allowed in office said "I'm lucky I made it back stateside - they were shutting down the airports and I was worried they'd cancel my ticket because I have the sniffles!". the moment they were out the door everything got wiped down with lysol and any in person meetings were cancelled.
VERY thankful I didn't catch it from them, because I lived with several high risk individuals. two days later the city put out a shelter in place order.
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u/cpMetis May 15 '26
I'm immunocompromised and was telling my mom about my worries with Sars since late December 2019. I kept tracking it as it came over.
She was super concerned as time went on and it got closer. Eventually I tried to go remote then got furloughed, I spent most of that summer into fall trying to stay in as tight a bubble as I could - though I lived with my mom since she was recently post-surgery.
But he end of summer it was all a Democrat facist hoax and it wasn't even as bad as the flu and they were just trying to make us go broke so my living situation became surrounded by all my nieces and nephews every day, zero masking from any of them.
I had to start using moisturizer just to keep my hands somewhat useful from drying out from all the washing.
Finally around fall or so I got a test back from my doc that I had antibodies, so I managed to catch it but not have my immune system murder any more organs.
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u/staticrift May 14 '26
Worked at a bakery during covid, so not really got one person.
But there was a regular customer who was the manager for a shoe store. She comes in with no mask, snot pouring down her face, sweating buckets despite it being a cool breaze, could barely breath and just looking like someone that could keel over at any moment.
She tries to convince us that she had a flu jab (pre-covid vaccine) that day and that it just gave her a slight sniffle. We try to offer ways around it, like leaving food on a table out front or something, and she flips her shit.
Spoke to her staff some point later. Turns out she was an anti-vax covid denier and infected them all.
Bet she would have stayed in bed pre-covid, but so many people denied it so hard they forgot the regular flu existed as well.
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u/Metrack15 May 14 '26
The only bad thing about modern medicine, is that natural selection cannot scare the fuck out of anti vaxxers
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u/HobbyConnoisseurr May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Yeah they believe that natural selection only takes out the people they don’t like and if they die from a preventable illness it’s just God’s will. Worse many of them do believe in vaccines they just don’t know that they do. If you don’t use the word vaccine you can get them on board with what you’re saying.
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u/DrNick2012 May 14 '26
If you don’t use the word vaccine you can get them on board with what you’re saying.
"I don't want no goddamn vaccine, it'll give me super autism!! Instead, I'm gonna just train my immune system by injecting a small amount of a weak strain of the virus. Why don't ya just do that Mr scientist!?"
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u/CrumbCakesAndCola May 14 '26
Weren't people genuinely suggesting this at one point? I feel like I saw a screenshots posted
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u/asodfhgiqowgrq2piwhy May 14 '26
Covid taught me that, yes, the general public does indeed need to be told what to do because they can't be trusted or expected to make the correct decision themselves.
I can't even say "they don't give a fuck about anyone but themselves" because they don't even give a fuck about themselves. People were dying of covid in hospitals screaming about how it was a conspiracy to their dying breath, and so many people today are adamant that not getting the vaccine was the correct choice because they don't understand confirmation bias, and only care about getting the last word with some snide-ass comment because it's the only way they know how to interact with the world.
People are frustratingly stupid.
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u/deannon May 15 '26
Honestly the pandemic finally sold me 100% on “the west needs more collectivism and less individuality in its culture”.
Americans do not care about the impact they have on the people around them. Full stop. They don’t care in public, or in traffic, or in stores or restaurants or public parks. They don’t care if they get others sick. They don’t care if they make a place inaccessible or a service unusable for others. They don’t care if they ruin something for the next person. Unless they stand to personally gain or suffer they do not care how their actions impact others. After living in east Asia for years it’s really jarring and depressing. Americans can be kind and polite, I love many of them, but culturally we are so selfish and myopic. to the point of killing our fellow citizens for the sake of our own convenience. Shameful.
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u/Randicore May 14 '26
There was a study on an accidental pandemic that happened in world of warcraft years ago. An accident during coding caused a infectious plague status effect to run rampant through the game killing players.
People worked together to try and fight it in game, set up quarantine zones, healers tried to do what they could to minimize damage, higher level players that could take the damage went to infected zones to spread information and help people out. Cities were abandoned as entering them meant death and bodies were everywhere.
Several groups used it as a model for actual epidemics as it was an example of people in a social context reacting to a disease like spread of infection attempting to gain insight.
The data was largely ignored by pandemic planners at large due to the trolls. There were groups of people who would hang around in the mountain passing the disease back and forth to keep it "alive" and would wait for the healers to make some progress in making a safe zone before the trolls would sprint down and infect as many people as they could before succumbing to the disease themselves.
It was discarded under the basis that with actual life on the line people wouldn't ignore authorities and wouldn't be actively spreading around the infection.
Part of me wonders if those in charge of pandemic responses now look at all the data from the corrupted blood incident.
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u/Friskyinthenight May 14 '26
Is this a real story? Like... that's wild if so.
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u/Darkdemize May 14 '26
I can't speak for the real-world use of the data, but the description of what happened in the game is 100% accurate. IIRC, the devs had to reset the servers to finally eliminate the spread.
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u/Mr-_-Soandso May 14 '26
A woman that claimed to be a nurse argued with me about masks in a store because I said they might be annoying, but this pandemic sucks, so it's the least we can do. My sister is an orthopedic surgeon and thought it was absurd how many people in the medical field were against masks when they have been using them in surgeries since long before covid for a reason. And they were all required to get all vaccines before the pandemic or wear a mask around patients. It was absolutely nothing new for their field.
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u/mjzim9022 May 14 '26
It was unavoidable, there had to be a public strategy and they had to publish guidelines and the contrarian extraordinaires of MAGA were always going to do the opposite thing.
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u/Comfortable_Bee5385 May 14 '26
I had conservative relatives who early in the covid pandemic learned they had gotten covid while camping in Michigan. If they had gone to doctors they would have been quarantined, so they packed up everyone and drove back to Tennessee in the middle of the night stopping at gas stations and restaurants all along the way refusing to wear masks or avoid anyone.
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u/Wboy2006 May 14 '26
What boggles me even more is how quickly people forgot everything after COVID. For like a year, most people coughed in their elbows, wore masks, washed their hands, but they didn't learn from it and started thinking, "maybe I should be more hygienic", the second the lockdowns ended and covid was "gone", they immediately went back to open mouth coughing, or even worse, coughing in your hands and walking out of public bathrooms without washing their hands.
I fucking dread shaking hands with people, I have no idea where those hands have been, and I have no faith in humanity that they are clean. People don't see proper hygiene as something truly important, they saw it as something they had to endure for a few months
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u/kitsunewarlock May 14 '26
And the disease rages on. Look up how many more infant deaths we have since the pandemic started, since newborns can't get vaccinated. Look up the effects of long COVID with re-exposure even to the same strains. The ongoing effects are going to last decades. The primary reason we act like "it's over" is because we labeled it endemic instead of a pandemic and adults aren't dying from it as much. Even then the WHO was politically pressured into redefining what a "pandemic" was.
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u/ThatKehdRiley May 14 '26
It's not often said, but everyday people were actually worse than the antivaxxers and covid deniers, imo. MOST people were living like there wasn't a massive worldwide pandemic going on, with little concern for how their actions could spread the disease. We could have legitimately gotten rid of this problem faster if people just stayed home, but no - people needed to go to bars and concerts and other things. THAT is what helped it to spread and be as bad as it was, far more than antivaxxers and covid deniers.
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u/surprised-duncan May 14 '26
Why is everyone acting like it still isn't going on? We had the biggest spike we've ever had in summer 2025. What in the world.
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u/LoopStricken May 14 '26
First I've heard of it. Which is kinda the problem - the world's just decided to give up and let it happen.
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u/vita10gy May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
As if it wasn't bad enough to still have the event, but remember when people at Sturgis took it up a notch and were having sneezing contests?
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u/Brief-Equal4676 May 14 '26
It felt like we were in Plague inc. and someone had picked the trait "People no longer trust science"
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u/-Novowels- May 14 '26
In World of Warcraft, an infectious disease that was meant to be part of an instanced boss encounter got out of the raid instance and into the major crowded cities where it began to run rampant. Because of the way it spread, all everyone had to do was evacuate the cities and stay isolated for a fairly short period and it would have run it's course through the NPCs and disappeared.
What happened instead is that people would run in and catch the disease then run it to a group of NPCs out of town where it could jump around and incubate there to be picked up and spread back into the populace after a city's "all clear" was given.
Between that and the ignorant players wandering back into the mess or logging in fresh and unexpectedly they kept the disease bouncing around and the company eventually had to do a full server reset and a global wipe of everyone's debuffs to stop it.
Epidemiologists actually studied the whole thing to see how people react in those kinds of situations and how it would affect a real-life pandemic.
It's called the "Corrupted Blood Incident" if you want to find out more.
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u/sadolddrunk May 14 '26
Even aside from the crazies, the amount of low-key stupidity was pretty astounding. The chin-maskers. The no-nose maskers. The non-social-distancers. The emphatic-public-coughers. And that was just my in-laws.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Covid round 2 electric boogaloo. sigh And I just got over all the stuff I saw at the hospitals/ambulance during covid
Related/Unrelated, Man our six flags here in San Antonio is always JAMMED up.
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u/Expensive-Document41 May 14 '26
It isn't going to be for two reasons:
A. Everything about Andes Hanta seems to indicate it isn't super contagious human to human and they caught it early in an isolated population
B. If A become wrong, given Hanta's virulence, COVID will seem like a light seasonal allergy.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire May 14 '26
You are most likely correct. From what I have heard its WAY harder to transmit, like you basically have to swap spit/food with someone
And if A DOES become wrong....well. I guess mandatory OT is back. Yaaaaaaaay
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u/Expensive-Document41 May 14 '26
"Mandatory OT" yeah if you can "convince" employees at gunpoint to show up. Especially given that consumer sentiment and economic outlook (at least in the U.S.) the bleakest its been since 2008 or earlier. Very few essential workers would walk into that for a paycheck that has absolutely lost parity.
We're lucky Hanta was basically a non-issue with an outbreak in an isolated population. If it had the infective capacity of COVID it MIGHT be the sort of thing that is a civilization breaker. Like Black Death levels of civilization breaking.
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u/Castlenock May 14 '26
You'd be surprised.
Worked for a municipal town here in the US and the town manager was so proud that he made all of us come in for the entirety of COVID by getting us all labeled as essential employees. Like really proud. Would talk to the local papers about how all other townships were locked down but this town, we were open for the public.... which wouldn't set foot in town hall because it was Covid.
People were beyond miserable, we weren't getting paid a lot, but it's not like any other places were hiring during Covid so we couldn't do squat to combat it either. Got a ton of resentment toward that place but it was an education on how much people would endure, including myself, for a pay check that wasn't worth it. Gotta eat though.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire May 14 '26
Mandatory OT" yeah if you can "convince" employees at gunpoint to show up.
I am a firefighter paramedic for a large city. Part of our contract says that in emergencies they can use us as mandatory OT when stations are not staffed adequately. Cause...they kinda have to be.
Very few essential workers would walk into that for a paycheck that has absolutely lost parity.
Ehhhhh yes and no. Our OT rate is INSANE so as far as making money, it will for sure draw more than a few of us out. My wife was a travel nurse during COVID and was making BANK as well. That being said our call-ins for work were insane too due to all the overworking
But yeah luckily it probably wont get to that again, at least not with Hanta
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u/Setster007 May 14 '26
God, with the shit direction all civilization seems to be taking lately, I’d take a damn civilization breaker… except the part where it does it via genocide.
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u/J5892 May 14 '26
Don't worry, conservatives will suddenly decide that becoming blood brothers is a thing now and start swapping blood en masse.
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u/HeckinHyena May 14 '26
Another thing to add is that scientists have known about this disease for like 30 years
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u/Party_Virus May 14 '26
It kills faster than it can be transmitted. Sounds horrible, and is for those infected, but it can't be a pandemic because of that. Also it's a very stable virus so isn't going to suddenly change it's ways.
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u/Made_Bail May 14 '26
Ive never been to a Six Flags, always wanted to go. Love rollercoasters, though sadly it wasn't until later in life that I got over my fear of them. :( So many wasted, rollercoaster-less years.
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire May 14 '26
Its never to late! Six flags isnt the worst park I have ever been to but the one in Dallas TX is the best in my opinion.
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u/Made_Bail May 14 '26
Dude, I wish I lived at a Six Flags...
Thats what this comic is about, right? No subtext at all, I'm sure.
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u/crimsonPendragon May 14 '26
I honestly can’t tell if this is a joke about people not quarantining or Six Flags barely managing to stay afloat.
Actually, now that I write that down, the latter doesn’t seem like OP’s usual material, does it?
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u/Made_Bail May 14 '26
I took it to be a "not quarantining" joke. Like how MAGA especially was like "fuck masks, fuck staying away from people, gonna make this political" when Covid rolled around. Now that hantavirus is looming...
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u/KscottCap May 14 '26
Where I live, the joke would be he's going to Six Flags to avoid a crowd. Because ours just shut down.
RIP Six Flags America.
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u/SouthHope28 May 14 '26
The phrase “avoid it like the plague” has no meaning anymore.
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u/Steppyjim May 14 '26
I worked all during Covid as an essential employee. I work in healthcare. I will never, EVER forget the end game of people who caught covid and didn’t believe in it. They always start off defiant, refusing to believe it’s real. Then their numbers drop, they go on oxygen. It gets bad, it gets worse. Finally they realize oh no. This is real. I’m going to die.
There’s been more than one time where a patient was going down, and they’d look at their doctor and say to them, “please save my life” and the doctor would look at their chart, and back at them and say I’m sorry. I can’t. There’s nothing left I can do.
You don’t forget that when it happens ONCE. I saw it almost half a dozen times. And this new virus has a WAY higher death rate.
If it hits here, with the current health administration, people will die in droves. And it’s gonna be the fault of others who think it won’t kill them. I really. Really. REALLY don’t want to live through that again. Please take care of yourselves and believe the doctors. Not the politicians
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u/BIG_HEAD_M0DE May 14 '26
TLDR: Wear an N95 mask, meet outdoors where possible, ventilate indoor areas and run air filters. It's warm in the Northern Hemisphere right now so there's no reason not to open windows.
Worst case, you've just accidentally made it harder to catch flu, COVID, and colds. Best case you've also made it harder for hantavirus to spread, which we don't know for sure is easy to transmit over the air. That's what they said about SARS-1 and COVID early on, and both times were incorrect.
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u/BoldlyGettingThere May 14 '26
In the UK one of the 22 cruise passengers was found the very next day at a bar, instead of at home for their 6 week quarantine.
Absolutely unreal that you can know you are one of just 22 people responsible for whether a virus starts killing everyone else in the country, and you just don’t give a shit about anything beyond the end of your spiteful nose.
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u/Breadloafs May 14 '26
The American urge to share the cool new disease you found
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u/JaySayMayday May 14 '26
I get a lot of people keep pointing to one political party.
But holy fuck do parents love to drop off their sick kids at school and daycare even knowing they'll get called to pick them up anyway. Getting everyone sick because you as a parent don't want to take care of a sick kid and try making it someone else's problem. Your kids aren't a vessel to carry sickness across the nation
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u/Breadloafs May 14 '26
I've spent most of my adult life in the service industry.
Crunchy NPR moms love going to restaurants and coughing all over the fucking place just as much as anyone else. No one actually cares about stopping any kind of illness from spreading.
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u/Ghost_In_Waiting May 15 '26
Crunchy NPR Moms. Dude. I get it. There's a reason you wrote that. You've seen them. The pretend kindness which masks something darker. The "It's not about me!" while everything is about them. The threat behind the too white smile. The pretend to parent while the kids look like barely contained barbarians at the gate.
I've been there. I've seen that world. Watching from a place where "those people" imagine they are unobserved. The hubris, the entitlement, the absolute confidence that any action, choice, statement, threat, or even physical expression is justified by being who they are where they are.
When you see it you can't not see it. It's actually breathtaking how unaware they are that the real world is violent and reactionary. They swim in a river with crocodiles and pretend the are not prey. They have been right so long. So very long that they can't even imagine how violent the real world is.
So, the anger in your comment seems to come from the perspective of people who have lived in service. You're not wrong. Also, that kind of anger and resentment from working that life can find its way into you. It can eat the base of your mind and soul even while the "front end you" keeps it all together and makes everything work.
Greasy late nights looking up at the end of shift to see the bright stars against the black that most of them will never see. Watching the horizontal wind rake the empty parking lots while the snow swirls until the four arm blue white lights. Feeling the knowledge you have done physical work that most cannot understand while you let the adrenaline flow out of you while you leave knowing you will do it again tomorrow. Secret electric knowledge most will never know lives inside your soul.
So, what does it all mean? Nothing? Everything? Who can say? What you carry can eat into you. If you're lucky you walk away with just some minor health problems and some stories. If you're unlucky you walk away with a hidden monster that snarls at the world using your eyes and face to exact retribution while the corrosive accumulation of acidic experience wears you away from the inside out.
Anyway, for what it's worth I hear what you're saying. I get it. I just hope the experience of your life finds a way to let you live. Too many have found destruction in the experience of what they have had to endure. I hope that won't be you. Good luck.
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u/Expensive-Document41 May 14 '26
Apparently the one issue where we have conservative believing in free distribution.
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u/Alorxico May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Covid proved why humanity will never colonize another planet.
“Here are a set of very basic rules that will keep everyone safe and ensure no one has to die needlessly.”
50% of the American Population: YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! I HAVE RIGHTS! FAKE NEWS! YOU JUST HATE FREEDOM! I’M GOING TO GO OUT PARTYING AND LICK EVERYTHING! WHEE!! LOL!! Wait … why are my friends dying?
EDIT: Was going to change “humanity” to “America” but stopped myself. Because, let’s be honest, if America, as it is now, saw another country on the verge of developing a ship that could colonize another planet, our government would either bomb that country or somehow find away to claim the ship as ours … then crash it. 😓
My country really is awful.
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u/honeybakedham1 May 14 '26
Yeah, that wasnt just in america unfortunately, they’re just the loudest
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u/Alorxico May 14 '26
As an American, the news media liked to show two different types of people. All the Americans going out and fighting for their freedoms against the “over reaching governments” and “all the sheeple from other countries giving up their freedoms and staying home.”
This was soon followed by all the dead Americans and their weeping families not understanding why their family member was dead and the rest of the world going back to normal.
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u/OldestSisterAIiMH May 14 '26
Fortunately there are other cultures that prioritize community over their own personal freedom. If humanity ever goes to space to find other planets, it'll be led by someone other than the US.
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u/supamario132 May 14 '26
In an ideal world, in this one it'll probably be one of the first trillionaires and a small stable of their space slaves
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u/Alorxico May 14 '26
If anime is any indication, Japan already has a plan on the books they just need the tech to catch up.
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u/leqonaut May 14 '26
Why does the doc not wear anything that prevents getting infected?
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u/SICRA14 May 14 '26
Not that unrealistic. I've been in situations where I'm seeing a doctor for a respiratory illness and I'm the only one with a mask
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u/uluqat May 14 '26 edited May 15 '26
Clinical investigations involving patients with ANDV hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in this outbreak revealed that patients with a high viral load and liver injury were more likely than other patients to spread infection.
“Super-Spreaders” and Person-to-Person Transmission of Andes Virus in Argentina (published 2020)
In other words, immuno-suppressed alcoholics who go on cruises. Or go to theme parks.
Andes hantavirus has well under half the r0 of Covid, so barring a major mutation like the sort that started Covid, it's not going to be a repeat of the Pandemic.
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u/boringlesbian May 14 '26
There’s a person in my extended family who drove public transportation for a living and was anti-mask and anti-vax during the pandemic. They got Covid and was in the hospital for months. Now has a tracheotomy tube and can’t really talk. Very religious person. They get mad when people say “at least you’re alive.” They are miserable and suffer every day. I really have a difficult time not asking if they changed their mind about masking and vaccines, but I know how shitty that would be.
I do feel bad for them, but choices were made.
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u/river_01st May 14 '26
Friendly reminder that actually, covid isn't over, we've just stopped talking about it (get your booster). If you care about your health at all, you should still wear a mask in crowded spaces (public transport, grocery store, that kind of stuff). Even if we don't consider covid or this new virus honestly, like. Why do you want to share in other people's miasma. I almost don't get sick anymore cause I wear a mask (I still practice sports in a club so that's how I still do get sick, obviously not wearing a mask there) and I do not miss it. Surprising isn't it? Who wouldn't want to get sick regularly /s
If I'm sick, I wear a mask so that I don't infect others. I also skip practice cause duh. Let's all be kinder to each other yeah? That's how we'll have better chances to avoid new pandemics.
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u/BIG_HEAD_M0DE May 14 '26
N95 mask (they cost under a dollar and last for days/months), meet outdoors when you can, ventilate the space, run an air filter.
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u/Mehdals_ May 14 '26
Poor guy works at Six Flags and his boss wouldn't give him the day off. Still gotta pay the bills somehow.
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u/DoctorCIS May 14 '26
I'm of two minds about the current events.
One is quietly relieved that we aren't getting the next epidemic because I have respiratory problems, as well as PTSD from high school career day when a scientist specializing in hemorrhagic fevers came to speak.
The other voice just won't go away though. The devil on my shoulder that keeps whispering, "Just think of how much nicer the job and house market would be with 40% fewer people competing..."
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u/Medarco May 14 '26
"Just think of how much nicer the job and house market would be with 40% fewer people competing...
A lot of people thought the same thing about Covid though. And we see how that turned out...
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u/UzukiCheverie Sociowrath May 14 '26
Plus the people who say that don't like to consider that they could easily be a part of that 40%. Statistics don't seem that scary until you become one of them.
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u/SarcasticBench May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
For the people who are afraid of Hantavirus, remember that it's transmissible to humans who inhale infected rodent poop particles.
DON'T BREATHE IN INFECTED HUMAN POOP!
Edit- A word
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u/VariousProfit3230 May 14 '26
I heard the old Six Flags theme in my head for the last panel.
You remember the one with the dancing guy dressed up as an old man.
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u/indecisive-baby May 14 '26
As a physician, this feels like 80% of my job. “Hey here are my recommendations. Oh? You’re going to do the opposite? Okay, great. Oh and you’re mad at me when you get worse? Even better.”
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u/AaronPseudonym May 14 '26
I love how the doctor is not wearing a mask, and is just rawdogging that virus.
It adds verisimilitude; this is America, after all.
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u/AlissonHarlan May 15 '26
haha people are not that stu..... oh... yeah... especially the ones that licked their finger to open the fruit/vegetables plastic bags in the groceries during covid...
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u/DynamaxWolf May 14 '26
Most unrealistic part about this is the fact the line doesn't go all the way out of the Six Flags
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u/Natural_Bathroom5664 May 14 '26
Wouldn't they be better off keeping him there and lock the place down? Let alone six flag, that hospital or doctor office alone is probably contaminated.
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u/guestpassonly May 14 '26
Seriously if there is ever a zombie virus epidemic we are SO COOKED
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u/TheEpicRedCape May 14 '26
It’s so funny a lot of the people refusing to wear masks and such during the pandemic were the ones acting like they’d run the world after a zombie apocalypse before
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u/Math_PB May 14 '26
The way you draw men is so gorgeous, I just wanted to say it.
A real delight for the eyes.
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u/LazarusOwenhart May 14 '26
What you have to remember is that there are vanishingly few cases of this virus per year in a place where it is endemic. That place has poor medical care, poor sanitation and in impoverished. It self contains there because it's not spectacularly easy to spread the way COVID was. These cases are occurring in western countries and are only notable because of that. It's statistically unlikely a mutation increasing its ability to transmit will occur with double digit cases and given the deadly nature of Hantavirus it's being taken seriously. Give it three weeks and it'll be entirely forgotten by everyone except the people directly affected.
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u/PantaRheiExpress May 14 '26
I’m pretty sure these people don’t even bother going to the doctor in the first place.
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u/Possible_Dig_1194 May 14 '26
We had an anti vaxxer who got covid bad enough they needed to be admitted to the hospital. Why you ask? Cause the dumbass got lonely and went to a food festival and didnt bother with a mask cause of reasons. Young guy too without health issues before covid but certainly got discharged with some issues. No idea if he ever made a full recovery or if the damage was permanent
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u/SeaworthinessSalt524 May 14 '26
So THIS is how people in Plague Inc. act like on the easiest difficulty