#fear mongering

I’m not a doctor but I have a crippling fear of all illnesses, especially fatal ones, so I’m extremely well versed in them. Gotta study shit to actually understand the risks of it.

Firstly, the Hantavirus is not ‘airborne’ the virus is spread through rodent dropping and urine when they are kicked up into the air, usually by disturbing nests. Kinda like how settled dust is fine, but once it’s kicked up and you breath it in then you start to cough, for a shitty comparison.

Second, human to human spread is RARE and even then, to my understanding, only one strain of it even was shown to be spread this way. It is PRIMARILY spread through rodents. And not in a ‘this is just one way it’s spread’ no, it means basically the alternative ways are virtually unheard of.

Edit: The variant found on the ship is the Andes Virus strain, a primarily South African strain that’s been around since 1995 and is the only one that can potentially spread from human to human. While unfortunately that it had to be that strain, it is noted by the World Health Organization in multiple articles that it is still rare to pass from human to human and is NOT pandemic viable. So no, still no reason to panic.

Edit 2: Even more info! Aside from still not being airborne (human transmission is only possible through droplets like coughing or sneezing) the disease is only infectious for around 24 hours upon initial symptoms. Covid was a super-spreader by nature, dangerous viruses like this are NOT super spreaders. That’s not how viruses work. The Andes Virus is not contagious during incubation; you cannot spread it while asymptomatic. It’s only contagious when symptoms first appear. Many viruses are like this and it’s why not many virus are pandemic viable; they simply cannot infect enough people quickly to overwhelm containment procedures.

This isn’t a pandemic thing; this is a virus that’s been around for literal DECADES if not longer and it’s only being spread now because some disgusting cruise ship that most likely has rodents in the air ducts because cruise ships are fucking vile.

I normally don’t take about real world stuff on my page; I’m a fandom creator. But Everyone who is fear mongering and going ‘it’s another pandemic!’ should feel ashamed of scaring people. It takes three seconds to google it and another second to find reputable sites and scientific papers explaining it. Theres no excuse for spreading misinformation.

Jesus.

Edit 3: Since people are getting VERY hung up on me using past tense verbiage for saying COVID was a super spreader; Covid still IS a super spreader. Of course it’s still around and still an issue.

If you think me using past tense verbiage makes me a Covid denier; see this post

UPDATE: the guardian has published an article referenced by the original 4chan post, which was legitimate. the email continues to be fake. the article appears not to have contacted trans people or under-18s. and the message remains the same: don't talk to journalists about your personal information or history. you can see a recap and response to this publishing here. tl;dr: claims that the guardian's Susanna Rustin is writing a piece on diy hrt and contacting trans people for comment is false.

on the 18th, this post appeared on 4chan's /lgbt/ (slurs in thread: link). a screenshot was posted to reddit, then to tumblr. you've probably seen it:

today, the 23rd, another screenshot popped up on various discord servers, then was reposted variously to twitter. it shows a supposed email from guardian journalist and notorious TERF Susanna Rustin, claiming as the original 4chan post does.

it's now been shared around, and it's with good intentions. the message is useful: don't share your personal information or medical data with journalists, especially ones that happen to be TERFs.

but the post does this through misinformation and fearmongering. i'm still waiting on my response by email from Rustin, but she's reiterated twice (once, twice) that she did not write the email and is not working on such a story. on the 19th, i talked to other guardian newsroom journalists, who said they also did not know of a story's existence.

the moral of the story: this is misinformation, and it's dangerous. it spreads a fine message here, but it does it through spreading anxiety and terror.

i've been on diy hrt for years, since i was a teenager, and i wouldn't have made it this far without it

it's literally fine

we really don't need more people discouraging anyone from transitioning, even when it's framed as concerns

live your best life with the means available to you

Yeah i definitely trust the opinion of someone who's actually been on DIY over someone who hasn't lol.