h a l f b a k e r yWarm and Fussy
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Because a new coronavirus strain has appeared on Danish mink
farms, mink-related variants of the pandemic have infected more
than 200 people with a mutation called Cluster 5. In order to
prevent further spread, on November 4 the Danish government
announced that all mink in the country would
be killed.
That is terrible. Why not just vaccinate the minks?
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Annotation:
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If a mink-appropriate vaccine were rushed into production
without sufficient testing, then side-effected minks might sue. |
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Killing mink = weaseling out. |
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Not just minks; bats, cats, other mustelids, all primates, rodents... |
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There's evidence from the CDC that dogs are asymptomatic carriers, too. |
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Thus it is very questionable whether the cull will achieve anything useful at all. To follow the logic, infected humans should also be culled. Strangely, this is not being done. |
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Because of the short mutational half-life, vaccines are of very limited effectiveness, and that will remain the case for the foreseeable future. |
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<Cackling and bitter nihilistic misanthropic gloating/> |
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(Technically, it's not a new strain, but a variant serotype, which is not the same thing at all; if it were truly a "new strain" it wouldn't be COVID-19 but would be assigned a new designation) |
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So with a small mutation we could have a vaccine for monks? |
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Possibly, but we are not sure that monk coats have any commercial value. Also, they don't breed (allegedly) so are likely to be on some endangered species list somewhere. They were hunted to extinction in England in the 16th century, since when hunting, trapping* or poisoning them has been banned (allegedly). |
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*The situation regarding Trappist monks is unclear; they may actually enjoy it, but they won't tell... |
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Some of them took to the trees to escape, and
became known as the brotherhood of monkeys. |
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They certainly have some dirty habits ... |
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Some of them opened fast-food takeaways; they would operate in pairs, the friar and the chip monk. |
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<Adds [poc]'s name to list of those selected for pointlessly cruel medical experiments/> |
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As [pert] noted, "covid19 vaccine for minks" could also elide gracefully into "covid19 vaccine for mimes". |
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Perhaps they could just pretend to have a new, continuous cough ? |
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I see a small potential shortfall in manufacturing supply... |
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