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Forecasting the Next Pandemic
sciencehabit writes: A new study led by Barbara A. Han, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, suggests a computer model that incorporates machine learning can pinpoint, with 90% accuracy, rodent species that are known to harbor pathogens that can spread to humans. Sciencemag reports on the study: "Han and her team first used their program to identify lifestyle patterns common to rodents harboring diseases like black plague, rabies, and hanta virus and found that their model had an accuracy rate of 90%. After the machine had 'learned' the telltale signs, the researchers searched for new rodents that fit the profile but were not previously thought to be carriers. So far, the model has identified more than 150 new animal species that could harbor zoonotic diseases, the researchers report online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The computer program also predicted 58 new infections in rodents that were already known to carry one zoonotic disease."
We could predict which humans had undiagnosed diseases that are contagious and easily spread to other humans, and then use that knowledge to either cure them, or, in the event that they are incurable (like with HIV), keep them away from other people?
I know people with HIV can be kept alive for a long time, but they are obviously infecting other people, because the disease is not going away. And perhaps if people with deadly diseases can't reasonably be expected to do the right thing on their own, maybe the government should step in and force them to stop infecting healthy humans.
I think I'd rather be killed in a dark alley than find out some girl gave me AIDS. Both are death sentences, but the latter involves years and years of pain and suffering.
The next global pandemic is already here, and it's commonly called "social justice". The symptoms include a loss of the ability to think logically, chronic knee-jerk reactions, repeated false accusations of racism and sexism, hypersensitivity to anything that may be potentially considered offensive by somebody somewhere, and daily idiotic stories about some totally irrelevant social justice nonsense here at Slashdot.