Difference between revisions of "2455: Virus Consulting"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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(Explanation: add info abotu variants)
(Explanation: Include reference to preprint studies showing vaccine effectiveness against 3 variants.)
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The punchline comes when the panel discovers that another client for the firm is the ''viruses'' themselves. Black Hat presents the same graph to the viruses and gives them the opposite message: though COVID-19 variants seem to be exciting to them, vaccination numbers are terrible news to their propagation and survival.
 
The punchline comes when the panel discovers that another client for the firm is the ''viruses'' themselves. Black Hat presents the same graph to the viruses and gives them the opposite message: though COVID-19 variants seem to be exciting to them, vaccination numbers are terrible news to their propagation and survival.
  
{{w|Variants of SARS-CoV-2|SARS-CoV-2 variants}}, commonly called "COVID variants", have been in the news. COVID-19 seems to have effectively mutated into many different strains, some of which spread easier among humans. It is unknown whether the different variants have a greater fatality rate. The current COVID-19 vaccines seem to be able to effectively protect against the different variants, but this is also unknown.
+
{{w|Variants of SARS-CoV-2|SARS-CoV-2 variants}}, commonly called "COVID variants", have been in the news. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has mutated into many different strains, some of which spread more easily among humans. It is unknown whether the different variants have a greater fatality rate. The current SARS-CoV-2 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech appears to elicit an immune response that effectively protects against at least the New York, South African, and U.K. variants according to [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/health/covid-ny-variant-vaccine.html two recent study preprints] released April 22, 2021. Further research and peer review is ongoing.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==

Revision as of 01:20, 27 April 2021

Virus Consulting
All our teams make an effort to stay optimistic, but I will say that once our virus division saw the vaccine efficacy data, they started asking for payment up front.
Title text: All our teams make an effort to stay optimistic, but I will say that once our virus division saw the vaccine efficacy data, they started asking for payment up front.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a COVID virus. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This comic imagines a scenario where Ponytail and Black Hat work for a consulting firm, which is offers advice about viruses, specifically COVID-19. Ponytail tells a panel of people (the government?) that though they are worried about COVID-19 variants, the fact that the number of people vaccinated is exponentially increasing is a good sign.

The punchline comes when the panel discovers that another client for the firm is the viruses themselves. Black Hat presents the same graph to the viruses and gives them the opposite message: though COVID-19 variants seem to be exciting to them, vaccination numbers are terrible news to their propagation and survival.

SARS-CoV-2 variants, commonly called "COVID variants", have been in the news. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has mutated into many different strains, some of which spread more easily among humans. It is unknown whether the different variants have a greater fatality rate. The current SARS-CoV-2 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech appears to elicit an immune response that effectively protects against at least the New York, South African, and U.K. variants according to two recent study preprints released April 22, 2021. Further research and peer review is ongoing.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
[Ponytail stands in front a chart, labeled "Vaccinations", with an upward-curving line, and several box-and-whisker plots below. She is holding a pointer and speaking to a panel composed of Hairbun, Cueball and Megan]
Ponytail: Now, I know you're worried about the variants, but this graph should be encouraging.
Ponytail: Your rollout is going well. The vaccines are good. They work.
[The comics panels to the left to just show the panel and Ponytail. Ponytail has the pointer to her side.]
Hairbun: You're just telling us what we want to hear.
Ponytail: If you think that, you should see the reports from my colleagues who work for COVID.
[Close-up of Ponytail.]
Off-screen voice: They work for who??
Ponytail: Our firm has lots of clients.
[Black Hat stands in front of the same graph as panel one, and points to it with a pointer. He is speaking to a panel of three anthropomorphized coronaviruses.]
Caption: Meanwhile...
Black Hat: Now, I know you're excited about the variants, but this graph should be terrifying.
Black Hat: We're in real trouble here.


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Discussion

In a way telling the virus the 'bad' news actually should get them to work on more variants, so in a way Black Hat is encouraging COVID to mutate faster :S141.101.104.5 14:52, 27 April 2021 (UTC)

Which would be typically Classhole Black Hat ;-) --Kynde (talk) 15:04, 27 April 2021 (UTC)

Anyway we don't get an answer to the question in the third pane. "They work for W.H.O.?". Hopefully this will be answered in a later comic. Inquiring minds want to know. --141.101.69.211 11:32, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Huh? the answer is that they work for "COVID". the who question is more of a statement of surprise that COVID is a client (and isn't related to the WHO orgaization). 172.69.34.52 19:29, 28 April 2021 (UTC)
That "WHO" might be an extra layer of jokes...--141.101.105.228 00:21, 29 April 2021 (UTC)
W.H.O.'s on first. Barmar (talk) 01:19, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

Shouldn't that be: "They work for whom?" 162.158.94.104 09:53, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

"WHOM" as in "World Health Organization - Maybe" ? --141.101.104.149 22:53, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

Sigh. Here we are in 2023, and it seems like it's worked out best for everybody! That is, an everybody consisting of "people who don't get long covid" and "covid". Thankfully, it's not like people's bodies deteriorate, so I'm sure it's just gonna keep being elderly people and already-disabled people who can never go outside again. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.