site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2843 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 2, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Do any of our resident doctors know anything about clostridial diseases? Tetanus, botulism, pulpy-kidney, black liver, etc.

You can vaccinate livestock for all of them, but afaik the only one available for humans is tetanus. Considering how untreatable a lot of them are ("supportive care and possibly surgery to cut out destroyed tissue"), I'm surprised there's not more focus on it.

And yeah, I've been sitting here staring at an animal going "is she more twitchy than usual? Is it normal to stick her head bolt-out like that?"

There's only about 200 botulism cases in the US every year, so I suspect that there's just no real benefit to vaccinating. You're more likely to die by falling out of bed than to catch botulism.

Maybe they could target the lucrative risky-home-canned goods enjoyer market, though.

Tetanus or botulism are the ones humans are at serious risk of getting. There's a vaccine for the former, and for the latter there isn't one I'm aware of,* mostly supportive care till the shitting stops alongside antitoxins. Unless you're an infant or an IV drug user, it's not the bacteria growing in your gut that's causing issues, it's the fact that you swallowed a significant number alongside their toxin.

The rest? Never heard of them, and I've heard of a lot of weird diseases that can be described as "we found 3 people over 10 years in a village in the middle of bumfuck nowhere". I would presume the average person, or even a farmer, isn't much at risk.

*I googled it, and there are a few out there, but none that are FDA approved.

Thanks for the reply. I didn't realize botulism care had gotten so much better, and grew up terrified of tetanus because one of my teachers got it.

It just struck me as odd that we have cheap(ish) 8-in-1 clostridial vaccines for livestock but never bothered with one for people. I guess it's also rarer for people to catch than I thought, with only a few cases in the US.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats