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from the how-about-a-nice-game-of-chess? dept.
Plague Inc. maker: Don't use our game for coronavirus modeling:
Interest in the continued spread of the coronavirus has had an unintended side effect for UK-based Ndemic Creations, makers of Plague Inc. The eight-year-old game—which asks players to shepherd a worldwide pandemic so it can destroy all of humanity—has seen a spike in popularity in recent weeks, becoming the most-downloaded iPhone app in China on January 21 and in the United States on January 23, according to tracking firm App Annie.
The surge in interest has led Ndemic to issue a statement urging players not to rely on the app for information on staying safe from the coronavirus' current spread. "Please remember that Plague Inc. is a game, not a scientific model and that the currentcoronavirus outbreak is a very real situation which is impacting a huge number of people," the statement reads, in part. "We would always recommend that players get their information directly from local and global health authorities."
[...] Ndemic points players to the WHO for up-to-date information about the coronavirus. The disease now has more than 2,800 reported cases worldwide and has led to at least 80 deaths.
Interesting educational tool: CDC: Solve The Outbreak
Previously:
China Battles Coronavirus Outbreak: All the Latest Updates
Coronavirus: Millions Quarantined in Wuhan City
China Confirms Human-To-Human Transmission of New Coronavirus; CDC Confirms First US Case
China Reports 3rd Death, Nearly 140 New Cases of Coronavirus
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday January 29 2020, @02:08AM (5 children)
Is the real modeling software freely available? Slap some fancy graphics on it and you're good to go.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @02:23AM (2 children)
Who needs modelling software when you can run it for realz? [justice.gov]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @03:25AM (1 child)
Can the mod explain why they gave troll for the parent? I could see off-topic based on the news item linked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @04:05AM
Inferred intentions - is it an off-topic with potential of inflaming the audience and getting it sidetracked? Then it's likely a troll [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday January 29 2020, @05:04PM (1 child)
If real diseases worked the way Plague Inc. "models" them, we'd all be *so* fucked. Infect the whole world with a completely harmless, nigh undeteectable disease, that then simultaneously evolves lethal properties everywhere at once...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @06:03PM
You don't need models, just astronauts:
https://elnuevocamino.com/2020/01/27/coronavirus-2020-spanish-flu-1918/ [elnuevocamino.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @02:53AM (6 children)
there are over 5k cases "officially", probably closer to 40-90k unofficially. most just feel really really sick and then get better. they finally got around to testing and it's been around since at least late november... you've passed 2 incubation periods already. the ones that go to the hospital are either panic or the outliers (eg got pneumonia or flu on top, old, immunocompromised).
the developers need not be so full of themselves.. with the virus in the news and tons of quarantined people why wouldn't you play the only virus game? whatever info/modeling anyone is doing here is a joke and they missed it.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 29 2020, @04:08AM (4 children)
So, antibody sources galore?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday January 29 2020, @04:33AM (3 children)
From an unreliable one as of yesterday:
Dead - 107
Cured - 63
Infected - 4474
As I see it, reliability does not matter with the numbers like this.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @05:21AM (1 child)
Here are some more unreliable numbers for you:
Dead 1
Cured 96
Infected 8 million
The reliability of these numbers do not matter.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 29 2020, @06:41PM
Yep, that's my strategy! Sneak in under the radar. Now you just need to start spending DNA to make it more deadly.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday January 29 2020, @05:12PM
Perhaps I have to explain myself more clearly. When at early stages of an exponential infection, the number of infected, while important, does not say much about mortality rate as the infected folks are still sick and may die in unknown numbers. A better estimate is number of dead divided by number of dead plus number of cured (defined by people who are past crisis and so likely to survive).
This estimate gives 63% mortality rate currently. I doubt Chinese government could be more pessimistic than that. They don't care about the numbers and they are right about it.
On a related note, how long does it take for the US best medical system to test 9 (nine) suspected infections? Come on - be realistic about your expectations and give certain people some credit.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Wednesday January 29 2020, @07:39AM
Besides, Corona Virus has been in the news for a few weeks now and there are *only* (maybe) 40-90K infections, a few hundred fatalities, and the WHO alerts are *already* going out? By the game's standards, that sucks donkey balls! For a patient zero in China you'd normally expect to be at least up into the tens of millions by now, still flying below the WHO radar, and just hoping that boats with plague carriers on will dock in Greenland and Madagascar before they lock down the ports. (Wait, was that something about someone having a sneeze in Antananarivo? DAMNIT!).
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday January 29 2020, @06:54AM
...perhaps you should do your "modelling" on the web (in Pandemic II [pandemic2.org]) instead. ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @07:34AM (1 child)
Latest Ebola figures:
"As of 21 January, a total of 3416 Ebola cases were reported, including 3297 confirmed and 119 probable cases, of which 2238 cases died (overall case fatality ratio 66%)"
WHO figures from their website today (29 Jan), and relating to Democratic Republic of Congo. There are other places with Ebola.
There is also Lassa fever, Dengue, Marberg, MERS, SARS, Plague, Yellow Fever, Zika, and a variety of other, very deadly diseases on the rampage.
All of these are far more deadly, and in areas where the governments are no more, and probably a lot less, credible than China.
If you want to panic, there is plenty of material that you can justify panicking. Corona Virus in not in the top 5 unless you live in China.
In particular, plague is in America, and the present American government is certainly no more credible than China.
--
Vote for Stupid - everyone else does!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @10:25AM
And guess what? No one has ever measured serum and WBC vitamin C levels in a single one of these critically ill patients, despite that it is reported depleted in every illness (and moreso if the illness is more severe). Why not measure it, then give them whatever does is required to get at least back to normal (~50 uM in the serum)? Then we can see how the patients do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @11:02AM
It can't be worse than the climate models, and people take those seriously.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @11:17AM (2 children)
Has anyone talked about using the game for that? They are looking for free publicity.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 29 2020, @03:57PM (1 child)
Perhaps, but a statement to cover all their bases, isn't a bad thing. They certainly don't want to be seen as claiming to be a scientific resource. An educational resource that gives someone a general idea of how things might progress is one thing. Serious research is a different matter.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday January 29 2020, @05:10PM
Have they ever made any claim that could even vaguely be construed as claiming to be a scientific resource? It's a game. Anyone with a year of high-school biology should be able to spot several fundamental ways in which it diverges from reality. If actual diseases behaved the way they do in-game, complex life would have been exterminated before it ever crawled onto the land.