Eternity RPC Board
I think the specific pathogen itself is supposed to be a bit of a mystery as it will encourage more RP (researchers trying to figure out what it is, how to vaccinate for it, why some people are immune, what percentage of the population is infected with no symptoms, etc.) but some of the parts we decided were:
- Congratulations - it's a virus!
- Multiple "levels" of sickness severity. For a good real-life comparison, think of poliovirus and polio (although many, many viruses fit this bill, too - Zika, influenza, etc). There are multiple kinds of "expression" or outcomes of polioviral infection. Essentially:
- We discussed the route of transmission, but I don't know if that's something Oer wanted divulged here. I can say, though, that this sort of thing is faaaairly easy to figure out early on in the epidemiological investigation process (Did someone who just breathed in the same room as an ill person without ever touching them also become ill? Okay, so it's able to be transmitted through breath droplets. And so on.)
I'll let Oer share the rest of whatever he was thinking of. I don't want to give away juicy secrets, but I can elaborate on whatever he's fine with divulging.
- Congratulations - it's a virus!
- Multiple "levels" of sickness severity. For a good real-life comparison, think of poliovirus and polio (although many, many viruses fit this bill, too - Zika, influenza, etc). There are multiple kinds of "expression" or outcomes of polioviral infection. Essentially:
- No illness. This would be the vast majority of infections, like 70% or more. People who do not express illness even though they are infected can still be contagious.
- Mild illness. This would be the next biggest category, probably on the order of 25% or so. I don't know if we've actually decided on symptoms, but with polio, this would just sort of be fever, headache, joint pain, nausea - flu-like stuff. Almost everyone will recover from this kind of illness, although recovery may vary in length based on factors like age, overall health, etc. Some people may die, but this will mainly be infants, the elderly, and the immunocompromised (HIV/AIDS and chemotherapy patients, etc.) Keep in mind though - most people who get this level of illness will still be missing out on work.
- Severe acute illness. This would be the second smallest category, around 4%. With polio, this pretty much all depends on whether or not the virus crosses the blood-brain barrier (the nice tough meninges covering your brain keep out most bugs), or whether the virus shows neurovirulence. In this case, you'd get things like meningitis (swelling of the meninges which can cause things like severe neck pain, light sensitivity, seizure, death...). You can recover from this stage, but some people may have lasting effects (brain damage, etc.) and more people will die here than with the previous level. In fact, a significant number of these people may die.
- Severe longterm illness. This would be a very small percentage of infected people, 1% or less. In the case of polio, this would be the classic poliomyelitis (iron lungs and vaccines, you all remember) and would include things like paralysis, muscle atrophy, spasms, and chronic pain disorders. Everyone in this stage will die from their illness, although some may live for many years with the effects and secondary illnesses with the aid of tools like iron lungs and such.
- We discussed the route of transmission, but I don't know if that's something Oer wanted divulged here. I can say, though, that this sort of thing is faaaairly easy to figure out early on in the epidemiological investigation process (Did someone who just breathed in the same room as an ill person without ever touching them also become ill? Okay, so it's able to be transmitted through breath droplets. And so on.)
I'll let Oer share the rest of whatever he was thinking of. I don't want to give away juicy secrets, but I can elaborate on whatever he's fine with divulging.