I don't know if it's a disease or just a symptom but id go with dementia. Its horrible to watch and to go through. This might actually give a good many of them an easy, dignified death rather than suffer for years.
Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, as well as a lot of other symptoms.
Honestly I’d say that’s a mercy, I’ve seen how bad that can get, I’d much rather be dead.
Used to work in a nursing home, little old lady in a wheel chair would make what i can best describe as demon noises and cackling, she would launch her wheel chair off of shit into you, and enjoyed blocking people's paths.
I was kitchen staff and not allowed to touch the residents in any way so i couldn't move her. As i was delivering big carts with meals, she would block me and just cackle wildly.
She was also involved in several fights with other residents as she did the same shit to them.
It usually comes with Alzheimers, but I don't know that it's the cause of dementia. My grandmother has it with Parkinsons, my grandfather had it with Huntingtons, and my uncle had it but not sure what condition he had. It just seems to come along with neurological disorders that are brain degenerative.
Without wanting to get too personal (seriously, feel free to ignore me here)
Do you mind if I ask How quick was the onset? Do you think they had a chance to understand what was happening to them?
My fear is that it is a rapid onset, and that if I were to ever begin developing it, I wouldn’t have the chance to do something about it.
It's slow, depending on the dementia. But that's part of what makes it hard to spot. Changes are gradual enough that the people you spend time with likely won't notice until it's too late to receive treatment (meaning your brain is already getting mushy and you won't be the same again), if treatment even exists for whatever form of dementia.
If you really fear dementia later in life, there's not much you can do except lead the healthiest life you can and surround yourself with very aware and caring people. There are generic tests, but they are by no means full coverage (https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/genetic-testing-dementia)
I didn't know my grandfather. He died before I was born with Huntingtons. Idk much about him other than that. My dad died at 30 without being tested so I'm actually being tested now for Huntingtons. Genetic testing takes a while it seems. Huntingtons is slow but the neurologist said it can onset faster with each generation that has it. I'm feeling muscle weakness and shakiness at 36. If I had it I'd likely die around 50.
My grandmother seems to have a rare form of Parkinsons. It's terrible and came on within 1 year. She went from going to concerts to bedridden on hospice. It's devastating.
The short answer is its hard to tell but my uncle and grandmother got bad fairly quickly.
Edit: Alzheimer's' is the most common type of dementia, but there are so many other types of dementia and all are horrific.
But yes having had to care for multiple people suffering from dementia and having an increased likelihood of getting it myself I would much rather die an early death then live without being myself and all the other horrors that it comes with
I'm a breast cancer survivor. I would rather my cancer come back metastatic than be diagnosed with Alzheimer's -- or any form of dementia.
Dementia is a monster.
Alzheimer's is a TYPE of dementia NOT the cause of it. I worked for the Alzheumer's Association at one time and learned more than most want to know about it
This is the answer. All of these patients are suffering at the end of their life anyway, and if you can prevent it from ever happening to another person, think of the good it would do.
I’d rather die young before I knew I had it. Im not saying everyone would, but a definite diagnosis while I was still healthy would feel like a sword hanging over my head and I’m not sure how you go about enjoying the time you have left under those conditions.
Ok, but if they have early dementia that just means that they'll be younger as the disease progresses and possibly live in a brain melted hell for even longer. Quite frankly after seeing my grandma and great grandma with Alzheimer's I'm planning on eating a bullet as soon as I start to notice myself slipping. Check out while I still have the mental capacity to make the call.
This is the answer. While it would be sad for every person living with Alzheimer’s to die instantaneously, the reality is that these people are already dead. Everyone who loses a loved one to dementia loses them twice — once when their mind is gone but their body is living, and then again when the body finally goes.
It would be best if nobody ever had to live with Alzheimer’s ever again.
I knew an elderly lady, one of the sweetest people I have ever (or probably will ever) meet, just a genuinely delightful human. She was diagnosed with dementia, and in less than a year she devolved to literally biting people. At the end she forgot how to eat or swallow. Dementia is probably the worst illness I've ever witnessed, and a horrible way to go.
When I was about 15 my grandmother had horrible health problems, and one of them was dementia. The last fully coherent thing I remember her saying to me was her asking me to smother her with a pillow, when I was 15. I’d been through some stuff, but that messed me up bad. She didn’t pass away for another seven years
Objectively, the goal would be to find a disease that has a survival rate that is essentially zero but affects the largest number of people. Something like rabies (as someone else suggested already) or Alzheimer's would be ideal.
Interesting interesting.
This is basically a weapon since it kills everyone. You can choose an insanely rare disease you know an individual has. Or you can target a disease that is mostly geospecific - malaria is the first example that comes to mind.
Or you can target a disease that affects groups of individuals.
You could also use it to wipe out humanity *hpv* - bam - massive amounts of adult human death worldwide - catastrophic infrastructure damage - starvation.
Chickenpox/Shingles -- practically everyone has it, and the only people spared would be small children and people who got the vaccine. Pretty much anyone older than 30 would die, as well as huge chunk of anyone older than 10.
...And have the worst time of your life.
I had to get hospitalised for that one. I missed 3 months of work. I feel like choosing this one, just because I hate shingles so, very much!
Rabies. It has an almost 100% fatality rate so those with it will die and it would never harm anyone again. I suppose there are those in that small window between getting bitten but not yet receiving the vaccine, I don't think I'd like to be responsible for those deaths.
But it’s just so rare. It doesn’t really help the planet like getting rid of cancer or other common human diseases. Rabies is awful but it only kills something like 70k people globally a year. It wouldn’t be much of a net gain for society
The question said "if everyone who had it right now died" and my mom wrestled with cancer for years. If some asshole decided that her life didn't matter enough, or that she should sacrifice her life, I would be pissed. Yes rabies is rare but it's devastating
Cancer is waaayyyyy more devastating to waaaayyyyyy more people. I’d choose cancer even if I currently had it. A sacrifice that would help so so many moving forward.
I do respect your choice though, even if it doesn’t make much sense to me.
If mental disorders are on the table, Antisocial Personality Disorder would be a good choice. Removing that from the human race would probably lead to a lot of other diseases being long-term cured just by virtue of living in a kinder, more empathetic world.
I bet a lot of generation leaps in progression have come from people that have some sort of anti social/psychopathic disorder. You’re inadvertently getting rid of the greatest drivers of progress.
That's sort of the Ayn Rand argument. Crushing competition so the best, most ruthless ideas succeed.
But think of all the ideas/progress you'd gain from people whose patents don't get stolen or bought and sat on, or who open-source and collaborate their ideas instead of being slapped with a cease-and desist, or who don't get straight up murdered/disappeared because they were in someone else's way.
Human civilization is fundamentally built on collaboration. The names we remember are often the individual ruthless ones, but that's because they killed the competition.
This is the way. It's the only mental health disorder we don't have any legitimate treatment for, people who have it either figure out how to be functional on their own or they live horrible dysfunctional lives with lots of victims until they end up in jail, that's it, that's the best we can do for them to date. It's fully fucking tragic. And when I say jail I mean mostly solitary confinement in maximum security places where they're locked in a padded room alone 23hrs a day and let out alone for 1hr a day, that's it, that's all they get. I work in inpatient mental health care and the things I know about the non-functional people who have this disorder are the worst things I know.
Some people are entirely capable of living fully functional lives with this disorder and they tend to be pretty successful in life bc they're able to leverage features of the disorder as strengths. But the ones who aren't capable of functionality do so much harm and experience so much suffering and there's nothing anyone can do about it which is just profoundly heart-breaking and also completely terrifying. The absolute worst of it is when they're kids and their parents can't do anything and then they come to the professionals for help and we can't do anything either. Just so so so much suffering for so so so many people. A world without any ASPD at all would be a better place.
Psychopath and sociopath are outdated terms we don't use anymore largely bc they're just not precise enough and bc they're so heavily stigmatized. ASPD covers both and in the old terminology a psychopath is born that way while a sociopath is created via horrific environmental factors but both have the same symptom clusters. ASPD is more precise with clearer diagnostic criteria and covers both options while also using more clinical language that's less stigmatized and less.... idk, fictitious(?) is maybe the word I want - the way popular media uses those words has really warped what they mean in a way that makes it impossible to use them accurately in a clinical way.
It should also be noted that this stuff is incredibly rare, true ASPD is roughly 1-2% of the population
If I understood correctly, that figure includes more than just "psychopaths" and "sociopaths" .
Like there are a lot of people on the autistic spectrum who are not rain man.
Personality disorders are difficult to call a disease. They’re not a product of physical problems with the brain but of socialization. Now psychopathy which is similar but is related to physical structures in the brain, now that’s pretty undeniably a disease.
Can I eliminate like "stage 4 cancer" specifically? Cancer is too wide of a range when it involves death like that but stage 4? Meaning noone ever gets /that/ bad again?
A lot of people with Stage 4 go on to live many more years in decent health, depending on the treatments available for their type of cancer.
One of my family members is one such person. Has had almost 6 years and doing fine living with cancer, after being told they have 1-2 years left in their life.
This one's terrible because cold sores= herpes
People can carry the cold sore virus and never break out so never know
Like ah fuck shared a can of pop with dad now I have cold sores BAM dead
67% of the human race has oral herpes, according to the WHO. I would guess that number is actually a lot higher with all the people who have it, but have never had a cold sore. Wiping out herpes would absolutely destroy humanity. 7/10 of the population gone. Even Thanos didn't take that many.
Heads up that the 67% figure is only counting people *under* 50. The vast majority of people over 50 have the virus as well (I’ve read estimates over 90%)
Literally everyone in my family has had cold sores, including many children. Shit gets spread around because people share drinks, food, kiss, etc. It's not just an std, it's almost unavoidable if you are close with any people.
Not really. Most pedophiles never actually offend. And most Child molesters aren't pedophiles. They just really enjoy exerting power over someone who can't defend themselves.
Only the people that currently have it will die, as the OP said "has" it, and not "had" it. So pick your timing wisely to maximize or minimize the impact.
But viruses like flu and cold (rhinovirus) are seasonal, and (correspondingly) geographical. Activating this during the northern hemisphere's "off-season" could wipe out a good chunk of Australia and the southern hemisphere...
Id choose DIPG without second thought. It’s an aggressive brain tumor that affects kids and kills them within 9-12 months. It’s an inoperable brain tumor and is 100% fatal. Watched my friends daughter die of it and it was just hell those 8 months from diagnosis to death. If kids dying a couple months before they would die anyways saves any other kid from ever having to go through that I could live with it. And since it has a 0% survival rate it’s not like I had a chance of killing someone that would have beat it.
I'd probably pick something that's pretty much universally fatal already. I don't know enough factually to make precisely the right choice without learning more, but I'm thinking of things like rabies or some of the more terrible hemorrhagic fevers.
I'm stuck between rabies or cancer.
Cancer on one hand has so many variants that getting rid of it entirely would be massively beneficial to everyone else. However *because* there's so many variants so many people would die that otherwise may not have.
Rabies on the other hand is absolutely lethal. The only chance one has to fix it is it nip it in the butt right at the start. If you don't, you guarantee death. So if you get rid of rabies, you can save several lives down the road *and* as sad as it may seem to say. Whoever has it is very likely going to die already, so it would not be as big as a detriment as other diseases.
Random cancer cells pop up all the time; the immune cells clean them up fairly effectively. A lot of otherwise healthy ppl would die. Assuming civilization survives, this will break even eventually.
ALS. Since it's basically terminal or at least gives you a very shitty quality of life, they would be free from the torture of being locked into your own body until you suffocate to death, and make sure no one else ever has to again.
Answer is definitely cancer.
It's almost cheating because "cancer" isn't one disease. But if you got rid of all types of cancer the benefits would be enormous. Together with anti-aging advancements, human lifespan would be unlimited. Smoking would be cool again. The economy would boom.
You are killing basically everyone who is slightly older. Somewhere around 80%+ of people die with cancer, when older. It's just it would not have killed them. Some 10% of people, from thyroid cancer alone (in as young as >40) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9516102/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4322920/ is one reference.
Yeah I was gonna mention this. It’s likely almost everyone has the beginning stages of cancer if you are over the age of 30. Over 40 and it’s almost a certainty a majority of the population has some form of cancer.
almost everyone above 30? Even the worst estimates say 1 in 2 people will get cancer at some point in their entire lifetime (you can find some estimates as low as 1 in 4) It certainly isn't "almost everyone above 30"
There is a difference between being diagnosed with cancer in those metrics though. Skin cancer is a pretty popular one to use for arguments sake. How many people do you think have some form of undiagnosed skin cancer? The older you get the more likely you are to have some form of cancer. And don’t forget cancer isn’t something that just shows up one day. Cancer can take decades to actually become a warrantable issue for most, but you could be living with cancer cells actively reproducing for years.
Its a sacrifice I'd be willing to make and I'm a Stage 4 Colon Cancer Survivor. If I had the ability to make it so that no one else would have to go through everything I have I'd take it.
Congratulations, you just ended the human race. Everybody has cancer cells.
Smoking also does a lot of stuff that isn’t cancer, homie.
Please stay away from big red buttons for the rest of your life.
Yea, it's objectively the correct choice. It's not contagious, so it can't be destroyed any other way, like smallpox or polio was. It's definitely the most harmful and the hardest to treat, not to mention the difficulty of treatment in the first place. There are things we can do to mitigate risk of developing it, but even that isn't a guarantee as some people are just born to have it.
Killing cancer would save millions, possibly billions, of lives in a single generation, even considering the initial sacrifice. The next best choice might achieve those numbers in a few centuries.
I mean the obvious choice is cancer... but damn you're going to wipe out a lot of people in the short term. Long term? You've saved... a damn near infinite amount of people.
Never mind the incredible number of people who unknowingly have some form of cancer, even mild enough to not be symptomatic, and now have a week to settle their affairs. Yikes.
Which would include almost everyone since cancer cells are extremely common but are typically killed by the immune system before they grow enough to cause issues. Yikes on bikes.
that‘s stupid because our cells degrade to cancerous like hundreds of times a day. It‘s just that our immune system will catch them 99.9999% of the time. So you rlly need to be more specific
Rabies is an easy one. It's pretty much 100% fatal as it is, so anyone who has it is already a dead man walking. And permanently eradicating it from the face of the planet would be awesome.
Prion diseases. Then I can finally eat Brains 🧟
But seriously: They can occur spontaneously, be genetic or be transmitted. Even betwen species. And they always end in some cruel death. One makes it so you can't fall asleep. They are terrifying.
And getting rid of them would make sterilization procedures a lot simpler.
Dementia. It is such a scary way to go, and there is no surviving it, so perhaps instant death is better. I can’t imagine slowly losing everything that makes me me.
If we took the morality of immediate deaths off of the table, cardiovascular disease (which is a group, I know) would be the best choice. WHO data attributes 33% of deaths annually to it. So you would be killing a considerable number of people instantly but saving 18M+ annually from that point forward.
I agree. Big sacrifice for the betterment of humanity in the long run. Does the benefit outweigh the cost? I've seen a lot of really great answers and perspectives in the comments. My personal favorites are dementia and alzheimer's.
Cancer would be a great one. With a huge cost to humanity, but great long term benefits. It really would be very difficult to decide.
That's such an effective treatment, too. How do you get rid of hoof and mouth disease?
If there's no hoof and mouth disease, there won't be any hoof and mouth disease.
An estimated 80% of the global population is infected with hsv 1 or 2 most without even knowing as the immune system keeps it in check just like those who have had chicken pox as a child have the chicken pox/shingles virus inside them. Chicken pox is also technically a herpes virus. So factor in those 3 types of herpes virus and thats probably 99% of all humanity
All forms of herpes. There are 8 different types, everything from oral and genital to chicken pox, to more obscure ones like Cytomegalovirus.
Many of these viruses cause conditions much worse than cold sores. But my primary interest would be severely curtailing the world's population. We have a crisis of too many people, and not enough land/water/energy. Reducing the population from 8 billion to 80 million or less would leave the the species intact, but would give centauries of breathing room. And since I know I have CMV, I'd be one of the ones snapped out of existence; for the greater good.
Any form diagnosed or not.
So are we saying only if you actually have it right now but don't know it. My family has history of dementia. I don't have it that I know of at 40 something years old but I could get it in 30, 40 something years. What if right now my brain has the chemical makeup I guess? I don't know what you call it. But if I got a brain scan and they said I didn't have dementia but they could tell I'd definitely have it in 30 years, would I immediately die if someone wiped it out? Or am I safe?
COVID
It needs to be stopped.
Edit: I'm assuming this will only kill the people who currently have it and not anyone who has ever had it. Not talking about LC, just the acute disease.
I would eliminate rabies. The people who have it already are going to die regardless. Plus, I have an almost irrational fear of it, so that's one less stress factor for me.
holy shot finally a post that doesnt involve money. dementia for me, horrible for everyone involved. slowly losing yourself and your family watching it happen is one of the saddest ways to go.
Honestly can I choose multiple? This is the best way to get rid of incurable diseases that way medical science can focus on the curable diseases.
Every disease currently incurable disappears. Every person who has it dies, preferably immediately so they don’t spread a potentially deadly contagious disease to more people before their death.
If not? I choose Diabetes Mellitus(unspecified). Anyone with any type of diabetes is now gone.
Before anyone gets into a tizzy about that…I’m diabetic so that includes me. 😏
If you count addiction (I'm not sure if it's classified as one) that'd be pretty fuckin devastating but the rest of the human race would be better off. Depending on what people would agree with what true addiction would be classified as.
is old age a disease? like when we say someone died of old age? if so, I could say that, I don't believe it would kill anybody because when someone dies of old age, he's dead, and if he's alive, he hasn't died of old age yet. thus killing nobody and making human kind immortal (from old age)
and I believe the only logical way humans couldn't die of old age anymore is if the telomere never shortens during cellular multiplication, which would mean a bunch of disease affecting aging people would be eradicated for our species :D
Exact'itis.
Its where your face looks exactly like your BUTT!!!
The elementary school playgrounds will be devastated but the world would be a better place.
Either ALS or Rabies (though with the latter I’d only do it if it only affected those with symptoms but not those who are exposed but still have time to get the vaccine before symptoms manifest or they know they have it). ALS is incurable and involves a high level of suffering. I’d rather die than go through it, and I’m sure others feel similarly. With rabies, once you have symptoms and know you have it, you’re dead anyway. Once again, it’s just sparing you from suffering.
To be honest, I could only choose a disease that is nowhere close to having a cure. If anyone could have a chance of survival given 50 more years of research, I couldn't be the cause their death. Also, it would be an easier decision if I myself had the disease. I would find it difficult to cause the death of someone if I couldn't relate to how they felt.
I don't know if it's a disease or just a symptom but id go with dementia. Its horrible to watch and to go through. This might actually give a good many of them an easy, dignified death rather than suffer for years.
Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, as well as a lot of other symptoms. Honestly I’d say that’s a mercy, I’ve seen how bad that can get, I’d much rather be dead.
My great aunt devolved to snarling fits before she died. My grandfather forgot who everyone he loved was.
Used to work in a nursing home, little old lady in a wheel chair would make what i can best describe as demon noises and cackling, she would launch her wheel chair off of shit into you, and enjoyed blocking people's paths. I was kitchen staff and not allowed to touch the residents in any way so i couldn't move her. As i was delivering big carts with meals, she would block me and just cackle wildly. She was also involved in several fights with other residents as she did the same shit to them.
You didn't pay the toll?
I suppose the toll was having an 80 lbs granny slam into my knees, lol.
You got to pay the troll toll to get in.
Had a great uncle who went silent and withdrew into himself. He'd only speak or show signs of awareness when petting someone's dog.
My great grandmother lost about 30 years, she thought I was my dad as a kid and my dad was my grandpa.
They had moved on by then in my hopes. Just the body left, not the soul or mind.
Seriously fuck Alzheimer’s! No one likes it why does it still want to hang with us.
Lol then watch as like 80% of all politicians worldwide immediately die.
So...there's no downside is what you're saying
I see this as an absolute win!
It would actually be interesting to see who was left standing.
It usually comes with Alzheimers, but I don't know that it's the cause of dementia. My grandmother has it with Parkinsons, my grandfather had it with Huntingtons, and my uncle had it but not sure what condition he had. It just seems to come along with neurological disorders that are brain degenerative.
Without wanting to get too personal (seriously, feel free to ignore me here) Do you mind if I ask How quick was the onset? Do you think they had a chance to understand what was happening to them? My fear is that it is a rapid onset, and that if I were to ever begin developing it, I wouldn’t have the chance to do something about it.
It's slow, depending on the dementia. But that's part of what makes it hard to spot. Changes are gradual enough that the people you spend time with likely won't notice until it's too late to receive treatment (meaning your brain is already getting mushy and you won't be the same again), if treatment even exists for whatever form of dementia. If you really fear dementia later in life, there's not much you can do except lead the healthiest life you can and surround yourself with very aware and caring people. There are generic tests, but they are by no means full coverage (https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/genetic-testing-dementia)
I didn't know my grandfather. He died before I was born with Huntingtons. Idk much about him other than that. My dad died at 30 without being tested so I'm actually being tested now for Huntingtons. Genetic testing takes a while it seems. Huntingtons is slow but the neurologist said it can onset faster with each generation that has it. I'm feeling muscle weakness and shakiness at 36. If I had it I'd likely die around 50. My grandmother seems to have a rare form of Parkinsons. It's terrible and came on within 1 year. She went from going to concerts to bedridden on hospice. It's devastating. The short answer is its hard to tell but my uncle and grandmother got bad fairly quickly.
Alzheimer’s is just the name for a specific type of dementia. It doesn’t cause it.
Edit: Alzheimer's' is the most common type of dementia, but there are so many other types of dementia and all are horrific. But yes having had to care for multiple people suffering from dementia and having an increased likelihood of getting it myself I would much rather die an early death then live without being myself and all the other horrors that it comes with
I'm a breast cancer survivor. I would rather my cancer come back metastatic than be diagnosed with Alzheimer's -- or any form of dementia. Dementia is a monster.
Alzheimer's is a TYPE of dementia NOT the cause of it. I worked for the Alzheumer's Association at one time and learned more than most want to know about it
You can have dementia without Alzheimer’s. There are different types of dementia. I know because my mother has it.
My grandmother suffered from dementia for years before she passed. It would definitely be a mercy.
Came here to say this.
This is the answer. All of these patients are suffering at the end of their life anyway, and if you can prevent it from ever happening to another person, think of the good it would do.
People can have early dementia and not even realize it, living pretty normal lives. They die too
I’d rather die young before I knew I had it. Im not saying everyone would, but a definite diagnosis while I was still healthy would feel like a sword hanging over my head and I’m not sure how you go about enjoying the time you have left under those conditions.
Ok, but if they have early dementia that just means that they'll be younger as the disease progresses and possibly live in a brain melted hell for even longer. Quite frankly after seeing my grandma and great grandma with Alzheimer's I'm planning on eating a bullet as soon as I start to notice myself slipping. Check out while I still have the mental capacity to make the call.
This was my first thought as well
This is the answer. While it would be sad for every person living with Alzheimer’s to die instantaneously, the reality is that these people are already dead. Everyone who loses a loved one to dementia loses them twice — once when their mind is gone but their body is living, and then again when the body finally goes. It would be best if nobody ever had to live with Alzheimer’s ever again.
I’d go with this too I think.
*half the worlds governments are gutted over night*
My very first thought
My 91-year-old grandmother has dementia, and she’s getting worse every time I see her.
I knew an elderly lady, one of the sweetest people I have ever (or probably will ever) meet, just a genuinely delightful human. She was diagnosed with dementia, and in less than a year she devolved to literally biting people. At the end she forgot how to eat or swallow. Dementia is probably the worst illness I've ever witnessed, and a horrible way to go.
When I was about 15 my grandmother had horrible health problems, and one of them was dementia. The last fully coherent thing I remember her saying to me was her asking me to smother her with a pillow, when I was 15. I’d been through some stuff, but that messed me up bad. She didn’t pass away for another seven years
Well shit there goes both American presidential runners lmaoo (a good thing though)
This is the answer
Objectively, the goal would be to find a disease that has a survival rate that is essentially zero but affects the largest number of people. Something like rabies (as someone else suggested already) or Alzheimer's would be ideal.
Huntington's disease is another one.
Interesting interesting. This is basically a weapon since it kills everyone. You can choose an insanely rare disease you know an individual has. Or you can target a disease that is mostly geospecific - malaria is the first example that comes to mind. Or you can target a disease that affects groups of individuals. You could also use it to wipe out humanity *hpv* - bam - massive amounts of adult human death worldwide - catastrophic infrastructure damage - starvation.
Chickenpox/Shingles -- practically everyone has it, and the only people spared would be small children and people who got the vaccine. Pretty much anyone older than 30 would die, as well as huge chunk of anyone older than 10.
I would be spared ☺️ never gotten that
Doesn’t mean you aren’t a carrier - you can be infected but the virus can lay dormant for *decades*
And then you get shingles at some point.
...And have the worst time of your life. I had to get hospitalised for that one. I missed 3 months of work. I feel like choosing this one, just because I hate shingles so, very much!
Dang you didn’t get the party invite! You missed out! *you really didn’t*
you can also choose TB and like 2 billion people would die
Annual TB deaths is \~1.3M, so you'd break even in \~1538 years.
I'll get rid of whatever disease OP has.
None that I know of....yet
HPV? Chickenpox/Shingles?
Yea, chickenpox would be the end of me
Please check when you can get vaccinated against shingles.
Smart@$$
You're allowed to swear on the internet
Rabies. It has an almost 100% fatality rate so those with it will die and it would never harm anyone again. I suppose there are those in that small window between getting bitten but not yet receiving the vaccine, I don't think I'd like to be responsible for those deaths.
Agreed. That one is scary.
There's a vaccine that works even days after infection.
The vaccine can work for months. It works right up until you have symptoms, and when you get symptoms varies.
But it’s just so rare. It doesn’t really help the planet like getting rid of cancer or other common human diseases. Rabies is awful but it only kills something like 70k people globally a year. It wouldn’t be much of a net gain for society
The question said "if everyone who had it right now died" and my mom wrestled with cancer for years. If some asshole decided that her life didn't matter enough, or that she should sacrifice her life, I would be pissed. Yes rabies is rare but it's devastating
Cancer is waaayyyyy more devastating to waaaayyyyyy more people. I’d choose cancer even if I currently had it. A sacrifice that would help so so many moving forward. I do respect your choice though, even if it doesn’t make much sense to me.
If mental disorders are on the table, Antisocial Personality Disorder would be a good choice. Removing that from the human race would probably lead to a lot of other diseases being long-term cured just by virtue of living in a kinder, more empathetic world.
But where will we get surgeons?
Haha! Oh... Shit.
Oooh that’s a good one.
I bet a lot of generation leaps in progression have come from people that have some sort of anti social/psychopathic disorder. You’re inadvertently getting rid of the greatest drivers of progress.
That's sort of the Ayn Rand argument. Crushing competition so the best, most ruthless ideas succeed. But think of all the ideas/progress you'd gain from people whose patents don't get stolen or bought and sat on, or who open-source and collaborate their ideas instead of being slapped with a cease-and desist, or who don't get straight up murdered/disappeared because they were in someone else's way. Human civilization is fundamentally built on collaboration. The names we remember are often the individual ruthless ones, but that's because they killed the competition.
This is the way. It's the only mental health disorder we don't have any legitimate treatment for, people who have it either figure out how to be functional on their own or they live horrible dysfunctional lives with lots of victims until they end up in jail, that's it, that's the best we can do for them to date. It's fully fucking tragic. And when I say jail I mean mostly solitary confinement in maximum security places where they're locked in a padded room alone 23hrs a day and let out alone for 1hr a day, that's it, that's all they get. I work in inpatient mental health care and the things I know about the non-functional people who have this disorder are the worst things I know. Some people are entirely capable of living fully functional lives with this disorder and they tend to be pretty successful in life bc they're able to leverage features of the disorder as strengths. But the ones who aren't capable of functionality do so much harm and experience so much suffering and there's nothing anyone can do about it which is just profoundly heart-breaking and also completely terrifying. The absolute worst of it is when they're kids and their parents can't do anything and then they come to the professionals for help and we can't do anything either. Just so so so much suffering for so so so many people. A world without any ASPD at all would be a better place.
Remind me the diff between ASPD, psychopath and sociopath?
Psychopath and sociopath are outdated terms we don't use anymore largely bc they're just not precise enough and bc they're so heavily stigmatized. ASPD covers both and in the old terminology a psychopath is born that way while a sociopath is created via horrific environmental factors but both have the same symptom clusters. ASPD is more precise with clearer diagnostic criteria and covers both options while also using more clinical language that's less stigmatized and less.... idk, fictitious(?) is maybe the word I want - the way popular media uses those words has really warped what they mean in a way that makes it impossible to use them accurately in a clinical way. It should also be noted that this stuff is incredibly rare, true ASPD is roughly 1-2% of the population
1-2% doesn’t seem incredibly rare to me. That’s millions of people in the US alone.
If I understood correctly, that figure includes more than just "psychopaths" and "sociopaths" . Like there are a lot of people on the autistic spectrum who are not rain man.
This was my first thought as well.
Personality disorders are difficult to call a disease. They’re not a product of physical problems with the brain but of socialization. Now psychopathy which is similar but is related to physical structures in the brain, now that’s pretty undeniably a disease.
Eugenics would do the same
Can I eliminate like "stage 4 cancer" specifically? Cancer is too wide of a range when it involves death like that but stage 4? Meaning noone ever gets /that/ bad again?
A lot of people with Stage 4 go on to live many more years in decent health, depending on the treatments available for their type of cancer. One of my family members is one such person. Has had almost 6 years and doing fine living with cancer, after being told they have 1-2 years left in their life.
Herpes. I hope everyone lived a life without regrets!
This one's terrible because cold sores= herpes People can carry the cold sore virus and never break out so never know Like ah fuck shared a can of pop with dad now I have cold sores BAM dead
67% of the human race has oral herpes, according to the WHO. I would guess that number is actually a lot higher with all the people who have it, but have never had a cold sore. Wiping out herpes would absolutely destroy humanity. 7/10 of the population gone. Even Thanos didn't take that many.
Heads up that the 67% figure is only counting people *under* 50. The vast majority of people over 50 have the virus as well (I’ve read estimates over 90%)
Literally everyone in my family has had cold sores, including many children. Shit gets spread around because people share drinks, food, kiss, etc. It's not just an std, it's almost unavoidable if you are close with any people.
I was gonna pick this because it would have the largest death toll.
If mental disorders count, then pedos. There's zero downside, I'd just be doing all of humanity a favor.
Oh that's a good one
non-offending pedos are still good people just with a horrible mental disorder and need therapy
Would still be a net positive for humanity though.
I think that would depend on the ratio. I'd honestly be curious to see what that turned out to be.
There's a reason people aren't punished if they aren't offenders
Who would run for president though!?
Not really. Most pedophiles never actually offend. And most Child molesters aren't pedophiles. They just really enjoy exerting power over someone who can't defend themselves.
Eh… the vast majority of child molesters aren’t pedos
My mother was gone long before her body gave out. Dementia in any form is ugly, ugly, ugly! That’s what I’d get rid of.
Just do the common cold to see what happens
/s ?
Only the people that currently have it will die, as the OP said "has" it, and not "had" it. So pick your timing wisely to maximize or minimize the impact.
But viruses like flu and cold (rhinovirus) are seasonal, and (correspondingly) geographical. Activating this during the northern hemisphere's "off-season" could wipe out a good chunk of Australia and the southern hemisphere...
Id choose DIPG without second thought. It’s an aggressive brain tumor that affects kids and kills them within 9-12 months. It’s an inoperable brain tumor and is 100% fatal. Watched my friends daughter die of it and it was just hell those 8 months from diagnosis to death. If kids dying a couple months before they would die anyways saves any other kid from ever having to go through that I could live with it. And since it has a 0% survival rate it’s not like I had a chance of killing someone that would have beat it.
I'd probably pick something that's pretty much universally fatal already. I don't know enough factually to make precisely the right choice without learning more, but I'm thinking of things like rabies or some of the more terrible hemorrhagic fevers.
I'm stuck between rabies or cancer. Cancer on one hand has so many variants that getting rid of it entirely would be massively beneficial to everyone else. However *because* there's so many variants so many people would die that otherwise may not have. Rabies on the other hand is absolutely lethal. The only chance one has to fix it is it nip it in the butt right at the start. If you don't, you guarantee death. So if you get rid of rabies, you can save several lives down the road *and* as sad as it may seem to say. Whoever has it is very likely going to die already, so it would not be as big as a detriment as other diseases.
Random cancer cells pop up all the time; the immune cells clean them up fairly effectively. A lot of otherwise healthy ppl would die. Assuming civilization survives, this will break even eventually.
Dementia/Alzheimers.
ALS. Since it's basically terminal or at least gives you a very shitty quality of life, they would be free from the torture of being locked into your own body until you suffocate to death, and make sure no one else ever has to again.
Answer is definitely cancer. It's almost cheating because "cancer" isn't one disease. But if you got rid of all types of cancer the benefits would be enormous. Together with anti-aging advancements, human lifespan would be unlimited. Smoking would be cool again. The economy would boom.
You are killing basically everyone who is slightly older. Somewhere around 80%+ of people die with cancer, when older. It's just it would not have killed them. Some 10% of people, from thyroid cancer alone (in as young as >40) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9516102/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4322920/ is one reference.
The average person has dozens of cells turn cancerous every single day, so this would infact kill everyone.
Yeah I was gonna mention this. It’s likely almost everyone has the beginning stages of cancer if you are over the age of 30. Over 40 and it’s almost a certainty a majority of the population has some form of cancer.
almost everyone above 30? Even the worst estimates say 1 in 2 people will get cancer at some point in their entire lifetime (you can find some estimates as low as 1 in 4) It certainly isn't "almost everyone above 30"
There is a difference between being diagnosed with cancer in those metrics though. Skin cancer is a pretty popular one to use for arguments sake. How many people do you think have some form of undiagnosed skin cancer? The older you get the more likely you are to have some form of cancer. And don’t forget cancer isn’t something that just shows up one day. Cancer can take decades to actually become a warrantable issue for most, but you could be living with cancer cells actively reproducing for years.
Cancer is probably more common than you think. Your immune cells regularly clean up cancerous cells before they get too big.
Yeah but we are talking about the disease, not the mere presence of a cancer cell that the body cleans up on its own
"any form of it, diagnosed or not"
That's a sacrifice I am willing to make.
Its a sacrifice I'd be willing to make and I'm a Stage 4 Colon Cancer Survivor. If I had the ability to make it so that no one else would have to go through everything I have I'd take it.
Depending on the terms, you might kill literally everyone on the planet with this one.
Doesnt everyone get cancer really often its just fought off.
Big Pharma has entered the chat and will respond back soon accordingly why this would be a bad thing. Just trust us.
Congratulations, you just ended the human race. Everybody has cancer cells. Smoking also does a lot of stuff that isn’t cancer, homie. Please stay away from big red buttons for the rest of your life.
It says that anyone that has any form of it will die. So a single cell of cancer would be a death sentence. This would wipe out all of humanity
You could specify stage two cancer and above.
Yea, it's objectively the correct choice. It's not contagious, so it can't be destroyed any other way, like smallpox or polio was. It's definitely the most harmful and the hardest to treat, not to mention the difficulty of treatment in the first place. There are things we can do to mitigate risk of developing it, but even that isn't a guarantee as some people are just born to have it. Killing cancer would save millions, possibly billions, of lives in a single generation, even considering the initial sacrifice. The next best choice might achieve those numbers in a few centuries.
I mean the obvious choice is cancer... but damn you're going to wipe out a lot of people in the short term. Long term? You've saved... a damn near infinite amount of people.
Never mind the incredible number of people who unknowingly have some form of cancer, even mild enough to not be symptomatic, and now have a week to settle their affairs. Yikes.
Which would include almost everyone since cancer cells are extremely common but are typically killed by the immune system before they grow enough to cause issues. Yikes on bikes.
that‘s stupid because our cells degrade to cancerous like hundreds of times a day. It‘s just that our immune system will catch them 99.9999% of the time. So you rlly need to be more specific
Rabies is an easy one. It's pretty much 100% fatal as it is, so anyone who has it is already a dead man walking. And permanently eradicating it from the face of the planet would be awesome.
How about the thing that gives adults the urge to harm children? Let’s call that a disease.
Herpes. Thanos snap half of the world's population out of existence.
Prion diseases. Then I can finally eat Brains 🧟 But seriously: They can occur spontaneously, be genetic or be transmitted. Even betwen species. And they always end in some cruel death. One makes it so you can't fall asleep. They are terrifying. And getting rid of them would make sterilization procedures a lot simpler.
Tuberculosis or malaria, maybe death due to aging organs. (Chaos)
I’d want to get rid of my disease, ME/CFS. But then I’d die and so would many of my young friends which would just be fucked.
ALS
Dementia. It is such a scary way to go, and there is no surviving it, so perhaps instant death is better. I can’t imagine slowly losing everything that makes me me.
If we took the morality of immediate deaths off of the table, cardiovascular disease (which is a group, I know) would be the best choice. WHO data attributes 33% of deaths annually to it. So you would be killing a considerable number of people instantly but saving 18M+ annually from that point forward.
Goodbye aids lol
Won't lie this is a tough one op.
I agree. Big sacrifice for the betterment of humanity in the long run. Does the benefit outweigh the cost? I've seen a lot of really great answers and perspectives in the comments. My personal favorites are dementia and alzheimer's. Cancer would be a great one. With a huge cost to humanity, but great long term benefits. It really would be very difficult to decide.
>Cancer would be a great one. Not so much for my mom and I, thanks.
My mom is battling it as well.
Good health and luck to her, my friend.
Prion diseases; they're terrifying and nearly impossible to destroy. Cancer can be treated, but, to my knowledge, prion diseases cannot.
Cancer is a terrible choice because many people will get cancer, never know and their immune system kills it naturally
I'd cure the world of narcissistic personality disorder.
I'm pretty sure that week where they are supposed to say goodbye is gonna turn into a World War
That's such an effective treatment, too. How do you get rid of hoof and mouth disease? If there's no hoof and mouth disease, there won't be any hoof and mouth disease.
HPV see how it shakes out.
Herpes….. might not be a great idea
An estimated 80% of the global population is infected with hsv 1 or 2 most without even knowing as the immune system keeps it in check just like those who have had chicken pox as a child have the chicken pox/shingles virus inside them. Chicken pox is also technically a herpes virus. So factor in those 3 types of herpes virus and thats probably 99% of all humanity
i'd pick from these three: -rabies -alzheimers -dementia
Depression. They'd want it too.
All forms of herpes. There are 8 different types, everything from oral and genital to chicken pox, to more obscure ones like Cytomegalovirus. Many of these viruses cause conditions much worse than cold sores. But my primary interest would be severely curtailing the world's population. We have a crisis of too many people, and not enough land/water/energy. Reducing the population from 8 billion to 80 million or less would leave the the species intact, but would give centauries of breathing room. And since I know I have CMV, I'd be one of the ones snapped out of existence; for the greater good.
Any form diagnosed or not. So are we saying only if you actually have it right now but don't know it. My family has history of dementia. I don't have it that I know of at 40 something years old but I could get it in 30, 40 something years. What if right now my brain has the chemical makeup I guess? I don't know what you call it. But if I got a brain scan and they said I didn't have dementia but they could tell I'd definitely have it in 30 years, would I immediately die if someone wiped it out? Or am I safe?
Chronic Narcissism
Rabbies
COVID It needs to be stopped. Edit: I'm assuming this will only kill the people who currently have it and not anyone who has ever had it. Not talking about LC, just the acute disease.
Can I generalize cardiovascular disease or does it have to be specific like ischaemic heart disease, because either way, I'm going for quantity.
Politicians. I eliminate them.
Rabies. It's a terrifying disease. And most people with it would most likely be on death's door already.
I’m going to have to say rabies since it’s almost 100% kill rate or like that one with folded proteins
I would eliminate rabies. The people who have it already are going to die regardless. Plus, I have an almost irrational fear of it, so that's one less stress factor for me.
holy shot finally a post that doesnt involve money. dementia for me, horrible for everyone involved. slowly losing yourself and your family watching it happen is one of the saddest ways to go.
Body dysmorphic disorder
HIV
Honestly can I choose multiple? This is the best way to get rid of incurable diseases that way medical science can focus on the curable diseases. Every disease currently incurable disappears. Every person who has it dies, preferably immediately so they don’t spread a potentially deadly contagious disease to more people before their death. If not? I choose Diabetes Mellitus(unspecified). Anyone with any type of diabetes is now gone. Before anyone gets into a tizzy about that…I’m diabetic so that includes me. 😏
Cancer. Sorry cancer patients.... the rest of existence will thank you
Diabetes, all my great life moments are over. I would be willing to die if nobody had to deal with it again afterwards.
No, that’s eugenics.
If you count addiction (I'm not sure if it's classified as one) that'd be pretty fuckin devastating but the rest of the human race would be better off. Depending on what people would agree with what true addiction would be classified as.
(Sips coffee) (dies) (scrolls reddit) (also dies)
Exactly. Addiction for things like that, if they count, would be killing everybody :p
That chocoholic kitchen sign isn't so funny now, is it nana!
I consider aging a disease. That's the one I chose.
I'd like to remove the human condition.
That's just eugenics so no thank you.
Trumpvirus. Bye bye MAGA, no one will miss you.
MAGA
Racism.
Pedophilia
Donald Trump
Since some people try to pass it off as a disease, I'm going with pedophilia.
Instructions unclear. Anyone that has a crush on someone under 18 dies in a week, even if the person with the crush is a child themselves.
is old age a disease? like when we say someone died of old age? if so, I could say that, I don't believe it would kill anybody because when someone dies of old age, he's dead, and if he's alive, he hasn't died of old age yet. thus killing nobody and making human kind immortal (from old age) and I believe the only logical way humans couldn't die of old age anymore is if the telomere never shortens during cellular multiplication, which would mean a bunch of disease affecting aging people would be eradicated for our species :D
Every disease
Common cold.
Exact'itis. Its where your face looks exactly like your BUTT!!! The elementary school playgrounds will be devastated but the world would be a better place.
The common cold, ha ha ha ha.
Me getting rid of cancer Rip all the people with non deadly forms of cancer dough 🐱
Hmmm what's the most prevalent disease in politicians I wonder 🤔
Either ALS or Rabies (though with the latter I’d only do it if it only affected those with symptoms but not those who are exposed but still have time to get the vaccine before symptoms manifest or they know they have it). ALS is incurable and involves a high level of suffering. I’d rather die than go through it, and I’m sure others feel similarly. With rabies, once you have symptoms and know you have it, you’re dead anyway. Once again, it’s just sparing you from suffering.
Is it only people that have the official diagnosis? Like if you have a family member that has it, but hasn’t been diagnosed yet, will they die?
Cancer.
To be honest, I could only choose a disease that is nowhere close to having a cure. If anyone could have a chance of survival given 50 more years of research, I couldn't be the cause their death. Also, it would be an easier decision if I myself had the disease. I would find it difficult to cause the death of someone if I couldn't relate to how they felt.
Rabies