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covid-safer-hotties · 7 months ago

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a newsletter some of y'all may be interested in subscribing to

By John Dupuis

Welcome to the latest issue of the Covid-Is-Not-Over Newsletter! A couple more issues during December before I take a little break from regular issues and publish a couple of filler “Bonus” issues. I’m definitely looking forward to a couple of slower weeks of holiday movies and fun books. I’m thinking of a Lord of the Rings rewatch this year. LotR are holiday movies, right? Right?

Mini-theme this week seems to be librarian-friendly, with a couple of colleagues writing about Information Literacy and the pandemic and how we’ve gotten ourselves in this rather amazing fine mess. How can all that good information be available to seemingly smart people, and yet it doesn’t seem to sink in? How can Long Covid fly under the radar, ignored or psychologized?

One thing that I want to remember from last week is that appalling Lisi Tesher article. You may recall that Lisi Tesher is the Toronto Star agony aunt who gave a horrible response to a letter about how to accommodate a Covid cautious person at a wedding. Tesher basically called the person mentally ill. Appalling.

Anyways, clear air advocate Ryan Tennant wrote a fantastic response as a letter to the editor at the Waterloo Record, which republishes Tesher’s column. Here’s a little bit.

In the context of COVID-19, we should respect and support individuals who make choices to protect their health and the health of those around them, especially when science justifies it.

For weddings and similar gatherings, a compassionate response would have offered creative ways to understand and incorporate evidence-based health protections against COVID-19, ensuring everyone feels valued and safe.

I urge this publication to ensure its contributors are equipped with accurate information and an appropriate tone for readers seeking support.

If you are the grudge-holding type of person, perhaps it’s not too late to encourage Ms. Tesher to read this week and last. The Star’s Life section email is [email protected], the city editor is [email protected] and Ms. Tesher herself is at [email protected].

This week I also highlight some more on Trump and public health, not to mention some revolution-making, rabble-rousing, high-energy jazz.

Like! Share! Subscribe!

As most have probably noticed, there is no paid subscription option for this newsletter. However, Substack does have an option where subscribers can pledge to subscribe “just in case” and a few kind subscribers have made that pledge. I very much appreciated the vote of confidence in what I’m doing here. What I’ve decided to do on a trial basis is to set up a “tip jar” on the Ko-fi platform. I’m not anticipating a huge surge of income from using Ko-fi but whatever revenue I do end up with, I plan to spend on supporting artists on Bandcamp.

Be my secret Santa!

It’s not about information literacy: Why people’s risk calculus around COVID has changed by Meredith Farkas / Information Wants to Be Free: The Newsletter I don’t think information literacy is the issue here. Most people I know are quite smart, well-read, and adept at research. I don’t know if they read things about COVID anymore, but if they’re not, it’s not because they don’t know how to find it. I think a lot more is happening with people who avoid COVID information and ignore risks and I think it’s a mix of personal psychological factors, privilege, the absolute disaster that was public health messaging around COVID, and social pressure to align with the dominant narrative that COVID is over. I know we like to distill things down to a single cause (“they’re selfish!” “It’s Biden’s fault!”), but this is considerably more complicated.

Many of us are dealing with pandemic fatigue, which is a lot like burnout and leads to a “demotivation to engage in protection behaviors and seek COVID-19 related information” (Haktanir, et al., 2022, p. 7315). Ford, Douglas, & Barrett (2023) describe pandemic fatigue as “a complex set of emotions comprised of anxiety, hopelessness, depression, and anger.” There are a few of reasons people become fatigued in this way. The biggest is simply the length of time we were all expected to stay in a state of emergency and hypervigilance. Living in that state with no clear end in sight can easily lead to burnout as many of us who have worked in high stress jobs can attest. You can’t stay in a state of hypervigilance forever without eventually becoming exhausted and desensitized (Koh, Chan, & Tan 2020). Chen et al. (2024) found that even when they controlled for pandemic severity at particular points in time, pandemic fatigue increased in study participants an average of 5.8% every six months of the pandemic. Instead of vilifying folks who experience pandemic fatigue and decrease their precautions, the WHO portrays it as “a natural and expected reaction to sustained and unresolved adversity in people’s lives,” (7), an approach which I personally appreciate. Shame is not a motivator and these are very normal psychological responses.

Advice for U.S. Government Scientists: Lessons Learned From the ‘Muzzling’ of Their Canadian Counterparts by David Shiffman / The Revelator Step One: They Can’t Delete What They Don’t Exclusively Control

For scientists working at government agencies, they suggest making copies of everything so it can be stored somewhere else — and to do that as soon as possible, certainly well before the next administration starts.

For example, does your agency have a publicly funded database, report, or educational website that has anything to do with climate change, conservation, diversity, equity and inclusion, or public health? It’s very likely that the next administration will try to suppress or delete at least some of it. A nongovernment partner, such as a university or large nonprofit, can host copies of these important documents and data if they’re shared in advance.

These efforts are already underway, but it’s vital to spread the advice as far as possible, as quickly as possible, so no data is left vulnerable.

New Zealand Covid inquiry finds vaccine mandates were ‘reasonable’ by Australian Associated Press / The Guardian A royal commission into New Zealand’s Covid response has largely accepted the need for vaccine mandates, while accepting they harmed a substantial minority of New Zealanders.

The first of two inquiry reports on the pandemic was released on Thursday and also called for broad investment to plan for the next pandemic.

A headline finding is that New Zealand had one of the lowest rates of Covid deaths for each head of population among developed countries.

The most contentious of the issues surveyed was the use of lockdowns and vaccine mandates, which helped to curb the spread of the virus, but at the cost of social cohesion and trust in government, according to the report.

“Contentious public health measures like vaccine mandates wore away at what had initially been a united wall of public support for the pandemic response,” commissioners Tony Blakely, John Whitehead and Grant Illingworth wrote.

“Along with the rising tide of misinformation and disinformation, this created social fissures that have not entirely been repaired.”

Another finding was “it was reasonable to introduce some targeted vaccine requirements based on information available at the time”, but the case was weaker from early 2022 when the Omicron variant took over.

The COVID inquiry report is an excellent guide to preparing for the next pandemic – health cuts put that at risk by Michael Baker, Amanda Kvalsvig, Collin Tukuitonga, Nick Wilson / The Conversation The report concludes that New Zealand’s adoption of an elimination strategy was highly successful, but had wide-ranging impacts on all aspects of life.

The strategy required early use of border controls, lockdowns and other restrictions which helped prevent widespread infection until most of the population was vaccinated. This response gave New Zealand one of the lowest COVID mortality rates globally.

The report also found that as the pandemic progressed into late 2021, the negative impacts increased. Controlling the pandemic was focused on mandates, including restrictions on public gatherings, quarantine and isolation, contact tracing, masking and vaccination requirements.

The effects included declining trust in government within some communities and loss of social cohesion. Vaccine hesitancy emerged as a growing challenge to the vaccine rollout, fed by exposure to misinformation and disinformation.

The prolonged pandemic and lack of a clear exit strategy from elimination added to the difficulties, according to the commission’s report.

Almost a third of preteens, teens with long COVID still not recovered at 2 years, study shows by Stephanie Soucheray / CIDRAP A new study from UK investigators shows that—while most COVID-19 patients ages 11 to 17 who reported long-COVID symptoms 3 months after the initial infection no longer experienced lingering symptoms at 2 years—29% still did.

The findings, published in the journal Communications Medicine, come from the National Long COVID in Children and Young People cohort study, which followed up on thousands of young people after their COVID-19 diagnoses. …

Overall, 20% to 25% of all infection status groups reported three or more symptoms 24 months post-testing, with 10% to 25% experiencing five or more symptoms. Not all who reported symptoms, however, met the formal criteria for long COVID. In fact, five or more symptoms were reported by 14.2% of those who never tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and by 20.8% of those with at least two infections.

Older teens and females were most likely to meet formal definitions, the authors said. "We did not find that symptoms or their impact differed by vaccination status," the authors wrote.

Independent Long COVID Journalism as a Lens for Critical Information Literacy: Conversations with The Sick Times Founders Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles W. Griffis by Andrea Baer / Communications in Information Literacy The realities of COVID-19 and Long COVID and their ongoing impacts are unsettling. In a world of information overload, when we face numerous wicked problems that have no simple or complete solutions, it’s understandable that we may sometimes want to simply look away or may, at times, feel paralyzed and throw up our hands. Some readers may, like me, ask themselves to what extent to engage with wicked problems like COVID-19 in the realm of information literacy, given how polarized and taboo this topic has become and given that most discussions about COVID-19 place it in the past tense (e.g., “postpandemic,” “post-COVID era”). Some readers may also, like me, ask themselves how examining reporting on complex topics like COVID-19 might inform their teaching practices more broadly. I would like to do more of the latter along with others, and do so with critical reflection, care, and an ongoing practice of perspective-taking. …

COVID-19 and Long COVID, similar in many respects to climate change, are not going away, and they affect us all, albeit to varying degrees and in different ways. The Sick Times is a concrete example of people and communities making a positive difference for many in the short term, while also growing connections and efforts that necessary for larger and more systemic change over the long term.

Long COVID is becoming a serious social and economic issue for Australia by Jason Murphy / Crikey Among the current generation of kids, many are growing up with their mother or father confined to bed or confined to bed themselves. According to a study by ANU, long COVID is hitting up to an estimated 20% of Australians three months after they contracted COVID — mostly women, but also men and children. In the current COVID wave, that means a lot of people coming down sick for a long time.

Long COVID is keeping people from their jobs and their lives, and as COVID cases continue, it is unclear whether the rate of new long COVID cases is increasing faster than the old cases recover.

‘I was in denial about it’: actor Matt McGorry on having long Covid by Estelle Tang / The Guardian What does risk mitigation look like for you, and what did you want people who don’t have long Covid to take away from the video?

The risk mitigation in my life is very high. When your health is taken away from you, you realize how important it is. There’s not much that feels worth the risk of another Covid infection.

I don’t necessarily expect that everyone does or should do what I’m doing, but the number one thing is having a very well-fitting respirator. For maximum protection, you need something that forms an airtight seal. While you may get some protection from a surgical mask, if you’re already taking that step, it makes sense to find something that seals to your face. I wear the Flo mask, which is a reusable mask. People definitely look at it, and I have all sorts of feelings about that. I used to love to people-watch, and now I don’t any more, because people are watching me. …

My asks are very simply masking, at the very least, in places where disabled and immunocompromised people have to be: grocery stores, medical settings such as doctors, offices, pharmacies, hospitals, and transportation like planes, trains and buses.

Even as an act of solidarity, picking a couple of those places, making a commitment to that and making that known is incredibly important. As someone who feels extremely isolated and abandoned by the rest of society, I don’t have the capacity any more to ask individual people in my life if they will take this on. That’s what the video was for.

Long COVID pandemic in the aftermath of the acute phase / Centre for Pandemics and One-Health Research Why is this topic important?

It is important for many reasons, but I would say the main reason is that this is a problem that affects a large fraction of those with acute infections or certain acute infections. In this COVID study with adolescents, we found that approximately 47 percent had long-term sequels, and quite a high percentage of these would fulfil the criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome, which is a debilitating situation. That is quite similar to what we have seen after other infections. For instance, with kissing disease, six months after the infection, you are left with 10 to 15 percent with a chronic condition and with functional impairments.

The good news is that the majority, especially in the younger age group, will recover spontaneously. However, this can take a long time, and in adolescent medicine, this is one of the major causes for functional impairments in adolescents. So, it has a significant impact on people´s functional capability. It is necessary to understand the details of the pathophysiology for treatment, prophylaxis and prevention. The first step is, therefore, to understand what is going on. The next step is to conduct clinical trials in order to try to treat this phenomenon. This is something my research group is doing as part of the research.

For the love of God, Covid isn't over - so can people please wear masks? By Sam Williams / Canary A week ago, my wife and I went to John Lewis to look at air fryers. As we entered the store, I put on an FFP3 mask because of Covid. My wife looked at me in disgust and said, “Oh, you’re wearing a mask?” I replied, “Yes. There’s a lot of Covid around, and I don’t want it. Do you?”

She responded, “Well, the trouble is, I’m not wearing a mask”.

I said, “Yes, I can see that. I wish you would. The trouble is, every time I’ve caught Covid, it’s been from you. I’m disabled with long COVID, and every time I get reinfected, it makes me really, really ill”.

So here’s my question: does my wife not care?

I want to use this piece to spark a debate about who we are as people. Are we kind and virtuous, or are we selfish and indifferent? Writing an article about what stops people from wearing masks, while I live with the pain caused by my wife not masking, feels like an oddly meta activity.

That’s right, folks: it was probably my wife who gave me Covid in the first place. Although, to be fair, neither of us knew about masking or long Covid back then.

Want to Limit Respiratory Virus Infections? Mask and Test in Hospitals by Rachel Robertson / MedPage Today Stopping universal masking and SARS-CoV-2 testing in hospitals led to a surge in hospital-onset respiratory viral infections relative to community infections, a cohort study found.

After these safeguards were removed, there was a 25% jump in hospital-onset respiratory viral infections compared with the preceding Omicron-dominant period (RR 1.25, 95% CI 1.02-1.53), reported Theodore Pak, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.

When hospital staff began masking again, the rates of hospital-onset respiratory viral infections decreased by 33% (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.52-0.85), they wrote in a JAMA Network Open

Testing and Masking Policies and Hospital-Onset Respiratory Viral Infections by Theodore R. Pak,Tom Chen, Sanjat Kanjilal, et al. / JAMA Network Open In this study, stopping universal masking and SARS-CoV-2 testing was associated with a significant increase in hospital-onset respiratory viral infections relative to community infections. Restarting the masking of health care workers was associated with a significant decrease. Limitations of our analysis included a lack of concurrent controls, possible variations in compliance, difficulty disentangling effects of testing vs masking, and potential case misclassification. However, medical record reviews suggested most hospital-onset cases were true acute cases.

Nosocomial respiratory viral infections remain associated with increased length of stay and higher mortality in hospitalized populations. Our data suggest that masking5 and testing were 2 potentially effective measures to protect patients who are hospitalized, particularly when community respiratory virus incidence rates were elevated.

Long Covid-19 Weakens Immunity In Children, Increases Risk Of Infections: Study by Himani Chandna / News18 Children experience weakened immunity and bacterial infections after suffering from long Covid-19 syndrome, a study published in the medical journal Nature has revealed.

Persistent fatigue was the most common symptom in children with long Covid syndrome, while the majority of children often complained about anxiety.

Is H5N1 (Bird Flu) the Next Pandemic Causing Virus? / LIL_Science One critical aspect of H5N1 becoming a pandemic causing virus is developing person to person transmission, this has not yet been reported for the virus. However, research published December 2nd, 2024 in Nature Microbiology makes a strong case for increased virus shedding and hence airborne transmission being a key component of increased infectivity. The researchers found that increased viral shedding in H5N1 found in an infected dairy farm worker but not in H5N1 that infected the in cattle themselves. This means the virus in that person had changed in a way that allowed for improved airborne spread. This supports prior research published October 28th, 2024 in Nature showing that the same virus strain (A/Texas/37/2024 (huTX37-H5N1) had acquired a mutation that improved the virus’s ability to infect human cells and increased lethality in animal models.

Repeat human infection gives the influenza virus more chances to develop mutations. Within the last month several reports have indicated that H5N1 is moving closer to person to person transmission while maintaining it’s highly pathogenic nature, exactly what we don’t want.

I have gotten hundreds of questions on social media about this so I will start with some of the basics to help everyone navigate what might be coming next. Let’s dive into where H5N1 came from, why is it more concerning than annual influenza strains, and what can we do to protect ourselves?

'Mistaking Covid as a cold may put people at risk' by Nikki Fox / BBC An NHS matron said that too often people were mistaking Covid for a common cold and a lack of testing could be putting vulnerable people at risk.

Lana Goodwin, who works in Covid services at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust in Billericay, Essex, said she believed people who were not high risk "feel that Covid has gone".

She added that statistics showed many vulnerable people were also not aware they were eligible for anti-viral drugs.

Ms Goodwin said: "I feel the public see [Covid] symptoms as a cold and it doesn't trigger off a response to test."

Ms Goodwin said that her clinic had people testing positive for the virus every day and vulnerable people were "unfortunately still dying from Covid".

#mask up #public health #wear a mask #pandemic #wear a respirator #covid #covid 19 #still coviding #coronavirus #sars cov 2

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xpressluna · 1 month ago

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I Hate Seeing Writers Not Making MoneySo Here Are 8 Ways to Make More as a Writer

Here’s the truth: great writing alone doesn’t guarantee great income.

I’ve seen too many talented writers underpaid, undervalued, or stuck in passion projects that don’t pay the bills. And it frustrates me — because writing is a skill that’s in demand everywhere. You just need to know how to position it, sell it, and scale it.

If you're ready to stop writing for exposure and start earning what you're worth, here are 8 practical, proven ways to make more money as a writer.

Freelance for High-Paying Clients (Not Content Mills)

You don’t need to accept \$20 blog posts when there are companies and entrepreneurs willing to pay \$300–\$1,000+ per article. The secret is targeting niches that need content to drive business, like:

SaaS and tech

Personal finance

Healthcare

B2B services

Pitch directly, build a niche portfolio, and learn how to charge by value, not word count.

✅ Pro Tip: Start by rewriting your services to focus on outcomes — like “I help SaaS brands attract customers with SEO content” vs. “I write blog posts.”

Offer Ghostwriting Services

Ghostwriting is one of the highest-paying forms of writing — and most clients don’t care about you getting credit; they care about results. You can ghostwrite:

LinkedIn thought leadership

Executive blogs

Nonfiction books

Email newsletters

It’s creative, lucrative, and repeatable.

✅ Rates: Ghostwritten LinkedIn posts can earn \$200–\$500/post. Books? Thousands.

Sell Digital Products

Turn your knowledge into scalable income with digital products like:

Ebooks

Notion templates

Writing guides

Pitching scripts

Once created, they can sell indefinitely with no ongoing labor. Perfect for writers with an audience or niche expertise.

✅ Tools: Use Gumroad, Payhip, or Podia to start selling fast.

Start a Paid Newsletter

If you love writing essays, storytelling, or niche commentary, why not monetize it with a paid newsletter? Services like Substack or Beehiiv let you build free + paid tiers.

You don’t need 10,000 subscribers — just 100 people paying \$5/month = \$6,000/year in recurring income.

✅ Best Niches: Personal finance, creator economy, niche analysis, industry trends.

Teach What You Know (Courses & Workshops)

Writers often forget — the way you write, think, and communicate is a teachable skill.

Package it into:

Online courses (e.g., “How to Write Better Cold Emails”)

Cohort-based workshops

Private coaching for new writers or business owners

✅ Platforms: Teachable, Circle, Maven, or even Zoom + Stripe to start.

Monetize with Affiliate Writing

If you write product-based content or reviews, affiliate marketing is a great passive income stream. You write once, and earn commissions every time someone buys through your link.

Best niches: Software, writing tools, education products, lifestyle gear.

✅ Pro Tip: Focus on high-ticket or recurring commissions (like SaaS tools).

License Your Writing

You can earn money by licensing your existing content to brands, newsletters, or websites. If you’ve written a high-performing article, offer a non-exclusive license to republish it for a fee.

Also consider:

Licensing quotes or content to marketers

Offering a “writing bundle” to creators or agencies

✅ This works well for evergreen, data-driven, or inspirational content.

Write for Yourself — Then Monetize It

Blogging, storytelling, or journaling can become income if you build a brand around it. Writers like Morgan Housel and Anne-Laure Le Cunff built huge audiences through consistent, personal writing — then monetized with books, speaking, courses, and sponsorships.

✅ Just start: Build your platform. Even 1,000 loyal readers can turn into six figures over time.

Final Thoughts

Writing is not a dead-end job. It's a high-leverage skill that can create freedom, income, and impact — if you treat it like a business.

If you’re a talented writer struggling to make money, it’s not a lack of skill. It’s usually a lack of strategy.

Pick one or two methods from this list. Go deep. Get paid.

And never again write “just for exposure.”

#trending #art trend #viral trends #3d printing

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mauannacreates · 11 months ago

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Writeblr introduction:

About:

Hey guys, I'm Mauanna, and I am a writer who loves to spread my knowledge about writing, while also trying to learn new things from courses, stories that are shown either in movies, books or tv shows or listening to podcasts!

It's a bit hectic to juggle all of these with my day job at times, but I still try to manage that, the stories that I create and this blog and a semi-newsletter thing that I do at Substack called The Story Student which I try to update every two weeks.

Oh, and sometimes I find myself in the deep intricacies of the web. Just spiraling throughout and trying to see how much I can learn about certain topics in a certain amount of time before I realize that it's pretty late in the night. 😅

Stories:

Current Book WIP: Conjured Secrets. (SoR Book 1)

The current series that I am writing is the Sorcerer of Runes series, which started out as a game idea in 2021, but has since evolved into a story in 2022 with lots of complexity and other things to know about my characters, the world they like in and the story as a whole.

I try to work on my stories every day, even if it's as little as a few hundred words, I try to make sure to update it day by day, from handwritten to typing and anything you can think of! (Even dictating, but I really do prefer to have that little voice guiding me as I'm typing than for me to speak it out)

Now, for the type of stories that I write, they're very family centric. A lot of the ideas that I am currently writing about also seems to be running along the lines of a fantasy-based world called the Sorcerer of Runes series.

There are four Elemental worlds that would be explored quite a bit throughout the series, but that's not the basis of this series. We start in an unknown land, one where there's a palace with lots of shadows lurking around the place. It explores on the secret alliances on who to trust, while also finding a prophecy of Spirit. One where it proclaims that Light and Dark will be Connected to Spirit for when the time comes. They refer to this, as the end.

This adventure is something that will also be friend focused, yet there's some tension, a hint of romance brewing and lots of layers to this story that will question each of the character's intentions.

If you do want to see how some of my past writing is like, you can check out flufftober 2023 where I have written stories of my characters as a fun yet experimentation thing. I can't say that all of the things on there are accurate, I really did enjoy doing it.

Something you may also notice when you step to the blog and look at my story, is that I really like centering the stories I make on anthropomorphic characters. I guess there's a lot of distinction that you can create with animal characters that… Ok, yes you can do it for people too, I just like animals doing people things and it's something that you don't really see that often, especially considering that cartoons, movies or kiddie books that shows it a lot more, or it's an obscene thing in some literature that I've read… But hey, I also like researching the different kinds of animals too. 😎 Is there a possibility I'd make it on people? Maybe. That's something we'll have to wait and see if it happens another day.

Another thing that I seem to want to do is to make tag games. I'm not too sure if some of the tags that I make exists already, but I do hope that people enjoy it regardless. If you want some tag games that I've made that you want to be part of, here the Character personality associations playlist and the Word associations to story tag for starters! If I make enough tag games, I'll probably put it as a blog site of its own, but we'll see.

Extra information that I don't really know where to fit it, or it isn't relevant, but decided to put here anyway:

I think I am an INFP, if we are going by cognitive function terms. Especially since I landed that MBTI first before going all around the world, because hey! There's no way I'd be an INFP! Before ending back at it seven years later.

Well this is what I think, but I think I heard at least from a writing workshop that I went to that my mind has so many ideas that I could probably think of ideas for multiple prompts and there'd be lots of interpretations that'll come up. And another thing I notice is that I'm really interactive with people, so I'm probably a self denying ENTP or an ENFP 😂

In fact, I find with my story process, as much as I'd love to write stuff down and explore with how it's written, but there's some points where I am rigid with it until proven otherwise.

I love to see things develop into something better. But sometimes, it's as if the original ideas are better. Though I do like to add stuff that's more current to the character's relationships to each other and the events that they've been through.

For those who are interested in knowing where to find the tags of my characters, you can find it in the Tags Masterpost.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this updated version of writeblr as well as enjoy the stuff that I post on this blog.

#writing #writeblr #writers of tumblr #sorcerer of runes (sor) series #MauannaCreates #I'm probably going to edit this a bit as I go through and add more stuff.#Pardon me for that 😄

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