#covid cautious

[casmarotta]

save these (or download them here) to use for posters, social media, zines… whatever u want! it’s never too late to start wearing a mask again :-)

[autismserenity]

know someone who enjoys horror stories? share this one! it's true!

hahahahahahahahahaha aarrggghhhhhhhhhh 3,000,000 deaths due to COVID-19 last year. Globally. Three million. Case rates higher than 90% of the rest of the pandemic. The reason people are still worried about COVID is because it has a way of quietly fucking up your body. And the risk is cumulative.

I'm going to say that again: the risk is cumulative.

It's not just that a lot of people get bad long-term effects from it. One in seven or so? Enough that it's kind of the Russian Roulette of diseases. It's also that the more times you get it, the higher that risk becomes. Like if each time you survived Russian Roulette, the empty chamber was removed from the gun entirely. The worst part is that, psychologically, we have the absolute opposite reaction. If we survive something with no ill effects, we assume it's pretty safe. It is really, really hard to override that sense of, "Ok, well, I got it and now I probably have a lot of immunity and also it wasn't that bad." It is not a respiratory disease. Airborne, yes. Respiratory disease, no: not a cold, not a flu, not RSV.

Like measles (or maybe chickenpox?), it starts with respiratory symptoms. And then it moves to other parts of your body. It seems to target the lungs, the digestive system, the heart, and the brain the most.

It also hits the immune system really hard - a lot of people are suddenly more susceptible to completely unrelated viruses. People get brain fog, migraines, forget things they used to know.

(I really, really hate that it can cross the blood-brain barrier. NOTHING SHOULD EVER CROSS THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER IT IS THERE FOR A REASON.) Anecdotal examples of this shit are horrifying. I've seen people talk about coworkers who've had COVID five or more times, and now their work... just often doesn't make sense? They send emails that say things like, "Sorry, I didn't mean Los Angeles, I meant Los Angeles."

Or they insist they've never heard of some project that they were actually in charge of a year or two before.

Or their work is just kind of falling apart, and they don't seem to be aware of it.

People talk about how they don't want to get the person in trouble, so their team just works around it. Or they describe neighbors and relatives who had COVID repeatedly, were nearly hospitalized, talked about how incredibly sick they felt at the time... and now swear they've only had it once and it wasn't bad, they barely even noticed it.

(As someone who lived with severe dissociation for most of my life, this is a genuinely terrifying idea to me. I've already spent my whole life being like, "but what if I told them that already? but what if I did do that? what if that did happen to me and I just don't remember?") One of its known effects in the brain is to increase impulsivity and risk-taking, which is real fucking convenient honestly. What a fantastic fucking mutation. So happy for it on that one. Yes, please make it seem less important to wear a mask and get vaccinated. I'm not screaming internally at all now.

I saw a tweet from someone last year whose family hadn't had COVID yet, who were still masking in public, including school.

She said that her son was no kind of an athlete. Solidly bottom middle of the pack in gym.

And suddenly, this year, he was absolutely blowing past all the other kids who had to run the mile. He wasn't running any faster. His times weren't fantastic or anything. It's just that the rest of the kids were worse than him now. For some reason. I think about that a lot. (Like my incredibly active six-year-old getting a cold, and suddenly developing post-viral asthma that looked like pneumonia.

He went back to school the day before yesterday, after being home for a month and using preventative inhalers for almost week.

He told me that it was GREAT - except that he couldn't run as much at recess, because he immediately got really tired. Like how I went outside with him to do some yard work and felt like my body couldn't figure out how to increase breathing and heart rate.

I wasn't physically out of breath, but I felt like I was out of breath. That COVID feeling people describe, of "I'm not getting enough air." Except that I didn't have that problem when I had COVID.) Some people don't observe any long (or medium) term side effects after they have it.

But researchers have found viral reservoirs of COVID-19 in everyone they've studied who had it.

It just seems to hang out, dormant, for... well, longer than we've had an opportunity to observe it, so far.

(I definitely watched that literal horror movie. I think that's an entire genre. The alien dormant under ice in the Arctic.)

(oh hey I don't like that either!!!!!!!!!) All of which is to explain why we should still care about avoiding it, and how it manages to still cause excess deaths. Measuring excess deaths has been a standard tool in public health for a long time.

We know how many people usually die from all different causes, every year. So we can tell if, for example, deaths from heart disease have gone way up in the past three years, and look for reasons. Those are excess deaths: deaths that, four years ago, would not have happened. During the pandemic, excess death rates have been a really important tool. For all sorts of reasons. Like, sometimes people die from COVID without ever getting tested, and the official cause is listed as something else because nobody knows they had COVID. But also, people are dying from cardiovascular illness much younger now.

People are having strokes and heart attacks younger, and more often, than they did before the pandemic started. COVID causes a lot of problems. And some of those problems kill people. And some of them make it easier for other things to kill us. Lung damage from COVID leading to lungs collapsing, or to pneumonia, or to a pulmonary embolism, for example. The Economist built a machine-learning model with a 95% confidence interval that gauges excess death statistics around the world, to tell them what the true toll of the ongoing COVID pandemic has been so far.

Total excess deaths globally in 2023: Three million.

3,000,000.

Official COVID-19 deaths globally so far: Seven million. 7,000,000. Total excess deaths during COVID so far: Thirty-five point two million. 35,200,000.

Five times as many.

That's bad. I don't like that at all. I'm glad last year was less than a tenth of that. I'm not particularly confident about that continuing, though, because last year we started a period of really high COVID transmission. Case rates higher than 90% of the rest of the pandemic. Here's their data, and charts you can play with, and links to detailed information on how they did all of this:

Here's a non-paywalled link to it:

https://archive.vn/2024.01.26-012536/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates

Oh: here's a link to where you can buy comfy, effective N95 masks in all sizes:

Those ones are about a buck each after shipping - about $30 for a box of 30. They also have sample packs for a dollar, so you can try a couple of different sizes and styles.

You can wear an N95 mask for about 40 total hours before the effectiveness really drops, so that's like a dollar for a week of wear.

They're also family-owned and have cat-shaped masks and I really love them. These ones are cuter and in a much wider range of colors, prints, and styles, but they're also more expensive; they range from $1.80 to $3 for a mask. ($18-$30 for a box of ten.)

[counterintuitivecomics]

MASK UP FOR GLOBAL LIBERATION

Protect your community by wearing N95s and KN95s when meeting indoors or in crowds! The more of us mask up, the less we get sick, the harder it is for police to surveil us, and the safer we make our shared spaces for our disabled and immuno-compromised comrades and loved ones.

Get started by finding local mask resources on the global COVID Action Map (you can also submit groups to be added). If you have the means, donate masks and tests to your local orgs and encourage accessibility so we can ALL join the fight (bringing in interpreters/translators and medics, ensuring accessibility for wheelchairs/mobility devices, offering child care, filtering the air indoors, setting up virtual options etc).

UPDATE: Download this 8.5"x11" poster for free on itch.io to print and distribute! Includes files suitable for color, black and white, and risograph printing. Any donations will go to printing costs, or buying masks for my local mutual aid groups.

Pandemics have no borders, and all our struggles are united!

[chronicallycouchbound]

Almost twice as many people died from COVID-19 in 2021 than all unintentional accidents. COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death. COVID rates are on the rise.

The least you can do is wear a mask.

[scarypiaget]

I’m so over Covid and the way people are acting about it. I’m tired of having to pretend that corona isn’t a systemic airborne illness with similarities to HIV. I’m tired of being painted as unreasonable for suggesting masks. I’m tired of essentially being housebound to protect my elderly and chronically ill family members. I’m tired of being portrayed as irrational or crazy for not wanting to gamble with long covid and the numerous life ruining iterations of it. This is all so bleak and frustrating.

[liminalweirdo]

click above to add your name to the letter to tell the CDC to put people over profit when it comes to covid

[laurellynnleake]

How To Talk To Your Loved Ones About Covid

Huge document by queer disabled people collecting tips and resources to help as many of us survive the pandemic as possible. It's full of practical advice like "So, you love someone who has stopped taking Covid precautions (or never took them to begin with)", and navigating the common misconceptions and misinfo out there. Now includes new sections on travel, grief, talking to children, respirator masks, environmental impact, and reaching out to organizations.

It's hard to have these conversations, but it's worth it. The way out of this is together, hand-in-hand.

[willowreader]

[disasterhimbo]

I’m not scared of covid because I have OCD. I’m scared of covid because the scientific data shows that it’s prevalent and dangerous. I have hygiene-focused OCD because society, including the medical establishment, has shown that they are not willing to protect or care for me. I already have long covid, I could die or lose a lot of quality of life if I get it again.

[hammercarexplosion]

Love being called an uninformed medical zelot by someone who believes in "natural immunity" to covid because I *checks notes* post scientific articles about the terrible, stacking effects of subsequent covid infections. I'm SO sorry you're mad that scientists are proving that a bad thing is a really bad thing and Biden's "vax and relax" is slowly disabling us. Die angry, I guess.

[casmarotta]

mask stickers are on sale!! buy them here <3

i'm selling them at production cost— i got these printed at 123stickers, if you wanna print them yourself you can download the graphics for free here on my website!

it's never too late to mask again 😷

[gentlemanbutch]

Truly will never understand why leftists don’t trust the government except when it comes to COVID, and then they’re totally ready to believe the pandemic is over even though it’s very clearly not and it’s so fucking obvious the government just wants everyone to think it is because of capitalism, and THEN they have the audacity to act shocked when they catch it after taking no precautions whatsoever.

[wormyorchids]

A peek at my new zine, Why I’m Still Masking in 2024!

Listed on my Etsy or down to trade 🖤

[kdhume]

Don't fall for government propaganda just because it's more palatable than taking proper mitigation measures

[fatcryptid]

If you're covid conscious follow me. I love you and I am kissing you on the forehead, with consent

[liminalweirdo]

Hi, sorry to bother you, but I recently came across some of your posts and was curious about the tag "not wearing a mask is eugenics". Can you elaborate on that? I'm genuinely curious, as this isn't a view I've seen before and want to know more about it

Sure! Basically one-way masking (one person wearing a mask in a group of unmasked people) is not nearly as effective at preventing covid spread as universal masking (everyone wears a mask).

Masks are the best way to reduce covid spread and help to keep everybody safe. Basically, masking even if you think you aren't sick -- covid is not always symptomatic and people are still contagious before symptoms show up /source/source/source/source -- is community-oriented. You are invested in protecting other people.

People who choose not to wear a mask and are leaving masking up to the people who "have to mask" or are covid-vulnerable or covid-cautious is a form of practising eugenics; it's the extension of "well only vulnerable and elderly people die from it," which is designating a group of people as "weak" and less deserving of a high quality of life. Or deserving of life at all. Basically, whether you want it to or not, choosing not to mask says. "If I get covid I'll probably make it because I'm able-bodied and have fairly good access to healthcare and medication. And if someone gets covid from me, and they get really sick or they die... oh well! Wearing a mask is such a bother."

It's casual eugenics. It's not caring enough about vulnerable members in your community to go through the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask, including events like Pride, protests, etc., but also just to protect your literal neighbours. The people you share clinics, and grocery stores, and libraries with.

Right now, disabled, immunocompromized, and other covid-vulnerable people have to severely limit their time spent in grocery stores (for example), and are avoiding accessing healthcare, haircuts, the movie theatre, restaurants, pharmacies, in-person jobs, socialization with family and friends, a quick trip out to a café, etc. -- basically all the things that they need, or that make life worth living -- and all because no one is bothering to mask in those public places, and that makes those places too unsafe. I'm one of those people. I haven't been inside a restaurant or a café or a real grocery store in three years. My partner cuts my hair for me because no barbers mask. I have avoided going to the doctor and getting new glasses even though my prescription no longer works for me. I can't go to the dentist because the other patients aren't required to mask in the waiting room, and no one has invested in HEPA filters or good ventilation.

Not wearing a mask says, "I don't care if those people can't access a decent quality of life." It says, "those people might die if they get covid, or become more severely disabled, but I probably won't, so I don't need to bother masking." It's the way no one cares if they can't access public places they should be able to access, and the casual attitude towards the eradication of "those" people if they get covid and suffer severe consequences. That's why it's eugenics.

If you're curious to learn more about this, follow tags like covid vulnerable, covid cautious, long-covid, me-cfs, myalgic encephalomyelitis, or blogs like @i-still-mask-because