#like there's a vaccine for it now and there are virtually no new cases

[justinspoliticalcorner]

NYT: Racked by rain and enraptured by a QAnon-infused "miracle cure" called "medbeds"

Eli Saslow at NYT:

The company was co-founded in 2020 by Warren Armour, a conservative with no media experience who runs a flooring company in Tennessee, but Michael admired the Patriot Party News slogan when he first saw it shared on Facebook last year: “If you hate mainstream media, you are going to love us!” Michael started watching the site’s daily videos about election fraud and vaccine pseudoscience, some of which have now been viewed more than a million times. He signed up for the company’s social media platform and paid $8.99 a month to join the audio channel, which functions like an old ham radio and promised him the chance to “meet comrades in our battle for the soul of America.”

On some days, Michael listened to the channel for as many as 12 hours, with the audio feed piped directly into his hearing aids to drown out the tedium of his pain. He narrated his daily ranching tasks for the group and sent photos of his crops. Other members responded with recipes, virtual prayers for rain and a steady drumbeat of extremist political ideology that increasingly mirrored his own. In a fracturing country, here was an echo chamber with the power to turn fringe conspiracy theories into widely accepted political dogmas — that the Covid vaccine was poison, the mainstream media was deceitful and the federal government was controlled by a “deep state cabal” that had stolen the 2020 election from former President Donald J. Trump and was now trying to orchestrate his assassination.

[...] Cheryl Chesebro, 61, had known her husband to be a realist for most of his life. Michael had enlisted in the Army at 17 because he couldn’t afford to pay for college and then agreed to jump out of planes for a $2,500 sign-up bonus. But after a total of 42 surgeries on his back, shoulders, ankles and knees, he’d come to distrust the government he’d served. He invested in wind and solar power so his family didn’t have to rely on the U.S. power grid. He bought gold in case the U.S. financial system collapsed and then started collecting shoe boxes full of foreign currency from the Middle East and Africa, believing that it could eventually be as valuable as the U.S. dollar. For the first time in his life, he became consumed by politics and then enamored with Trump, another government skeptic who sometimes spoke in the language of conspiracy theories. The former president had helped popularize lies about Barack Obama’s birthplace, widespread election fraud and the “hoax” of climate change — all of which had become part of the founding DNA of Patriot Party News. [...]

Of all the wild conspiracies he’d discovered on Patriot Party News, the concept of medbeds had initially struck Michael as the most far-fetched, even if it was also among the most popular. Every few days, someone else on the platform shared an illustration of a futuristic-looking chamber, sometimes with a doctored image of Trump superimposed in the foreground. The founder of the site, Armour, sometimes mentioned videos or podcasts about medbeds that had become popular on the far-right corners of Telegram, Discord and Rumble, and Michael clicked on the links, as did millions of others. The videos claimed with no evidence that the U.S. military was already in possession of advanced, or possibly even alien, technology that could cure all disease and extend human life. There were said to be at least three types of medbeds already in existence in secret military tunnels. One, a “holographic medbed,” scanned the body to instantly diagnose and then heal any sickness, no matter how severe. Another bed was able to regenerate personal DNA so people could regrow missing limbs in a few minutes. A third was designed for reverse aging and could rewind people’s bodies to the age and condition of their choosing.

The only holdup, according to the videos, was that a collection of liberal billionaires kept hoarding the technology for themselves. On the Patriot Party News audio feed, people speculated that medbeds wouldn’t be available to the public until Trump was back in control of the White House, at which point everyone would be invited to make appointments for free at a secret underground military base. “We are about to cross that start line into our medbed future,” said an Australian woman who called herself Skye Prince and claimed to be a military expert, in a video shared on Patriot Party News that has been viewed several million times. “We are leaving a life of poverty, ill health, uncertainty, and moving into wealth, abundance, perfect health. You could almost say we are about to be born again.” “Thank God the wait is almost over!” Michael heard someone say on the audio channel in the last days of spring. “Medbeds are finally coming. I hope I can get my mom to the front of the line since she’s Stage 4.”

[...] Instead, there was only repetition — the same medbed fantasies repeated over and over each day on the audio feed until the initial shock wore off within a few weeks and Michael’s skepticism wore down into curiosity and then into the beginnings of hope. He knew from experience that the military was capable of harboring secret, advanced technology. He remembered talking to members of his unit on a satellite phone years before one was made available to the public. “The military always gets the fancy toys way ahead of anyone else, so I suppose it’s plausible,” he said on the audio channel.

He’d already tried and failed to treat his pain by scheduling dozens of appointments each year through his health care with Veterans Affairs. He’d tried fentanyl, Percocet, Vicodin, acupuncture, water therapy, nerve blockers, deep-tissue massage and light therapy. Following his doctors’ advice had resulted in only temporary reprieves, along with dozens of opioid prescriptions and an elective surgery that led to a life-threatening staph infection. “The conventional route hasn’t done me any good,” he said on the channel. “When you’re desperate, you’ll try anything. This whole medbed thing has become personal for me.” It was part of Armour’s strategy when he first started Patriot Party News from his home after the 2020 presidential election: to build an audience by focusing on personal issues such as religion and health. He’d watched other far-right media sites like Victory Channel, The Elijah List and Right Side Broadcasting Network amass millions of subscribers in what Armour called the “Christian, MAGA universe” by mimicking Trump’s tendency to favor emotional appeals over facts.

[...] Several other companies had started producing their own versions of medbeds in the last few years. One company, Tesla BioHealing, had purchased a half-dozen old motels in places like Tampa, Fla., Dubuque, Iowa, and Butler, Pa., and then turned them into “medbed centers,” where each room came equipped with proprietary canisters under the bed that provided what the company called “life force energy.” Other groups were running scams on Facebook and charging $800 for “redemption cards” with a photograph of Trump’s face and a code that they said would provide secret passage into the underground military bases where medbeds were said to be ready for use. Baxter’s company was still in its infancy, and he had sold some of his products to churches, private clubs or millionaires who he said were “invested in longevity.” The medbeds at Andrea’s spa were the first to be available by appointment to the public, and he planned to expand into spas across the United States and Mexico. Andrea had decided to charge $85 an hour for use of the beds, but insurance didn’t cover the experimental treatment, and she didn’t believe in turning anyone away.

The New York Times takes a look at the QAnon obsession with “medbeds”, which are a “miracle cure” rooted in pseudoscience.

[screenshots123]

📆 02 Sep 2023 📰 Gatwick airports cancels flights and school closes down as COVID spreads in UK

Most Pirola cases occurred at a care home in Norfolk, where 33 out of 38 (87%) residents were infected over a 2-week period, with nine requiring hospitalization. A recent report on the outbreak highlights the fact that it had a much higher attack rate and severity of symptoms than similar previous outbreaks, despite relatively recent vaccinations (88% of residents had had a booster in the past four months).

There are numerous reports on social media of many school staff being off sick “with flu-like symptoms”. This despite the governments respiratory disease dashboard showing virtually no cases of flu now.

This week Uppingham Community College in Rutland was forced to close three-year groups due to a “rapid spike” in COVID cases.

Leicestershire Live reported the comments of headteacher Ben Solly who wrote, “Last week, a headteacher of a school in Leicester asked me about levels of Covid at UCC, as his school was struggling, and I naively responded that we hadn't really felt any impact. I should've kept my mouth closed because we have been overwhelmed this week, as it spread across our teaching staff.”

He told the Rutland & Stamford Sound, “It feels quite strange… I did think this was all behind us, to be honest. It kind of snuck up really, really quickly out of nowhere this week. The staff have been dropping like flies, we're up to 17 positive confirmed cases now amongst teachers.”

The headteacher concluded, “I felt more like a supply teacher this week than a headteacher. We've done everything we possibly could do to keep the wheels turning, but we got to a point where it was starting to feel unsafe with the level of absences we had and which was coming.”

The wave of COVID in Britain is part of a global upsurge in the virus. Schools in the US started the academic year shortly before Britain. Due to the widespread transmission of COVID, schools in several states were compelled to shut down.

[onbepaymentsolutions]

How Digital Payments Will Help Us Build The New Normal

The long-awaited “new normal” is under construction, and digital payments are helping us get there.

The long-awaited “new normal” is under construction, and digital payments are helping us get there. As consumer confidence grows along with the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated, many are making a cautious return to in-person activities. At the same time, comfort levels vary, and not everyone’s ready to resume indoor dining or shop in store just yet. Add to that the fact that many consumers have learned new behaviors and discovered convenient options that likely aren’t going anywhere—such as online grocery ordering and a shift away from cash to digital payments.

All this means that to enable a return to commerce, businesses must accommodate a wider range of payment choices than ever before. Consumers are increasingly conscious of how they shop and pay, and their preferences for engaging with brands on site, remotely, or with distancing measures in place may change depending on the day, mood, or situation. So, the form factors in play must be flexible enough to serve consumers wherever they are—and however they’re feeling.

Even before the pandemic, we saw payment preferences rapidly diversifying, with consumers increasingly using virtual cards, digital wallets, payment apps, and even cryptocurrency along with cash and checks. Yet, the need to socially distance ended up popularizing slower-growing form factors such as contactless payments. In our 2021 study of consumer payment preferences in the UK, contactless payments dominated, with more than half of consumers reporting that 75% or more of their in-person payments are now contactless. And while the US has been slower to embrace this technology, the pandemic nonetheless accelerated adoption. In a Visa study, 70% of cardholders new to contactless payments said they’d continue using this method after the pandemic. Even more significantly, 54% of respondents said they would switch stores to one that supports contactless.

How consumers choose to pay is only half the picture. Meeting diverse consumer preferences calls for flexible solutions when handling the disbursement of funds such as incentive payments and refunds, too. The popularity of receiving rewards virtually gained ground over the last year, and our UK study found that 40% of consumers prefer an instantly delivered, virtual prepaid card over direct deposit. In fact, we found that virtual cards are now among the top ten most popular payment methods, though many consumers were unfamiliar with this option just several years ago. Beyond minimizing in-person contact, digital disbursements offer speed, convenience, and the flexibility to spend funds via any channel. Customers who evolved to prefer digital payments during the pandemic will keep realizing these myriad benefits even when social distancing becomes less of a priority.

And for businesses looking ahead to a post-pandemic reality, digital disbursements are a more cost-effective way to make payouts in a variety of use cases, offering innovative ways for brands to connect with consumers, push special offers, and learn about their customers through spend data. Having flexible payment options in place is critical to both re-engaging with customers on their terms and finding out exactly what those terms are by tracking consumer preferences.

I mentioned that our “new normal” is under construction, but that doesn’t mean I envision a time when the rebuilding stops—though I’m optimistic that we’ll soon begin to resume activities and regain confidence on multiple fronts. The need to keep innovating, adapting, and accommodating consumer preferences in flux is ongoing, and in order to thrive, organizations must always be at work on creating and supporting the next new normal—through digital payments and countless other means. Ultimately, it’s the drive to create commerce experiences that are even more adaptive and inclusive of diverse choices that will help the business community move forward and most importantly, do an even better job of serving their customers.

‍Original Source: https://www.onbe.com/post/how-digital-payments-will-help-us-build-the-new-normal

[xtruss]

Western Media Focus on China’s Potential COVID-19 Caseload Serves American Hegemony

— Bradley Blankenship | January 24, 2023

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

Chinese New Year has arrived, kicking off the weeklong Spring Festival holidays in China. Unfortunately, well wishes from the West have been hard to come by. Western media has even suggested that holiday travel in China, now with the lifting of most COVID-related restrictions, could cause a tsunami of cases and even deaths.

A pretty ironic part about this perspective is that the US just wrapped three major holiday travel events, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve. This did not cause any shock in the local media even though literally hundreds of people are dying per day from COVID-19 and, worse yet, many states aren’t even reporting data anymore.

So why all the shock over China’s holiday travel revival? Well, one part of this has to do with Beijing’s apparent 180 from a dynamic zero-COVID policy.

As a matter of fact, that had been the plan all along. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the world “dynamic,” related to a system or process, means to be “characterized by constant change, activity, or progress.” In this definition we can see the world “change,” which should have tipped off Western journalists that at some point things were going to be different, e.g., to change.

Chinese health officials decided to change policies when it was realized that the country had the emergency resources, high enough vaccination intake and that a significant amount of the public no longer deemed many of them necessary. There’s that dynamism; that change. The Asian giant now boasts a far higher supply of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, general hospital beds and trained medical professionals relative to its population.

That is to say that China’s health system does not look like it's likely to collapse amid a surge of cases. Compared to where it was pre-pandemic, it's actually in a far more favorable condition. And even with that being said, we know there are ways to mitigate COVID’s spread.

With all this being said, a catastrophic COVID-19 outbreak in China, as a direct result of its most prominent holiday travel season, doesn’t seem likely. It doesn’t even appear that the situation in China will surpass that of the US, which, as previously mentioned, is experiencing a heavy death toll right now. Cases in the US are stuck in a virtual plateau, as federal and local officials gave up on trying to contain the virus completely. The media doesn’t cover the pandemic anymore – unless in China – and some vaccine makers are now moving to hike their prices after federal subsidies dried up.

So then what’s the point of even hyping up this story? Well, for one, it provides a nice distraction from the ongoing situation in places like the US itself. The federal government just had the dishonorable distinction of deaths in the country surpassing 1.1 million. Laser-focusing on China is an excellent way to drown out this fact.

At the same time, it serves the general agenda of curtailing China’s immense economic growth. If the media can scare enough people about Beijing’s supposed lethargy on COVID-19, then key companies might exit the market altogether. They might even reshore their jobs to the US – which would legitimize the agenda of the sitting president, generally favored by the mainstream media, who is increasingly protectionist and anti-free-trade.

And finally, it serves the interest of continuing to influence average Americans into hating the Asian country. The US is making highly provocative moves in China’s neighborhood, which, recently was demonstrated through a high-level summit between President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. It capped off a five-country tour by the latter, which was really just a parade to further militarize the Asia-Pacific by even stationing weapons able to target China on Japanese territory – a highly unpopular, divisive and umpredictable action.

In short, the US government wants to build a public consensus to further heighten military tensions with Beijing and is taking concrete actions to do that while also showering the public with anti-China stories.

I find this as sinister as it is transparent. Americans don’t need to hate China and, indeed, the country doesn’t need more hostility toward even its own Chinese (or Asian) diaspora. Instead of focusing on the negatives, it would be great to see our leaders and media make an effort to welcome the Chinese New Year and congratulate the country on what essentially amounts to its re-entry into the world.

— The author is a Prague-based American journalist, columnist and political commentator.

[hayashits]

“New Normal, New Me.”

To say that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the world would be an understatement. The global coronavirus pandemic disrupted almost everything about everyone’s life, and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, world of work, socialization and ways of interaction as the guidelines of the authorities have led to a more virtual existence, both personal and professional. For some, this means trying to combat social isolation and learning how to re-live with friends, family members, partners, or roommates, which is not always easy. But there is one thing that people can all agree on: it can be difficult to adapt to change. It takes a lot of flexibility and open mindness to adjust. Change is inevitable and an essential element of being a person, whether it is intentional or unexpected, gradual or sudden. Due to COVID-19, people have gone through an unheard-of change in their way of life during the past few months. Many people have already gone through the process of adjusting and are now finding comfort in their new normal.

The time before the COVID-19 pandemic happened, everything else was going smoothly. School days are great, social gatherings are held, and hanging out with friends is free anytime. But when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, everything changed. People are now experiencing the new normal due to the COVID-19.

There's this young lady named Airi who was living in Japan when the pandemic started. The life she experienced there was very much different from the life she had here in the Philippines. The protocols in Japan were lenient because the Japanese government started acting quickly to stop the virus from spreading further, and the people there obeys and follows their regulations. Unlike in the Philippines, due to their unpreparedness, poorly resourced and weak health care system, the Philippine government has failed dismally in combating the pandemic. That’s why when she returned to the Philippines, she had difficulties in adapting to the country’s new normal, especially in the new learning environment because she was unfamiliar with that type of educational system. She was also culture shock with the protocols being mandated there because it is strict and different compared to Japan. For instance, people in Japan can go to the store whenever they need to buy food without having to show any form of identification or vaccination card. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, going out to run errands during the pandemic was extremely inconvenient due to the numerous items required to enter any establishment like face shields and vaccination cards.

As the number of cases decreased, the protocols started to loosen up. Airi got to hang out with her friends again. That made adjustments to the protocols easier and she eventually managed to get along with it. But then, on August 20, 2021, right after their online class, she started to feel incredibly sick. They went to have a PCR test after she told her sister, who then got concerned. When the results came, it came out positive. They were alarmed by this and immediately told her friends to take a test because the night before she tested positive, she was with them. But thankfully, everyone tested negative.

Airi was the first one in their household to test positive. Her sister, who she shared a bed with, slept in the other room but still got infected by the virus. For three to four weeks, they remained at home and were unable to attend online classes. Because they felt as though their bodies were heavy and couldn't get up, so it was very difficult for them to do anything. They couldn't even eat properly because they couldn't taste anything and didn’t have an appetite. After a few weeks of resting and staying in their house, they began to feel much better, but they are still anxious because they worry about being infected again so they stayed at home unless they needed to buy their groceries.

Before the pandemic happened, Airi was rebellious and didn't always listen to her parents. She always goes out without asking for permission just to see her ex-boyfriend and comes home late at night. Her life was unproductive and a complete mess but then the pandemic came and her daily routine changed. At first, she enjoyed staying home, sleeping, and doing nothing, but then after a few days, she got bored. She thought of downloading Tik Tok and began following the trends. She made friends with many new people she met online, but also lost a lot of friends who weren’t really good friends. At first, it was hard for her to let go because of the memories they shared together. She tried to reach out and apologize to them even though it wasn’t her fault, but she eventually gave up and accepted it because there was nothing else she could do about it. Then, when the COVID-19 restrictions started to ease, she and her friends began to go out and do the things they used to do before the pandemic happened, but it wasn't the same as it used to be.

After everything that happened, the pandemic taught her not to be afraid to let go of certain things, such as people who don't return the same energy you give them. It is more important to focus on those who genuinely care about you. She lost a lot of people along the way. People she thought would be there for her through her ups and downs. A lot of events occurred that altered her life. Even though a lot of bad things happened, Looking back and realizing that the people she lost along the way has taught her something that helped her realize who she truly was.

[whatisonthemoon]

Preaching a Gospel of Conspiratorial Politics

more from the Baptist pastors who head and write for Word & Way...

https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/preaching-a-gospel-of-conspiratorial

Preaching a Gospel of Conspiratorial Politics

The senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia, is upset. Rev. Anthony George complained during his sermon Sunday (Oct. 23) that someone publicized what he said during a prayer event earlier this month with U.S. Senate hopeful Herschel Walker. That someone was me.

On the morning after allegations emerged that Walker paid for a girlfriend’s abortion, George emceed a prayer event for Walker at First Baptist. For George, the allegations were just an attack by Satan. We know that because while First Baptist staff barred reporters from entering the building, I found videos and broke the news about what George and Walker said behind closed doors. Although a staffer said they would give George my request for comment, he never responded. Now George thinks my reporting is also the work of the devil.

“One of the things that people will do to you — and Satan will use people to do to you — is to try to make you afraid of following God,” George preached on Sunday. “I had this happen just a few weeks ago. Had a little prayer meeting here, said it was going to be private [with] somebody seeking office.”

“The thing went public, people posted it, and I’m telling you I got all kinds of hatred and animosity coming at me on social media,” he added before turning his fire on who publicized his comments. “You cannot be intimidated by adversaries. And sadly, your biggest adversaries in the will of God are not even pagans, they are liberal Baptists — which may be pagan. But I’m telling you: There are wolves in sheep’s clothing out there. So, this thing about being in the will of God, it is not for pansies, it is not for sissies, it is not for the faint of heart.”

None of this is too unusual for a George sermon (except the part attacking dissenting Baptists like me). Satan is nearly omnipresent in George’s sermons as he warns constantly about the attacks of the devil on himself and First Baptist. And he regularly peppers his sermons with political rants, conspiratorial claims, and warnings about alleged persecution of Christians. At times his messages sound a bit like a cable news show with some Bible verses and prayers instead of commercial breaks.

While numerous media outlets reported on George after the Walker prayer event, the routine politicking from the pulpit goes virtually ignored. Yet, his exhortations each Sunday and Wednesday work to disciple thousands with a partisan gospel.

Such MAGAchurch preaching occurs in sanctuaries across the country. But the prominence of First Baptist in Atlanta and his involvement in an important Senate campaign makes George a particularly important case study. So, in this issue of A Public Witness, I introduce you to George and his sermons before considering what this means for the witness of American Christianity today.

More at link...including this gem:

George became senior pastor of First Baptist during COVID — with the church empty because of the virus. And for George, the pandemic was a Chinese weapon created in a lab and purposely released and then used by socialists in the U.S. to shut down churches and try to get people to take a dangerous vaccine. To borrow from the biblical proverb, as a dog returns to its vomit, George repeats these arguments over and over in his sermons.

[schmergo]

I am just wondering about the sustainability of... doing basically anything around here. Companies are requiring employees to return to work (in many cases, eliminating telework options that existed PRE-pandemic), mask and vaccine mandates are being rolled back, and everything’s open again despite high COVID numbers. 

But at the same time, recent studies show that up to 1 in 5 adult COVID survivors develops symptoms of Long Covid. That’s possibly millions of people developing chronic illness symptoms. That sounds difficult for both the healthcare system to manage AND to have any kind of steady, reliable, functional workplace if your coworkers keep being absent due to sickness and then developing long-lasting symptoms after they return (or quitting due to them).

Even for younger people, for whom it’s often not as bad, I’m seeing so many people get hit with post-viral fatigue and other symptoms lingering for a month or more that remind me a lot of mono. Imagine that like half of your friend group had mono... but unlike mono, kept getting infected again and again (I know many fully vaxxed and boosted people who’ve had COVID multiple times due to different variants). People who have always been super healthy and fit getting exhausted easily or developing new daily headaches who never had them before, struggling with ‘brain fog’ making it difficult to work. These are the young, fit ones. 

If there are NO mitigation measures in place and we’re just expected to accept that we’re “all going to get COVID sooner or later,” that ignores the fact that people can get it again and again as each new variant arises and immunity wanes. Because everyone seems to agree that COVID isn’t going away but will just continue to mutate and change into new variants, this seems pretty risky, constantly rolling the dice on getting a virus that may cause LASTING health problems in 20% of people. Especially since so many jobs provide little to no health benefits and super low salaries, basically keeping people from effectively managing chronic illnesses that require frequent absences and medical appointments. I guess they think workers are replaceable, but how long before they burn through the supply?

But on the other hand, it’s also not sustainable to just stay in your room with no human contact for the entire rest of your life. I was super cautious for the first 2 years of the pandemic and now I’m finally doing indoor socialization with vaccinated friends and family again (though still not going into indoor public places like restaurants or movie theatres and still order things online rather than going into stores) because if things are never going to get any better, I don’t know how much longer I can wait. I guess I would rather develop lifelong chronic illness from making lifelong memories celebrating Christmas with my family than running errands at Home Depot. 

I genuinely don’t know how long all of this is going to last before the widespread infections and chronic symptoms really start messing with... any industry you can possibly imagine. It seems like everyone is experiencing labor shortages already, and that’s only going to grow from here. Yet it’s hard to find anyone caring even a LITTLE about this. I can’t even talk to friends and loved ones about this because they just start trying to comfort me with the bright side of the COVID situation (”Omicron is less deadly! More people are vaccinated now! The chances of young people dying are vanishingly small!”), when those aren’t the things I’m worried about at all.

When I was 23, something weird happened to my body and I can’t quite say exactly what caused it, because it was a perfect storm. I worked a busy, stressful, physically demanding job at a preschool, and I was working about 10-12 hours a day because I was covering a boss on paternity leave. It was a cold, dark, snowy winter and due to the long work hours, I virtually never saw the sun, so it’s possible a Vitamin D deficiency played a role here, or psychosomatic symptoms caused by stress and anxiety, or just plain old repetitive strain on my body from the long hours. I was also diagnosed with a mild underlying condition during all this-- what is now known as Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder. I’ve always had loose, overly flexible joints, but it never caused me serious problems, just made it a little easier for me to get injured than other people and meant I got worn out a little more easily. Things were never bad enough for me to seek treatment until what happened to me that winter, and have never been as bad since.

But it all started with a cold. A weird bad cold that started like any other cold (and lord knows I was always getting colds working at the preschool) but quickly involved joint pain and weakness and tingly numbness in my hands and wrists, then spreading to the rest of my body over the course of a few weeks. I was so fatigued that all I could do after work was lie in bed. I could hardly make it through the work day. My whole body ached and I could barely do anything without exacerbating my constant pain.

 I thought I must have mono. I tested negative for that and 11 other things. The only thing I was diagnosed with during my Extensive, Expensive Journey was hypermobility. My doctor said, “It’s probably just a virus,” which could mean anything. But I felt like a ghost of my former self for about 4 months and still had lingering symptoms for almost a year. Things went downhill so fast that I remember looking at a photo of myself doing a cartwheel two months before and crying because I couldn’t imagine ever doing a cartwheel again (which fortunately wasn’t true-- I have no problem doing cartwheels now at age 30). I eventually quit that job and got a less physically demanding office job. The symptoms never came back to the same degree, and I’ll never know what really caused it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some kind of post-viral malaise played a role there. Even little colds can set off all kinds of storms, let alone a new virus.

When I hear about people with Long COVID, I imagine a workforce full of people who feel the way I felt when I was 23. Can you? I’m not proposing any kind of solution here or saying, “Here’s what I think people should do about it,” so I’m sorry for the gloomy post, but when people ask me why I’m still worried about COVID-19 after all of this time and my multiple vaccinations... this is why.

[finelinevogue]

can you do one where the reader has a baby son and he is like a baby like 3 months old and he doesn’t want to leave his wife’s & sons side and he keeps checking over at them both, and his wife goes ‘look there’s daddy!’ And Harry waves 😭🥺

in celebration of 1000 notes on my masterlist and the fact dadrry on tour has me going feral, here we are;

Harry was definitely not going to be able to concentrate on stage.

Tonight he was performing in Dallas and was already suited up in his silky clothes, looking like a fluffy cloud that you could just dream away on. You really loved the whole suspenders thing he had going on, telling him he looked even more like a dad than he already does.

“Harry, will y’bloody calm down.” You sighed, rolling your eyes as he was pacing like a mad-man around backstage.

He was freaking out because tonight was the first show that his, your, son was also on tour with him. At only 2 months old, Dylan, was finally making his first appearance on ‘Love on Tour’ - not literally, but backstage. You and Dylan hadn’t been able to attend the first few shows because Dylan had had a checkup appointment for vaccinations. Now he was all okay, he was finally back in his favourite place on Earth - the presence of his dad. Although, currently, Harry was having a panic over everything that could go wrong with him being here.

You know how new parenting is.

“And what if I sing too loudly I burst his tiny eardrums—” Harry paced as he held his hands on his hips. You were currently holding Dylan against your chest, cocooned up in a soft-yellow baby wrap sling. He was sleeping peacefully against your chest because that’s all he did nowadays.

“Okay let me stop you right there, love.” You held out your hands for Harry to stop talking and he listened to you, looking at you with both dire stress and upmost love. “He’s got earphones first of all, okay? He’s going to be absolutely fine. All the other things you’re worried about, including alien abduction - which you seriously need to stop watching sci-fi movies by the way, are mindless things to worry about. He’s safe. Look.” You gestured to where he was laying peacefully upon your chest, all secure.

Harry walked over to you both and looked down at him in awe. He couldn’t believe he’d created something so perfect. Dylan was everything Harry had ever wanted and he woke up each day struggling to believe how lucky he was. He stroked his sons head lightly, leaning to give him a soft kiss on top of it. He was so in love with him. Harry’s head raised to meet you, smiling when he saw the love in your eyes you carried for him. He cupped your cheek and stroked an eyelash away from underneath your eye. He held it out on his finger for you.

“Let’s make a wish.” Harry whispered and you smiled at how corny he was being, especially when he had ten minutes until stage and was nowhere near pumped and ready. He didn’t care. His family was more important. These moments were more important.

“We can’t wish together.” You told him as if he was being silly.

“That’s a child’s rule. Let’s play by our own.”

“Okay. Together.” You nodded and closed your eyes, thinking up your wish. You heard Harry mutter the word ‘together’ under his breathe and then you opened your eyes and blew away the eyelash together. You looked at him as if something magical was just going to happen and then you both laughed at how silly you were both being.

“So you wished for endless ice-cream too right?” Harry joked, you knowing that’s definitely not was he wished for but played along with his joke anyway.

“No, mine was a little more PG rated.” You bit your lip and stifled a loud laugh.

“Do tell.” He whispered, getting closer to you but not too close so he’d squish his son. He’d gotten good at this whole dad thing, you thought.

“I wished that my husband got his tits out on stage more often.”

Harry gasped, quickly covering Dylan’s ears. “You can’t say things like that in front of our son, y’minx.”

“So that’s a no?” You laughed, tapping his hands off your son in case he woke him up and that’s the last thing you needed.

“Oh, it’s a yes. Just not when this lil’ fellas around.” He kissed Dylan’s head again, not understanding why he had an issue with his son seeing his chest but loved him all the same anyway. You guessed it had something to do with the lustful way he was looking in your eyes, and how he wouldn’t want anyone else in the room for what he’d do to you on a night when you’d gotten so aroused by his bare chest.

There was a knock at the door, stealing your lust-filled moment and bringing you both back to reality, calling Harry to be in position in 3 minutes.

“Work calls.” Harry said, taking your hand and walking you out of the room - once you’d grabbed the baby bag too - and down the hallways to the stage. Once he got there he still kept ahold of your hand as he spoke to you. “Remember, if you need anything, or he needs anything, come get me. Get my attention. Okay?” You nodded in response, even though you knew that wouldn’t be a good idea when he’s mid-performance.

“We love you. Go sing us proud.” You kissed him on the lips softly, still tasting the remanence of cherry bake-well tart on his lips. He tasted so sweet and sugary. It made you happy.

“I love you both, so much.” He kissed you after he’d told you, and then another kiss to Dylan’s head. “Have you got his earphones?” Harry asked, worried, untiled you pulled them out of your bag.

“Here.”

Harry took them from you and placed them over his sons ears. “There y’go lil’ man. Don’t have to listen to daddy sing and shout nonsense now.” He laughed, making you laugh and earning one final kiss on your lips before he was shouted at for not being where he was supposed to be. He kept blowing kisses as he ran away from you and the ones you blew he kept stored in his back pocket.

Harry was so amazing up on stage.

Harry worked his best art up there under the twinkling lights of thousands of fans. It was a pleasure to watch him be so artistic and creative. The note changes were to die for. The harmonies were second to none. The shimmies and dancing were so enjoyable to watch it made your heart swoon. He was simply incredible and you were so proud of him.

You made eye contact with him at one point in the show and he was just checking you two were alright. Dylan was awake now but peaceful, still with his large earphones on. He looked adorable. You kept his face away from the public eye though, as you and Harry tried to protect his identity as much as possible until he was older and could decide for himself how public he wanted to be.

“You okay?” Harry mouthed to you, in which you nodded your head to him knowing he wouldn’t understand you when you’re wearing a mask. You blew him kisses and he caught them all, placing them against his heart and keeping them there forever. Harry sent you some back and the fans screamed, thinking he was sending them to them instead. You pretended to catch them and keep a few for you and gift a few for Harry. He went back to performing shortly after that.

“Here you go,” you pretend to give Harry’s virtual kisses to Dylan, “a gift from my greatest inspiration to my greatest achievement.” You watched as Dylan looked up at you with his big, beady, green eyes and he smiled at you. That single smile alone reminded you of how perfect your life was and would continue to be.

[foster-the-world]

Court day, Court Day, Court day

No actual movement on his case but it was our longest court appearance at 21 minutes. Next court date July 29th. Set a permanency hearing for December 7th. A date that far out broke my heart until the judge said "hopefully we won't have to use it."

His lawyer claims now that they know where Mom is they can serve her. Of course, they've known for 6-8 weeks so could have served her at anytime. Alas, fingers crossed it happens this time.

Breaks my heart to think of her/anyone getting served those papers while in jail. That doesn't stop it from being true that it's very much time to move forward. They should have done it already. I do hope we can do virtual visits. I'd like her to see how happy/healthy he is.

Judge berated the case worker for not moving forward on getting him OT (covered by his insurance), an adequate birth certificate, new social security number, vacation permission, Covid vaccine permission. I did feel bad for her but we gave her a lot of opportunities to do any of those things.

Judge berates case worker, case worker berates parents, case worker oddly uses power to refuse us vacations and on and on the system goes.

In court case worker said we needed to provide info on where we are going, nearest firehouse, hospital, etc. Judge jumps in to say "No, they do not. They tell you where they are going and it's approved. That's all. Done. Approved." I know vacation seems like a minor thing but knowing that we don't have to worry about canceling is huge. Life feels stressful right now. We are very fortunate to have some extra money to afford a break for our family. It's something I dream about everyday. Knowing we have the permission feels great.

Now onto more important things. Let's get an adoption date.

[wayfaringmd]

Hey Tumblies, long time no blog.

Remember that foster son that I had for a year? Who I was devastated to lose with extremely short notice back in January? Well after an email to a judge (expressing concerns about social services not following up with the family appropriately post-reunification), a lot of prayers, and a complete lack of effort on the parents’ part, he’s back with me again. And I don’t plan to let him go back easily. I also have his little brother this time. So I went from zero children to 2 under age 3 on the 4th of July. In the span of 6 hours I went from having a regular day to running to Walmart to buy a second car seat, diapers, clothes, and groceries, to welcoming an excited little boy back to my house.

Both children came to me with just the clothes on their backs. Older bro’s clothes smelled so strongly of urine that I washed them 3 times and couldn’t get the smell out so they had to be trashed, along with his shoes that were torn to pieces and 2 sizes too small. From what the case worker told me, neither of the boys had any of the clothes or toys that we sent them home with them anymore. Big bro is clinging to toys that he was never interested in previously—toys that are for much younger children even—and taking a toy from him produces the most pitiful silent cry I’ve ever seen.

Baby bro was hospitalized for several days initially for malnutrition and physical abuse work up. He’s just over a year old and weighed 5 pounds less at hospitalization than he did when he went home 6 months ago. He doesn’t look like the same child. He’s covered in scars of varying ages, almost all on his face and neck. He was lethargic and barely moved the first day and a half in the hospital despite being of an age that usually is moving nonstop. I’ve had him for 3 weeks and he’s gained 4 pounds ;). He’s starting to look more normal again, though he’s still small for his age. Touching his face to wash it, brush his teeth, suction his nose, or wash his hair is near impossible because he pulls away in fear. He’s had a full forensic exam and we go for a repeat exam /follow up this week, but no charges have been issued against the parents so far. It’s amazing how much he has progressed in such a short time. He’s a happy, loving child and has been nothing but a delight.

On the other hand, older brother, who was with me before, now has worsened behaviors than when I last had him. He’s very jealous of attention the baby gets (especially since baby was neglected at home and he was the favorite). Of course he is used to having me to himself, and has gone so far as to declare that I am only his mommy and that brother’s mommy and daddy are somewhere else. He’s had some regression in his speech and maturity and is very attention seeking. He has screaming outbursts over the tiniest slights. I’m working on getting him in therapy because he has started disclosing to me some of the abuse that he witnessed, though he hasn’t disclosed being personally victimized.

My next aim is to transition from fostering to possible adoption of these boys. I have some good lawyer recommendations so it’s just a matter of finding the time in the work week to call. I don’t see the parents getting the kids back anytime soon considering that things are worse now than they have ever been for them.

Meanwhile I was out of work for about 8 days while baby bro was in the hospital and when he first got out. Finding childcare has been a nightmare because the kids aren’t vaccinated and a lot of places (rightly) won’t accept them. In my state foster parents don’t have many rights as far as consenting to healthcare so the parents refuse to let me get the kids vaccinated. I have been extremely lucky to finally have some support from people at church who have been willing to babysit so I can work. One family is also licensed to foster but they don’t have a placement currently so they’ve offered to keep the kids for free until daycare spots open up. It blows my mind how generous people have been this time around.

Work is rough because everyone wants to see me right now since I’m leaving, and I’m way behind on paperwork and messages. My office manager has been completely unsupportive and was constantly asking me to check my messages and see telehealth patients from home. Like what part of “I’m holding and slow feeding a malnourished baby in a hospital room” is so hard to comprehend? I don’t have time to work or see patients virtually or answer stupid refill requests. When the other docs are off, they’re off. Why is that never the case for me? I can’t wait to start my new job. Giving up the commute alone is going to make a huge difference.

So yeah, prayers are appreciated if you are so inclined. This is an exhausting endeavor as a single person, but I’m glad to have the kids and I’m being much more intentional about seeking help from other people (something that is incredibly hard for me to accept).

I am writing this while up with baby who has his second bout of gastroenteritis in 10 days. We all ate the same dinner so I don’t think it’s the food unless he’s allergic or something. At least this time he’s not febrile. Welp, onward to my bed.

[screenshots123]

📆 18 Sep 2023 📰 New COVID variant BA.2.86 spotted in 10 states, though highly mutated strain remains rare 🗞 CBS News

People across at least 10 states have now been infected by BA.2.86, a highly mutated variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 that authorities have been closely tracking.

According to data tallied from the global virus database GISAID, labs have reported finding BA.2.86 in samples from Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Estimates suggest BA.2.86 still remains a small fraction of new COVID-19 cases nationwide.

"The diversity is less than what appears. Many of these lineages actually have identical spike sequences. We've observed this before, where we see convergent evolution and viruses evolving to have the same substitutions," said Natalie Thornburg, a laboratory branch chief in the CDC's Coronaviruses and Other Respiratory Viruses Division.

Thornburg, who was speaking at a meeting of the agency's vaccine advisers last week, said it was still too early to know "if BA.2.86 will be of any significant circulation."

Health authorities do believe BA.2.86 is continuing to spread widely around the world, after scientists first voiced concern in August over the strain's large number of mutations.

"We are concluding this because some of the people infected with BA.2.86 do not have known links to other infected individuals and did not recently travel to an area with known cases of illness from BA.2.86," the CDC said Friday in a risk assessment.

Too few sequences of the virus have been reported to show up on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's biweekly variant estimates, which still show that a long list of closely related XBB variant descendants are driving virtually all infections around the country.

Research on BA.2.86 so far has so far largely relied on pseudoviruses, which are other viruses mocked up in a lab to mimic BA.2.86's distinctive mutations. Better findings will need to use viruses grown from actual samples of infected patients, a process which is now underway.

"CDC has generated two authentic isolates of BA.2.86. One confirmed and one putative. We are in the process of distributing BA.2.86 viruses to multiple labs to do transmission studies, more neutralization studies, against lots of different kinds of sera," said Thornburg.

For now, officials have expressed "guarded hope" about signs the current late summer wave of COVID-19 driven by other variants has passed its peak.

Meanwhile, scientists have already tracked BA.2.86 beginning to evolve into at least two different branches. Cases from both sublineages have been spotted in the U.S. so far, among the handful of cases reported globally so far.

"That's likely the tip of the iceberg, given that we know we don't have complete sequencing coverage," Kirking said.

[halloweenhoneylover]

the struggle bus

summary: spencer is the kindest human alive, which makes things tough for the reader :/ (spencer reid x fem!reader)

word count: 5.3k (a doozy kinda!)

warnings: i guess angst, but really just idiots in love (my fav trope). reader is kind of a hot mess. also, mention of overdose via multivitamin.

author’s note: hi, it’s been approx 4000 years since i last posted, but it’s just because i have no concept of ‘efficiency’ or ‘speed.’ but it’s okay. some of this is good, some of this is eh, make of that what you will. also, this is supposed to be #funny sometimes so uhhhh, keep that in mind. ALSO, the title is majorly stupid, but it was the title of the google doc, and i couldn’t think of anything else......anyways, love u!

For once, the bullpen was quiet.

Spencer was immersed in some case file, doing some work that you should have probably been doing as well, but it was approaching the late hours of the night, and you would barely be able to keep your eyes open if you came even close to trying to read or write. Your desks were situated against each other, so you shifted your gaze across the small divider to him. His sharp features were softened in the lamplight, a sight that tugged on your heartstrings, and you took a moment to just look at him. Most everyone else was gone or was too focused on getting their work done to pay attention to your reverie. Derek, if he were here, would dub you as ‘lovesick’ and shoot mischievous smirks and wiggling eyebrows in your direction, but luckily for you, he was not. Twisting carelessly in your chair with your feet propped on the desk, you chewed absentmindedly on a pen, lost deep in thought. “Hey, Spencer?”

“Yeah?” He continued scribbling on the file without so much as a glance towards you, but that was perfectly fine by you, more time for not-creepy staring.

“How many of my vitamins do you think I could eat before I died?”

At this, he furrowed his brow and neatly laid his pen down.

“That depends on what vitamin you’re taking. If you’re talking about iron supplements, the limit is somewhere around 20mg of elemental iron per kilogram of body weight. Any more than that will have incredibly unpleasant side effects like abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, rapid breathing, and coma. However, if you’re talking about Vitamin C, it’s virtually impossible to overdose, but you might get a bad headache if you supersede 2000 mg.”

“Okay, what about my gummy vitamins?”

He narrowed his eyes at you. “While it still depends on what vitamins are included, eating a whole bottle of your typical multivitamin could easily result in death.”

You mulled this over. “So, I should definitely not go home and eat the rest of my gummy vitamins tonight?”

Spencer chuckled, “I’m not a medical doctor, but yes, I’d recommend that you don’t do that.”

Tossing your head back and letting out a small groan, you protested, “But Spencer, my gummy vitamins taste so good! And I have no food at home, so I guess I either die by overdose on gummy multivitamins or starvation.”

He couldn’t help but grin at your melodrama. It could be 12:06 in the morning, and you could still somehow make him laugh. He was starting to understand that he was in too deep, but he also had the startling realization that he didn’t mind drowning if it was in you. 

“You’ve got quite the predicament on your hands there, (Y/N). Maybe you should go grocery shopping with me the next time I suggest it, so you don’t end up in this situation again.”

“Oh my god, dude!” you moaned. “I told you I was actually busy; I had to take Oscar to the vet for his vaccines! I try to be a good mother to my dog, and you know I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’d never decline time with my favorite guy without a good reason.”

Spencer’s heart was doing somersaults at the thought of him being your favorite guy. He’d won plenty of awards and medals in his lifetime, but somehow, none of those measured up to the accomplishment of being your favorite. Pride and butterflies boiled in his stomach. 

“Alright, fine, I’ll let it slide this time.”

You snorted, “I appreciate your unmatched benevolence, Dr. Reid.” Locking eyes with him, you tried to dampen the lava flow of heat in your chest that erupted when he looked at you with the softest expression you’d ever seen, but you failed miserably. You had to clear your throat and look away; it was becoming all too much. “Hey, I’m gonna run to the restroom. Don’t leave without me!”

As you dashed away, a thought crossed Spencer’s mind, and he stood up and set off down the opposite hallway.

You returned a few minutes later to an empty bullpen which made you frown, and your heart sank. You had thought he was going to wait, but guess not. Sighing, you tried to not let it sting too badly when you noticed a light on in JJ’s office. You knocked and pushed the already ajar door with a quick hello? before being met with an exhausted-looking JJ.

“Hey, (Y/N). I thought everyone had left by now.”

“Nope, not quite yet,” you replied, offering a weak smile. JJ noticed and wrote it off as fatigue. “You didn’t happen to see Spencer leave a couple minutes ago, did you?”

“Uh, no, I thought he’d gone too.”

“Hm, okay, thanks anyway!”

You prepared to leave, but she stopped you, cocking her head. “Why do you ask? Is he still here?”

Leaning your head against the doorframe, you sighed. “I’m not sure. He was here when I went to the bathroom, but he wasn’t at his desk when I came back. I’m a little disappointed. We always walk out together because we’re both afraid of the parking garage at night.”

A grin simmered on JJ’s face at that fact. “Well, I could walk you out if you’d like?”

“Nah, that’s okay; I don’t want to bother you.”

There was something behind JJ’s eyes you couldn’t identify as she replied, “Alright, then. Just let me know if you change your mind.” She definitely wasn’t thinking about how you didn’t want her intruding on a you-and-Spencer tradition. Not that she minded! She’d been rooting for you both since the minute you’d stepped into the BAU, and Spencer had looked like he was about ready to melt into the floor at the sight of such a pretty girl.

“Thanks, Jayje.”

Dragging your feet a little, you made your way back to your desk to gather your things, trying to fend off the disappointment. You had gotten your jacket on and were about to pick up your bag when you heard a (Y/N)! from down the hall. Well, that was certainly not JJ. Hesitantly, you called out, “Spencer?”

He finally emerged with his arms loaded with...something, you couldn’t discern what in the dim light. His face lit up like the Vegas strip when he saw you. “(Y/N)! I didn’t want you starving or eating all of your vitamins, so I went down to the vending machine and got you a couple snacks!” Arriving at his desk, he dropped the various bags and packets on his desk, and your eyes widened immensely.

“A couple? Dude, did you buy out the whole machine?”

Slightly breathless from his quick jog back, he waved a dismissive hand. “It was nothing. And hey, look!” He picked up a bag. “Fruit snacks! Just like your vitamins, but without the part where you get really sick.”

You were astonished, to say the least. And minorly speechless too, as evidenced by your mouth that was gaping like a fish. “Spencer...this is so nice. You really didn’t have to.”

“Don’t worry about it; I’m sure you would’ve done the same for me.”

At that, your face nearly split in two, and he mirrored your grin. You thought you might pass out at his kindness, and you knew you’d be thinking about this every day for the next two weeks at least. Your expression then turned mischievous, as you tried to tamp down all of the warmth bubbling in your stomach. “Do you want to help me try to fit all this in my bag?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

——— 

Garcia had been practicing her ukulele peacefully when she got the call.  (Well, ‘peacefully’ might have been a stretch as she had threatened to smash the object on her coffee table when she simply could not get the finger picking pattern she’d practiced for what seemed like hours, but it was supposed to be a relaxing hobby, so yes, it was peaceful.) Huffing a sigh of relief when the caller ID said [(Y/N/N)!!] with the longest stream of heart emojis and not [hotch >:( ], she picked up with her usual air of cheer. “What can I do ya for, my loveliest, most bewitching—”

She was cut off abruptly by the sounds of your horrible, heart-wrenching sobs, and her brows furrowed in concern. “Oh no, my sweet! What’s wrong?” She had to wait a few moments for your tears to calm (somewhat) while you tried to wrangle in your breath, so you could form some sort of sentence.

“Penny!”—gasp—“Oh my God,”—hiccup—“it looks so bad!” With your last word, you tumbled into incoherent bawling once again.

“Dear, what looks so bad?” She held her phone between her ear and her shoulder as she began to gather up her things. Whatever was wrong, it was clear you needed some good, old-fashioned Garcia TLC, and she was ready to give it.

The sniffling subsided minorly, and you choked out, “Remember when we were talking the other day, and I mentioned that my hair had gotten a little too long for my liking?” Oh no, Garcia could see where this was going. “Well, I figured I’d spend our evening off getting my hair cut, and I went to that new hairdresser, and oh Penelope, it looks awful. I don’t think I can ever go out in public again.” With that, your tears resumed.

“Darling, you know I’ve been where you are, and I know it seems bad right now, but everything will be fine. Let me grab my scissors and I’ll be over faster than you can say, ‘Penny, I love you so much, you truly are my fairy godmother.’”

You paused before whispering into the phone, “Penelope, I do love you so much, and you are my fairy godmother. But please, hurry.”

And hurry, she did.

Garcia was knocking on your door a little over five minutes later, which was incredibly suspicious because she lived at least 10 minutes away on a good day, but in the state of your disarray, you were not inclined to care. She sat you down on the toilet in your bathroom, whipping out her hair care set (she had definitely spent a significant amount of time dabbling in cosmetology, and it was desperate times like this when it came in handy). Squeezing your eyes shut through most of it, she snipped here and there, trying to make the best of this...horribly atrocious cut (seriously, that hairdresser should be sued), and when she was finished, it was not as bad as when they started, but it still wasn’t great. The rest of the evening was spent watching cheesy rom-coms and baking in an attempt to get your mind off of your hair.

Everything was mostly fine until the next morning, when you realized you’d have to go into work like this, and as terrifying as that prospect was in a normal work environment, you also worked in a place with an abnormal amount of hot people. (And you happened to be developing feelings for one of those hot people, but your brain was insistent upon ignoring that for the time being.)

Already anticipating your worries, Penelope had sent a text without your knowledge to a BAU group chat that excluded you (she had one of these for every member, it just made surprise birthday party planning so much easier).

[penelope :)] please DO NOT MENTION (Y/N)’S HAIR!!!! she got a bad haircut and she feels really terrible about it and doesn’t want to think about it so do not talk about it!!!

[jennifer!] Oh, no! :( Lips are sealed!

[rossi ;)] rip.

Emerging from the elevator in the nicest work outfit you own (an attempt to distract from the monstrosity), you scurried to Garcia’s lair before anyone could see you. Once inside, you slammed the door shut, and leaning against it, you slid down and covered your face with the files in your hands. “Pennyyyyy,” you moaned. “I don’t think I can do this!”

She swiveled to face you with a look of empathy. “Sugar, I know you can. It—it doesn’t even look that bad!” But Garcia was a horrible liar, and if looks could kill, she would have been dead instantaneously. 

Heaving yourself up off the floor, you came to sit in the seat next to her. “Can’t I just work in here today? And maybe for the rest of time?”

“You know I would love that, but those other lovely people on our team need you! Especially the young doctor, you know he’d be lonely without you.”

As if her mention had summoned him, Reid opened the door to their secret meeting, files in hand, and your eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets. Garcia stared at him very intensely, attempting to telepathically tell him to not mention the hair, and you looked like a deer in the headlights, trying to figure out a way to hide yourself from him and possibly the entire universe. And poor Reid shifted his gaze between the two of you, helplessly confused as to what he had walked into. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Uh, no!” Garcia said in the least convincing manner.

“Okay,” he responded, not convinced in the slightest. “I just came to give you some files from Hotch.” So, he handed Garcia the papers and then turned to leave when you caught his eye. 

And because he was not the greatest with technology, Spencer had not checked his phone that morning…. Meaning he had not seen Garcia’s text. So he looked at you a moment and cocked his head. “Your hair looks really nice today, (Y/N). Did you get it cut?”

This time, it was Garcia’s turn to glare (because read your texts, dammit!), and you fumbled for a response. As you scanned his face, searching for a sign that he was lying, that he was just saying something to make you feel better, you came up empty. He was telling the truth. He genuinely thought your hair looked nice. “Um, uh—yeah. Yeah, I did. Thanks for noticing.”

“You’re welcome.” He offered you a smile, which you returned easily (a fact that surprised you). “See you.” Retreating from the office because the vibes in there were weird, he shut the door, finally leaving you and Garcia alone again. 

You were reeling.

You thought about when you had gotten dressed that morning, and you had entertained each outfit with great scrutiny, trying to come up with something that might draw attention away from your hair. In that half hour you’d spent, you had realized that you didn’t really mind looking bad in front of Morgan or Emily or Hotch or really anyone on the team. Almost anyone. With an increasing amount of discomfort, you had realized you didn't want to look bad in front of Spencer. Of course, he’d never judge you, but you wanted to look good for him. For your best friend.

And he told you your hair looked nice.

You smiled to yourself.

Garcia turned to you with a look of shock on her face. Had that been anyone else, she was sure you would have curled up in a ball beneath her desk and would not have left until every single other person had left the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but you hadn’t, and she smirked.

Oh, she knew where this was going.

——— 

To put it lightly, it had not been the best of mornings. 

It seemed that everything that could’ve gone wrong did, so you burst past the glass doors of the BAU six minutes late with a coffee-covered shirt, mud-stained pants, soggy shoes, and a most miserable attitude. Hotch, while a sympathetic man, was still your boss with rules to follow and when you stumbled into the bullpen, gave a pointed stare between you and the clock, and you nodded sullenly. You understood his silent admonition, but knowing that he was even slightly disappointed in you, made your knees want to buckle. Swallowing around the slug in your throat, you set your bag down beside your chair and noticed a foreign object sitting on your desk. Interest thoroughly piqued, you reached forward to find it was a book with a satin ribbon tied on it.

It truly was a beautiful book with a deep crimson hardcover and the kind of deckled edges that you loved. Running your fingers along the rough-hewn pages, you finally noted the title, and you gasped. Beloved by Toni Morrison. Your favorite. The cursive words curved in black on the cover to match the ribbon, and you carefully traced the curling letters, wondering where this gorgeous book could have come from.

In the desk across from yours, Spencer watched the scene in front of him with a grin. He couldn’t help but feel pleased at the look of awe on your face as you inspected the book with careful fingers and a gentle gaze, and his heart swelled more and more the longer he looked. “Did you know that Margaret Garner, the woman the character Sethe is based on, her trial was used as part of an effort to dismantle the Fugitive Slave Act?” Your eyes flickered up to meet his, and those stupid freaking butterflies erupted in the pit of your stomach as you realized who had gifted you the book. “The presiding judge didn’t accept her lawyer’s argument that the act violated the right to religious freedom, but it was still somewhat of a turning point in the movement to strike down the law.”

“I did not know that, but thank you. For the fact and the book.”

“You’re welcome.” He had to avert his eyes from your strong gaze because he thought he might melt otherwise.

“Please don’t misinterpret this as me being ungrateful because I’m so, so thankful, but why?”

He shrugged, “I was just in the book store, and it made me think of you.” No, he didn’t keep an eye out specifically for this book on his weekly trip to the bookstore by his apartment after you had briefly mentioned your love of Ms. Morrison’s metaphors. And he definitely didn’t ask the owner Alice if she would let him know if she ever got any new copies.

Frankly, you were at a loss for words. Combing back through your conversations with him, you tried to remember when you had talked about the book, but you couldn’t come up with anything other than a couple words tossed briefly here and there. Suppose it wasn’t really the fact that he had heard, but the fact that he had listened. He listened and remembered things about you, little things tucked in the back of his brain, and it was how he thought about you even when you weren’t around. So, you clutched the book to your chest tightly as if it could meld with your heart and let your thoughts rage with the implications for a minute before smothering your mushy grin and tucking the book into your bag.

(Later, you pulled it out on your ride home on the metro. Spencer had already gotten off at his stop a few minutes before, so you took this moment of solitude to revel in the glory of your new gift. Every time you smoothed a hand over the cover, your mind was overwhelmed with what-ifs. What if he felt the same? What if his stomach rumbled with the same butterflies when you looked at him? What if this means he likes you as more than…. And abruptly, you were doused in doubt once again, muzzling those dangerous, rearing hypotheticals. This was a path that would only lead to disappointment.

Those thoughts only got worse when you read his inscription, though:

Dear (Y/N/N),

I hope you find great joy in reacquainting yourself with the graces of Ms. Morrison’s elegant prose in this new copy. I was inspired by your praise and read this classic again, and I can say that I definitely understand your veneration of her story-telling. Hopefully, we can discuss it soon, so I can try to see all of the details that you so admire. You are always much better at appreciating the finer things in life.

She says that, “something that is loved is never lost.”

I hope you know that you will never be lost to me.

Sincerely,

Spencer

(P.S. I wrote this in pencil, so you can erase and have the clean copy you wanted.)

You would never erase it.)

——— 

“Hey, are you alright?”

You sat at your desk with your head in your hands. Your responding “no” came out muffled. 

Spencer frowned and sat on the edge of your desk. “Is there anything I can help with?”

Running your hands over your face, you finally met his gaze. His eyes were soft as they searched your own, and the expression on his face was not of pity or frustration but empathy, and of course, he was just being his sweet self. Your eyes watered in response, and his heart clenched at the sight. You shifted your eyes somewhere else, anywhere else. “Uh, no.”

It was clearly a lie.

Furrowing his brows at your obfuscation, he scanned your face for any indication of what might be the problem. A small sigh. He came up with nothing. “Alright,” he conceded hesitantly. “May I ask what is wrong?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

You stared down at the files neatly ordered on your desk, trying to mentally shoo him away with the sheer force of your willpower alone. But Spencer Reid was a stubborn man, and you knew this, and you also knew he wasn’t leaving until he knew you were alright. So, you both sat in the silence of the bullpen that only accompanied the arrival of midnight. The glow of your lamp bathed the vicinity in a warm yellow, and the tick of the nearby clock rattled around your chest as you attempted fruitlessly to subdue your incessant thoughts. He was close enough that you could hear the soft susurration of his exhales as his eyes flitted about the room to give you some sort of breathing room, and you shut yours for a moment to appreciate this moment of peace before the inevitable catastrophe to follow.

“I’m—uh, not okay.”

Finally turning back to you with a mildly surprised expression (he didn’t expect you to say anything so soon. Or so bluntly.), he offered you one of his signature tight-lipped smiles as encouragement to continue.

“I’m kind of really struggling…” you trailed off, gaze empty, ensnared in your thoughts.

Ever the gentleman with persistence that could last a thousand years, he gently prompted, “With…?”

A strong gulp and eyes squeezed shut. “With you.”

Well, that was not the answer Spencer was expecting. He felt like he’d had the wind knocked out of him, and he was hollow and shaken and in pain. Gaping, he fumbled hopelessly for an answer, trying to find some reason you could be upset with him. He had always thought you two were the best of friends; he’d never doubted that before. How could he have missed this?

Swallowing hard against the lump in his throat, he strained to ask, “Uh—um, what—what did I do?”

Upon witnessing his struggle, you quickly amended your previous statement. “No, no, no, no, no! I’m not mad at you, well, I kind of am, but you don’t need to feel bad, it’s not your fault.”

“I’m not really sure what to make of that.”

You huffed a sigh and covered your face with your hands in a poor attempt to try to hide the blush rapidly coloring your cheeks. “I’m sorry, I just—you’re so nice!”

Now Spencer was really confused. “You’re mad at me...because you think I’m nice?”

“Yes, Spencer! You’re so nice, and it makes me incredibly frustrated. You see this?” You picked up a book from your desk and waved it frantically. A little intimidated by your crazed look, he nodded timidly. “Do you recognize this book?”

“It’s a special edition of Beloved by Toni Morrison.”

“It’s the special edition of my favorite book that you bought for me because you know how much I love this book.”

Spencer looked like a deer in the headlights. “You always said that your book at home was so messy with your annotations and that a fresh copy would have been nice.”

“You didn’t even buy it for my birthday or a special occasion! You just saw it in the store and said that you thought of me and had to buy it. That’s so unbelievably thoughtful! Not to mention the fact that I can barely look at fruit snacks now without tearing up. And—and the other day! When I got my haircut, I hated it, but I came in the next day, and you were the first person to tell me you liked it. You weren’t even lying to make me feel better; I’m a profiler, and I know that you were telling the truth. And it took no effort or thought because Spencer, you are the most kind-hearted and compassionate and generous person I’ve ever met. You are so—so genuinely good. 

“No, you are the best. You are the best person I know,” you stated with finality, holding his stare with an unshakeable firmness. It was the first time you truly looked at him all night, and his heart felt like it was going to expand past his ribcage and burst open like a balloon. Your resolve melted though and your voice dropped to a near whisper. “And you’re not just nice. You’re nice to me. Which just makes it so hard.”

You deflated, withering into your seat.

“Makes what hard?”

“It makes it so much harder for me to not fall in love with you.”

Stunned silence. 

Until it was shattered by a hiccup, and Spencer finally noticed the tears leaking from the corner of your eyes, and he tried, he tried so hard to puzzle through all of this new information and the fact that you just admitted you’re falling in love with him, and for some reason, you’re crying? He couldn’t even get his stupid genius brain to come with a single word before you started stumbling into an apology. “I know that’s not what you want to hear because we’re supposed to be friends, and I know that you’re just a good person, so you’re nice to everyone. Believe me, I know. And I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable, but I couldn’t keep holding on to this by myself, and I knew if anyone would let me down easy, it’d be you.” You chewed on your lip and avoided his stare at all costs. “So, I’m sorry.” You sniffled. 

The quiet that followed weighed heavy on your chest, and you couldn’t seem to breathe. You had expected rejection; you hadn’t expected complete silence. And this was somehow so much more unbearable. In a voice so faint you weren’t even sure if he could hear, you begged, “Please say something.”

A beat.

“(Y/N), I love you.”

A whisper just barely verging on hopeful, “What?”

“(Y/N), I—I love you so much.” His heart felt like it was in his throat, and his voice broke slightly as he stood. “You’re the first person I think about when I get up in the morning, and you’re the last person before I fall asleep. I dread going home at the end of the day because you’re not there. When you’re not with me, even if you’re in the other room, it feels like I’ve forgotten something, and for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what I was missing, but it was you. You consume my every thought, which is saying something because I think a lot. Actually, it’s kind of funny,” he chuckled somewhat morosely, “I truly cannot comprehend the fact that you don’t know how much I’ve liked you, how long I’ve loved you because it feels like it’s so obvious and so potent that it seeps out of me, whether I want it to or not.

“And I’m nice to you because no one else is more deserving of kindness. I’d be lucky if you let me be the one to remind you of that, everyday. Because you’re the best person I know.” You looked up at him with shining eyes and the meagerest beginnings of a smile, and he just beamed right back. With a creased brow, he ventured, “You’re my favorite person in the world, you know that, right?

Failing to suppress your growing grin, you nodded your head meekly. “Yeah, I know.”

“Good.”

Spencer felt pleased with himself until he remembered that he had forgotten the most important part. “Would you like to get dinner with me sometime? Like a date?”

Standing from your seat, you wrapped your arms around his neck and burrowed your face into his chest, and he immediately reciprocated, clutching you as close as he could. “I would love that.” It came out muffled, but he understood well enough as he pressed his face into your neck. And you stood like that for a few moments, just existing together, and for the first time in a long time, nothing hurt. There was no worry of unrequited yearning or pain of terrible pining; there were just two people who finally knew peace. Knew that the person they loved most in the world loved them back. Neither ever wanted to leave.

However, sometimes necessary duties like breathing take precedence, so you pulled back from him enough to finally claim some air. Your hands slid down his front, resting on his chest, his on your waist, and you just stared at him. The most beautiful face you’d ever seen looking right back at you with the same expression of awe that made you realize just how lucky you were. And slowly, hesitantly, you both leaned in ever so slightly with heads wavering and tension buzzing. Gingerly and sweetly. Neither could commit, but no one could pull away from fast-approaching revelation. 

Finally, a breath away.

“Can I kiss you?”

You nodded.

When your lips met, your chest heaved with your eager, romantic hopes and dreams bubbling up near your lungs, finally coming to fruition. His hands came up to caress your jaw, and you leaned into him. His touch was so gentle, but he also touched you with intention. For once in his life, Spencer Reid felt no hesitation, kissing the girl of his dreams. And you felt held by him. You were bursting at the seams of your existence, swollen with infatuation and tenderness, yet totally and completely encompassed by him. You could shatter into a million tiny, little pieces, and he would be there to collect every shard. How cheesy.

Both of you grinned into the kiss; the sickly sweet itch in your heart was contagious. You finally released him, and wanting to savor the moment, you tucked yourself into the crook of his neck, so his chin could rest on the crown of your head. “I love you a lot, Dr. Reid.”

He hummed in agreement.

It didn’t need saying.

[mednerds]

The Flu Vanished During Covid. What Will Its Return Look Like?

There have been fewer influenza cases in the United States this flu season than in any on record. About 2,000 cases have been recorded since late September, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In recent years, the average number of cases over the same period was about 206,000.

As measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus were implemented around the country in March 2020, influenza quickly disappeared, and it still has not returned. The latest flu season, which normally would have run until next month, essentially never happened.

After fears that a “twindemic” could batter the country, the absence of the flu was a much needed reprieve that eased the burden on an overwhelmed health care system. But the lack of exposure to the flu could also make the population more susceptible to the virus when it returns — and experts say its return is certain.

“We do not know when it will come back in the United States, but we know it will come back,” said Sonja Olsen, an epidemiologist at the C.D.C.

Experts are less certain about what will happen when the flu does return. In the coming months — as millions of people return to public transit, restaurants, schools and offices — influenza outbreaks could be more widespread than normal, they say, or could occur at unusual times of the year. But it’s also possible that the virus that returns is less dangerous, having not had the opportunity to evolve while it was on hiatus.

“We don’t really have a clue,” said Richard Webby, a virologist at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. “We’re in uncharted territory. We haven’t had an influenza season this low, I think as long as we’ve been measuring it. So what the potential implications are is a bit unclear.”

Scientists do not yet know which public health measures were most effective in eradicating the flu this season, but if behaviors like mask-wearing and frequent hand-washing continue after the coronavirus pandemic is over, they could help to keep influenza at bay in the United States.

Much also depends on the latest flu vaccines, their effectiveness and the public’s willingness to get them. The recent drop in cases, however, has made it difficult for scientists to decide which flu strains to protect against in those vaccines. It’s harder to predict which strains will be circulating later, they say, when so few are circulating now.

What happened to the flu?

When the reality of the coronavirus pandemic set in last year, the country was still in the throes of the normal flu season, which had peaked in February. Then schools closed, travel halted and millions began working from home, and the number of new flu cases quickly dropped to historic lows, even as the coronavirus surged.

And the decline has not been because of a lack of testing. Since late September, 1.3 million specimens have been tested for influenza, more than the average of about one million in the same period in recent years.

The public’s history of exposure to influenza, scientists say, may partially explain why the flu virtually disappeared while the coronavirus continued to spread after safety measures were implemented.

“For something like Covid, where you have a fully susceptible population at the start of a pandemic, it takes a lot more work to slow the spread of the infection,” said Rachel Baker, an epidemiologist at Princeton University.

In other words — unlike with the coronavirus — the population has some natural immunity to the flu, from years of being exposed to various strains of the virus. People are susceptible to new strains of the flu each year, but less so than they are to wholly unfamiliar viruses.

The mere presence of the coronavirus may have also played a role in suppressing flu cases, said Dr. Webby, because there is often just one dominant respiratory virus in a population at a given time. “One tends to keep the other out,” he said.

And influenza was not the only virus that disappeared over the last year; there were also substantial drops in other respiratory illnesses, including the respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., which is the most common cause of pneumonia in infants.

What will happen when the flu returns?

Influenza is a relatively common illness that has the potential to become deadly, especially among young children, seniors and adults with chronic health conditions. The C.D.C. estimates that the flu has killed 12,000 to 61,000 people a year since 2010.

If immunity to the flu declined during the pandemic because of the lack of exposure to the latest flu strains, more people than usual may be susceptible to the virus.

“Every year, anywhere between 20 to 30 percent of the population gets its immunity sort of boosted and stimulated by being exposed to the flu virus,” Dr. Webby said. “We are not going to have that this year.”

“Decreases in natural immunity are a concern,” Dr. Olsen said, “and lower immunity could lead to more infections and more severe disease.”

The result could mean larger and out-of-season outbreaks of the flu and of R.S.V., Dr. Baker said. In Florida, in fact, R.S.V. would normally be on the decline at this time of year, but it is currently having an uptick.

If offices and schools begin to reopen in greater numbers in the fall, as many expect, scientists will be watching closely.

“We are always concerned about influenza causing severe disease, particularly in persons at increased risk of complications,” Dr. Olsen said. “We know that school-age children are important drivers of influenza virus transmission. However, because influenza is difficult to predict, we cannot forecast the severity of next season.”

There is also a potential upside to the absence of influenza: Fewer cases usually lead to fewer mutations.

“Right now, because influenza isn’t circulating as much, it’s possible the virus has not had as much opportunity to evolve,” said Dr. Baker, “meaning our vaccines could be more effective than normal.”

Choosing the strains for the flu vaccine

Creating the influenza vaccine this year has been more difficult than in the past.

Every year, scientists evaluate the strains of influenza that are circulating around the world, and meet to decide which strains to protect against in that year’s vaccine. They look at the strains that are getting people sick, and use that information to predict which strains are most likely to infect people when flu season sets in.

“We met at the end of February to make those recommendations,” said Dr. Webby, referring to the World Health Organization panel that assesses the flu vaccine. “And it was tricky. The amount of data was orders of magnitude less than it typically is.”

Dr. Olsen, the C.D.C. epidemiologist, pointed out that the vaccine choices are based on more than just existing strains. Scientists also consider other data, including forecasts of “the likelihood of any emerging groups of influenza viruses becoming more prevalent in coming months.”

And, she said, the uncertainty around the return of influenza makes getting vaccinated against the flu more important, not less.

There’s another hard-to-predict factor that could play a significant role when the flu comes back: whether society will carry on behaviors learned in the pandemic that benefit public health. Will mask-wearing become the norm? Will employers give their employees more physical space?

The last time Americans had a chance to make those behaviors part of the culture, Dr. Baker pointed out, they did not.

“The 1918 influenza pandemic should have been something that gave us some sort of societal learning,” said Dr. Baker, but behavior did not change. “So what is the journey you are about to go on from the Covid-19 pandemic, along that axis?” she added. “Will you wear your mask, even if no one else is?”

By Keith Collins (The New York Times).

[jenniferrpovey]

I won't darken your ask box again, but I've just lost whatever scrap of hope the vaccines gave me when it became clear that there was a new variant and that vaccine rollout will be so slow it's guaranteed to produce more, vaccine-resistant variants. And every public health official and pundit just talks about "hunkering down" and I can't do that anymore than I already do, and I'm sure it won't end. I just want someone in power to be honest with me that my life is over and no help is coming.

Oh hon, darken my ask box as much as you like! I have an ear and a shoulder and they’re both available to you, albeit only virtually.

In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night absolutely convinced of exactly what you’re saying. (I think I had an anxiety dream I didn’t remember). I’m fighting the same battle.

So, experts are looking into the concern with the new variants. Every expert believes the vaccines will work against them, with a worst case scenario of an efficacy drop of about 10%. Note that the vaccines we have approved have a very high efficacy, so while this sucks, it’s not the end of the world.

BioTech and Moderna are constantly testing their vaccines against every mutations that show up. To put this in perspective:

B1.1.7, which is the UK strain, has a mutation that causes 8 amino acid changes on the spike protein. That’s what’s making people panic. However, there are 1,273 amino acids in the spike protein! Coronaviruses are big viruses.

(Source: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/do-not-publish-verify-are-current-covid-19-vaccines-effective-against-variant-strains/65-8734e2a6-a18f-49ab-b2b5-6d198da45782)

So, we have no vaccine-evading variants yet, and if you look at that, it would take a lot, a lot of mutations to the spike protein to evade the vaccine.

Experts believe the vaccines will be fully efficacious against B1.1.7.

501.V2, the South African variant (and note, these are not strains) is a little more worrying, but we will know very soon if it evades the J&J vaccine, which is being tested there. The Oxford vaccine is also in trials in South Africa.

Some experts believe that there might be a 10% or so efficacy drop against this variant, which still means the vaccines will work very well. If the J&J vaccine works well against it, then we should be able to deal with it by using that vaccine in South Africa and anywhere else that variant spreads to, for example.

(And the J&J vaccine will be better for remote areas as it’s a single dose).

(Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-new-strain-south-africa/)

So, on to your next worry, that an actual vaccine-evading variant will show up before we get everyone vaccinated.

The first piece of good news is that coronaviruses do not mutate as quickly as orthomyxoviruses (the viruses that cause influenza). Flu strains evade the vaccine all the time, which is why we don’t yet have a universal flu vaccine (one was well into development but the researchers dropped it to focus on COVID-19) and why flu vaccine efficacy varies so much from year to year.

COVID-19 mutates much more slowly. Like all coronaviruses it has an enzyme called ExoN, which proofreads its code and keeps the copies close to each other. Furthermore, the viruses target the spike protein, which is highly conserved due to already being very good at its job.

Now, vaccines do mutate, and yes, it is absolutely possible that an escape variant will evolve in the future. However, because of the proofreading, this is less likely than with most viruses. An escape variant would reduce the effectiveness of vaccines and necessitate boosters. When is this likely to happen? In, worst case, a couple of years. At which point we will probably be needing boosters anyway due to waning immunity (Pfizer’s educated guess is that their vaccine will be effective for 2 to 5 years).

Finally, on the slow roll out, honestly, it’s mostly teething problems. The pace is already starting to speed up. There are things we need to consider doing. Many dentists, for example, have volunteered to administer shots; administering a vaccine is much easier than administering local anesthesia to the mouth. There’s also been some talk of recruiting veterinarians and vet techs, as giving a shot to one species isn’t hugely different from giving it to another. But we’re working the problem.

And I know you can only hunker down so far. But again, darken my ask box *any time you want*. You are valid and I absolutely understand your fears.

[whatisonthemoon]

Preaching a Gospel of Conspiratorial Politics

more from the Baptist pastors who head and write for Word & Way...

https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/preaching-a-gospel-of-conspiratorial

The senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia, is upset. Rev. Anthony George complained during his sermon Sunday (Oct. 23) that someone publicized what he said during a prayer event earlier this month with U.S. Senate hopeful Herschel Walker. That someone was me.

On the morning after allegations emerged that Walker paid for a girlfriend’s abortion, George emceed a prayer event for Walker at First Baptist. For George, the allegations were just an attack by Satan. We know that because while First Baptist staff barred reporters from entering the building, I found videos and broke the news about what George and Walker said behind closed doors. Although a staffer said they would give George my request for comment, he never responded. Now George thinks my reporting is also the work of the devil.

“One of the things that people will do to you — and Satan will use people to do to you — is to try to make you afraid of following God,” George preached on Sunday. “I had this happen just a few weeks ago. Had a little prayer meeting here, said it was going to be private [with] somebody seeking office.”

“The thing went public, people posted it, and I’m telling you I got all kinds of hatred and animosity coming at me on social media,” he added before turning his fire on who publicized his comments. “You cannot be intimidated by adversaries. And sadly, your biggest adversaries in the will of God are not even pagans, they are liberal Baptists — which may be pagan. But I’m telling you: There are wolves in sheep’s clothing out there. So, this thing about being in the will of God, it is not for pansies, it is not for sissies, it is not for the faint of heart.”

None of this is too unusual for a George sermon (except the part attacking dissenting Baptists like me). Satan is nearly omnipresent in George’s sermons as he warns constantly about the attacks of the devil on himself and First Baptist. And he regularly peppers his sermons with political rants, conspiratorial claims, and warnings about alleged persecution of Christians. At times his messages sound a bit like a cable news show with some Bible verses and prayers instead of commercial breaks.

While numerous media outlets reported on George after the Walker prayer event, the routine politicking from the pulpit goes virtually ignored. Yet, his exhortations each Sunday and Wednesday work to disciple thousands with a partisan gospel.

Such MAGAchurch preaching occurs in sanctuaries across the country. But the prominence of First Baptist in Atlanta and his involvement in an important Senate campaign makes George a particularly important case study. So, in this issue of A Public Witness, I introduce you to George and his sermons before considering what this means for the witness of American Christianity today.

More at link...including this gem:

George became senior pastor of First Baptist during COVID — with the church empty because of the virus. And for George, the pandemic was a Chinese weapon created in a lab and purposely released and then used by socialists in the U.S. to shut down churches and try to get people to take a dangerous vaccine. To borrow from the biblical proverb, as a dog returns to its vomit, George repeats these arguments over and over in his sermons.

[mymedlife]

Guys, the pandemic has broken me. Every time we seem to be making any progress I feel like we get set back again.

Sorry for the long rant ahead, but I feel like I need to get it out of my head.

Back in the beginning, last March or so, when the state I'm living in shut down, I felt like I could do it. Daycare shut down for almost 3 months to prevent spread.

My husband's job changed his hours to 10a to 8p since everyone was working remotely so they could all be working on the same time zone.

My cofellows were generous enough to switch shifts so I could work all nights and weekends and watch my kiddo during the day. Which kind of sucked, because she doesn't play independently for very long, o was tired, hubby wanted it quiet, and everything was closed so there wasn't anywhere to go to break up the monotony.

Work was filled with frequent changes around what protective equipment we have and what is required to be worn where. I got fitted for 3 different N95s because we kept running out, despite having to check them out and have them sterilized between uses.

I had frequent discussions about how COVID is real with families who refused testing. Parents lied about their symptoms to be allowed into the hospital with their kids, including one who collapsed mid visit due to respiratory failure. Several people ended up having to quarantine because they weren't wearing their N95s during the resuscitation as it was unexpected (at the time we were only wearing N95s during aerosolizing procedures including bagging). This lead to a new rule on not stopping in to help until you have the proper equipment on (which makes sense, but but is so hard).

Early on I spent some time volunteering for the COVID hotline for my state. Most of the questions I got were people upset that things were closing. There were very few health calls.

My aunt died. My sister, a psychologist, argued with her boss she should get a raise for being a frontline worker. My other sister, who is immunocompromised, was mad that all her friends continued to party guilt free and we kept telling her to stay home. My husband began to enjoy his new schedule to the point that he would stay up until 3am playing games after work (the kid was asleep and I was working) and sleep until he had to work at 10 am. My friends talked about their new lock down hobbies, including my co fellow who spent her time creating a new lecture series for the residents. I felt like I was trending water, I started getting behind on fellowship things and I was so tired. My kiddo was happy that I was spending more time with her, and it all was temporary, right?

Eventually things started opening up again. Daycare returned. Two days later my husband was fired. Thankfully he found a job within a few months, but during that time was quick to anger and his staying up all night playing games and sleeping most of the day got worse. He dismissed anything I had to say about it and frequently promised to sleep earlier, later saying he had to stay up because the kid had a nightmare that I slept through.

During this time, many of my pediatrician friends were called to see adults due to high patient volumes and doctor shortages. Luckily I only had to see kids, but there was still a lot of mystery surrounding symptoms and the discovery of the multi system inflammatory syndrome.

My kiddo got sent home a few times from daycare for vague symptoms that necessitated a COVID test, and at one point she was at home with me for 2 weeks due to a COVID positive exposure in class. My husband's job was new so he couldn't take off time to help. At some point things shifted so I was now doing all the daycare pickup and drop-off as well as all the bedtimes (unless I was physically at work).

Following Breonna Taylor and George Floyd there were large scale protests around the downtown area, where my hospital is located. I wholeheartedly support the movement, but someone told my kid it was dangerous to go downtown, and she became fearful of me going to work. This combined with the break in at our home lead to sleep refusal. Something I had to help he with, leading to bedtime taking hours, because my husband would yell at her. Most nights I was too tired after getting her to bed to do much, which lead to more work piling up.

Job hunting was not as fun as I had hoped it would had been. I had one in person interview, everything else was virtual. Thinking about working at a place I've never seen was terrifying.

Many places simply ghosted me. Lots weren't hiring. A few went on a hiring freeze after my interview.

Every interview asked what hobby I developed during lockdown. I admittedly could have answered this question better, and explained that I survived the lockdown with a toddler and that was an accomplishment.

My home institution decided to go with my co fellow over me. When I asked my mentor why she said they felt she had more to contribute to medical education than I do. I'm convinced that in part this has to do with all the lectures she wrote during lockdown.

I was able to get a job, but it's at a smaller community ED where we have a few beds in an adult ED. I mentioned to my associated program director I was a little disappointed, and suddenly everyone is telling me to be thankful for what I have.

I can be thankful and disappointed at the same time.

I think the biggest thing is a fear that if I hate this job I wont ever be able to find another one.

I also kind of resent my kid and husband, if I had more support or time to focus on fellowship things may have been different.

But life goes on. The vaccine was created, things opened up, and now those who aren't vaccinated can stop masking.

The my body my choice people who previously refused to mask are pleased, and now there are barely any masks when I go out (despite a not great vaccination rate in my area).

My kid is 3 and cant get the vaccine, so we still wear them. She loves to whine about how the others don't wear their masks. "It's not fair."

No, it really isn't.

Masks are still required in the hospital, which parents complain about daily. Recently every time I recommend a COVID test it has been refused. The pandemic is over. Kids can't get COVID. And other nonsense.

Kids as young as 12 can get vaccinated. However there is real concern about post vaccine myocarditis. Now everyone who comes in with chest pain wants to complain, even if they are unvaccinated.

Things have been stressful, and my kid is picking up on that. She still has trouble sleeping and has started having tantrums. We recently had a meeting with daycare and they want us to have seen by psych to get her evaluated.

I've found that I've lost interest in most of my hobbies, not that I have a lot of time for them. Fellowship finished and I have the next two weeks off before starting my new job. I was planning on spending it sleeping, cleaning the house, getting out the baby stuff as we are expecting a new little one in a couple of months, and rediscovering my hobbies.

Today I had an awful migraine. I cant take the meds I usually take because of the pregnancy, and my OB wont prescribe anything because he is worried about masking signs of preeclampsia. My husband refused to get up to watch the kid because he was tired, so I pushed through until he was ready to get up.

I lay down to try to get a nap and I get a call that there has been a case of COVID at daycare, and they will be closing for 2 weeks. They will open up the day I start my new job.

And this my friends is what has broken me.

I was so looking forward to finally have time for self care, and now I get to play stay at home mom again with my kid who is in isolation.

After that call I got up and left the house. I'm sitting in my car at the park writing this, and while I know I will go back home eventually, I'm tempted to drive off and let my husband deal with this for a change.