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packbatA bunch of studies on the impact of COVID-19 infection, with sources. Content warning for suicide, but I think it might be validating to have this.
( Read more... )packbat
UK Action: Vote Against Covid
Jul. 2nd, 2024 11:49 amdiffrentcoloursSorry for the short notice, but for those of us in the UK, we can use Vote Out Covid to contact our 2024 General Election candidates and ask them to sign a public health pledge to introduce three relatively low-cost, non-intrusive Covid measures. The more candidates we can prod the better, so please do share widely.
packbatMeet the Minnesotans Still Determined to Create Covid-Safer Spaces, from Racket, a Minneapolis writer-owned site.
Jesse said that the group intentionally chose the name Antidote to represent the ways in which their parties counteract the “isolation and despair” that comes from being part of a minority of people that still have restricted lifestyles after four years of the pandemic.
“I've always loved going out to clubs and queer bars,” they say. “Those are such liberatory, affirming spaces to me, and not having access to that for the past four years has been a huge loss for me personally. Creating these spaces ourselves is a way we can combat the isolation.”
packbat"COVID Hasn’t Disappeared — But Empathy, Care and Solidarity Have" by Tithi Bhattacharya, Truthout.
First humiliation: sharing intimate medical history with a class full of freshmen, mostly 18-year-olds.
“I have asthma… etc. etc., so I would be very grateful if you all masked in my class.” Many nod sympathetically, others are indifferent. “I will supply you with masks,” I say desperately. Thus begins a two-year relationship with Amazon, where at the end of each week, I buy, with my own money, a box of masks for my students. Some of my classes are large, and students often forget their masks, so each day of class I supply them with a new one. And on and on. And yet, I feel lucky — at least they are not refusing.
Let me rephrase that last sentence: I am made to feel lucky for others observing minimal protections against a debilitating disease. The effect is, I feel, not unlike the way workers on unconscionably low-wage jobs are made to feel lucky (“at least you have a job”).
jesse_the_kSumana Harihareswara has posted her latest synthesis "My Current Approach To Reducing My COVID Risk" at her blog
https://www.harihareswara.net/posts/2023/my-current-covid-risk-approach/
brainwane is a software consultant who travels for work. While her post is long, it's impeccably organized and full of useful detail I could understand. When she boosted here https://brainwane.dreamwidth.org/198077.html, foxfirefey commented
And goes into a deep dive re p100 masks and transparent masks.
Practicing Inclusion in the Time of COVID
May. 11th, 2023 04:35 pmcosmolinguistThis page has good resources about how to include people in your events during this ongoing global pandemic.
Broken Sociality
May. 11th, 2023 03:03 pmcosmolinguistThis piece is very good, very powerful and resonant. And since it's about the pandemic, some of it can be bleak. But I don't think it's doomy, which is one of my criteria for "will I share this," so here it is. I think it is valuable to have people name and articulate some of the problems we're facing, and if the problems are bleak some of the thinking might feel bleak, but ultimately knowing our enemy (in this case, a multifaceted and profound loneliness) can help us fight it.
Experiences of community are offered but not actually present, in that they're present only via serious risks which are often un- or under-acknowledged. I think of this facet of broken sociality as social loneliness...
Social loneliness blurs into another facet of broken sociality, what I think of as political loneliness. This is the sense of a gulf in values or in understanding of some very important aspects of the world.
Being forced out of social spaces or forced to do the risk calculation is a kind of coercion as well. For those of us required to be in spaces with more risk than we’re okay with, like me teaching face-to-face and my mom at her retail job, the added risk is coerced, but none of this kind of coercion is widely recognized as coercion... I think the coercion we’re expected to smile through feeds the sense of loneliness, though, and this distress is real...
I think the fact that some of us now are turning down invitations, or entering social spaces with what appears to be unwarranted caution, or some of the time appearing as or voicing an unwelcome reminder of potential threats and past traumas from covid, may mark us out as different and as more subject to derision.
cosmolinguistSomeone linked this article a while ago and I still find myself thinking about it. People have moved from talking about being desperate to get out of "covid jail" to overwhelming social pressure to downplay any instance of infection now that "the pandemic is over."
Before the advent of modern medical care in the 20th century people were vulnerable to a raft of infectious diseases from typhoid to tuberculosis. Those who were fortunate enough to survive infection were expected to take a long time to recover fully, Krienke found. This process of restoration—a stage between acute illness and full health—was a major focus of physicians and families. For centuries, the care of convalescents came with its own set of theories and rules, intended to prevent relapse and integrate patients back into normal life.
But with medical advancements, tolerance for long recovery waned. “Modern medicine is uncomfortable dealing with things where we don’t have a quick fix,” says Lancelot Pinto, consultant pulmonologist at the P.D. Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Center in Mumbai. “When there were no cures, patients were allowed to live out the natural history of the disease. For diseases that have a cure now, there is no leeway, it’s presumed that if you are cured microbiologically, if the tests come back normal, you don’t deserve any more rest … and that maybe the symptoms are imagined or psychological in some way.”
Now, those older ideas about recovery could provide important perspective for the pandemic, say researchers like Krienke, who studies literary and medical history, as millions of patients who’ve had COVID-19 find themselves frustrated by the persistence of symptoms for weeks or months beyond their infection. “All kinds of illnesses have lingering effects, but culturally, we don’t have a way to talk about it,” says Krienke, now an assistant lecturer at the University of Wyoming. “I think convalescence is a helpful paradigm for the present moment.”
packbatYou May Be Early, but You're Not Wrong: A Covid Reading List by Jessica Wildfire, Nov 15, 2022.
( Pull quote about the present state of COVID-19 research and toxic nature of the political response in the US )Shorter short version, from the fediverse post we saw sharing the link: wear a n95 mask, don't eat in restaurants, there is no immunity, this stuff will jack you up.
cosmolinguistThis is from the U.S. but I think a lot of us can identify with a lot of it.
Some of the most powerful and highly visible people in the country are gathering and celebrating—and getting sick—as though the coronavirus is no longer a threat... It is increasingly hard to opt in or out of this kind of experience...
Perhaps you are like me, and you’re still wearing a good fitting mask in indoor public places and gatherings (and being choosy about what activities to do in the first place). When I’m out, I am sometimes one of the few people donning a KN95 or N95 mask. There may not be overt social pressure to take off the mask, others may not even care, but it makes me feel like a bit of an outcast anyway. Despite this, I have no plans to take off my mask indoors anytime soon. There are good reasons, still, to delay getting infected.
...But to have access to carefully mitigated gatherings is, unfortunately, a huge privilege, as is having the means to deal with the fallout should you get sick.
Distance Aware
Apr. 19th, 2022 08:29 pmcosmolinguistI've been meaning to write for weeks. About one of the first in-person volunteering events I did, as a last-minute replacement for someone who had covid, in a group about covid and disability, where I was the only one wearing a mask.
About Scotland and now parts of the U.S. affected by the TSA decision to end their mask mandates. Welcome, from someone living in England who feels like an old-timer in this land you've joined us in; I'm so sorry you're here.
But tonight I have a resource.
This morning a Scottish friend of mine mentioned something called Distance Aware, a scheme to "politely prompt ongoing distancing and respect of individual social space." Another friend (in England) who runs a small business where they have to work in-person has already printed off one of these signs to hang on his door, glad to have help in enforcing people putting masks on in their small work space. It doesn't seem like a lot of people know about this and I figured it might be useful to people here.
I have a question too but I haven't figured out quite how to word it yet! And it's more like a discussion question than one with an easy answer, anyway.
About Scotland and now parts of the U.S. affected by the TSA decision to end their mask mandates. Welcome, from someone living in England who feels like an old-timer in this land you've joined us in; I'm so sorry you're here.
But tonight I have a resource.
This morning a Scottish friend of mine mentioned something called Distance Aware, a scheme to "politely prompt ongoing distancing and respect of individual social space." Another friend (in England) who runs a small business where they have to work in-person has already printed off one of these signs to hang on his door, glad to have help in enforcing people putting masks on in their small work space. It doesn't seem like a lot of people know about this and I figured it might be useful to people here.
I have a question too but I haven't figured out quite how to word it yet! And it's more like a discussion question than one with an easy answer, anyway.
Managing Nose Skin Breakdowns
Apr. 16th, 2022 01:45 pmjesse_the_kI've seen it described as "maskne," which is a great pun but my nose doesn't have any pustules. Just lots of redness and a few places where the skin is abraded.
Things I'm already doing:
- Wearing a mask without grey foam padding (it made me itch right away)
- Smearing Aquaphor Healing Ointment on my nose as soon as I'm safe to unmask
- Bending the nose wire with two fingers, so my nose doesn't act as a lever
Any other ideas?
livI work for a biology research institute, specifically one that has carried out a large proportion of worldwide Covid sequencing. Up til now, they've been more sensible than the (English / UK) government, and the last five times our leaders declared they pandemic over, they said, uh actually no it's not, please carry on not infecting eachother and not imperilling the Covid work.
Now they have decided to go along with the political announcement. They are taking away most precautions and expecting us to go back to "normal". In some ways I don't mind because the precautions are outdated hygiene theatre; we can happily do away with random plexiglass screens in communal areas, and hand sanitizer monitors telling you off for skipping the magic hand gel ritual. But I do mind that we are moving from compulsory masks to recommended masks only, and I do mind that we are losing our work-paid regular PCR testing.
In theory we are still allowed hybrid working, but we have to be in person minimum two days a week and the bosses would really prefer more than that. I don't honestly think work is a particularly high-risk situation. Even if we have 2/5 or half the workforce present at the same time, it's rarely what I'd call crowded. And it's full of sensible scientists (including, I emphasise, some of the world experts on Covid virology specifically). And nobody's work really involves shouting or exertion (they're reopening the campus gym, but eh, I was never exactly a gym bunny anyway, I can just not go there). On the other hand most people are going to stop or greatly reduce lateral flow / rapid antigen testing, and there's no more PCR so no more ongoing surveillance of the level of infections on campus, and that really worries me. Both because there's a much higher chance than before of colleagues showing up with an asymptomatic or mild 'it's just a cold!' infection. And because if it does go wrong, if cases start going up alarmingly, we're probably not going to know until it's too late.
The problem is not, then, that workplace is massively risky. But it's still a lot higher risk than I'm comfortable with, and the thing that's really frustrating me is that work will basically eat my entire risk budget from now on. I haven't been eating indoors for social purposes, and I have been minimizing indoor visits with friends altogether. I do take public transport occasionally, but only with a very good reason. But at work, well, I'm expected to have indoor meetings, and there's already quite strong pressure to eat lunch in the indoor cafeteria. And I have to spend two hours each day on the coach with 50 random colleagues. So, if I work in person two days a week, and I can't test between those days and contact with others, I can't really do any of the other medium-risk things I might otherwise be willing to try occasionally.
Next month work is going to start sending us on work-related travel again, and I resent that because I've done almost no personal travel (couple of very carefully planned summer trips to self-catering places, when we didn't go to indoor cultural things and we didn't eat indoors at venues). I desperately miss restaurants and pubs, but not eating indoors at all was one thing, indoor meals in uninspiring work cafeterias at my own or other institutions, but no fun ones, is just depressing me. I'm thinking it can't be not long before we start having work parties again, retirements and birthdays and again, I have to miss actually having fun with my friends, but I still 'get to' have work-related compulsory fun.
I have registered my displeasure, but don't expect to be listened to really. I could in theory quit my job, but I really like my job (plus the obvious financial implications). I am going to keep wearing a decent N95 mask when I'm at work. What I think I can probably do is stand firm: no thank you, I'm not going to join you in the cafeteria, I'll take my sandwiches outside. No thank you, I won't take my mask off to eat birthday cake and drink fizzy orange juice. No thank you, I'll skip after work pub for now. I can encourage people to keep windows open, though that's not possible in all meeting rooms.
In some ways standing firm is going to be easier as the weather improves. But I think in some ways it might be harder as more and more people either start to believe the 'pandemic is over' narrative, or just give in to fatalism as it's basically impossible to avoid Covid if the entire state apparatus is trying to force you into situations where you'll catch it.
Thanks for listening, anyway
Now they have decided to go along with the political announcement. They are taking away most precautions and expecting us to go back to "normal". In some ways I don't mind because the precautions are outdated hygiene theatre; we can happily do away with random plexiglass screens in communal areas, and hand sanitizer monitors telling you off for skipping the magic hand gel ritual. But I do mind that we are moving from compulsory masks to recommended masks only, and I do mind that we are losing our work-paid regular PCR testing.
In theory we are still allowed hybrid working, but we have to be in person minimum two days a week and the bosses would really prefer more than that. I don't honestly think work is a particularly high-risk situation. Even if we have 2/5 or half the workforce present at the same time, it's rarely what I'd call crowded. And it's full of sensible scientists (including, I emphasise, some of the world experts on Covid virology specifically). And nobody's work really involves shouting or exertion (they're reopening the campus gym, but eh, I was never exactly a gym bunny anyway, I can just not go there). On the other hand most people are going to stop or greatly reduce lateral flow / rapid antigen testing, and there's no more PCR so no more ongoing surveillance of the level of infections on campus, and that really worries me. Both because there's a much higher chance than before of colleagues showing up with an asymptomatic or mild 'it's just a cold!' infection. And because if it does go wrong, if cases start going up alarmingly, we're probably not going to know until it's too late.
The problem is not, then, that workplace is massively risky. But it's still a lot higher risk than I'm comfortable with, and the thing that's really frustrating me is that work will basically eat my entire risk budget from now on. I haven't been eating indoors for social purposes, and I have been minimizing indoor visits with friends altogether. I do take public transport occasionally, but only with a very good reason. But at work, well, I'm expected to have indoor meetings, and there's already quite strong pressure to eat lunch in the indoor cafeteria. And I have to spend two hours each day on the coach with 50 random colleagues. So, if I work in person two days a week, and I can't test between those days and contact with others, I can't really do any of the other medium-risk things I might otherwise be willing to try occasionally.
Next month work is going to start sending us on work-related travel again, and I resent that because I've done almost no personal travel (couple of very carefully planned summer trips to self-catering places, when we didn't go to indoor cultural things and we didn't eat indoors at venues). I desperately miss restaurants and pubs, but not eating indoors at all was one thing, indoor meals in uninspiring work cafeterias at my own or other institutions, but no fun ones, is just depressing me. I'm thinking it can't be not long before we start having work parties again, retirements and birthdays and again, I have to miss actually having fun with my friends, but I still 'get to' have work-related compulsory fun.
I have registered my displeasure, but don't expect to be listened to really. I could in theory quit my job, but I really like my job (plus the obvious financial implications). I am going to keep wearing a decent N95 mask when I'm at work. What I think I can probably do is stand firm: no thank you, I'm not going to join you in the cafeteria, I'll take my sandwiches outside. No thank you, I won't take my mask off to eat birthday cake and drink fizzy orange juice. No thank you, I'll skip after work pub for now. I can encourage people to keep windows open, though that's not possible in all meeting rooms.
In some ways standing firm is going to be easier as the weather improves. But I think in some ways it might be harder as more and more people either start to believe the 'pandemic is over' narrative, or just give in to fatalism as it's basically impossible to avoid Covid if the entire state apparatus is trying to force you into situations where you'll catch it.
Thanks for listening, anyway
UK petition
Feb. 28th, 2022 04:46 pmcosmolinguistPeople who are citizens or residents of the UK can sign this petition to get a debate on keeping free lateral flow tests (LFTs) available.
Your Local Epidemiologist
Feb. 28th, 2022 09:45 amcosmolinguistI'm sure some of you already know about this, but for the benefit of others who might not...
Lately I've been reading Your Local Epidemiologist's newsletter, and even though she is in no way local to me (she's in the U.S.), I've found it to be comforting reading. Sometimes because she knows a lot of stuff I don't know and explains it well to a non-expert audience because that is her role here! But sometimes because she addresses or even shares concerns that I have. Like in her most recent newsletter, about the CDC's new advice that's going to lead many people in the U.S. to abandon masks altogether.
Lately I've been reading Your Local Epidemiologist's newsletter, and even though she is in no way local to me (she's in the U.S.), I've found it to be comforting reading. Sometimes because she knows a lot of stuff I don't know and explains it well to a non-expert audience because that is her role here! But sometimes because she addresses or even shares concerns that I have. Like in her most recent newsletter, about the CDC's new advice that's going to lead many people in the U.S. to abandon masks altogether.
I also didn’t appreciate a few places where the guidance said, “If you are immunocompromised or high risk for severe disease… talk to your healthcare provider”. So, this framework isn’t public health guidance. This is individual-level guidance and only for certain individuals. The CDC is THE public health leader and really needs to lead that way. As a boosted individual, I know my individual risk is very, very low. But I also understand that other people’s risks are high. I would like guidance on how to adequately contribute to society for these folks’ benefit too (not just until they show up at the hospital).
packbatSaw this shared on the fediverse: an article from Minnesota Public Radio on staying safe and estimating risk when people around you aren't masking properly.
(no subject)
Feb. 27th, 2022 12:15 pmbens_dadjae saidAnd if you have a good enough respirator mask that you don't remove AT ALL while indoors, there's still plenty you can do safely.
Do respirator masks do a better job of stopping glasses from steaming up ?
Whenever I wear a mask my glasses steam up; since I have enough vision to walk around I wear mask but not glasses indoors, but that leaves me unable to see well enough to spend time in indoor public places unless absolutely necessary.
cosmolinguistI was inspired to create this community after seeing a friend say this morning
There's a huge cognitive load to continuing to wear a mask/try to distance when the people around you aren’t. Humans are such social creatures that many of us find it difficult to stand out and while some people don’t have a choice but to be visibly different, some of us who aren’t used to sticking out so much might benefit from some social support to carry on masking when society all around us is pushing this message that “the pandemic is over.” I'm thinking especially of people who might be new to being a visible minority. It sure can be tiring! Even scary, or just offputting. Many of us have been there pre-pandemic, maybe our whole lives. There might be tips we can share, but just validating these experiences as difficult can be surprisingly helpful (I was surprised anyway!).
Even if you don't see many masks besides your own, even if you're feeling abandoned by your government, you're not alone. Let's get together, let's talk and let's listen and try to help each other.
I am not looking forward to being the weirdo in a mask who won't eat or drink indoors, when everyone else is busy pretending we're "back to normal" and ignoring the no-longer-monitored disease silently spreading everywhere people congregate. But I'd rather that than a heart attack in my forties, or fatigue for the rest of my life.Obviously I quite agree with that conclusion, but the first sentence got me thinking...
I have already been that weirdo (I don't know when I'll next be able to eat or drink indoors; beyond two near-unavoidable times, it hasn't happened since March 2020) and there sure aren't many of us in real life! Which is fine for me, I'm used to being noticeably weird (for being fat, queer, foreign, disabled, trans/at least sending off weird gender vibes, etc.), but a lot of people are going to be new at this.Someone suggested starting a Dreamwidth community about it, so I have!
I'm wondering what I can do to support that; like a guide for How to Be Okay with Being Weird in Public, or an online group...because while I'm being The Only One in the Shop Wearing a Mask, I know from my internet friends that there are actually a substantial amount of us. And an online group can't help that IRL weirdness, but it might be helpful to people to know there are actually a bunch of us out there, and we can support each other.
There's a huge cognitive load to continuing to wear a mask/try to distance when the people around you aren’t. Humans are such social creatures that many of us find it difficult to stand out and while some people don’t have a choice but to be visibly different, some of us who aren’t used to sticking out so much might benefit from some social support to carry on masking when society all around us is pushing this message that “the pandemic is over.” I'm thinking especially of people who might be new to being a visible minority. It sure can be tiring! Even scary, or just offputting. Many of us have been there pre-pandemic, maybe our whole lives. There might be tips we can share, but just validating these experiences as difficult can be surprisingly helpful (I was surprised anyway!).
Even if you don't see many masks besides your own, even if you're feeling abandoned by your government, you're not alone. Let's get together, let's talk and let's listen and try to help each other.
