You close down all the culture sections and features departments and de-jobbed all the critics and you wind up not actually understanding your fellow Americans at all because you decided art was ancillary and unimportant when in fact it's vital to democracy b/c politics is emotional and so is art.

Here’s how I realized I had long covid. I got sick but improved. A month later was Christmas. I did all my usual activities - baking, hosting, good solid walks. On New Year’s Day I collapsed getting out of bed, couldn’t get up for a week, and never, ever got that level of energy back.

A poet.

Razzball@razzball.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“My Mayor is Muslim, my bagel is Jewish, my Christian’s Dior… Knicks in 4!!!”

JD, I hate to break it to you but if you disagree so stridently with God’s emissary on Earth about BASIC theological matters, you might just be Protestant.

Watching the light leave a normie doctor’s eyes as I describe the myriad of ways my brain and immune system have fucked my body is pretty entertaining.

Max Rodriguez@max-e-rodriguez.bsky.social · 7mo ago

It’s tiring but also deeply entertaining to take @osayko.bsky.social to a new doctor bc their reaction to her medical history, allergies, and medications is always basically this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnun...

With One Battle After Another winning big at the Globes last night, it's the perfect time to read @angelicabastien.bsky.social's fantastic analysis of the film and Teyana Taylor's fantastic performance that provides an interiority the script often lacks

Black Actresses Are Carrying One Battle After Another

Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and Regina Hall propel the film’s most conflicted ideas, for better and worse.

vulture.com

And if you fear that you will now be at higher risk of death and complications because you cannot stay up to date on vaccines, please consider for a moment that that is the burden you’ve been happy to put on disabled and vulnerable people for several years.

If you are angry, as you should be, that restricting access to the vaccine will make covid worse and more dangerous, please start wearing a mask, which actually does a significantly better job of preventing transmission in the first place.

The compounding pharmacy that used to prepare my thymosin alpha-1 is no longer doing it and my usual compounding pharmacy doesn’t offer it. Anyone with #LongCOVID or #MECFS and at TA-1 script have a compounding pharmacy that offers it? If so, details pls!

#Disability is the only universal marginalisation, making up 1/5 to 1/4 of the world's population, yet so few of our stories are published! Help me uplift disabled & chronically ill #writers by supporting & submitting to this #anthology ❤️‍🔥 Guidelines: shorturl.at/jges6 Deadline: July 31st 2025.

I’m always so tickled when people go “ugh when did [insert thing here] become political?” And it’s like, sorry babe, but as long as groups within society use the state as a cudgeol to decide who has what rights and how collective resources are allocated, most things will be political.

🚨 🚨 🚨 Really important action for #LongCOVID community and allies! Call or email your federal legislators to let them know #NoLongCOVIDcuts! This condition impacts millions of Americans, many of whom are severely disabled with NO treatments!

Long COVID Campaign | www.longcovidcampaign.org@lccampaign.bsky.social · 2y ago

📣 #LongCOVID Community: With recent news, we're now hearing NIH RECOVER-TLC research & AHRQ Long COVID clinic funding could also be at risk. So LCC is launching a rapid-response campaign NOW to make it easier to call Congress & ask for #NoLongCOVIDCuts 1/x bit.ly/NoLongCOVIDCutsCall

Sprained my ankle. Time for all these peptides I’ve been shoving into my body to do something miraculous.

As we approach the 4th and 11th anniversaries of the war that Russia started, it is important to remember that this has always been a blatant land grab that turned genocidal as soon as they realized Ukrainians do not want to be Russians

New Lancet study shows extremely low, 2%, recovery rate from Long COVID. However, those who considered their Long COVID resolved were still in worse health than those who never had Long COVID. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Anyone in the #LongCOVID or #MECFS universe tried the antimicrobial and antiviral peptide LL-37? Would love to touch base about folks’ experiences and dosages.

Regeneron is recruiting for a phase 2 RCT of REGN7544 (an NPR1 antagonist mAb) for POTS. They’re seeking 81 patients in Pasadena, CA; Carlsbad, CA; Nashville, TN; and Clearwater, FL clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT065...

It’s wild how much calmer my nervous system feels when I’m on my period. I wish I knew what was happening in my body that makes it so and how I can reproduce it the other three weeks of every month. 🤔 #LongCOVID

Unexpected niche beat for @melissagiragrant.com: Covering the myriad protests happening right now despite claims on social media that 'no one is protesting.'

Where Do You Protest Elon Musk? Everywhere, It Turns Out.

From Stonewall to Tesla dealerships, protesters are pioneering a form of opposition that doesn't necessarily center on Washington, D.C..

newrepublic.com

Anyone with #LongCOVID, #MECFS, or #ChronicLyme tried supportive oligonucleotide technique (SOT) for EBV, CMV, HHV-6, and Lyme and its co-infections? My functional medicine doc does it in his office and I’m considering it to try to shift symptoms. Would love personal anecdotes!

Have a tonsil and sinus infection. Happy Valentines Day to me from AmoxClav. 😥

Incredible: Russ Vought’s daughter has cystic fibrosis and benefits from a “miracle drug” made possible by the National Institutes of Health—an agency Vought now aims to gut as part of the Project 2025 attack www.motherjones.com/politics/202... Scoop from @motherjones.com’s @metrauxjulia.bsky.social

Project 2025 is gutting medical funding that helped Russell Vought's own kid

Its architect's daughter has cystic fibrosis—and benefits from a "miracle drug" backed by an agency he's attacking.

motherjones.com

I’m on day 5 of Sofosbuvir. The first two days I only took one pill, but have been taking 2 the other two days. Very up and down but the ups are very up. My nervous system feels very calm on those days.

Lmao at the idea that DOGE found fraud but an accounting firm didn’t. Like I don’t have that much faith in the Big 4, but I have enough faith that they’d be able to find fraudulent debt obligations…

BrokenBanker@brokenbanker.bsky.social · 2y ago

*TRUMP SAYS DOGE EFFORT MAY HAVE FOUND FRAUD IN TREASURIES *TRUMP SUGGESTS THAT MAY MEAN US DEBT OBLIGATIONS LOWER GLWT

Reminder that protecting each other from illness and potential disability/death when the people in charge actively want us dead is actually punk as fuck. Simple disease prevention is community care. It is resistance. Please mask up, especially at protests.

If you work for the federal government and are tempted to take Musk’s “buyout” offer please know that you’re never going to see that money.

Thing you can do, action you can take: Register for our Congressional Medicaid Advocacy Webinar on 2/10 @ 4PM ET MAGA wants massive cuts to Medicaid, resulting in catastrophic coverage losses. Learn how to advocate for Medicaid with the legislative staff of a Congressperson or Senator. Reg link ⤵️

2/10 at 4PM ET: Congressional Medicaid Advocacy Webinar | Matthew Cortland

Get more from Matthew Cortland on Patreon

patreon.com

Hey, guess what has suddenly disappeared from the HHS website? Any mention of this $306M investment in pandemic flu preparedness that was approved in the last days of the Biden administration. Not DEI. Not USAID. Our surveillance & response program around H5N1.

Biden administration allocates $306m in its final days for bird flu response

‘Critical’ funding comes as H5N1 outbreak intensifies and will go toward developing a response to the virus

theguardian.com

“These first two weeks of Trump’s new term and the extensive executive orders removing nearly every right I have as a trans American have been by far the worst in all my professional years.” In The Handbasket’s first guest piece @katelynburns.com explains the toll on trans journalists right now:

GUEST COLUMN: The current ‘mindf*ck’ of being a trans journalist

Katelyn Burns explains the personal and professional toll of Trump's anti-trans executive orders.

thehandbasket.co