as someone who still masks in, at the very least, public indoor spaces, i can absolutely confirm this is the truth; there's nothin like seeing a reminder of That Time™️ (my mask) to make trauma bubble up into someones behavior. it looks different for everyone—from kindness to cruelty—but it's there.

The Fig Economy@figgityfigs.bsky.social · 2mo ago

One of my Crank Theories of Everything, at least of Everything in the Recent Past, is that we are dealing (badly) with COVID trauma we’d mostly prefer to pretend never happened.

"The Islamists oppose women getting an education," I mutter, as I aim my missile at the girls school

Virginia Tech researchers, 2 cohorts, found long COVID looks less like slow healing and more like an immune system stuck in overdrive with exhausted T cells and ongoing IL-6 JAK/STAT signaling, helping explain fatigue brain fog and breathlessness. academic.oup.com/jleukbio/adv...

Immune exhaustion, the culprit for long COVID and chronic complications

Chronic immune exhaustions underlie the development of long COVID.

academic.oup.com

HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO BRING OUT THE SWISS CHEESE MODEL 😭😭 *cries in epidemiologist*

OK where I'm losing my mind, is this part. Those of us in the covid cautious community are often called anti-vax for the assertion that the vaccine does not eliminate transmission. Not saying it doesn't HELP, but it's imperfect. Have you been vaccinated? Have you had covid since? SO ARE WE WRONG?!

Then why did my entirely boosted choir have a superspreader of 25 people mere weeks after dropping mask mandates? That was just a big coincidence? Mandating masks helped drive a flu strain to extinction. Covid aside, why are people not interested in reducing transmission of ALL airborne viruses?

As someone who spent a LOT of years arguing with antivaxxers....no the fuck it is not

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This is pretty explicitly anti-vaxx x.com/hoolie_r/sta...

Im a historian of vaccination with a MS in public health this is most certainly not "explicitly anti-vaxx" and its actually insulting to people still worried about long COVID to frame them as equivalent to the real anti-vaccination people in power/charge now. Criticise her message without this.

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This is pretty explicitly anti-vaxx x.com/hoolie_r/sta...

oh my god www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/o...

FTR, covid activists are following experts too. U think I came to these conclusions entirely on my own, as a music teacher? No! I follow tons of scientists, doctors, & researchers who have been sounding the alarm. One lone immunologist who wants you to sub to his substack shouldn’t be ur #1 source

Ofc you’re quoting Marc, I should have known. He continues to deny the damage that covid causes to immune systems, despite other immunologists disagreeing. U accuse us of cherry picking, yet you are listening to one lone minimizing voice that contradicts numerous studies. LongCovid is still a risk

Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦@merz.bsky.social · 7mo ago

That is a red herring. Rates of CoV severe disease, chronic sequelae, and death are far below previous years. CoV2 is likely to be with us for a very long time, but also (because we have immune systems), it is no longer a virus that no immune system on earth has ever seen before. 🧵

Anti-vax: My immune system will protect me. The weak deserve to die. Let the diseases spread! Vax 'n' relax: My vax will protect me. Let the diseases spread! I will pretend to care, sometimes, that vulnerable people die. Vax 'n' protect: Hey man, no one deserves to die. Stop spreading disease!

Da(N95)iella [fka DaniAtomicus]@sharpflower.bsky.social · 7mo ago

There’s more in common with antivaxxers & vaxx’n’relaxers than they might like to think. Constant (re)infections & opportunities for viral mutation are part of why COVID vaccines became less effective. *Masking protects the vaccine*. Julie is doing good work that many public health orgs refuse to do

And two, in general, people in the center prefer preserving the status quo in which they are comfortable to making significant social changes like rights expansions. Any push toward major change upsets their comfortable sofa, and so they see all threats to that as equivalent.

Why? I can’t presume someone else’s heart and mind, but I have two theories. One, this argument is coming from people who used to be cautious but aren’t anymore and feel guilty and defensive about it. So making the people who haven’t quit seem nuts and extreme quells that feeling.

And I don’t think most of these people are obtuse enough to be genuinely confusing “THE VACCINES ARE EVIL” with “the vaccines are a good tool, but not sufficient to protect against Covid infections on their own. Layered mitigation is key.” So I believe it is an intentional conflation.

I don’t think I have ever seen a remotely popular Covid activist say people should not get vaccinated, and i follow tons of them. What I have seen is constant posts from the center saying this is happening, with no evidence and no follow up to the logical problem the claim presents.

A: our safety model needs more slices of Swiss cheese because one slice isn't enough B: WHY DO YOU HATE CHEESE? A: no, the cheese slices are a metaphor for imperfect but necessary safety measures that work better when stacked in numbers B: oh, okay, I see. WHY DO YOU HATE SAFETY MEASURES?

Jessica Ellis@baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 7mo ago

One of the misinformation talking points from centrists on Covid is that Covid activists and anti-vaxxers are the same. I want you to think of any other rights movement where the centrist position has been “ugh, these people on the far ends are both so noisy, they’re the same.” Is it all of them?

One of the misinformation talking points from centrists on Covid is that Covid activists and anti-vaxxers are the same. I want you to think of any other rights movement where the centrist position has been “ugh, these people on the far ends are both so noisy, they’re the same.” Is it all of them?

There are a ton of indie game devs on Bluesky and the vast majority of them would strongly disagree with you.

Mr. Pisano@seanpisano.bsky.social · 7mo ago

No video games have art in them. They are not an art form. Everyone involved in the video game industry expects to be paid. They don't do it for the art of it.

This is a wildly incorrect take Also, artists do expect to be paid across mediums… what’s with you capitalists thinking art & artistic labor has no value? Yikes

Mr. Pisano@seanpisano.bsky.social · 7mo ago

No video games have art in them. They are not an art form. Everyone involved in the video game industry expects to be paid. They don't do it for the art of it.

So someone with measles can spread it before they have symptoms, it can float in the air for hours and years later, they can develop new health complications?

I still remember how I was willing to show up to see events with friends, but insisted on doing so while wearing an N95. That's how I found out how many people would rather not invite me at all than deal with being seen in public with someone masked in their party.

#9 Dream@gayfabfourfan.bsky.social · 7mo ago

As most of the COVID -safe/-aware community can tell you, try wearing a mask everywhere & declining indoor eating invitations and then see how many friends you have left.

exactly! could it be that constant covid minimization, including from Biden's CDC, made people feel like "COVID is over"??? I see libs like Michael do this all the time. refer to COVID in the past tense, say it's mild, and all that. why would someone who thinks COVID is "over" or nbd get a booster?

That’s not what she said tho. It doesn’t entirely prevent transmission. U can see this by the covid in the wastewater & the numerous studies on reinfections in vaccinated pops. U can also see it in the moving goal posts of blue team, from “breakthrus are rare” to “you will get it 1x/yr like flu”

You created a burner account to observe the feed and concluded “wow, lots of COVID posts.” Yes. Because there’s an enormous body of research on cumulative harm from repeat infection. The algorithm amplifies. The science predates it.

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I have a burner account on Twitter because you need one to see people’s feeds. I follow a pretty standard set of left-leaning accounts. I’m not exaggerating: more than half the FY feed is messaging like this from people I don’t follow.

Off to a good start.

Michael continuing his track record of being dogshit on pandemic politics. She provided her sources around the politics of the "health emergency." Separately, she correctly claimed that COVID vaccination's observed benefit is reduction of severity--not foolproof immunity, nor prevention of spread

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This is pretty explicitly anti-vaxx x.com/hoolie_r/sta...

In 2024, the CDC, weighing in with Covid vaccine researchers and manufacturers tracking Covid vaccines becoming less effective (for the reasons Julie cited, which Michael calls “anti-vaxx”) Said people should get 2-3 Covid vaccines a year www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes... Do the work, don’t be a jerk

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This is pretty explicitly anti-vaxx x.com/hoolie_r/sta...

Eugenicist logic underpins many public health leaders’ decisions of the last 5 years and helped pave the way for fascism. Whether Long COVID happens “less” (?) or Long COVID and bad impacts happen “only” to vulnerable people… that “vulnerable” bucket is filling up fast and maybe you’re already in it

Long COVID is brutal and racking up organ/immune damage from every COVID infection isn’t great either, even if you can’t feel it (until you do). The benefits of vaccines are diminished when people don’t get them and when public health leaders shrugged at a pathogen free-for-all