@stm2121.bsky.social
Another Covid surge is ramping up in the U.S. Year 6 of this. So predictable. Mask up, folks! 😷 www.npr.org/2026/08/14/n...
Is there a summer COVID-19 surge this year? Yep, it's ramping up again
Just like all previous summers since the pandemic began, COVID-19 cases are ticking up again, even while other health threats make more headlines.
npr.org
It's like trying to understand the late middle ages while pretending the Black Death never happened. It's almost impossible to contextualise the sharp jump in extremism, social fragmentation, economic issues, and so on without grounding it all in the Covid pandemic.
My sister works in a restaurant and has had repeated infections. And memory loss, lethargy, increased food allergies... It's 100% the reason for overall decline and it's wild people can't see it
Part of the problem with pretending Covid is over (besides the massive ethical issues and the science) is it effectively destroys your ability to understand why anything is happening the way it’s happening now. You can only ram into that wall of cognitive dissonance so many times.
Pookleblinky@pookleblinky.bsky.social · 3w agoIt's weird that Americans can talk about how restaurants have gotten so much worse in the last several years, and somehow not connect it with covid killing and disabling so many restaurant workers. That's some serious fucking memoryholing, maybe a symptom of longcovid.
We have also been rather consistent in saying you cannot contain eugenics to one issue. It is too convenient to capital to blame sickness on sick people. And it’s why it needs to be resisted openly, fiercely, bravely, and even when you want brunch.
Aparna Nair@disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 4w agoWhen disabled people/many people who work on disability/health pointed to the dangers of this kind of framing since COVID, they were usually mocked ("oh you think everything is eugenics") or ignored. But normalising the idea that the deaths of disabled people are desirable/reassuring is dangerous.
You know what causes massive, systemic inflammation? COVID infections. 😷
Julia Métraux@juliametraux.bsky.social · 4w agoInflammatory disorders can be brutal. I’d know personally (thanks vasculitis et al). But the misinformation, including on vaccines, is dangerous. A deep dive from me into how MAHA sped up the inflammation panic. New from me at @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
And if you are angry about the Covid revisionism about the first year of the pandemic that’s happening in Congress and on news shows, consider whether you’ve done some revising of your own in the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth years.
Truly, the time to get on the right side of Covid management is always now.
The medical guidance on dealing with Covid has never changed for immunocompromised or high-risk people. It has always been to wear a mask in crowded and indoor spaces. People will literally yell at kids with cancer and the rest of polite society goes “oh well, personal responsibility…”
People are complaining that for two hours in the early morning on one single day, the Exploratorium in San Francisco will require respirator masks. Never mind that this allows disabled and immune compromised kids to safely share in something they’re otherwise excluded from. Fuck them kids.
All this COVID revisionism and minimising makes me think back to April 2020 when I begged Mrs Moog not to call an ambulance as everyone who went to hospital at the time, including two neighbours, died alone on a ventilator and I’d rather die at home. Oh, and the last 6 yrs in bed with Long Covid.
And missing the dissonance of simultaneously believing that 1. It’s lab created like a bioweapon, And 2. It’s harmless let it circulate
If you're scared about being the only person wearing a mask, I can tell you that most people do not care. I've been masking for the past 6 years. I've travelled to several different countries in that time. I've never had Covid and I've endured a handful of snarky comments at most. Be brave.
Ward Q. Normal (he/him)@wardqnormal.bsky.social · last mo.If you haven't been masking, give it a try. What do you have to lose? Just wear one in crowds and on planes, trains, and buses. Find a style that fits, so you don't futz with it. You don't have to get sick all the time.
People still complain about “lockdowns” but we had none in the US. We had stay-at-home orders, where although businesses were closed, you could still go outside whenever you wanted. Other countries had far stricter rules, and yet have been much more accepting of them as they saved many more lives.
Let’s be clear here, when scientists say mistakes were made at the start of the pandemic, we DO NOT mean that we did too much. We mean not socially distancing quickly enough, not making tests widely available, and not acknowledging COVID is airborne and distributing N95 masks to everyone.
Please stop saying “lockdowns.” There were never true lockdowns in the US, and it fuels far right narratives to repeat this inaccurate statement. You can say closures, you can say restrictions, or better, you can say public health measures which saved many lives.
Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · last mo.People still complain about “lockdowns” but we had none in the US. We had stay-at-home orders, where although businesses were closed, you could still go outside whenever you wanted. Other countries had far stricter rules, and yet have been much more accepting of them as they saved many more lives.
You’ll have to forgive the disableds for thinking this was a bad policy choice, with enormous evidence to suggest it would be bad freely available beforehand. Several hundred thousand of our friends are dead and that tends to make us tetchy.
And as a result, 800,000 Americans died, and are still dying. An estimated 6% of Americans have long covid, likely a significant undercount. Every administration makes choices. . And in this case, the outcomes were devastating, avoidable, predictable, and directed at our most vulnerable citizens.
They made a choice to drop mask mandates. A choice to reduce the isolation period AGAINST science. A choice not to pursue funding for air filtration infrastructure. A choice to say the pandemic was over when it wasn’t. A choice to hide that they were still testing White House visitors.
Fauci could’ve said “the vulnerable falling by the wayside is an unacceptable consequence and we are going to continue to vigorously urge, and if necessary legislate and fund, enduring safety measures to protect ALL of our citizens.” But that’s not what was said, or done.
Nope nope nope. What we’re not going to do is pretend the abandonment of the vulnerable to Covid was a given fact or an inevitability. The US government could have continued to prioritize safety measures to protect the vulnerable until better treatments were found. You do You was a policy choice.
Batdog@jeffreyschmeffrey.bsky.social · last mo.He's simply stating a fact
Because, despite yelling at maskers constantly to stop living in fear, they are the ones unable to face theirs.
They can't accept victory because they know we're right, and that by "winning" they have lost. But they can't admit it to themselves, so they see our continued existence as a constant rebuke.
if you are ignoring a minority saying they desperately need your solidarity because “the government says you don’t have to anymore,” it is unlikely that you’re on the right side of the issue.
As we recall the trauma caused by COVID in 2020, we should not forget COVID continues to harm. Many still suffer from Long COVID, people who mask are often harassed, and we haven’t scaled clean air infrastructure. If we truly acknowledge past harms, we should be working to create a better future.
It’s always odd to me when I get asked if I am wearing a mask because I am sick. In my experience, these days most people wearing a mask are doing so to prevent themselves getting sick, and most people who are sick don’t wear a mask at all.
Several players have flu-like symptoms ahead of their biggest World Cup match ever. While teams often obscure the truth around sickness due to gamesmanship, it's surprising that more high performance athletes don't take simple precautions like wearing a mask.
Norway struggle to stay healthy as World Cup travel takes its toll
Norway coach Stale Solbakken said some of his players have been feeling under the weather ahead of their World Cup quarter-final against England on Saturday, as a month of travel, training and high-...
reuters.com
It's remarkable how often people will say they care about you while simultaneously encouraging you to ignore the very experiences that changed your health for their convenience