can you imagine if surgeons were like "well we tried wearing gloves while doing surgery for two years and it worked really well, like people stopped dying all the time.... but, I'm going to stop because I don't feel like it"
everyone who complains about children's behavioral issues and blames them on the pandemic are blaming the wrong part of the pandemic. like obviously it's from covid infections. not zoom school.
“Children who have been infected with the disease that causes damage to the brain are exhibiting strange behaviors. It must be the restlessness they felt five years ago!”
I understand people’s lack of willingness to take covid precautions is a systemic failure of public health to educate and acknowledge the ongoing crisis and that individuals alone won’t fix it but my god i want to shake people by the shoulders sometimes and scream please take care of your health because the government won’t
to anyone reading this, if you get sick with covid this season please please please treat it like a serious medical event. sars-covid19 is an incredibly aggressive vascular virus and it attacks and damages every system in your body. rest for as long as you possibly could.
research has shown that radical rest is instrumental in minimizing the damage that covid will inflict on your body. even if you feel fine, take it easy as long as you can—long covid can sneak up on you years after the initial infection and there are no cures and barely any treatments. while we’re at it, please start masking in public. it’s never too late to start again. about 70% of covid spread is pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic, while rapid antigen tests flag false negative in more than half of cases. each covid infection compounds your risk of long covid and it, in turn, can trigger early onset of hereditary conditions (including lots of cancers). it suppresses your immune system. so you need to rest.
if this is scary to read, take care of yourself, but please confront it. yes, it’s existentially terrifying. millions are suffering and there are more people dying from covid per day than 9/11, if memory doesn’t betray me. but, if you and me and our neighbors and coworkers and family don’t start doing something about it, it will Only get worse. consider the context of most kids of this generation having had covid over and over and over again. pediatric long covid is ALREADY more common than asthma. the average life expectancy is lowering day by the day. that’s the future we are heading into. please help us do something about it.
if you would like to help:
start with finding a respirator that will fit the shape of your face for a good seal, KN95 or better, and start wearing it in all crowded places (store, park, doctor, bus, etc). covid moves like smoke and hangs in the air i.e. even if the store is empty you could still get exposed. if you’re in a big metropolitan city, chances are there’s already a mask block near you. you can get a variety of different shapes and sizes and colors of masks for free from them. my local one provides and delivers free rapids, masks, and educational zines for example. consider donating or even better volunteering—a lot of them are run by exhausted disabled people for free—they could use your help.
second, start talking about it. to anyone and everyone. your family, your coworkers, your doctor, neighbors and acquaintances, organizers of events you’re going to. most people do not know this. public health has been obscuring and minimizing the state of public health so we keep making money for the ruling class. the isolation length was literally shortened after delta airlines lobbied for it, even though most science back then already proved that you stay infectious for days on days, and the alarms on long covid were already blaring. talk about it. acknowledge it. post about it, tell people why you started masking again, print out brochures and zines and leave them around where you go.
third, look into the Clean Air movement. clean air is as instrumental to public health as drinkable water, proper waste disposal, and vaccination. with climate change rolling into full force, these things will save thousands of lives and we need to start fighting for them today. contact your local hospital, school district, parent groups, clinics, and representatives (on all levels) and demand universal masking in healthcare, as well as clean air in schools. we need to protect these kids. this will only get better if you and i make it better. so we need to make it better.
and take care of yourself. stress is a killer and rest is revolutionary.
"Sometimes I feel like I am living on a different star from the one I am used to calling home. It has not been a steady progression. I had to examine, in my dreams as well as in my immune-function tests, the devastating effects of overextension. Overextending myself is not stretching myself. I had to accept how difficult it is to monitor the difference. Necessary for me as cutting down on sugar. Crucial. Physically. Psychically. Caring for myself is not self- indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."
- Audre Lorde. A Burst of Light: Essays. 1998.
PSA: if you're watching the new Knives Out mystery (Wake Up Dead Man), please be aware that around 1 hr 34 minutes in, there's a series of flashing/strobing lights. the sequence lasts about a minute.
[ID: comment reading "I have epilepsy went to see it yesterday and covered my eyes too late and had a seizure and all I could think was why are we STILL not putting strobe warnings on movies..." /end ID]
To be specific [spoiler warning for Wake Up Dead Man] there is a scene in the rain, the priest will slip on mud, run into the woods, and a fist will knock him out. Close your eyes immediately when you see the fist. Don't open again until you start hearing conversations.
Hot take: I think most parents actually want to spend time with their kids, but needing to work takes it away from them. Working 40 hours a week not only separates parents from their kids- it also causes exhaustion so that the parents don’t have the capacity to properly care for their kids when they’re not at work.
I think if parents only had to work 25 hours a week max and made a living wage off of it, we wouldn’t be having this massive, widespread iPad Kid problem.
PSA that might not reach anyone but is important at this time:
I’m seeing some public responses to the horrific deaths of Michele Singer Reiner and Rob Reiner that are not only speculative, but encourage discriminatory beliefs.
For one: As this is an ongoing investigation and there is a lot of work to be done, speculation and rumors are unhelpful to the investigation and case.
More importantly: There is a barrage of ableism, classism, and patriarchal notions in comment sections right now. Things like claiming mentally ill people are dangerous, and that people suffering from addiction are choosing their poor situation.
These comments aren’t going to affect Nick Reiner, who is now charged with the murders of Michele and Rob. But they’re going to affect others. They’re going to harm your neighbors.
I think most of us know that it’s dangerous to spread the stereotype that people living with mental illness are violent. Not only because it’s false and leads to discrimination, but also because that stereotype leads to mistreatment of people who are mentally ill in healthcare settings and creates barriers of access to healthcare.
We also can’t use this case as fuel to go down the path of claiming people who are suffering from addiction are choosing it. The people who are going to be hurt the most from this stereotype are the people who need the most help. This stereotype kills the most vulnerable.
Take this opportunity to learn more about mental illness, addiction, how mental illness is exploited in the prison system, and how patriarchy affects men’s mental health and behaviors. In situations where it is safe to, shut down ableist and classist remarks you hear surrounding this case- you will be helping your neighbors in doing this.
I’m involved with a large, diverse, local community of people affected by mental illness. I don’t want to imagine those lovely people I know experiencing an increase in prejudice and stereotyping as a result of the public opinion on this case. I know for a fact that there are a lot of people in your local community who are lovely like the people in mine, and who will be hurt by an increase in prejudice and stereotyping too. Please be their ally right now.
We can choose which direction we want the societal conversation on mental health to go, and I think a lot of us are tired of and ready to just be done with needless stereotypes that only divide us and bring harm.
if you're wondering where you should mask the answer is everywhere that you believe disabled and immunocompromised people deserve to exist. the other thing to keep in mind is that you yourself are likely immunocompromised due to repeat covid infections.
any covid cautious masking community on tumblr?? been feeling rly sad about the fact that even most of my irl best friends don’t mask despite me talking to them about it extensively… need to know we’re not totally cooked.
It's more than just covid: it's nearly every illness we're concerned about spreading in schools and workplaces... Masking up to prevent the spread of illness just makes sense.
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