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.
realizing many people don't know about infinity train creator owen dennis' among us show from years ago, which has been trapped in unreleased limbo all this time and was just dumped on streaming this morning with no advertisement. they don't even know about its weirdly stacked cast
I think part of getting better is complete ego death. Like you’re not above setting a timer for 5 minutes and focusing on a task. You’re not above doing a very simple 3 minute workout to start. You’re not above reading for 10 minutes a day when you first get out of your reading slump, even if you used to read for hours. You’re not above starting slow and then building up to where you want to be/where you once were. What you are above is total inertia. Doing something really is better than doing nothing. Radically accept where you are, radically accept your limits, and go from there. Don’t let your ego get in the way.
sometimes i have strong opinions but they're also so inane that halfway through writing a post i'll be like "yeah, this is Absolutely not worth the energy it's taking" and delete everything. but then the opinion is still in my head. and i still want to share it. so within five minutes i go "you know, i bet i can phrase it more succinctly this time" and anyway. you all see where this is going. sometimes i do this four times in a row before i give up on the specific inane opinion and instead write a vague post about the concept of opinions as if that'll satisfy the urge to post the entirety of my inner monologue online. may or may not be relevant to what you're reading right now. and now all our lives have been enriched. you're welcome
btw it is sexy and cool to uplift and admire people who have skills you wish you had without using their ability as a stick to beat yourself with. even and especially if you are jealous of them.
btw it is sexy and cool to uplift and admire people who have skills you wish you had without using their ability as a stick to beat yourself with. even and especially if you are jealous of them.
