We killed a whole flu unintentionally just by masking.
Imagine what we could do if we tried.
Covid does not _need_ to circulate. We don’t really have reservoirs of it. It’s not inevitable. Even now.
Imagine what we could do if we tried.
Covid does not _need_ to circulate. We don’t really have reservoirs of it. It’s not inevitable. Even now.
Reposted from
NPR
A strain of influenza appears to have disappeared from the planet since COVID. As a result, U.S. flu vaccines have been redesigned.
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Eventually, another influenza will evolve into its niche, but that’s just evolution. For now, we have breathing space.
Doesn't seem like a big cost to help keep myself, the people I care about, and complete strangers safe.
I don't expect anyone to be perfect. I'm just hoping to add a data point against the idea that everyone getting repeatedly infected is inevitable.
There’s actually a study at Johns Hopkins that looks for people who haven’t had it to be the control group. The study is ongoing, but worth keeping an eye on.
https://covid-long.com/study-updates/
Decided I will drive 2 hours for Xmas Day and then drive home. Get to see family. If lucky, don't lose Novid status.
We are rare as unicorns but can be found in the woods.
My neighbors were Novid but caught it a month ago. :(
My sister reamed me out yesterday for my "privilege" of social isolation & outdoor/WFH occupation.
When I suggested that the US heart attack rate had risen (via CNN piece) she told me that everyone is "over it."
She was venting, so I didn't push back.
#maskswork #covidisairborne
(Though, the psychologist in me needs to point out that venting is not healthy and it not only doesn’t help, it tends to increase aggression.)
That said, one of the most serene people I know, she rarely lets fly.
The career HS teacher in me heard that she feels hurt because for nearly five years I've put my own health ahead of crossing the continent to visit her.
She's not the first in my circle to call me selfish.
Also: why do you have to be the one to travel? She’s making a choice there.
(She's a great follow BTW. Crazy cool.)
Especially because what social distancing?
We didn’t social distance for a year. And we didn’t kill Yamagata B in 6 weeks while 80% of us were climbing the walls and making up excuses to go to the store.
Even just catching sneezes and coughs means lowering the change that somebody else has to be miserable! Why wouldn’t —
Oh right, American Sadism.
"Stay home if you're sick" actually getting some traction was pretty important, too.
Cats don’t seem to be giving it back to their owners after the owners have infected their cats, nor are cats throwing variants.
With airborne, dose matters.
Well. Shit https://x.com/JasonKPargin/status/1846658163367456953
It does happen, we’ve got a little shop up in Estes where the owner was giving something with peanut butter to one fairly young doe and she brought her whole family for free peanut butter, but it’s rare.
Spouse’s company went 100% remote and has stayed that way; I’ve been remote/WFH for almost a decade. That second year I was just so tired of cooking, but I got over that.
So we’re just… adapted to permanent social distancing, and I don’t think I want to go back.
I was wrong. It was masking, etc.
Pipe dreams, I know.
I can’t keep track of what’s theory and what’s real information anymore and so many basic sources basically betrayed us in service to Normalism
It’s the bird flu issue — it’s unlikely and difficult for viruses to jump species. It happens with pigs and birds because we keep them crowded in giant confined spaces, but that’s exponentially more instances than we’d ever get with wild animals.
And practically? We need to get a handle on all of the human-human transmission before we worry about rare animal-human events
We already have enough problems with tick-borne illnesses that people make up urban legends about how many the local possums consume. And recent cases of dengue from mosquitos.
On the bright side several million bats just came through town and hunted for months.
I think of that anytime someone says if it's not an n95 it's pointless (so they choose nothing).
It's revolting that vaccines and common sense medical precautions were intentionally weaponized for purely political purposes.
Mine was realizing that 80%+ of my asthma attacks had some kind of viral trigger, and that first year of masking? I ended the year with an inhaler expiring with 85 puffs left on it. Masking put most of my asthma in full remission. (Mine is cough variant, so a longer road to dx anyway.)