Hey look, it’s The Atlantic continuing to marginalize people who don’t want to get infected repeatedly with COVID.
You know, this patronizing story pairs well with new reporting about long-term damage from multiple COVID infections.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/04/covid-conscious/682252/
You know, this patronizing story pairs well with new reporting about long-term damage from multiple COVID infections.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/04/covid-conscious/682252/
Comments
I thought wearing a mask was freedom of choice or whatever MAGA was fighting about the whole time they didn't wear them during Covid-19
No. It doesn't magically go into remission for months
Covid19 "remains among the nation’s leading causes of death, on par with traffic accidents and suicides"
So he stigmatize people who don't want to die so wear masks?
How Elon Muskish of him
Coronavirus never stopped its killing rampage: Hundreds of Americans die from it every week, even now in March of 2025, when pandemic emergency is over & the virus is theoretically offseason
Nearly 50,000 people died from COVID in the U.S. last year, too"
Risk of #LongCovid is cumulative
By 3+ infections, 38% report longterm symptoms
10% of Cdns had LC 3.5 million
2 million still have it
1 million have not had any improvement in symptoms
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2023001/article/00015-eng.htm
COVID is going to continue circulating, mutating, harming, and killing. And we’re dealing with measles now too.
There will be another pandemic—maybe within a decade. Normalizing best practices is good, actually
April, 2024. Much more than quote in in this article.
"“You think viruses stop after 3 feet and drop to the ground?” Tang said of the classical notion of distance. “That is absurd.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/who-airborne-disease-cdc-updated-guidelines-rcna149843
But neoliberalism eschews policy solutions.
Imagine that!
And demands a policy of having our government print money to bail out banks & corporations
psychology is a powerful thing that creates reality; you should know that
#CallForPublicHealthAction
https://bsky.app/profile/annsplaining.bsky.social/post/3llrk7lzr4k2k
Or maybe I’m not the complete dumbass you baselessly assumed me to be.
I have had to say out loud "fuck off, I have cancer" to the snide remarks, & honestly I'm ready to slap a mofo.
Oncology ward chock full of people too damn "proud" to wear a mask.
Broken. Whole thing is broken.
Covid does that too, funny enough
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU00074597
good thing the atlantic pays me to tell you this indisputable fact
That graph literally shows a doubling in the rate of disability from 2020 onward.
It's laid out real simple for you. Count the rows. How many are there from 2009-2019, a span of 10 years?
Now how many are there from 2020-2025, a span of 5 years?
Do you need Fauci's permission to count?
but who pays them?
why are they worth paying for?
This Lancet editorial does a good and quick job of explaining.
There are too many airborne threats not to. ❤️🙏🏼😷
It’s a “no choice” scenario. I’m a caretaker of a 91yo mother with CHF, Asthma, & Alzheimer’s. I basically live 24/7 at our home.
Anything for the lady who taught me with love-my life’s journey. Now it’s my turn to hold her hand, whisper memories of love & joy while she takes her final path.
Honor to be here 24/7.
“Dennis is still masking quite a bit. He’s wary of attending indoor social gatherings […]. And he’s been takin extra measures to protect himself, […] since 2020, when he bought a tube of ivermectin…”
"The truth, or its best approximation, may be, to some extent, irrelevant."
Of course, like masks, we also have people that want to ban contraceptives for various unhinged reasons not based in reality or the interest of public health.
Contradicted by this @theatlantic.com story, published in the same issue. And acknowledges "Vaccines may help protect against the disease, but getting COVID still means risking long COVID" (i.e. that's why people still mask):
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/04/long-covid-clinics-closing/682251/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo
Read without paywall -
"Long COVID Showed Me the Bottom of American Health Care":
https://archive.is/qmxSg
As a public health professional who actually reads studies, don't fucking group me with him.
Lazy journalism.
For me, putting a mask on before I go in a building carries all the anxiety of, say, buckling my seatbelt or putting on shoes or a bike helmet - just a sensible everyday action for safety.
I'm not "anxious" about breathing cigarette smoke (directly or second-hand): I just don't.
Seat belts.
Speed limits.
Following prescription instructions.
Signalling before a turn.
usw...
1) *actions* for safety (masking, seatbelts, etc.) - based on intellectual risk assessment
2) *adaptive* anxiety - transient nerves that motivate us to care about safety
3) *pathological* anxiety - overwhelming anxiety that disrupts enjoyment of life
But it's also possible to recognize "this is a risk, I'm going to take what steps I can to reduce it" and still feel calm and enjoy all the good and meaningful parts of being human)
And to use that to avoid taking safety actions, and thus rationalize them as unnecessary...
It's important to honor what the underlying anxiety here is, though. Because our society needs people with the courage to be different, in so many ways, more than ever.
It doesn't follow from it being clear on a per-infection basis that the risk of LC has decreased since 2020 pre-vaccination that the cumulative risk of LC is negligible.
I'm waiting, hoping even, that someone can write a fact-based article showing the cumulative risk to be very low. But no one even tries... telling me that, apparently, there is no case to be made for unmasking.
(I'd still mask in essential public spaces (medical offices, transit, stores, etc.) for the safety of those at higher risk from all illnesses, but would be less concerned for myself.)
I talked to the author and he said that he still takes precautions, though not as many as the people he’d connected with while writing this.
So I have thoughts/questions about how the tone of the piece came to be.
But I'd never write anything like this, because there are excellent reasons many people take more precautions!
But also omits (deliberate or oblivious?) the main point: people discovered blocking contagion is feasible via N95 etc. Myriad good reasons for doing so →
As they say:
"The truth, or its best approximation, may be, to some extent, irrelevant."
"Hundreds of Americans" isn't very useful framing anyways, since it doesn't give a sense of proportion compared to other risks in life.
But I'm not okay with their lashing-out mask bans.
I don't still mask everywhere, but I do mask where people are packed or sick. Just makes no sense not to.