There's been more variants (and more variants of concern) than ever before because the "vax and relax" and "let 'er rip" methods of public health do nothing to minimize spread, and each new infection is a potential for covid to mutate.
See how much mutation has happened just in the last year (0.000 on this graph is late 2019)
We have to mask, ventilate, clean our air, and distance when possible to help slow covid to the point that we can actually vax and relax.
Looks like vaccination DRAMATICALLY lowers Long Covid risk. PLEASE read this and get those new variant vaccinations folks!
y’all do NOT go out next week unless you have to and wear your best masks and tape the edges down bc it’s just not worth it
A douyin promoted on an account that recaps interesting events seen on the platform.
English added by me :)
(tag from @eastberlin)
Corvid testing...
Cartoon by Steve Sack
There’s a pretty sobering PSA playing on TV in my state.
Had a family member waiting in the ER with a friend of theirs overhear a man calling around and telling his family goodbye
He was in the early stages of a heart attack (chest pain and the like) and the triage nurse, as kindly and gently as she could, had already said they probably wouldn’t be able to get him back in time.
A man was in the process of dying, right next to life saving equipment and professionals, and too many beds/people were dealing with COVID patients (also in the process of dying) to treat him. My family member had to leave before she found out if he made it or not but….how horrid….to be alone and making goodbye phone calls when it should be easy to keep you alive.
There was a news report about the same hospital trying desperately to keep a different man alive in the waiting room and being unable to. Having to wheel his dead body to the morgue after hours of waiting for a bed and equipment that never freed up.
Please go get your vaccine if you’re able, please.
“oh but I could still get covid so what’s the point???” THIS! This is the point! You will 99.99% stay out of the hospital and let people like these two men not have to make goodbye calls to their families!!
😷
😷
My hospital is in chaos because of unvaxxed fucks, not to mention the staffing crisis. They frequently have to put beds in hallways because all the rooms are full, so imagine you’re bleeding out from a car crash and they have to dump your ass in the hallway because there’s no where else to put you. Oh and someone’s probably coughing on you, which is awesome.
Get your goddamn vaccines
Me in 2022 when the pandemic hasn’t ended yet because people don’t know how to act right and I’ve been holed up in my house for three years acquiring a new flavor of crazy, going to open the door for the guy in the hazmat suit that’s come to deliver my groceries
When I was 18, circumstances found me stuck on the family farm for three months, alone with no vehicle. Twice my mom came back for half an hour to drop off food and smokes. There was no internet, only a couple fuzzy broadcast tv stations. Phone calls were expensive. The closest bump on the highway was about 500 people, with a Kwik Trip and some churches. It was about three hours each way. The closest neighbor was a mile away across hills and valleys.
By the end I was wearing a white robe and broad straw hat, carrying a sword, peeing on the lawn, performing magic on the hilltops. I was deep into some wild conspiracy shit and doing a lot of writing, making a lot of mix tapes. I talked intensely with the tv and radio, and developed in-depth relationships with the characters on “Hill Street Blues.”
If I learned anything from the experience, it is this.
Give in to the inevitable craziness right away, and just get comfortable.
hold on im begging you for more information
I would pay $12.99 for this post
COVID is slowly becoming a "third world" disease. While first world countries are hoarding vaccines, having doses for populations many times their size, third world countries can't get any because pharma companies want to sell to the first world countries first. Even then, first world countries will receive them first. While rich countries recover from COVID, they will forget about the pandemic while many other countries live the absolute worst moment of the pandemic without being able to vaccinate their population.
Watch also when some first world countries finish vaccinating their populations, they will turn to third world countries and "donate" or sell surplus vaccines. People in these countries will go "Oh how sweet! The government is donating vaccines to the poorer countries <3" when it was their hoarding that led to many, many third world citizens dying before they could even get vaccinated in the first place.
african and latin american countries are also pushed by pfizer to give up sovereign assets as part of their vaccine agreement
This is not a bullshit useless change dot org petition by the way this is an actual thing with legal consequences. If this petition gets to a million signatures, the european commission HAS to examine it.
SIGN IT!
I have so many feelings about this, but they boil down to the same frustrated rage I've had for a year or more.
you need to read this article
This is a long read, and I really suggest going into it if you have the time, but here are the main points:
Throughout the early pandemic, the CDC and WHO insisted that COVID was spread through droplets, not through aerosols, insisting that to be considered 'airborne' it had to travel on particles 5 microns or smaller. Anything larger was a 'droplet', which would fall quickly and stick to surfaces, explaining the emphasis on social distancing and surface sanitation.
Aerosol scientist and infectious disease researcher Lindsey Marr, along with others such as atmospheric physicist Lidia Morawska, argued that made no sense. Depending on temperature, humidity, ventilation, etc much larger could easily travel large distances through the air. They presented evidence like choir practice superspreader events, which droplets couldn't explain. The WHO shut them down, insisting on the 5-micron fulcrum.
Marr wanted to find out where everyone was getting the 5 micron number, because everything quoted it like fact. She communicated with Hong Kong indoor-air researcher Yuguo Li who had come to similar conclusions. With the help of grad student Katie Randall's forensic approach to research, they eventually tracked down where the number came from:
Tuberculosis.
In experiments from the 40's and 50's, only guinea pigs who had been exposed to aerosolized TB particles 5 microns or smaller contracted the disease. The problem is, tuberculosis is SUPER PICKY. If It doesn't get all the way through your respiratory system into your lungs, it doesn't cause an infection.
The 5-micron limit has been applied to every disease since, but no other respiratory infection is that picky. If enough viral particles of COVID, or the flu, or the common cold lands anywhere in your respiratory system it can get a foothold.
Very slowly and quietly, the CDC and WHO has changed its stance on aerosolization, and the importance of ventilation and mask-wearing indoors. This article argues it was too little too late, and caused too many unnecessary deaths.
I read about this way back in July, when the group of scientists and physicians first sent a huge petition to WHO to change their guidelines, and I’ve been trying to tell people about it ever since. Because what you need to do to protect from aerosols is very different from what you need to do to protect from droplets and this is killing people by the hundreds of thousands.
So here’s what we know about what ACTUALLY protects people from COVID. Basic definition of terms: an aerosol is a gas/vapor. It’s the air from your lungs. Physically it acts like steam or smoke.
Not significantly helpful:
I’m not telling you this to say, like, “don’t do these things”, but so you know that doing these things does not make you safe. You need to do the things in the second list.
1) 6 feet. I’m sorry. I know this has been your guiding life principle for the last year. The WHO and CDC lied to you. This is not a conspiracy anti-mask dumbass thing. They actually did. That’s the biggest thing about aerosols vs droplets: droplets stop at six feet. Aerosols DO NOT. You can be all the way on the other side of a church service or a wedding or a whatever and get COVID. That’s how superspreader events happen. (You know how everyone’s het up about the CDC saying vaccinated people don’t have to be six feet apart? It’s... not actually about the vaccination. They just know now that 6 feet didn’t help significantly in the first place.)
2) Sanitizing objects. It’s not very specifically mentioned in this particular article, but was part of what they said back in July: “fomites” - contaminated objects - are just... not a factor in COVID at all. All that Lysoling of chairs and shit is pointless. Probably don’t shake the hand of someone who’s coughing into their hand and then immediately suck on your fingers, but we’ve known for more than a year that tables, chairs, railings, etc cannot pass COVID.
3) Handwashing. Please... please do wash your hands, there are many other things you transmit/get from your hands. COVID is however not one of them. Hands fall under the category of “fomites”. Again, don’t put your hand right into your mouth seconds after someone coughs on it, but since COVID is actually passing through air there’s like... not much air that sticks on your hand??? The amount of virus that sticks to your hand is not enough to give you COVID. Also COVID infects you through your lungs not your skin.
4) Bad masks. While wearing a mask is good, many (most!) sorts of masks actually make the problem worse. Your goal isn’t to block droplets from shooting forward, it’s to stop aerosol - gas - from getting, well, anywhere. An ill-fitting mask that has a gap between the mask and your cheeks will cause aerosol to blow backwards at people behind you. A mask that doesn’t have wire at the top will blow the aerosol upwards where it can settle back down all over the room. A bandana, or a mask not covering your nose, or a face shield, or a mask with a valve or a hole, will do absolutely fuck-all.
Things that do help:
In summary, the NUMBER ONE THING - the factor that controls like 95% of risk - that we now know matters (as of a year ago, fuck you, WHO) is air flow/ventilation.
1) Being outdoors. This the single best way to avoid COVID. Being in an outdoor area with free airflow is the best thing you can do by miles, I cannot emphasize this enough. This is why protests weren’t superspreader events. An outdoor area with restricted airflow (like between buildings) is not as good but is still infinitely safer than being six feet away from someone with masks indoors.
2) Proper air circulation. If you have to be inside and have any control over the building, open the doors and windows. Put fans blowing air outside. Turn on the bathroom and stove exhaust fans. If nothing else stand near the door.
3) Air filtration. Get. a. HEPA. cleaner. These filter virus out of the air. A properly used HEPA cleaner cuts indoor virus risk to almost as low as being outdoors.
4) Air filtration part 2. If you have full control over a building, revamp the HVAC system. You need a system that recirculates large amounts of air continuously and filters it to medical standards. If it’s just your home, make sure your HVAC system has a good filter on it. Pressure businesses and airlines to update their air filtration.
5) Good masks. Remember: the mask has to stop air. Not droplets. If air can get in or out anywhere around your mask, the mask is NOT HELPING. Your mask needs to have a wire at the top to stop gaps around your nose and to fit smoothly against your cheeks. If the mask isn’t layered enough to filter air it is also not helping.
6) Get. Fucking. Vaccinated. We didn’t know at first but we do know now that the COVID vaccine is incredibly effective. Like, way more than most vaccines. (Get all your vaccines. But they all do leave some risk of both getting and transmitting the disease, which is one of the reasons we need herd immunity. The COVID vaccine has a way lower lingering risk.) It keeps you safe and it keeps everyone else safe.
WOW this makes me real fucking angry.
Racist, Sexist Boy || The Linda Lindas
Fucking dope
To all my followers who are citizens of the EU and of voting age, please consider signing and sharing this EU citizens' initiative requesting that the European Commission stop upholding intellectual property rights regarding COVID vaccines and treatments and make them a public good instead.
In order for the European Commission to read these proposals this initiative needs a lot more people signing that it has now, so every person counts.
Please reblog if you support this. Likes don’t mean much on this hellsite, and they especially mean nothing for this sort of thing!
do you guys wanna see how bs ‘’’bmi’’’ is?
let’s start with a few pictures of my body shall we
(please ignore messy room i’m in the process of packing)
okay so that’s the body of someone that eats healthy, literally my fave food is broccoli, and i work out 5 days a week, you’d think i’m at ‘’’healthy weight’’’’ right?????
BITCH NOPE
that bitch telling me to eat 1500 - 1900 calories a day are you fucking joking??? that’s fucking starving myself and i’m not doing that. fuck you.
Bmi was never meant to be used for individuals; it’s only useful for talking in generalised terms about a large population and as a potential guide.
thank you for your input, not many people know that. but still, an official site such as the fucking nhs recommending a full grown woman to eat under 2,000 a day is not okay!!! (Especially considering the fact that it took into account my regular activity)
calories are bullshit too
a calorie is the amount of energy released in laboratory conditions to heat water when it’s burned
so in the lab you have an instrument to burn the food and you measure how much of it it takes to heat water a set amount,
this does not in any way reflect how the body works
your body breaks down foods in different ways, for example monosaturated fats break down very slowly but processed sugars break down very fast
so by that logic something that is almost pure carbohydrate would be much worse than something that is almost pure monosaturated fat
not necessarily
oats, for example, are something like 95% fibre, meaning although they are pure sugar the body decides it’s not worth the bother of breaking them down so you get a small fraction of the sugar in the oat
so just going by carbohydrate [aka sugar] content doesn’t work properly either
a stick of butter has WAY more calories than a boiled potato but the stick of butter breaks down over several hours and keeps you satiated longer than that boiled potato that immediately floods your system with sugar, that triggers the response of too much store that for later, which causes a lack in your body which triggers the i’m hungry response
or the peanuts being high protein high fat are the reason why a snickers fills you up longer than a mars bar even though it might have a higher calorie count - because you’re full longer you eat less calories because you don’t go i’m hungry and eat another mars bar
and that’s all assuming that every body processes food the exact same way
tl:dr the human body is a very complicated machine and using a very simple method of measuring energy intake is complete nonsense
i always knew the BMI was bullshit but having solid proof is reassuring and will def help with my recovery!!!
BMI is bullshit and I’m so mad the medical community is still using it
I’m a varsity athlete (rugby, so let’s keep in mind i throw myself at other human beings who are often bigger than me) and my BMI is always ‘overweight’ except for the brief period last summer in which i was eating about 1300 calories a day to make myself hot (12/10 would not recommend). right now my butt looks great, and I’m probably in the best shape ive ever been in. muscle weighs more than fat. BMI does not factor in body composition, which is a much better indication f health. also beauty standards at totally unattainable so. I’m 5′2″ and weigh more than most 6ft models because of the amount of muscle mass i carry and sure I’m a little squishy round the edges but I’m healthy. so BMI can kiss my ass
This post is so good, so pure, so important
Adding on to all of this up here, hormones play a significant role in fat storage. “Eat less and exercise more” is a fad diet. Losing fat, gaining fat, and maintaining weight has far more to do with hormonal composition in your body than anything. Change your hormonal composition, and your body’s fat distribution is subject to change. This is why dfab people often gain weight when undergoing menopause or after having a hysterectomy (gender confirmation surgeries typically excluded as the subjects are often on testosterone). This is why endocrine disorders are often associated with significant weight loss or weight gain.
Another example of the BMI being bullshit: many professional athletes have very low percentages of body fat while also having a high BMI.
Joe Rogan is considered obese by the BMI, regardless of his low body fat percentage.
Some more examples of actual Olympians:
The BMI is bullshit
Quetelet, the guy who invented the bmi, literally influenced the eugenics and phenology movements. He developed this thing in a quest to quantify the perfect human (coincidentally white northern European and relatively slim, by his preference) by the numbers, labeling outliers as deviant - sound familiar? He wasn’t even a doctor, he was an astronomer and mathematician.
The bmi isn’t bullshit because it’s inaccurate, it’s bullshit because it’s built on fatmisia
Please watch this playlist on YouTube from @ok2befat (sources are listed for each video)
Reminder that in a lot of places right now, if you’re “overweight” or “obese” via the BMI, you qualify for the COVID vaccine. Sign up and get vaccinated! (Whether you have other medical conditions or not, it protects you and protects the people around you.)
^^^ This. Also, considering how doctors systematically tend to disregard “obese” people’s complaints/provide us inadequate treatment as a rule, you’re totally valid to use it to protect yourself in this instance.
Still in very early stages, but what a wonderful thing it would be if it works out.
!!!
Her name is Katalin Karikó. Hungarian. Daughter of a butcher. Her thesis work became the basis of the mRNA vaccine technology. Read the article here.
Dr. Kariko’s struggles to stay afloat in academia have a familiar ring to scientists. She needed grants to pursue ideas that seemed wild and fanciful. She did not get them, even as more mundane research was rewarded.
“When your idea is against the conventional wisdom that makes sense to the star chamber, it is very hard to break out,” said Dr. David Langer, a neurosurgeon who has worked with Dr. Kariko.
so much for capitalism fueling innovation. Dr.Kariko barely managed to stay in academia through connections with other scientists - imagine all the other scientists who had incredible ideas and were pushed out because of lack of funding. corporate markets should not be dictating research, pursuit of knowledge belongs to the people.
guess who found that out by getting gettysburged yesterday?
like for real. the worst day of menstruation of my life. for people who know their menstrual cycle and haven’t gotten a vaccine yet, book it around your cycle if at all possible omg.
I got my first shot a week ago and the lead-up to my period was very strange. Normally I start getting cramps about half a day before I start bleeding, but I had that pre-period crampy feeling for three days this time followed by a pretty heavy period. I was pretty concerned until I realized it might have something to do with having just gotten the vaccine. I’m definitely pleased to see they’ve started collecting data about it.
If you have room to maneuver when scheduling your shot definitely keep your cycle in mind.
This happened to me this week. I went to the doctor and they didn’t tell me this, so here it is for folks who might need it.
This is such an important and genuinely terrifying post. I could completely go off on the rise of anti-science, but for now I’ll just add: it isn’t just boomers that get deceived. This is a warning to all of us.
Pay ATTENTION to what you are being told. If you think you cannot be deceived, you leave yourself open to deception. Question, doubt, research research research. Learn about your personal biases, dig up any subconscious cognitive dissonance. Keep an eye on your mind.
It needs to be stressed that biases, not a lack of intelligence, is very much the issue here. Being aware of the need to fact check yourself is key: Intelligence won’t protect you from bad or unhealthy mental states, or keep you safe from cults of any sort. Intelligence will just make it easier for you to rationalize and attempt to justify the malformed tools you’ve taken/been given to yourself and others. You need to be wise enough to challenge yourself.
As a cult survivor, this is lethally accurate.
the “mistake” was the public finding out about it, and not agreeing with them :U
What the
What the fuck
