@StillIRise1963 That was our experience last week at oncology & ultrasound clinics.
I ended up confronting staff & stood at front desks until they put masks on. I made a scene in waiting areas too. I have no regrets about this.
@StillIRise1963 They looked embarrassed when I was saying - I got extra masks if you don't have any here - while whipping out extra masks.
Everyone should be wearing masks inside medical buildings. Our public health authority is messed up & their lack of safety mandates is killing & disabling more people. Gawdawful lack of leadership.
Masking inside hospitals and whatnot is just such a BARE MINIMUM it's frustrating. Like, this is literally a concentration of sick people. Maybe let's try to avoid turning it into a fricking INCUBATION CHAMBER.
@anitavondannen@StillIRise1963 I was quietly patient for first 2 yrs. Dad died from long covid after getting covid in hospital. I'm done being quiet & patient with folks ok putting others at risk.
@msquebanh That's terrible. So sorry it happened that way. This is what I'm trying to avoid with both of my parents. Death from a medical visit. @anitavondannen
@StillIRise1963@anitavondannen I feel for you because that fear is very real. My family & many others have horrific lived experience on that & we don't want other families to suffer same tragic outcomes.
Hospitals here don't require masking anymore. Some friends who have to get chemo & kidney dialysis treatments have ongoing fears/anxiety about getting covid while getting needed treatments.
@msquebanh It's so terrible to be concerned not only about a serious health issue, but that those who are charged with helping you through it might create yet another health problem. @anitavondannen
@StillIRise1963@msquebanh Since my husband’s cancer treatment I call it the American Healthcareless System. As a German if never ever expected such a failure on every single level.
@StillIRise1963@anitavondannen Yes. Prior to getting covid in hospital due to Dad being put in unprotected area with covid patients - he had no heart problems. He ended up dying from long covid cardiac issues.
Two of my friends have become disabled from long covid & are unable to work now.
I don't think public takes long covid seriously at all & still don't believe it's real. That's a dangerous mindset.
@StillIRise1963@msquebanh@anitavondannen
I wish him luck. I'm very, very glad my friend M had his heart surgery when he did (2018), and that the surgical team decided to take a risk rather than sending him home.
Unfortunately, I had to cease contact with several people because they downplayed seriousness - even after knowing my Dad got covid from the hospital & suffered for over a year from long covid & knowing both me & my Mom are immunocompromised. They showed me, by failure to do simple respectful things - that they don't really give a damn about me or my family & I can't stay friends with anyone who are too selfish to mask up around others.
@msquebanh I think this experience has changed the way many of us see others we know. I have a long time friend who never got vaccinated. @anitavondannen
@StillIRise1963@anitavondannen Same here. I had to terminate that longtime friendship because she made many disrespectful comments that were pretty much disabled & immunocompromised eugenics rhetoric. It was extremely hurtful & absolutely privileged & entitled kind of attitude. Her kids aren't vaccinated either. She bragged about her & kids getting covid multiple times & "They're just fine."
"I think this experience [refusing to mask or vaccinate] has changed the way many of us see others we know."
Since the start of COVID, 14 people I knew died because of it directly - or indirectly, such as not being able to get timely cancer treatments. My world has split into two neat sets, with surprisingly few people in the gray area between.
What amazes me most is that the vast majority are people who are not anti-mask extremists; they simply don't want to be inconvenienced.
@msquebanh@StillIRise1963 Bravo You! Well fucking done! My sweeties mom’s oncologist, mocked her for wearing a mask. She has stage four cancer. I’d like to slap that guy in the face.
@Pineywoozle@StillIRise1963 No patient should be mocked for wearing a mask - much less a cancer patient! I don't get why multiple doctors & medical staff treat high risk immunocompromised patients in such cruel & disrespectful ways.
@StillIRise1963 Just in the past week three friends got Covid. Anecdotally, the spreading occurrences should alert people to protect themselves. Oh wait…this is divided America where people only apply extreme political views to health issues. INSANE.
@StillIRise1963@rogerparkinson@johnflomax we have so much ridiculous work policies here in the United States that we see sick days as just another day off opportunity.
@TransitBiker
People who do not suffer too much from it (or suffer and ignore it) when they get it, and then come sick to the office and make everyone they come in contact with sick too.
@estelle4565@StillIRise1963 if you developed purple spots even if otherwise asymptomatic, would be far more “oh shit” for more people? Then again you have things like “Covid parties”. Our species is so fucked. 🤣🫠
@TransitBiker So fucked! But, you make an excellent point. If Covid gave people wrinkles or scarred their faces in some way, I'd bet everything I have that people would wear masks. 🙄 @estelle4565
@StillIRise1963 I’ll never get it. I can testify about a friend who did marathons pre Covid and now has her bed on the first floor because she can’t manage stairs due to long Covid. It’s real and they aren’t being honest with us about the damage it can do.
@timo21@StillIRise1963 I brought this up to my clinics' staff and they just shrugged! This is the place people come with colds and strep and the flu and everything!
I had to deal with long COVID before we had a name for it. As an opera singer I have a lot of tools that I have used to my advantage versus long COVID. And whereas yes there are two or three things that I cannot get back yet, my stamina, brain fog, My post nasal driven kernely phlegm is mostly fixed Yes opera singers overshare about our bodies
Most important thing I found is to expel all running and coughing things, don't swallow
Using my voice as a barometer to how I am bouncing back has been one of the key things. It is more than perhaps anything else one of the great diagnostics of our own physical health and homeostasis
I've been trying to figure out how to offer vocal lessons because yeah the more you learn to sing and the more you play the flute the better off you are in terms of longevity and health
Famous flautists and divas all live to their hundreds
@StillIRise1963 also, if it’s so mild (“like a cold really! You should definitely get it so it’s done with!”) why are so many seeking medical attention for it and causing hospitals to struggle with the volume of people? You can’t have it both ways.
@StillIRise1963 Same at my husband's oncologist. They even have a sign that says I should be understanding of people who don't want to wear a mask. There are sick people here! I feel like screaming.
@StillIRise1963@Caiotekit In some places, the signs about tolerance are more to respect people who wear masks. It is amazing that even health care facilities have changed so much in the last year or year and a half.
@EricFielding It's opposite world in medicine and that can't be good. What are the ramifications of this type of non-logic for us in the long run. @Caiotekit
@StillIRise1963 I’ve been going to the same oncologist for 16 years. Everyone used to mask up in the waiting room bc, duh, all our immune systems were shot! But now that there’s a pandemic they’ve all stopped. Yesterday nobody, including staff, had a mask, save for a lone phlebotomist, who was chin-strappin’ it. It’s truly Bizarro World.
@StillIRise1963 My extensive medical team always used to. Now they’re all just following “CDC guidelines” which we all know are a joke. Clearly the world is no longer sane.
@StillIRise1963 It blows my mind how quickly things have changed. Even two years ago this would’ve been unthinkable. Maybe we’ve been surrounded by zombies all along and we just didn’t know it.
@KanaMauna@StillIRise1963 I would say we need those special glasses from the movie "They Live" but really we can just see all the unmasked medical personnel right in front of us. Luckily my own provider just re-instituted mask rules in all their facilities.
@StillIRise1963@KanaMauna We have a family gathering in September. It will just be 5 of us, and we all have the previous vax, but still I hope we don't get each other sick.
@jentrification It's all so crazy! Mine sat on the other side of the desk, talking to me about my heart with no mask on whatsoever. He's also my dad's doctor and he told him - a guy will astronomically high blood pressure and a cancer patient - to go into a restaurant and have lunch.🤔
@StillIRise1963
It's barking.
It's the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears, and saying "Nah nah nah nah nah".
It's like ostriches sticking their heads in the sand.
It's like pulling out in front of an oncoming vehicle, not looking at it, so it won't then hit you.
It's proof that the mainstream media, in thrall to billionaires and oligarchs, who want to rid the world of those who don't conform to their desires, have influenced a lot of us. Including health care professionals.
@StillIRise1963 I had the same experience yesterday. I requested the nurse and nurse practitioner wear masks in the room with me. THEY HAD TO GO FIND SOME MASKS TO WEAR. When I expressed concern about the lack of masking, they parroted CDC guidelines and said they were practicing “evidence-based” medicine. I was so flummoxed I didn’t ask what that evidence was, like I should have. They were nice, but they looked at me like I was wearing a matching tinfoil hat with my mask.
@Runkefer@StillIRise1963 The US feels like a land of make believe... the most medically dangerous place for me to even visit someone else this year has been the hospital.
"Use of well-fitting masks in healthcare settings are an important strategy to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses. Well-fitting masks can help block virus particles from reaching the nose and mouth of the wearer (wearer protection) and, if someone is ill, help block virus particles coming out of their nose and mouth from reaching others (source control). ..."
@mloxton@Runkefer@StillIRise1963 It's so deeply concerning how many variations of this story there are. How do people working in health care settings not only not know the CDC guidelines, but adamantly believe the guidelines say THE OPPOSITE of what they actually say? Where are they getting this belief and why are they so confident in it? Real flat Earth vibes going on here.
I've heard this kind of story so many times I've been delaying health care for myself because I can't take the risk of getting COVID. I'm certain I'm not the only person doing this. It's actively harmful that health care workers are so misinformed and so convinced they aren't.
@StillIRise1963
Yes, it has real impact in terms of patient outcomes and clinician risk.
I have very specific concerns as a board member of a liver cancer non-profit - patients living with primary liver cancer are facing a grim enough condition, and getting covid, or their carer getting covid can fuck them up in ways that are irrecoverable.
It also signals to me that they are out of control, and that they are also unsafe in other ways, and so I have really grave concerns
@shaknais@Runkefer@StillIRise1963 Same in Japan. I was at the hospital last week, and the first thing I saw walking in the door was a huge sign saying for the protection of patients, everyone had to wear a mask. Everyone inside had a mask on, and I’ve seen staff go up to people who don’t have one on in the waiting room and tell them they need to wear one.
@StillIRise1963 We have gone so backwards, it truly boggles the mind. Cancer patients and the people around them used to take precautions even before the pandemic! What even is happening?
@shayz0rz I have few words for this. I take both of my parents to all types of docs and I'm seeing the same thing everywhere. Mass psychosis is real outside of MAGA.
@StillIRise1963 It’s like the virus has destroyed the very thinking skills needed for people to avoid it, thus guaranteeing it will outlast us all, or something.
@shayz0rz@StillIRise1963 🌺️ Given the course of this pandemic, it is very difficult for me not to assume that there is some kind of host interaction going on with this virus.
Unmasking from those who masked before 2020, aggressive "revenge travel", denial of COVID as a cause of ill health — going as far as to refuse to test for it when ill, shaming those who refuse to partake in mass infection… it all feels like a slow motion mass suicide.
@shayz0rz@StillIRise1963 🌺️ I think many see that the world is falling apart in so many ways… I wonder if perhaps some are simply choosing not to see it all fall apart. Learned helplessness is a dreadful thing.
@croissant@StillIRise1963 I think there’s probably also a “gotta go some way. Life is short” mentality, but even that doesn’t explain openly courting a virus that can disable you and make that short life so much harder.
@shayz0rz@StillIRise1963 🌺️ I think it's fatalism with a purpose beyond just absolving people of their carelessness for others. It's like they want to feel like they stopped the pandemic and can go back to normal… and also that anything that happens as a result of dropping precautions — including things that happen to them — is completely unavoidable.
Humans were always different than other species... if animals are running out of a forest there will always be that ONE. PERSON. who has to run towards it to see why. Always.
Currently our society (in general but this issue entirely) is run by that one dumbass.
We can still survive them but they are definitely winning right now...
My mental image of cancer treatment is 'everyone masks, all the time', partially because a friend of mine who had been through it got very annoyed at a movie we were watching and lectured me on it- in the early 90s.
I mean, chemo completely screws with your immune system, of course you're going to take some basic precautions. Even if you're not on chemo, solidarity counts!
@Oggie@StillIRise1963 That last part is applying logic that, apparently, very few of us have anymore. But yeah…masks around cancer patients ought to fall into the category of no-brainer. I’m infuriated that it doesn’t. WTF is the point in going through so much torturous treatment if everyone is hellbent on killing you with COVID anyway?
@anitavondannen So many of us are vulnerable. Everyone in my house is. We take great precautions. I only seriously started leaving the house again a few months ago. @Oggie@shayz0rz
@StillIRise1963@anitavondannen@shayz0rz
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to minimize people who are immno-compromised in any way, merely was attempting to highlight that this is a literal cluster of people who are extremely likely to have weakened or possibly minimally functional immune systems, and the masks are right there.
I remember one of the first things that was said really early in 2020 was 'I hope it just becomes normal to mask when convenient' followed by 'like in hospitals'.
@Oggie No, I didn't hear what you said that way at all. This could have all been so different if it weren't for that sadist conman. @anitavondannen@shayz0rz
@shayz0rz@StillIRise1963 even 100 years ago smallpox sufferers and the like would be forcibly detained to contain spread. now, people are choosing infection like they are LARPing the year 1349.
@hannu_ikonen@StillIRise1963 There’s just zero logic left. “This is the sickest I’ve ever been. You don’t want this. I was miserable,” and then, they run around just begging COVID to come back to them.
@shayz0rz@StillIRise1963
Beats me. I've been in cancer treatment since July 2022. My oncologist dropped the mask requirement over a month ago. I caught COVID (not sure if from there or from my daughter who was asymptomatic) and had to take Paxlovid.
I was trying to continue to mask, but if no one else in the building is...it's kind of futile. So 🤷
@IntentionallyBLANK@StillIRise1963 While one-way masking is clearly not a guarantee of safety, it’s still better than nothing. I hate seeing people giving up on something like this.
@shayz0rz@StillIRise1963
It honestly feels like an exercise in futility. But, I also have kids in school and their friends in and out of the house constantly.
I would have to live in a mask to maintain any level of consistency. Alternatively, I'd have to keep my kid's friends out or make them wear masks, I guess, but I doubt that would work, either. We've already established my daughter gets COVID but doesn't get symptoms (we only tested her after her father and I had symptoms).
People with other circumstances might have better luck avoiding it. Without masking being a social norm, I'm left to accept the fact I may catch it again. The good news being that I'm eligible to get Paxlovid and it works well, even if it makes everything taste like toxic waste.
@IntentionallyBLANK I totally hear you. Having school age kids would throw a monkey wrench into any plan. There's too much you can't control. My husband and I always talk about how hard it would be. @shayz0rz
@StillIRise1963@shayz0rz
Yes, there are too many variables in my situation. If someone can control exposure, especially if they have something like cancer, it makes sense to do that. Having chemo treatments and COVID at the same time is miserable at best and potentially life threatening at worst. I say that from experience.
In short, I'd still mask if I thought it would do me any good. I do wish healthcare settings would be more sensitive about this. When I was still doing radiation earlier this year, they dropped masks entirely. The waiting room was invariably packed, too. My oncologist's office was the last hold-out.
Perhaps, subconsciously, a large number of people have decided that dying is a viable way forward. Wish they wouldn't put the rest of us at risk though. And do they really look forward to the chance of years of misery with Long Covid?
I don't get it either. Have we been mixing genes with lemmings?
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