“Stop trying to get people to wear a mask. They're never going to do so.”
“Stop trying to get people to stop smoking. They're never going to do so.”
“Stop trying to get people to wear seatbelts. They're never going to do so.”
“Stop trying to get doctors to wash their hands. They're never going to do so.”
The future is changed and lives are saved--eventually--by people willing to continually encourage people to do unpopular but safe things. #COVID19#WearAMask
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who identified a chemical tweak to messenger RNA that laid the foundation for vaccines against #Covid19, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology/ Medicine.
As this photo shows, both scientists are wearing masks and NOT relying on the "vax and relax".
I read a dad's post today about how hard it was for his kids to remain masked at school when everyone else is unmasked. It takes such courage. I made this for all the kids still masking. I applaud you and thank you. Please feel free to print it out and give it to your little heroes. #CovidIsNotOver#NotAllHeroesWearACape But they do #WearAMask#covid#maskup#heroes#resistance#solidarity
I have to go in for an injection every four weeks. I visit my local clinic for these appointments. I'm masked, always, but there are no more masks in health care. Today's visit:
Nurse: So you still...
Me: I still what?
Nurse: points at face
Me: Sorry?
Nurse: You still wear a mask?
Me: I do.
Nurse: I see. You're going to have to take it off someday, though.
Me: No, I don't.
Nurse: It's mild now.
Me: They also said EBV is mild. I got it as a teenager and 15 years later I still have not recovered.
Nurse: Well...
Me: I have never beaten a bacterial infection without antibiotics. I have never been ill for less than two months with any viral infection. Everything up til now seriously knocks me down, like my medical file says. At least 10% of people still have symptoms six months after their covid infection. What does that mean for me? Why should I risk it?
Nurse: It's a really big offer to make, still wearing a mask.
Me: Actually it's really a very tiny effort to wear a mask.
Nurse: Do you wear that everywhere? Or just when you visit here?
Me: I wear it anywhere where people are, especially medical buildings where lots of sick people come to visit.
Nurse: So do you wear it at home as well?
Me: What? No. Why would I?
Nurse: Well, I don't know, since you seem to be wearing it everywhere.
Me: Could you please just use the syringe now?
Nurse: Okay, if you would rather wear a mask all the time than feel bad every once in a while...
Me: You know, I have to think about my income too. I'm a freelancer. Who's going to pay me when I'm sick in bed for at least three months? I don't get sick leave. Who's paying me? Will it be you?
Nurse: silence
Me: Anyway could you please do the injection and make a new appointment for August, many thanks.
😫
This is what being chronically ill is like now. I have 15+ years of bad experiences with medical personnel and their gaslighting, their withholding of care and their abuse. But it's frustrating to have another topic up for debate possibly every visit now.
New type of mask interaction today, when I had to go to the hospital for a yearly check-up (sadly unavoidable). Nobody wore a mask, not even medical personnel when they had to physically interact with patients. There was still disinfectant gel around, but I was the only one using it.
An unmasked nurse came to pick me up from the waiting room and when she dropped me off at the room, she pointed at my mask and said: "Miss?! Do you have corona?!"
I explained: "No, I'm trying to prevent it."
Her: "So you don't have any symptoms?"
Me: "No, none, just wearing this to protect myself."
Her: "Are you vulnerable?"
Me: "Yes."
Her: "Sorry about that, I just have to check when I see something, you know? With these new guidelines, anyone could be having corona anywhere! And most don't even wear a mask!"
Me: "True, I heard the coughing in the waiting room."
Her: "Yes! And they don't stay at home! They don't even mask! I bet people like you could use people like them like a tooth ache!"
Me: "Indeed, I wish people wore masks."
Her: "Unbelievable, such people!!! Coming here of all places!!! Anyway, I'll get the doctor, be right back."
I was kind of surprised that she felt so strongly about unmasked sick people (I'm used to everyone minimizing the severity or covid or claiming it's gone), but I was also annoyed that she wasn't masked herself either. I don't have energy for those types of conversations anymore though, I'm just trying to get in and out of the building as quickly as possible.
A little while later I was waiting in the treatment room for the doctor to arrive, when I saw the door open a tiny bit. I heard the same nurse explain to someone: "The patient is wearing a mask, but I checked and she doesn't have covid, she's just one of those vulnerables, you know? So don't worry, she's not sick."
Then the doctor came in, unmasked, and no further comment was made about my mask.
If only there was a simple way for all these medical people in the hospital to prevent the spread of covid to themselves and their patients... 🤡
If you started wearing a mask again tomorrow it would make a difference for you and those around you. It is ok to restart if you stopped before. Learning and growing and knowing how to protect yourself is a process, it is ok to restart.
If you work in healthcare and you are not properly masked, then I will automatically assume that you are incompetent. Because there’s no other plausible explanation for your failure to grasp enough of the basics of modern sanitation to keep your patients and yourself safer from deadly airborne diseases. #COVID#WearAMask#science
March 2020 an asshole private practice dick was trying to force me to see patients in person despite a history of clots, asthma, and pulmonary infarction just years earlier.
I refused, got an ADA excuse from my doctor.
Still "did my job."
Saw patients virtually without issue.
That attending was 43yo & went in.
He didnt live to see 44.
He died after #COVID19 & probable Covid-induced myocarditis.
I find when I talk to friends about my isolated life in the pandemic, they reply with surprise: "Oh really? The pandemic is over here."
Friends in the US. Friends in Europe. Friends in Canada. Family in Canada. People I previously thought of as intelligent, educated, and at least bare-bones science literate.
It is honestly exhausting. And the constant sense of disappointment, betrayal and (social) loss hits hard some days.
COVID-19 damages the brain. Students have trouble learning. Connect the dots.
“They’re actually starting to see students backslide, losing the knowledge and skills they had. Across all age groups, students are falling behind.”
“Study after study has shown that Covid causes severe brain damage and disruption.”
“Covid brain fog remains a common and persistent problem for millions. Patients describe ‘the feeling that their brain is lost in a maze, and they can’t find their way back.’”
“Some people get back to normal after a few months. Others might never recover.”
Those are quotes from Jessica Wildfire’s latest “OK Doomer” substack piece, “It’s Not Learning Loss. It’s Brain Damage, and Schools Are Letting It Happen.” Read it, and get back to wearing a mask when among others.
"Oh Dr. 《So and So》? Yeah I dont see him for therapy anymore. He got COVID and his brain no longer works right. He cant really remember much of what we talk about."
Quote from today.
Another PhD with 12+ years postgrad education disabled & in a cascading manner no longer available for patients because the majority chooses to infect with impunity.
»Masking is not ‘living in fear’, it's being smart to avoid damage to your health from a deadly disease. It also protects others, which we should all be doing.«
While 1 in every 13 people in our province is infected with #covid, my Faculty organizes 'research cluster lunches' to get people together. Free food encourages them to not #WearAMask.
Who is absent?
These are strategic events at which important conversations are meant to happen, bonds are made, initiatives born.
Who is excluded?
This is how institutional #ableism looks like. Excluding those who don't participate in #CovidIsAirborne spreader events is a choice.
My last day at work has been scheduled. In just 3 shifts, my 25 year career in #proAudio comes to a screeching halt while I enter the terrifying world of #disabilityInsurance.
All this because I caught #covid19, once, at work, in June 2022, despite having 4 vaccines.
The first 12 weeks were bad. Then I got a little worse each week. My weight tanked. I am 6' 3 and was a little over 200lbs (my normal weight). A year and a half later, I presently weigh 145 and dropping.
I was diagnosed with #meCFS, #PEM, #POTS, and am still having tests (CT, gastroscopy, biopsy) done on my GI.
#LongCovid is very real, and has robbed me of the luxury of clear though, easy movement, and a "normal" life.
Don't get Covid. Don't get Covid again. #WearAMask, please.