I just had a guy get angry at me for saying we’re still in a pandemic. He said it was fear mongering and “silly” to continue to take precautions.

He then went on to say his wife has Long Covid and he’s had Covid “at least 4-5 times”.

This attitude is why we’re in this mess. His own wife was disabled by Covid, and rather than adapt his behaviour he’s exposed her 4-5 additional times.

Repeat infections are devastating to those with Long Covid. Not to mention each infection does cumulative damage, and eventually you will be left disabled.

Even if you’re someone who believes it’s “just a flu”… surely you recognize people didn’t get the flu 4-5 times in a four year period? Being sick that often is an aberration, and a darn good reason to take precautions.

You know who hasn’t had COVID 4-5 times? People who are taking precautions.

Bonus tip: If you’re masking and you become infected anyways, you’ve reduced your viral load AND you’ve made sure not to infect anyone else. That’s community care & compassion and it’s worth doing.

Mask bans are ableist, discriminatory ugly laws.

Disabled advocates have been warning for years that if people didn’t help normalize masking, bans would follow

Please call legislators in New York and tell them No mask bans!

Medical exemptions aren’t enough, everyone needs the legal right to mask

The police are not doctors. They can’t determine who’s “sick enough” to wear a mask.

Many people with invisible illnesses struggle to get healthcare workers to take us seriously. We don’t want to be questioned by police.

Everyone should be allowed to mask up to prevent covid.

“We’ve suspected for several years now that there is an association between COVID and POTS. I’m seeing this in my own clinic. My waiting list is longer than it has ever been,” said Dr. Blair Grubb, a UToledo Health cardiologist who has treated and studied POTS for more than three decades. “Now we have the data to back that up. This study helps give validity and voice to these patients, and it gives us a treatable target.”

https://news.utoledo.edu/index.php/03_24_2025/covid-19-brought-about-a-large-rise-in-pots-cases

another #NorthCarolina group looking to make public events safer through COVID activism!

queer the air collective is a QTBIPOC mutual aid group based out of "durham, NC"

besides their work on COVID education on centralized social media...

they opened up a lending library, where they loan an air purifier (currently one so far) for free to community events in the triangle. they have a fundraiser, where they hope to buy more air purifiers to lend out to more events & happenings to make public spaces safer for all!

https://givebutter.com/qtacollective

It’s International Long Covid Awareness Day, and my latest article looks at the reasons why people believe they don’t know anyone with Long Covid.

We desperately need increased visibility into this debilitating chronic illness so that we can raise awareness and fund treatments, mitigations and cures.

Anyone can get Long Covid. It’s not limited to ‘only the vulnerable’ or those who had a severe initial infection.

This disease does not discriminate. Even people with asymptomatic initial infections have found themselves disabled by Long Covid.

It’s time we start processing the trauma of the pandemic and stop living in denial.

We are in the middle of a mass disabling event, and the longer it takes us to admit that, the more people will be harmed.

Let’s spread the word that the only way to avoid Long Covid is to avoid getting Covid in the first place.

Wear a mask. Stay home when sick. Clean and ventilate the air.

When we all agree to care about the air we share, we can begin to bring about real change.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/i-dont-know-anyone-with-long-covid

German spy agency believed CoVid-19 likely started in a laboratory in Wuhan.

The widely accepted theory is that Covid-19 emerged in bats and then jumped to humans, most likely through another animal, or "intermediary host."

As time worn on, scientists have not found a virus in either bats or another animal that matches the genetic make-up of Covid-19, leading some to doubt the theory.

#Pandemic #CoVid19 #Asian #Health #Virus #PublicHealth #SARSCov2

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7vypq31z7o

Corona-Infektionen: Rätsel um PIMS-Erkrankungen bei Kindern gelöst

Die Ursache für das rätselhafte Entzündungssyndrom PIMS als Folge einer Coronainfektion bei Kindern war lange unklar. Jetzt haben Forschende einen Zusammenhang mit einem anderen Virus gefunden. Von Nina Kunze.

https://www.tagesschau.de/wissen/gesundheit/kindergesundheit-corona-pims-infektionen-100.html?at_medium=mastodon&at_campaign=tagesschau.de

Today marks the five year anniversary of Covid being declared a pandemic. Some things I want people to remember:

The threat is not gone. People are still dying and becoming disabled every single day

COVID is airborne. It’s always been airborne. Droplet transmission was pushed incorrectly & then doubled down on for economic reasons. If governments admit it’s airborne, they have to spend money upgrading air quality and providing respirators etc.

The only way to avoid Long Covid is to not get Covid.

A well fitted respirator like an N95 offers excellent personal protection

Mask mandates belong in healthcare

If you’re not masking for your patient, you’re abdicating your responsibility to do no harm

It costs nothing to open a window and it will improve ventilation and reduce odds of viral spread. Air purifiers work well too

COVID is a social justice issue. Masks, tests, air filters, paid time off… these things all cost money. The disease disproportionately impacts those who are most vulnerable and multiple marginalized

Repeat infections don’t make you stronger. They don’t give you immunity. They actually harm your brain, heart and immune system. They’re also NOT inevitable

Kids are harmed by COVID too. They need the adults to protect them. We need clean in schools and on school buses

We went “back to normal” for capitalism. It wasn’t because it was safe. It wasn’t because there was a cure. Governments and those in power Are willing to sacrifice us to keep end stage capitalism afloat a little longer

Repeat infections are NOT inevitable. We can still curb the spread. We don’t have to accept constant sickness and disability as our new normal.

May we be in a much better place five years from now than we are today.

If you know someone suffering from Long Covid, reach out to them. Ask them how you can support them. Remind them they’ve not been forgotten. Wear a mask for them. They are counting on you.

"We know that infection and reinfection, even when mild, is linked to cell and organ damage that may harm their future health. More needs to be done to protect our children, and the first step is ensuring that our schools are safe"

"The briefing also says Long Covid can also lead to a 'substantially increased' risk of sudden death and 'silent' damage to cells and organs which can lead to later illness.

"Certainly the silent organ damage is a real problem, we think, for future development of disease."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/543885/long-covid-warning-silent-organ-damage-is-a-real-problem

Patients have been bearing the brunt of infection control in hospitals, having to go to great lengths to protect themselves and their loved ones.

They’re unfairly judged, psychologized and mistreated for masking and/or requesting staff mask.

Covid is still here. It’s still killing and disabling people. We’re also seeing outbreaks of tuberculosis, measles and the worst flu season in over a decade.

Public health is being systematically dismantled and gagged by the Trump administration, allowing misinformation and disinformation to flourish and putting even more lives at risk.

Why don’t we have mandatory masking in healthcare? Why are we killing and disabling patients who go there for help? Who can’t ‘just stay home’?

The second article in my Masks in Healthcare series looks at patient stories, retaliation, and what we can do to make hospitals safer for everyone.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-need-mandatory-masking-in-healthcare

There are measles outbreaks in the U.S. and Canada. A disease we eradicated is making a comeback due to dangerous anti-vaxx rhetoric.

We need mandatory masking in healthcare, and we need it now.

A respirator protects against Covid, measles & more.

There’s no excuse to expose patients when we have the tools to prevent it:

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/a-plea-to-maskless-healthcare-workers

"Long Covid chronic fatigue may represent a persistent low-grade endothelialitis with misaligned complex immune responses and subsequent multiorgan mitochondrial dysfunction. Monoclonal antibody infusion (MAI) with casirivimab/imdevimab antibody cocktail (Regeneron) in 3 patients with long Covid symptoms resulting from pre-Dela SARS-CoV-2 variant infection led to complete and sustained remission 5 to 7 days after MAI regardless of duration of long Covid [9]. The authors [9] proposed that MAI can (1) directly neutralize persistent SARS-CoV-2 harboring in host tissues not sampled or detected by routine testing, allowing the host restore overall immune homeostasis, (2) displace autoantibodies attached to Fc receptors, facilitating clearance and removal of those factors, and (3) the infused monoclonal antibody cocktail eliminates residual viral particles or virus-infected cells, including reactivation viruses such as Epstein–Barr virus."

https://academic.oup.com/jes/article/8/5/bvae043/7623484

For the more COVID-cautious among us (and those caring about their and others’ health in general) I will repost something I found in a post from @temptoetiam via @johnkavs with a different quote:

“The immune system isn’t a muscle you bulk up through suffering. It’s a complex defence system that works best when it’s not constantly under attack. […] Illness doesn’t inherently strengthen the immune system—it challenges it.”

It’s an interesting read apart from the bit about the immune system, too.

https://kristie-de-garis.ghost.io/to-be-right-you-must-first-be-wrong/

Sympathetic article; quotes 3 German experts

"Years after the pandemic, has the threat of #LongCovid subsided?"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/years-pandemic-threat-long-covid-153323420.html

Includes this "Depending on the symptoms, doctors will often recommend exercise therapy ..." but then that can be true for people without PEM

@longcovid
#PASC #PwLC #postcovid #postcovid19 #LC #Covidlonghaulers #PostCovidSyndrome #longhaulers #COVIDBrain #NeuroPASC
@covid19 #Coronavirus
#COVID19 #COVID #SARSCoV2 @novid@chirp.social #novid @novid@a.gup.pe #CovidIsNotOver

1/