People refer to Covid in the past tense because they WANT it to be over… not because it actually IS over.

We’ve all suffered a collective trauma, and most people are refusing to process or deal with it.

A few key points people are determined to “forget”:

“During Covid” is now.

“During the pandemic” is now.

Covid is not over.

Covid IS airborne.

Masks, especially well fitted N95s, offer excellent protection

Anyone can get Long Covid, and your risk increases with each infection.

Even if your initial infection was “mild”, you could have long term damage to your vascular system, immune system, lungs and brain.

Repeat infections are NOT inevitable.

We CAN beat the pandemic together. But it involves collective effort. It involves acknowledging we’re still in a pandemic and “you do you” isn’t working. It involves caring about the air we share, and being willing to adapt.

Let’s make 2025 the year we can actually begin putting Covid in the past!

long. ranting. if you think this is about you and not just a critique it probably is.

just a reminder that not everyone you see not wearing a mask is an asshole. yes, #WearAMask because #CovidIsNotOver is great and the by and large incentive for everyone.

but not all #ActuallyAutistic #Autistic people can do enough densensitisation and exposure therapy and graduated trials to be able to get to the point of wearing a mask. other diagnoses too, certain individuals with PTSD (which I also have). there are, what I am saying, legitimate reasons to not be able to wear a mask.

I was able to adjust to a gaiter during the beginning of the pandemic, when anything was better than nothing. it didn't put pressure on my nose and it wasn't tight over my face. alas, those aren't actually sufcicient.

I can tolerate a paper surgical mask for about 10 to 15 minutes before I'm incredibly distressed, overwhelmed, and going into either meltdown or shutdown depending upon the day.

I can wear a KN95 mask for about five minutes and it still requires me to be medicated with Xanax in order to tolerate the sensation on my face and the trauma memories from last… everything overwhelms me and I end up dissociated and screaming. no matter about whether I'm in my thrift nrrand yes,that's with meds. my be the best I've done with a KN95 is about half an hour or so.

I've tried so hard to mask.

and while I'm in recovery and remission from polysubstance use disorder, Xanax is not the solution.

so take your judgment and shove it back down your throat, or up your ass, or get the fuck away from me because your solutions leave me and mine and people in my situation as acceptable casualties, when in fact wear a mask is meant to protect people like me if enough of the sheeple would actually do it.

in order to have success in your exhortations you need to be a little bit more careful about what your messaging actually is, and who you're targeting, and who is going to actually see it and be impacted by it.

I still go to the absolute farthest place from people who aren't masking. I don't go anywhere if I'm actively sick but Gxd only knows how many times I've actually had COVID since half of the confirmed tests were because I had something I was going to and wanted to exercise precautions; I got it without it being immediately symptomatic.

and I've got long COVID from 3 (or more) asymptomatic infections and one pretty nasty round through it last October. I know the consequences of not masking.

but what I don't have is the economic privilege to stay home. my spouse is disabled too. we need food. we need to go to appointments, and due to medical needs and hearing loss. I need to do things at school. I need to do things with the department of rehabilitation.

so shove your trite bullshit where the sun don't shine.

New study shows that COVID may damage your immune system for a year post infection.

This is the problem with ignoring a pandemic in favour of a “you do you” approach.

There’s so much Covid that most people get it at least once per year. Their immune systems don’t have time to recover before they become infected again.

Disability advocates have been screaming about this for years. We beg people to mask up for their own protection and to make public spaces safer and more accessible for us.

We don’t yet know what the long term prognosis will be after 5, 10 or 15+ infections.

Wear a mask. Clean and ventilate the air. Do your part to minimize the spread.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-19-may-put-patients-risk-other-infections-least-1-year

Bona Fide Masks is running a 25% off coupon! Code: SPRING25

https://bonafidemasks.com

well- another Trans Day of Visibility, another year in which the bulk of the trans community is still refusing to protect the disabled and chronically ill among us.

so with that in mind, I'd ask that you notice who isn't visible today. notice the friends and community members who have checked out of IRL meetups because the community is allowing airborne, contagious, disabling viruses to circulate without end.

and remember that we exist, too. we're here, and we're the ones who even you have forgotten.

COVID minimizers have said for years that “if” it was that dangerous we would see increases in other illnesses

We’re at that stage, and no one is talking about it. Deny. Deflect. Obfuscate.

“Other illnesses that weaken the immune system and allow latent TB infections to emerge may also be at play”

https://www.newser.com/story/366057/tb-cases-spike-to-highest-level-since-2011.html

This is why respirators need to be mandatory in hospitals.

Babies, people with certain disabilities & some health conditions need others to mask to protect them.

This hospital shouldn’t be “scrambling”. Make masks mandatory & protect patients and staff.

Clean & ventilate the air too!

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

I don't know how to stop being jealous of the people who are unabashedly spending time in IRL communities, going on dates, etc. even as I know that they're both decimating their bodies with repeated COVID infections, and setting themselves up for illness, disability or death when the H5N1 pandemic inevitably joins it.

kinda feels like I bit into the apple from the tree of knowledge and now there's no going back. and I don't wish I could go back, because hurting others in ignorance is still hurting others.

but I do wish we lived in a world where others had tasted that fruit, too - and then maybe I wouldn't be so isolated.

I wrote a guest article for Healthy Debate that looks at why we need mandatory masks in healthcare, why surgical masks aren’t enough, and how the mounting threats to public health are putting lives at risk.

If you’re a healthcare worker, mask up.

Show us you take your oath to “do no harm” seriously

https://healthydebate.ca/2025/03/topic/wear-mask-plea-health-care-workers/

Things I learned about #measles, a thread:

I've never had or seen measles, I was born in the US after the measles vaccine but before antivaxxers went big, so I did some reading. In order of excitingness:

1) Measles is airborne, making this a great time to #WearAMask. IKR? looks like it would be a skin contact thing, but it's primarily airborne so it can linger in the air for hours after an infectious person exhales in a room. Familiar, no?

(1/4)