Dr Maureen O'Connor 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️🍉
@IrishEcocritic
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Trifler, tartler, pushover. Lecturer in English, UCC. She/her. @ecomaureen .bsky.social @irishecocritic @mastodon .social
Joined September 2013
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The HIV virus takes 2-8 years to develop into AIDS. The HPV virus takes even longer to cause cervical cancer. We don't know what awaits us five, ten years post-COVID infection, but we keep taking outrageous chances.
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I am actually losing the ability to cope with this reality and not having a single person in my day-to-day life taking any of this seriously.
Finland's epidemic 5 June 2024: excess deaths for <60 year olds continue to grow. For 5-9 year olds, excess deaths are now at 2.4 times pre-pandemic level.
1/x
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So jealous of a professional conference that requires masks!
All attendees at the
#Socialism2024
conference are required to wear a mask.
And it’s fine. No one’s complaining nor rebelling.
Everyone is complying because that’s what you do when you care about others when Covid is still very much happening.
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My proudest 2022 accomplishment: I didn’t infect anyone with SARS-CoV-2.
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The first measles death in 24 years is all over Irish media, including attempts to trace anyone possibly exposed. 123 people died of COVID in Ireland in the first 4 weeks of the year, and ... crickets.
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RIP to this beauty. I don't think I've ever felt as entwined with or loved an animal as much, which is saying something. 💔
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So, this was understood 3 years ago...
Stop COVID-19 hanging around.
In enclosed spaces, COVID-19 hangs in the air like smoke. Open windows for 10 minutes each hour when socialising indoors to clear it away.
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I'm not and have never been a parent, so am unsure about the accuracy what a doctor on the radio said earlier today: is it typical for a child to have 10-12 viral infections in a year? She claims we've forgotten how 'normal' that is.
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Only person masked (ofc) at a conference at U of Galway. Here's the CO2 reading in the Moore Institute after the first plenary. I'm delivering the day's last plenary and was feeling the weird pressure of solitary masking, but this has convinced me to deliver the talk masked.
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I don't blame anyone for not wanting a stinky old PhD to opine on 'medical' matters, but several scientists and medical professionals have provided links to their relevant research below, so check them out! Don't listen to me!
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At a conference last week, someone in attendance had a mint allergy. Announcements were made every day about not chewing or sucking or drinking anything with mint. This was said with a straight face in a badly ventilated room to dozens of unmasked people breathing in pathogens.
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I won't say too much, but I've discovered another masker at work, and it makes an incredible difference! The enervating dread of going into work every day has lifted considerably. 😊
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This boring, old, cis, straight, white woman cannot match the cool and glamour of most posters in this thread, but she's masking y'all!
#yallmasking
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New COVID variant news all over the radio this morning, even timid suggestions about wearing masks in medical settings. I was back in Bon Secours hospital this morning to see a consultant. NOT ONE frigging mask to be seen, and I had to walk through 2 buildings.
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How bad must it actually be if COVID is back in the news, AND they are talking about masking! 😲
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I am co-hosting a 3-day hybrid event here in Germany next week. I have to introduce the event and one of the speakers. The COVID-conscious people here on X are giving me the knowledge and courage to be the (likely) only masked person in attendance. Thank you! 🥰
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Back in the office after 6 mos in Germany, hearing about many health issues among colleagues, from 'another cold' to seriously alarming systemic issues, yet getting (from a few) barely suppressed sneers and eyerolls at my mask. But guess who hasn't been sick in over 4 years?
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Flying for the first time in 4 years from Dublin airport, where there is a good deal of coughing, but not a single other mask so far.
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Several FB friends in the last couple of weeks report testing positive, then post photos of themselves socialising in restaurants,with their young children, elderly parents, and talking about the trips they're about to take. All people with PhDs.
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Every single self-identifying socialist I know (I know quite a few!) stopped masking the second it was no longer required.
“Dismantling of public health measures by capitalist governments worldwide, allowing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, unimpeded access to the world’s population, has created the conditions for even greater damage to human health”
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@PaulDWhitehead
@Gracefulgrace10
Except it's not. It's a neurovascular disease, and C19 is one a handful of viruses that can break through the blood-brain barrier.
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Coming up on 7 years ago, in front of UCC's Boole Library, a student coughed directly into my mouth (unintentionally). I was then very ill with a viral infection. My GP said she thought I should be hospitalised, but I resisted. Four months later, I collapsed in my kitchen and 1/
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For the first time, I was the ONLY person in the shopping centre and grocery store masking. There is usually a sprinkling of others. They're gone.
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Wow! Look at all the masks in the audience.
My lecture Tuesday night at the University of Michigan on Israel's genocidal war was very well attended. Students are outraged by the Biden administration's support for the assault on
#Gaza
. The entire lecture will be posted soon on .
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Someone has posted my Facebook piece to Twitter. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks,
@NataliaAntonova
, and to
@MedievalMort
for alerting me to it!
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"Y'all masking" is what I needed right now! You are each of you so gorgeous! 🥰😍
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The dots will not be connected in my lifetime. Social media platforms now censor references to COVID, people I know who have had strokes, organ failure, etc., continue to go unmasked. If humanity survives, there *might* be an understanding of it all a couple of generations hence.
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I just can't bring myself to 'like' any posts featuring pictures of indoor receptions, conferences, book launches, parties, weddings, etc., where no one is masked.
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Everyone loves him, but no one protects him? This seems wildly risky for someone with his vulnerabilities.
Michael J Fox getting his moment at Glastonbury with Coldplay.
What a legend ♥️♥️
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sometimes pretty intensely, but I was lucky, really, as all viruses can be extremely dangerous. Respect the power of viruses and avoid infection! End
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This is troubling. It's no longer unthinkable to work in an operating room unmasked.
I have noticed a significant increase in general laxity about PPE since COVID masking has been dropped. A significant % of OR staff (esp anesthesia & RTs) not bothering to mask inside actual OR even when sterile fields are open & set up.
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Eight students emailed about class today. They have flu, cold, or COVID.
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#SaltingTheVibes
at the hairdresser. They always seat me next to the open door--Aranet readings nice and low!
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If only the people in my life whom I seem to be increasingly alienating by masking and posting about CVD understood what it takes out of me to mask up every day--I am a natural coward and LOATH confrontation, but I cannot bear to do nothing in the face of this unfolding disaster.
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On my third German train of the day, heading for my 4th train station of the day. Have seen a sprinkling of masks, which isn't zero! 🤷
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This right here.
What I have learnt is that there is only a tiny minority of people who can deal with reality if reality is hard.
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Long COVID strikes another musician.
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I can't believe this fairly simple tweet went ... uh, bacterial? (I am not a medical doctor, OK?!?!?) Please mind yourselves, everyone. I care about you all, except that one jerk I blocked. Good night! 😘
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My dad is the only remaining person in my day-to-day life with whom I can really talk about things like capitalism, climate change, COVID, etc. He will be 89 in a few weeks. 😟
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I thought masking was bad in Germany, but I always saw one or two other maskers wherever I went. I've been back in Ireland for a week and have not seen ONE mask anywhere. Not one.
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@surfinjuli
I was an asthmatic child and often sick, but I don't think it ever reached annual double digit numbers. Seems wild, yet a few people have responded here saying that it IS normal!?!
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the rather severe ataxia (shaking), all thanks to a viral injury that shredded the nerves of my inner ear (vestibular neuritis), with probable damage to my brain stem, according to a neurologist I consulted. To this day I suffer from some level of dizziness at all times, 3/
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People reporting so many sick pets at the moment...
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The coughing is much scarier and more ubiquitous here than in Ireland, and masking is nonexistent, compared to nearly so in Ireland. I have now seen 2 children vomiting in the street. 2 of the 3 members of staff I know are out sick, and teaching hasn't started yet.😷
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I'll brace myself for all the people who will let me know here what they would have done and what I should have done. Forty years ago. At the age of 19.
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was taken to hospital in an ambulance. I could not open my eyes for days with the severe dizziness, could not read or look at screens for weeks. I had to take 8 months off work and use a cane to walk, not only because of the dizziness, but also 2/
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People are just genuinely unaware. No natter how intelligent, they are completely uninformed. I met a number of people I know fairly well yesterday whom I haven't seen in years, and they looked sincerely puzzled at my mask.
i can't believe every decision to go anywhere or participate in anything involves the possibility of permanent disability and/or chronic illness and i also can't believe that this isn't burdening literally everyone???
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So much wet, gross coughing on this train.
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I can't find the response here that accused me of hiding my identity behind a mask in my profile pic, but I'm just hiding my jowls and turkey neck! You can find pictures of my whole face online, if interested.
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Unprecedented! (For me.) I am in the central train station in Berlin. Waiting for my train back to Würzburg, I went to buy a couple of souvenir stocking stuffers. As I went to pay, the woman at the till saw me and disappeared. She came back out wearing a mask!! 🥰🥰🥰
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I am not normally a Sindo reader, but am spending the weekend with my dad who gets ALL the Sunday papers, and is a fan of Gene Kerrigan. Did not expect to find COVID truth-telling in its pages!
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Fully three of these large (rented) air filters running in the small Boots shop in Galway Shopping Centre. 🤔
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Just heard a vitamin supplement ad on the radio claiming 1 in 5 people in Ireland suffer symptoms of LC. I don't know the source of the number, but for Long COVID to have appear in a mainstream advertisement is striking.
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In Frankfurt airport, not another mask to be seen. A toddler just dropped a chunk of banana that rolled away on the floor. Dad chased it and picked it up ... then gave it back to the toddler to eat. 😵💫
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Since the pandemic started, I don't think I've known as many people with COVID as in the last couple of months, which must be just a fraction of the reality, as so few are testing, not everyone testing positive is revealing it, and antigen tests are not terribly accurate. 😬
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Tens of millions in total lockdown in China; Irish hospitals tweet desperately, asking people not to present at the ED. But walking around UCC or town, very few masks, and then, cloth or surgical. Most of my colleagues, trained & adept in critical thinking, going around maskless.
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My defence of Edna O'Brien against Ian Parker's New Yorker attack has been published. I don't tend to promote myself on here, but this is about O'Brien, not me.
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The Irish media have gone back to silence on masks, even as they report unprecedented pressure on the health care system. Unprecedented. Worse than pre-vaccine times. GPs are being urged to hold extra clinics, but last week's moment of urging mask wearing appears to have passed.
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So many students and colleagues have COVID or 'viral something', 'flu' or a 'heavy cold' right now. I'm doing all I can to continue to avoid infection, but sickness is all around. Sitting in my apartment, windows open, I hear the heavy wet coughing of passers-by, 2 stories down.
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Uh, guys, I'm going to be on NPR later.
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Wonderful to see US protestors masking, showing love and care for all. In Germany there were always a couple of maskers in shops, on trains, buses, but I'm back in Ireland for 6 weeks, Galway, Limerick, Sligo, Cork, and not ONE mask have I seen. Zero. This is becoming impossible.
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A couple of things. I am finally Senior Lecturer (analogous to Associate Professor in the US) in University College Cork, and, beginning in October, I will spend six months as the Travelling Visiting Professor in Irish Studies 2023/24 at the University of Würzburg, Germany.
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Irish academia, do you dare read this thread from a UCD colleague who has since died?
Short thread on Covid and respiratory support.
There are numerous grifters, and serious academics, out there who seem to think if the fatality stats are not that bad, then Covid is no big deal.
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@theeclarel
I would love to attend theatrical performances and go to the cinema, but spending hours in an enclosed, usually inadequately ventilated space surrounded on all sides by unmasked people seems like a pointless risk.
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I have been in an all-day meeting, wearing a mask, for 6 hours now, and it isn't over. We are down one person because she tested + for COVID just yesterday...
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@NataliaAntonova
@cmclymer
Thanks, Natalia! Yes, several NU friends, including my roommate at the time, have reported back to me confirming the accuracy of my memories.
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I have no words for the sudden loss of an especially treasured colleague, Éibhear Walshe.
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@MuayCe
At my age (60), when the answer to the question do you have kids is no, an uncomfortable silence ensues, like something embarrassing and shameful has been brought up. Strange that this persists in the 21st century!
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Sitting in a UHG waiting room. This hospital was in the news last week because of its numerous wards experiencing COVID outbreaks. This is a large and busy hospital. I had to walk through several corridors to get to where I am. I have seen one mask.
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I know quite a few people here and am getting lots of 'I didn't recognise you with that mask on' nonsense! 🫠
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Did people know it's no longer possible to get Novavax in Ireland? My brother, who is allergic to the vaccine preservative and therefor 'allowed' Novavax, was informed of this, and he works for the HSE. Pfizer's influence is considerable everywhere, but perhaps especially here.
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@_mbdr_
A few weeks ago I bought a pair of shoes I didn't need because the staff were all wearing masks!
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People sure seem to be excited about maintaining the status quo of war, climate disaster, and rampant disease. 🤷♀️
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I contacted Building and Estates, and they fixed the ventilation! At the end of my plenary in the same room, it was under 900, the lowest reading in any room of the conference so far. Thank you all for your support and help! X
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We are very relaxed about swimming around unprotected in clouds of a level three biohazard.
A friendly Xmas reminder
THIS PPE is what you are required to wear in a PC3 lab in Australia to work with
SARSCoV2 - COVID
Wake up - this virus is anything but “mild”
#auspol
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'Chest infection.'
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I'm waiting in the car for my husband and have seen T W O people walk by in masks! That's more than I've seen in the last 6 months! 😲
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@elizavetaka
Oh, don't worry! It was something of a disingenuous post. I know very well what they're up to. 😉 (Also: 😭)
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@COVID19info101
What about all the other events before and after that he attended, including the Eras concert? He just couldn't be arsed about the Olympics.
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@jrobertdobbsjr
@MikePerryavatar
There are more viruses that end up doing serious damage than I can fit into one tweet!
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@EKaleEdmiston
It is really worrying (cis-hetero) me. What should we be doing? I am a college lecturer and support my trans students. I block and report on here, but I know this isn't enough!
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The health page of today's Irish Times. Hmmm... what could be causing a rise in diabetes, and what is a major cause of blood clotting in recent years? (You'd never know from these articles.)
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Got a message from someone who attended the conference opening last night, expressing the hope that I feel better soon. I guess because I was wearing a mask? 😬
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Respiratory issues... 💔
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Yesterday was the third anniversary of my mother's death and my birthday. It does get ever so slightly less awful every year, and here I am, surviving!
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Is step-grandmother a thing? If so, I became one this morning. Whatever the nomenclature, I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled!!
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Starting on 1 October, this is where I will be living for six months...
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Stopped in a new cafe near my Cork apartment for a takeaway coffee. There was a table of 8 seniors, at least 4 of them vigorously coughing the whole time I was there... 😑
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Irish media getting all of those brilliant COVID "experts" out as the seriousness of the situation becomes more difficult to deny. Apparently, ALL the studies show masks don't work, and, in any case, there is nothing to "panic" about. (Taking precautions = panicking.)
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@1goodtern
I will never forget the bodies stacking up in those first months, but I appear to be in the minority.
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