🧵
Why do my family and I continue to take measures to avoid covid?
🧵
1.) Because we are not keen on dramatically increasing our likelihood of future ills.
2.) Because we have experienced loss, and seen in loved ones what this virus can do.
My hubs is in the trades, small business owner.
Wears n95. Never been big in the trades, unless forced.
Every single customer, "you can take that off in here!"
"No, I can't, company policy."
He's a sole proprietor 🤣
Gawd I love him ❤️
Covid Tales, a 🧵
My 89 year old dad with advanced Parkinson's and a host of health issues was infected with Covid in March. It was not diagnosed for 4 days, the ICU Drs in the meantime convinced him he was aspirating (you're dying, you know), and he went on palliative care.
Wearing a mask is not a sign of living in fear. Quite the opposite, it's a sign of sticking to your guns in the face of intense (albeit irrational) social pressure not to.
It's a sign of being strong as fuck, smart as hell, and doing what you know is right.
💪❤️
Anyone else feeling in less of a, "missing out," headspace lately and more of a, "fiercely grateful to have recognized and adapted to a very real threat to keep my family safe," vibe as people all pretending around everywhere are getting sicker and sicker?
1/
No, Covid Cautious folks are not over-reacting.
This is getting worse than many of us even thought (and I don't know about you, but I'm no optimist)
The general public is UNDER-reacting. Political leaders, public health, doctors, bosses, school boards- UNDER-REACTING.
Then we got the PCR results and sure enough - covid. Not fucking aspiration. He chose to come off of palliative and take the remdesivir infusion and within 2 days he was sitting up in his chair, eating, talking as clearly as someone with his struggles can.
Work story from hubs, an electrician who wears KN95s or N95s in every indoor shared space.
A client asked him why the mask, are you sick?
Hubs: "Nope, I just don't know where you've been."
1/
Update on the continued mask journey of my darling electrician hubs, who has been the only tradesperson to voluntarily and consistently wear a respirator that we know of:
"Why are you wearing that mask?"
"Because I don't know where you've been."
Gods I adore him 😂❤️😂
My son learned on technology, phones, iPads, also books.
He learned to type because of Roblox and Minecraft. He can type at dictation speed, and he is reading advanced literature.
He just turned 14.
IT'S THE COVID, NOT THE IPADS.
Well. One month after dropping rapid testing and vaccination to enter, and decreasing protections in the dining room, my parents' retirement home just sent out the letter. SEVERAL residents infected. Meals being brought to rooms. Masking strongly encouraged.
Fucking fuck it. 1/2
It's now September, he's doing surprisingly well, outside of the 2 blood infections, multiple urinary infections, and broken ankle he's had since. I've never imagined this level of survival. He just keeps going. It's wondrous.
Here is a fucking idea - let's PREVENT a covid outbreak like what's happening in my dad's inpatient unit BEFORE it happens. So far, he's one of a very small portion of patients testing negative. They've isolated the NEGATIVES. That's how bad it is.
Solutions to follow:
At the grocery store today, I saw a woman in a stylish warm hat, clothes that told me she works hard, with beautiful eyes and what looked like a Can99 respirator, black. I actually walked up to her and said, "well here's something you don't see every day..."
The staff at his LTC don't wear masks. The visitors at his LTC don't wear masks. My brother who sees him many times a week and now lives as if the pandemic never happened doesn't mask.
I caught covid from my dad while he was fighting for his life in the hospital.
Protect the vulnerable, they say. Except no, no, WE'RE not going to - YOU go ahead and protect them. And they can protect themselves. No, no of course we're not ALL vulnerable, that's ridic... Cough cough... What was I taking about? Gosh this brain fog, I tell you...
Important detail - dad caught covid IN THE HOSPITAL.
He almost died and who knows which subsequent health issues were caused by the infection.
I have Long Covid because the hospital didn't keep my dad safe.
Protect the vulnerable my ass. They are doing NOTHING.
I acquired Long Covid. The last time I saw my dad was early March, when he was going through this ENTIRELY FUCKING UNNECESSARY experience of almost dying from a preventable infection.
"Oh, I know," I said, "just.... What can you do?"
That was it. A knowing nod and smiling grateful eyes.
And me holding myself back from hanging onto her leg and begging her to be my BFF 😂😭😂 and crying in relief for just a moment of in person random solidarity.
So... It's never going to be the same again. Y'all know that.
It's not a life I ever envisioned, a social animal that needs to avoid social animals, or create barriers from them, to survive.
But here we are. Sending love and solidarity to those who are slowing the spread ❤️😷
One of my four teen daughters just got over a head cold and sore throat. She stayed at home while feeling crappy because she didn’t feel like going out.
Might it have been Covid?
Maybe. But who cares?
She shares a bedroom with one sister and a bathroom with another. None
My dad's roommate, in hospital for a hip operation in late Sept, should have easily been home by end of Oct. Still admitted. Caught Covid 2x, and pneumonia 2x, has a new Parkinson's dx.
His words: "You wanna get sick, come to the hospital. I wish they'd screen people better."
1/
I'm sure the N95 and face shield would have worked if I didn't have to swap it out for a new one while still IN his poorly ventilated infectious room.
I live 5 hours from my parents. I was a big part of their lives in person, I'd go stay with my mom for about 1/5 of the year.
I'm not only no longer able to support my parents like I was, I don't even know if I'll ever see my dad again. The loss. Going out for a few hours, even for enjoyment or for an appointment, for anything - it puts me deeper into crashes that leave me too sick to function.
Good bye, masterful beast. Who the hell is going rule the household now? Thank you for 17 years of bossing us around and saving our lives with your purrs 💔
Rest now, my love.
Well, the last scrap of protection in my parents' retirement home is scrapped.
A celebratory and exciting day of no more masks required for staff or visitors.
Oh, and staff can return to work after testing positive but symptom free for 24hrs.
Old people are expendable.
She looked at me, startled, and I pointed to her mask and to my bright red KN95 and said, "two people masked, in the grocery store!!" And her beautiful eyes smiled.
"Thank you for masking," I said.
"Thank YOU," she said, "I mean... You know..."
Client: "That makes sense. You know, the number of guys who come in here to work lately, they look like fricking zombies. They'll cough and stumble around." (followed by a visual charade demonstration of said zombie workers)
Hubs does not resemble a zombie. For the record.
And I can't even go see the one person I fought the hardest to keep safe, because my vitality is a casualty of the very thing I was protecting him from.
I used to be defined by my physical strength, every aspect of my contribution to everything I did was tied to the being able to push my body and my mind.
Now I can't even push a grocery cart, without consequences.
Just like nearly everyone seems to be doing. Ignoring the living nightmares.
I am not the same person. Not only for the reasons you'd think. Not only because of the pandemic or being suddenly disabled, but because of the realization that we as humans chose the route of greed over
Here's a thought.
Maybe low booster uptake isn't as much about fear or hesitancy as it is about so many people having had Covid in the past few months having to wait 3-6 months to receive it.
Maybe it's been this way since we fucking abandoned mitigations and all common sense .
E-freaking-nough already with the lockdown BS.
Staying away from other people for a few months did not cause this giant mess of illness and learning loss and crisis we're in. If anything it kept ALOT of kids from catching the WT and Delta, which is A GOOD THING.
Bugger off.
Outside of my mom and sister, in my immediate family no one cares. My 2 brothers and their families haven't asked me a single question about what I'm going through. 5 months. I'll be saying the same thing at a year. Haven't asked if I am okay. Not one fucking word. I am garbage.
compassion, of complacency over action. That we will lie to ourselves and to others over and over to maintain our comfort.
We're desperate to maintain this fully unsustainable dream world we created, even at the cost of our childrens' futures.
How's this for owning some virtue:
My little family and I have changed every social approach in our lives for the cause of not catching or spreading an Ace2 receptor binding virally persistent airborne vascular neurotropic immune disrupting pathogen.
We have adapted.
They're going to bring covid to my dad. And they'll be shocked, because 4 infections in spite of boosters leaves their cognitively deficient minds thinking they won't catch it again.
I guess they don't have to think about what it can do if they ignore my experience. My nightmare.
The resentment in people's eyes now. They resent us for visibly reminding them.
I'm the only person wearing a mask in my parents' retirement home.
Visiting my dad who is in the hospital, 88 with Parkinson's, hard recovery from covid last April, I'm the only one who wears an N95.
@DrCanuckMD
Imagine being one of his cancer patients.
@UCSF
you stand behind Dr. Prasad? We're waiting for you to enforce the, "do no harm," aspect.
Vinay Prasad is doing harm.
I don't know if I'm going to see my dad again. And it's all because someone infected him in the hospital with an entirely ignored preventable illness.
(we're trying to figure out how to get me there, not giving up, not looking for suggestions - borrowing an RV is a maybe)
@sassyashieOG
@chaitrovert
I have never felt more excluded from society, ever. From community, from many friends.
What am I guilty of? Continuing to pay attention, follow the science, use my eyes and continue see the great threat, and want a better outcome, for everyone.
Now the Boy's perspective (freshly 13):
"If people are going to judge us for wearing masks to protect our family, are they the kind of people we want in our lives anyway?
Masks don't just filter particles, they're also a-hole filters."
Seriously - all I need.
❤️😂😂😂❤️
Living With Covid - A Horror Story
Brought to you by the fantastical saturating societal illusion that, "Covid is Over."
I've talked a lot about my dad. He's 88 with Parkinson's and a number of health issues, he's been living in the hospital for over 7 months awaiting LTC.
🧵
If you are still taking measures to protect yourself and others from the airborne vascular neurotropic immune disrupting pathogen that is circulating in every corner of the world - THANK YOU, from the sincerest depths of my heart ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
With no prevention or mitigation measures, no acknowledgement or understanding of airborne Sars2 spread, and a whole buncha trying to clean the shit off the walls AFTER it hits the fan... This is my question to public health:
WHAT IN THE FUCK DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?
🧵
Wearing a mask is no different from wearing a hard hat or work boots. Wearing a mask means a roof over our heads and food in our mouths. Wearing a mask is love, it cuts through this weird politicized nonsense foolery.
1. My electrician arrived this morning to install a new plug socket in my utility room. On seeing I was masked, he immediately put one on himself. While he was working, we had a brief chat about Covid and how it continues to affect him and his business.
Covid Twitter Peeps, anyone feeling REALLY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!?? With all this shit??
You bet we are. I love every single one of you posting selfies, and everyone expressing support needing to be anon ❤️❤️❤️
We needed this shot in the arm. Stay safe, warriors
#yallmasking
You want the perfect recipe for mind control? Get the population addicted to comfort, luxury, and privilege, and then tell them exactly what they want to hear. They'll fucking believe anything, as long as it's tagged with - don't worry, change nothing.
Shall we say it louder for the people who don't seem to get it:
AIRBORNE HIGHLY TRANSMISSIBLE DISABLING VASCULAR NEUROTROPIC IMMUNE DISRUPTING PATHOGEN THAT IS NOW IN EVERY LAST GODDAMN PUBLIC CRANNY ON THE PLANET.
Yeah, it's still an emergency.
🧵
My dad is 88, with Parkinson's, disabled and has a host of health issues.
That does not mean he is fucking expendable. It does not make him a burden. He has contributed to society, to taxes, to the system.
He wants to live.
Hi, I'm Liz and I live in Ontario.
I do everything within my power not to participate in or facilitate the spread of an airborne vascular neurotropic pathogen. I wear my Can99 or auraN95 for protection for all, and in recognition of the harm Sars2 is causing people. Solidarity❤️
So, I guess I have Long Covid (PEM).
A condition that has no defining blood test, no proper treatment, no pill to take.
I feel like I'm in a Cronenberg film, and my growing To Do lists are going to turn into giant grotesque cockroaches.
This is fucking horrible.
Being solid in your infection control boundaries is just a part of life now. Am irritating one that should not be necessary, but alas.
Here's my latest experience of the aforementioned:
🧵
Purple purple! Mask coordinate for a bit of a lift today.
Mega solidarity with all my masking peeps on here ❤️❤️❤️, and the 3 other people I've seen wearing them in public today.
So it's either
A.) they're choosing now to push Covid news stories because they won't get traction in the sea of despair of the Middle East horrors
B.) The overlords have invested in the air quality business and development and are about to make more billions
Through my grief, betrayal, anger. Through whatever the fuck is happening in society that is trying to poison the empathy out of my big ol' heart... I'm having a hell of a hard time not wishing, let's say, "poor outcomes" on people.
This shit is twisting up good people.
My dad is 87 with Parkinson's and ailing health.
My mom has some lung damage from a PE 5 years ago and has cardiomyopathy.
Both had covid a year ago and it's affected their health and cognitive function.
Helpless. HELPLESS I am, as always, to FUCKING DO A GODDAMN THING.
Never. I will never forgive public health politics, governments, media, and public medical minimizers for fast tracking us into this living fucking nightmare.
There are solutions. There are ways to reduce the spread, to reduce the harm. Why are we not even trying?
N95s on all hospital staff. YES, FOREVER.
N95s or KN95s supplied and encouraged for all visitors. YEAH. FOREVER. And minimally if respirators are refused or impossible - level 3 surgicals. Universally. In hospitals. To infinity.
I have no doubt that y'all know this, and have even said it. It's in my face very much at the moment:
But one of the most likely places for a high risk individual of catching Sars2 is the hospital. As the unmasked staff celebrate their smiles.
Let. That. Sink. In.
Time to stock up on
@canadastrong
masks! They need a boost!
With decreasing suppliers we're in big trouble when demand grows again. What an absolute travesty.
A great company to recommend to anyone looking for high quality respirators
Haven't wanted to be right, but Jesus Christ we've been right all along, and the global health repercussions are not slowing down. It's getting worse.
Don't want it to get worse, but I feel a sense of calm knowing we're as prepared as we can be. And it's been at great cost.
2/
But goddammit here we are. If it means safety and survival, rewiring our lives and brains to adapt, to not swallow the baseless reassurances of, "everything is fine." To live with courage, integrity, and emotional intelligence while the world tries to eat us alive.
It's worth it.
@Rocket57
Majorly feeling this this week.
I think we read about so many, "I took my mask off for 5 minutes and caught covid," stories in our feeds, it's easy to forget that lots of rolls of the risk dice will be lucky. But it only takes one unlucky roll.
@scottachange
Tradesmen are "tough guys" too, it's so funny. But they also need to keep working, you'd think they would not want to be sick on the regular.
It's takes way more grit to be consistent and informed and act accordingly (mask) than it does to have a virus stew pissing contest.
Sometimes he says, "nah, there's a global pandemic, maybe you've heard about it."
Or simply, "no, I can't, actually."
He doesn't say what I want him to say. Which is smart, because we need to keep our clients 😂
Proportionate sized hepas (with UV if possible) for high hourly air exchange. In every room. In every public washroom. In every elevator and hallway. FOR. FUCKING. EVER.
Just so I'm clear: wear a mask to protect the vulnerable and yourself from Covid, but if you wear a mask in public you'll get shit comments, glares, and the side eye from the people who aren't wearing masks because they don't have to because you are.
GRRRAAAAAGH.
Heading to the hospital for an MRI soon. Not feeling very good about it. The scheduler not only happily assured me that masks are no longer needed in most areas (thank gods the xray waiting areas still do) but actually laughed when I told her my family takes covid
Sars2 Transmission Anecdote -
My dad has been living in the hospital for nearly 7 months now waiting for LTC.
3 Covid outbreaks, loosey goosey surgical masks on staff and visitors, he's one of the only patients to not catch it thus far.
He's the only one with a hepa filter.
Why can't the Covid Cautious just get over it all already?
Why? Because of how this virus is being handled in society, at all levels.
It's akin to having your family held at gunpoint and your buddies stopping by trying to convince you to go out for burgers.
We can't.
fairy dust protection that stops the infectious air. We have FAILED. Miserably.
Oh, and no surprise I have developed a fever and symptoms. Negative so far. Isolated from my household, hepas and windows and masks and all the things. Can't see dad, plus I live hours away so that
It was not comfortable for her 80 year old self, or for me being the instigator of the need for these boundaries. But her social comfort wasn't more important to her than the safety of her co inhabitants and friends. I am SO FUCKING PROUD of her.
5/
@Stace_Alexander
I'm starting therapy again tomorrow. To deal with letting go of family that has become toxic, and work on acceptance. My mom blames the pandemic for causing the discord. I don't, all it is doing is shining light on what's already inside of people ❤️😢
I let him sleep, be glad to be sitting beside another person in a respie, and then thank all the gods that I'm not an attention seeking troglodite POS who would think of taking someone's picture and mocking them online.
What a rich collection of disgusting humans in the comments
I'm living inside society being totally fine with my dad, who contributed to this same society for decades and would help anyone without a second thought - falling. by. the fucking. wayside.
He's trying. We're trying. In the end, he's entirely expendable. As are we all.
Dads other roommate: fevered and vomiting. But at least his curtain is closed. Today.
If you need to be admitted to the hospital, don't expect it to be much different from this. We are truly fucked.
And the, "urgency of normal" crowd will cry the hardest when it's their turn.
@laurieallee
So special, sure. Because it's so awesome meticulously watching every step, weighing risk in literally every interaction with the public. Being ostracized over a protective device. Who do we think we are???
P. S. At least they said what maybe many are thinking? 😱
My dad has been placed in LTC!
Ontario. 8 months waiting in hospital, 7 of those months on the crisis list (urgent LTC wait list)
4 Outbreaks (3 Covid, one C. Diff)
The home that he's landed in is known for high quality care. No, there are no masks on staff, not required of
1/
Five minutes later, dad's nurse, re masks :"Yeah, they don't really do anything."
Yeah, not when you are wearing a surgical mask around sick people who can't! Nurses have SCIENCE DEGRESS FFS.
2/
The first thing the Doctor said to him in ICU - you're dying, you know. My dad is PISSED. Who has the right to say that to anyone without all the facts?
He's doing much better, by the way. Stayed fully cognisant through it all. The red tape is a huge mess now, where does he
Day 4, oh big fat fucking surprise. Dad has Covid. Now mom better stay away, they say.
Treat the covid? UHHH YEAH let's treat it (dad's wishes)
So he's dying? Or no, it's probably not aspiration and imminent death? Oh, it's fucking COVID IN A HIGH RISK PATIENT??
7.) Because at the core of survival is the ability to recognize threats and adapt to change.
Stay vigilant, my friends. We love you, and we stand with you ❤️
Our relative has no problem at all with obliging, and is bringing a supply of rapid tests. He'll monitor for symptoms. We are relieved.
It is not a guarantee, but it's something, and it could mean the difference between health and harm. It's something.
6/
@miki_fern
It's his go-to. I love it.
I try to get him to say that he's avoiding an airborne Ace2 receptor binding neurotropic neuroinvasive vascular immune disrupting pathogen, but his answer actually probably gets people thinking for themselves, and keeps his clients. 🤣