margaret (she/her)
@margaretforreal
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25. forever bridge&tunnel new yorker; premed student; passions include public safety & health education, long COVID research, & writing music/poetry š
Minnesota, USA
Joined June 2009
HEY everyone!! this is not a drill!!!! Corona Virus Now a Pandemic, Yet Mainstream Press Criminally Silent (Upd. via @YouTube.
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~18 yo coworker (patient care assistant) wears a surgical mask. nurse (60s, been on unit for like 15 years): āwhyāre you wearing a mask?ā. PCA: āoh I just donāt feel comfortable working so closely w/ patients without a mask.ā. nurse: āso you think youāre better than us?ā. šļøššļø.
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Iām Margaret. I wear a mask because we donāt tell teenagers that STIs are inevitableāwe tell them to use condoms. We donāt say car crash injuries/deaths are inevitableāwe mandate seatbelts. We donāt say 2nd hand smoke is inevitableāwe ban indoor smoking.
Hi, Iām Mel. I live in Canada, and I refuse to accept that infections and reinfections are inevitable - I will continue to wear a respirator to protect myself and others to break the chain of transmission. Will you join me?
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@MarciaBelsky like we can def talk about the value of debates in college, butā¦pretty sure this āšself-censoringš¢ā is really just āthinking critically b4 saying something potentially disrespectful about a sensitive topicā AKA a normal part of having a functioning prefrontal cortex?? š¤Ø
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āMargaret, when will you stop masking?ā. When we have . 1. Prophylactic drugs that prevent COVID infection (like PrEP) or vaccines that completely prevent infection. and . 2. Highly effective and safe treatments for Long COVID. When will you start masking???.
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me: āI would be devastated if I gave one of our 89 year old patients covidā.coworker: āif Iām 89, kill me alreadyāIāve lived my lifeā . ā¦what an interesting take from someone who works in a hospital and is supposed to be keeping people alive and healthy.
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So my campusās sexual/reproductive health program allows students to order free ākitsā of whatever they needācondoms, plan b, tests (preg, UTI, ovulation, fentanyl), advil, mouthwash, tampons, etc. I joined and convinced them to add KN95s :ā) . Next goal is COVID tests!.
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@MarciaBelsky also like yeah no shit people feel uncomfortable talking about controversial topics, thatās part of what controversial means??? girlā¦.
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āCovid rates are low in my areaā. āWhen was the last time you took a covid test where the results got reported to the CDC?ā. āā¦ā.
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the first line of text on my hinge profile: ālooking for someone who always wears a mask/respirator indoors. I stay updated on COVID research and am passionate about long COVID preventionā. dudes: āhaha I havenāt worn a mask in 2 years. letās get drinks at a dive bar šā.
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āyouāre virtue signalingā TO WHOM???????????. everywhere I go, I get shit from people like you!! it literally almost NEVER happens that I get a positive reaction from wearing a mask.
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@londonsje @1goodtern Sent this study to someone. They said āthat population is mostly old & unhealthyā .š¤Ø Even if it didnāt affect the young/healthy (it does), why wouldnāt you want to take simple actions that could prevent this kind of harm against the āold & unhealthyā? Particularly veterans??šš„².
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Iām honestly extremely surprised that this hasnāt happened with Taylor Swift yet. SOOO many people have gotten COVID at her shows and sheās up there for over 3 hours straight. .
Rock band Paramore becomes the latest to throw in the towel and cancel their tour due to 'lung infection' which has left them 'RISKING LONG TERM DAMAGE' and being forced to PAY ATTENTION TO MY BODY' as fans write about getting Covid at the band shows:
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High risk people deserve to get medical care without risking their lives. Infection prevention should NOT be abandoned. #KeepMasksInHealthCare
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The consistently faint line indicates to me that my masking at least lowered the viral load that lead to this infection. Late on tuesday night, 2/3 tests I took were also faintly positive. Hereās an image of one of those testsābefore and after increasing contrast (etc)
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and this was one of the coworkers who said she was surprised that masking was dropped and wouldāve continued wearing a mask no problem if they hadnāt done that!!. Iām at my wits end. today was so deeply upsetting. patients are not ok.
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Had I been there, I wouldāve told him (the nurse) āNo, but I do think I know more about COVID than you. How many hours per week do you spend reading COVID research?ā. Alas, I was not there. Canāt wait for the next time I see him š¤š¤š¤.
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@RealGayArbys I like to mention the documented prevalence of covid in white-tailed deer and make a joke about how deer really need to cut back on indoor dining.
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@calexander007 Exactly this. Itās unacceptable behavior on many levels. As an older white male nurse whoās been on the unit 10+ years, he has so much more power than she does (a very young woman of color & PCA who only has a year under her belt). Super not ok!.
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And tbh, by āthatās when Iāll stop maskingā. I actually really mean āthatās when Iāll take it off to eat food indoorsā . I donāt anticipate ever taking it off in settings like public transportation, grocery stores, healthcare facilities, and other essential spaces.
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@dreams_of_sloth I am THIS šš¼ close to learning how to code and doing whatever it takes to work for prime video (prob punching a puppy or something?) JUST so I can fix the literal worst user interface Iāve EVER SEEN š¤¢š¤¢š¤¢ TRASH!! TRAAAAAAASH
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@bestfoodalex @suchnerve I feel this weight so heavily at work. I wish I could just gather all the high-risk patients and tell them hi I love you, I see you, and Iām so sorry this bs is happening. you all deserve better.
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please GOD let happen.
Two Harvard Law professors write that healthcare organizations and physicians can be liable for damages for Covid-19 infections after removing mask mandates.
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one of my friends in new york just sent this to me. didnāt realize covid ended in 2021! how embarrassing for all of the millions of people still losing their health and/or literal lives to it!!! how very 2021 of them!. so gross @kavasutrakava
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So, they changed SARS2 pt isolation protocols at my š„ from . āmodified dropletā (gown,š§¤, N95/PAPR, & š„½) . to droplet (surgical mask & š„½). inf disease team says we donāt need gloves/gown bc covid doesnāt spread that way š« SOS @MeetJess @LauraMiers @CDCgov_parody @amandalhu.
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The entire @SpankieV interview with @JoshuaDtown is so exceptional, but this part stood out to me. re: his former marriage to Colleen Ballinger, he says she used to smack his butt on & off camera despite him saying it made him uncomfortable. Swoopās response is right on
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some additional context!. I work directly with patients in a hospital and so do most of my classmates. A ton of my classmates are currently covid positive, as are a ton of our patients. I started to have symptoms this week, so I tested.
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@kendrafeliciter luckily, we have pictures and videos to remind ourselves that no, most people didnāt used to spend the entire winter sick in bed.
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@me_again666 at this point I think that if I heard someone mention covid damage in public I would maybe start crying and ask for their hand in marriage?.
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@me_again666 The glazing over is maddening. Almost every single person Iāve talked to about it just completely stops listening and I wish I would snap them out of it.
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Next week (May 15-21) is the National Week of Action to #KeepMasksInHealthcare!. Healthcare should never make you sicker. Masking is a simple way to protect patients and workers from infections.
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One thing that COVID has reaffirmed for me is that we need to do better by climate activists. It is so, so lonely to feel like youāre the only one who cares.
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@_bahhumbug Iām right there with you. Itās a non-negotiable and feels impossibly limiting. Like how tf am I supposed to have any other standards/boundaries besides covid safety when 99.9% of the population doesnāt give a shit?? Iāve just given up for now :\.
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@IPizza666 yeah thatās likely where she was coming from. The context tho is that we were discussing the dropping of mask mandates. So itās the combination of saying that *and* not masking around our patients, nearly all of whom are 65+ and in for non-elective operations. šš.
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@fairymarymary @MarciaBelsky I have also noticed that as a student and I donāt know what the majority of it stems from, but I do wonder if part of it is just from social anxiety becoming much more prevalent due to (excuse the cliche) social media? š¤·š¼āāļø.
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@cryptoknight99 @Jimcorrsays I live in NYC and have lots of friends who work at hospitals. They have all told me they are out of beds and supplies. They also have told me that they are watching people die from this every day.
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I remember in the first week of Feb 2020 when I sat my dad down and explained what was about to happen. He said āThat canāt be right. If that was true, millions of people will die.ā
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Well, technically I bought KN95s and asked if they would add them to the list of options lollll. But I think I can get them to budget for masks. esp when they see people ordering them!! š¤š¼š¤š¼š¤š¼.
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I have also just been leaving colored ear loop KN95s around campus which has been a successful method. Students seem to like those better than the head strap N95s. And these are much better than nothing!!!.
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@Tifftastic75 People are scared and donāt want to believe it, so theyāre attacking you. š When will they learn??? Thank you for sharing ā¤ļø.
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@noaleee @GianmarcoSoresi so youāre saying the appropriate response to crimes against humanity isā¦ more crimes against humanity???? for >1 million people???.
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So Gaza has no electricity and no internet access. Are we just supposed to wait for IDF to tell us what happens?? . they told Gazans to āevacuateā to an area thatās being targeted, so the people arenāt gonna go & then IDF is gonna bomb the entire northern area. this is genocide.
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@LauraMiers Also, b4 condemning Laura for wanting to leave, remember that staying and fighting requires a semi-functional level of physical & mental stamina. Folks with LC and ME/CFS have been robbed of that. Have empathy & direct ur energy @ able-bodied folks who're doing nothing (or worse).
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@ElyKreimendahl @SFdirewolf these repliesā¦ š§ yāall need to google ācovid wastewater levelsā & ālong covid severity and prevalence studiesā & then if youāre in the US, maybe try āSSDI restrictionsā and figure out how long it would take you to lose housing if you couldnāt work due to long covid ā¤ļø.
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@lucyveepee This has happened to me before. I thanked my dentist for wearing an N95 and said I was so grateful for all their precautions and he just kind of looked blankly at me. Very weird.
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This is a matter of life and death. COVID is the # 3 killer in the US (only behind *all cancers* and *all heart diseases*). Infection prevention should NOT be abandoned. @mayoclinic #KeepMasksInHealthcare #MaskWeekOfAction @MayoClinicHS @Mayoclinicpress @MayoClinicINFD
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I triple-dog-dare mayo clinic to start routinely testing their patients for covid again!!! bet theyāre too chicken tho!!! š¤.
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@babs_zone I think youāre prob onto something. And wouldnāt be surprised if she has some sort of filtration situation along the edges of the stage. Itās amazing how low the readings were given how every person in that stadium was singing for 3 hours straight! props to sofi I guess!.
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@Dissonant_Sea Itās so rough. Every few months I download it, get discouraged, and delete it like a week later. Iām so tired of trying to convince people toā¦have empathy? š„².
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@amandalhu Bingo. Yesterday a nurse said āI would wear a mask with an immunocompromised patientā as if people walk around all areas of the hospital wearing signs disclosing all of their health information.
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@RealGayArbys ššš Yes.
I remember in the first week of Feb 2020 when I sat my dad down and explained what was about to happen. He said āThat canāt be right. If that was true, millions of people will die.ā
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@haussamen Yep!! I have had many, many negative tests that never showed a line like this. But, of course, very very open to the possibility that this is a fluke and Iām actually negative (esp considering the lengths I go to in order to avoid this damn virus!!).
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what do we think folks??? donāt give me false hope ok people my little heart canāt take the rollercoaster šš
The lighting was a bit different between them but I tried
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@DailyJLee I saw a sign in a patientsā room that said something along the lines of āyou have the right to a safe examā or something like that and said itās always ok to ask a provider to wear gloves etc. and I was like š§ patients shouldnāt ever have to ASK.
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@kary_cee @londonsje @1goodtern Right? and this person is 50ā¦ Several of his younger cousins are vets?? š¤Øš¤Øš¤Ø Also, Iād like for him to explain if he meant to imply that itās a no biggie if we basically force the last of our WWII vets, for example, to die out *more quickly*??.
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Tomorrow, Iām meeting with the health and wellness person at my school to āshare some ideas I have about covid mitigationsā. I plan to lay out the situation as clearly as possible and ask for her help in . 1. spreading accurate covid info.2. securing & distributing masks/tests.
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Ok just wanna say apparently this brand sometimes has a faint grey line where the positive pink line would be! In my case, the lines seem pink (in person). But other people might do what I did and find a grey lineāthat would be negative! Sorry, I didnāt realize this was a thing.
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I find myself not sharing my social medias with new friends bc then I can still go ātheyāre a good person. surely if they saw how their actions are affecting vulnerable people, theyād changeā. once I know theyāve seen my posts laying it out, itās hard to look at them the same.
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@ELHopkins Yes! .1. I donāt want to harm myself .2. I donāt want to harm others.3. I think disabled, chronically ill, and clinically vulnerable people deserve to be able to leave their homes without fearing for their lives. And that is more important to me than people seeing my mouth š.
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Btw hereās a comparison between one that came back completely negative and one that I suspect is positive.
@StephTaitWrites @themaggieshow_ I feel you, I thought the same thing. Havenāt done it to unused ones but I did it to both of the tests I took todayāone of them had it, the other didnāt seem to. Hereās a side by side comparison. Let me know what you think!!
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what do we think folks??? donāt give me false hope ok people my little heart canāt take the rollercoaster šš
The lighting was a bit different between them but I tried
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@LauraMiers I told a family member something about covid recently and they started to argue that it couldnāt possibly be true. I asked, āwhen was the last time you intentionally searched for updated information about covid?ā She said āā¦a long time ago.ā I said ārightā¦ šā.
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@D_Bone @friendlycovid19 @COVIDSafeCampus @alexmeshkin @NjbBari3 @a_lil_bow @michael_hoerger @julia_doubleday . how do I approach this so that I donāt put them on the defensive while still being honest aboutā¦ reality?.
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@OverlordMarie @MayoClinic THANK YOU for sharing. I am devastated by @MayoClinic @MayoClinicINFD ās decision to remove mask requirements. It is unacceptable and needs to change ASAP.
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brb, googling "how to respect professor with a PhD in neuroscience who doesn't care if he gets covid".
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@DxEverywhere horrifying!! . side note: come on š wearing coveralls but not keeping the respirator over your nose??? I canāt.
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@oliviaahliv thank you for sharing thisāthis behavior fucks with results and I bet they wonāt be listing it as a limitation!!!.
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@Caro_Dew_ @germanfrancie Sorry youāre getting bombarded with negative responses. Thank you for posting, youāre doing the right thing ā¤ļø.
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@jasmith_yorku āDoes your city clean its drinking water?ā.āNo, why bother? Even if we did, you could still go and find dirty water to drink.ā.
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@amandalhu Also, as if genetics are static and unaffected by your environmentā¦? Like, holy shit people!! This is Intro to Genetics day ONE stuff.
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@testiclebutrdog No (I wish). Iām saying if/when we have something like PrEP for covid, I would feel comfortable changing my precautions. Tbh idk if I would even stop masking, I would probably just start eating indoors again.
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@MNhospitals you know what really risks access to care? having unsafe staffing ratios. if yāall were on the floor for literally one shift youād know that.
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@D_Bone As a future doctor, thank you for sharing and helping me prepare. Itās hard to fathom how many of my future patients will have long covidā¦.
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Normally, if my unit needs people to pick up shifts, Iāll get texts. Iāve been getting texts, but thatās an every day thingāthe hospital is always understaffed. However, since they dropped the mask requirement on monday, Iāve gotten *paged* directly multiple times š.
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If youāre an employee or patient at @MayoClinic, tell them why you want them to PREVENT hospital-acquired-infections. I personally know people who have caught COVID from HCWs while hospitalized at Mayo. NO ONE should come to Mayo Clinic & get sicker. #KeepMasksInHealthCare.
High risk people deserve to get medical care without risking their lives. Infection prevention should NOT be abandoned. #KeepMasksInHealthCare
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@celestial_bean_ @MeetJess @LauraMiers @CDCgov_parody @amandalhu I hope that because I wear my 3M aura or FloMask and stoggles everywhere and am never unmasked outside my apartment, it wouldnāt be hard to prove that any covid infection I acquire in the future would be work-related.
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@_bahhumbug No, Iāve seen too much š At this point would be like dating someone who doesnāt wash their hands or thinks that seatbelts are unnecessary.
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@LauraMiers I have a 24 year old friend who is suffering from significant (new) memory issues after a covid infection ~2 months ago. She just got an appointment with a neuropsychologistā¦set in october.
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@pxnzischemes Yes, absolutely, 1. because there are many people who could not medically get the vaccines or were concerned about how they would affect their already fragile health 2. because the larger antivax movement is predatory and those people are *victims* of manipulation and propaganda.
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@Maverickk324 @ElyKreimendahl What an wild self-report. š³ We get it, you donāt care about the lives of anyone over the age of like, 65 (or anyone whoās medically vulnerable, for that matter). Also, death isnāt the only negative outcome and is actually not the primary concern for most people!.
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Iām really sick of hearing patients cough their lungs out all day, going to their charts, and seeing that (despite obvious symptoms) no covid tests have been ordered. Like, what the hell are we doing? Most of the pts on my unit are 65+. Unbelievable.
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@RealGayArbys We gotta stop letting deer attend indoor events! And of course, get better about using hand sanitizer after shaking hands/hooves.
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āI donāt use condoms. STIs are here to stay & u shouldnāt let the fear of them ruin ur pleasure! I donāt even have symptoms right now. Do u have anxiety or something?ā. Imagine this person has 100+ partners per day & *rarely gets tested*. THIS is how non-maskers sound.
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@AlisaValdesRod1 All this time, my laziness was just trying to do me a solid šā¤ļøāØ /j.
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