Using wastewater data- the only data that measures the amount of circulating COVID-19 in an era of inaccessible tests and discouraged reporting- infectious disease modeler J.P. Weiland estimates that the US has yet again crossed the million-infections-per-day mark as of August 9, with about 1 in 33 Americans currently infected with COVID-19.
. . .
I’ve written before about how, in November 2021, nearly a year after the debut of the vaccines, Fauci publicly declared that US COVID cases would need to fall “well below 10,000 a day” for us to get a “degree of normality,” and allow us to return to pre-pandemic life. In the nearly three years since, the US has never had a single day with under 10,000 new COVID cases per day; in fact, we have never had a single day with under 100,000 new COVID cases per day.
Caught it 4 months ago despite masking and distancing and having a booster and haven’t felt “well” ever since and get random bouts of feeling like absolute dogshit out of nowhere for like a couple hours before bed then waking up feeling “normal” post-infection bad
Doomer
spoiler
I will never forgive or forget how utterly every American institution gleefully threw any semblance of public health or wellbeing into a fucking woodchipper at the behest of commercial real estate and financial concerns. A reasonable society could’ve nipped this in the bud early with an actual lockdown and quarantine, but instead millions of people are dead or (seemingly) permanently disabled and we’re just gonna go on kicking the can down the road indefinitely until the wheels finally fall off and everything falls apart. There should be a truth and reconciliation commission and public trials for everyone involved in public policy making decisions through the pandemic.
agreed with your “doomer” paragraph.(I would like to read a book or some heavy-duty Theory about this, but I barely know who to trust anymore.)
I mostly just follow Death Panel and get recs from there, but I rarely have the appetite for it anymore despite being a really good podcast, it all just depresses and enrages me too much. Haven’t listened in awhile but they frequently gave good citations to studies and papers and book recommendations and whatnot.
Oh, hell yeah, a podcast with transcripts. Thanks for the recommendation.
I rarely have the appetite for it anymore despite being a really good podcast, it all just depresses and enrages me too much.
Mood. I listened to it pretty religiously up through the end of the of the official public health emergency, but the bleaker things got the less I could bear to listen to it. I do still tune in occasionally, though: their recent episode about the untold history of Section 504 was pretty neat! But generally, I’ve been listening less and less to Death Panel, Citations Needed
, 5-4, and other podcasts along those lines because I already struggle a lot with rumination and it just exacerbates things. Have to try to strike a balance between staying informed and not driving myself mad.
not sure if this is heavy-duty enough but it might whet your appetite
What we see during COVID-19 is stark operational differences between nations where politicians are the top authorities, and nations where Capital is the top authority. We are endlessly told that nations with activist governments are unfree, and that any support for these governments must come from either a pathological culture of obedience or the threat of state violence. And yet socialist nations plainly outperformed capitalist ones in terms of fighting the virus. [12]
This analysis does not imply there were simply two modes of response: capitalist and socialist. Market domination is not a binary affair, and Capital doesn’t rule by decree. As Roberts puts it, the market doesn’t tell capitalists what to do — rather, they have to guess and prognosticate and forecast and hope. Capitalists don’t find out whether they did what the market wanted until after the fact. [13] People around the world defended themselves from the virus, repressing the political will of Capital, in proportion to what they could get away with politically and economically. In socialist states, resources were deployed as deemed necessary to meet the challenge. In capitalist states in the sphere of influence of socialist China, such as South Korea, capitalists offered a decent response, perhaps because catastrophic handling would create a domestic political shift in favour of socialism. In the imperial core, where white supremacy reigns and there is no political will whatsoever to look to China for a good example, self-assured capitalists simply allowed the plague to spread essentially unopposed. In fact, imperialists succeeded to a great extent in turning the ensuing resentment into a foreign policy weapon. [14] This isn’t isolated to the most proudly capitalist nations; the kind of political power, infrastructure, and resources needed to enforce a tolerable quarantine has been completely eroded in social democratic havens like Canada and Sweden. No notable political force in the West referred to socialist successes in their efforts to affect domestic COVID-19 response policy, and I attribute this mistake to chauvinism.
Hej, afaik studies are showing that, as long as you weren’t hospitalized, most folks recover within two years. Hang in there. It sucks but it’s not forever.
and how often do people get infections? probably less than two years apart on average
Afaik “immunity” lasts ~months give or take a few, and it’s not really immunity, and you can get infected again immediately anyway, and the mutations are highly immun evasive. It’s a mess. The vaccines don’t prevent you from getting infected, either. They reduce the chance, but it’s very limited, not reliable. The key benefit of the vaccines is reducing the risk of long covid.
Apparently there are some hard core sterilizing vaccines being worked on that show some promise and will maybe be able work despite mutations. Fingers crossed.
There’s some promising nasal vaccines in animal trials in India iirc, that reduce viral particles in the upper tract 100-fold and in the lower tract 100,000-fold, i.e. completely stopping infection.
I was at the point of thinking “fuck, do I need to go to the hospital?” at the worst of it but my fever wasn’t dangerous and my O2 level stayed in a safe range so I didn’t, but there were a couple nights where it was bad enough that it hurt too much to fall asleep despite being exhausted? I’ve had recurring chronic fatigue and some minor tendonitis and brain fog kinda symptoms since, but idk if that’s related and I don’t have health insurance so I’ve been hesitant to get anything looked at unless “shit am I dying?” crosses my mind
NGL, sometimes I feel weak and want to give up being the weird dick who N95s everywhere and always eats outside. But then I see shit like this.
The key thing, for me, is holding on to a sense of contempt. Like, yeah, pity and compassion, but also contempt at a society that did this to all of us. Who are they to judge the few who are still trying to protect themselves and others? They’re not worthy to judge people wearing masks. Their social violence is harming people who want to wear masks but are unable due to vast coercive social pressure. Whenever i feel it bothering me, i remind myself that many of these people are fine with all the death and suffering, and perhaps those who do want to mask will take inspiration when they see people masking.
So, contempt, and also remembering that by wearing a mask publicly it may help people who want to mask to find the courage to tell society to fuck off.
Yes. We can’t stop getting angry.
“They’re trying to kill me," Yossarian told him calmly.
“No one’s trying to kill you,” Clevinger cried.
“Then why are they shooting at me?” Yossarian asked.
“They’re shooting at everyone,” Clevinger answered. “They’re trying to kill everyone.”
"And what difference does that make?”
It’s the best Catch there is. Catch 22 should really be required reading for trying to make some kind of sens of the 21st century.
Oh you’re right. I do contempt very hard right now. Sometimes I get soft and want to be on good terms with the non maskers, but it’s just a passing thing.
This is exactly where I’m at as well. Pure contempt and resentment.
i remind myself that many of these people are fine with all the death and suffering
It’s depressing when you realize that they are all okay with it because it means they can cram into packed concert venues and restaurants to enjoy extremely mediocre entertainment and overpriced restaurant depot slop.
I feel like a broken record, but the average person really doesn’t care about anything except their treats and vibes.
Indeed, the non-maskers have nothing I want. What’s there to be self-conscious about? The reflex to conform assumes the group you conform to will protect you.
This is what I did. Got too confident with not getting covid and wasn’t as secure as I’ve previously been, but still masked. Then got it.
It’s all a numbers game. You can reduce the risk, but you can’t eliminate it. Don’t beat yourself up, getting sick isn’t a personal failure. And the effort is worth it; every time you don’t get sick, every time the precautions work, you’re saving yourself that much grief. You might catch it once when other people have had 2, 3, more symptomatic cases and who knows how many asymptomatic cases.
Thanks for that. I keep going back and forth over it
If you masked, you definitely reduced your viral load, which reduced the severity. So you did a lot for yourself already.
Hahahaha fuck everything. I’m flying today and i’ve seen, like, maybe a dozen people with any kind of mask.
This one I truly can’t comprehend. Even if we somehow made covid disappear tomorrow there’s no way in hell I’m rawdogging airplane air ever again.
Even ignoring COVID, I just don’t want to be sick on my vacation? I feel like that’s obvious? I don’t want a cold, I don’t want the flu, I really don’t want covid.
iirc the airport is worse than on the plane
I do believe that’s true and I was even stricter about keeping my mask on in the airport last time I was in one
I got stuck in Fort Lauderdale airport in 2020 when Covid became a thing. This was pre-masking when the government was saying they didn’t work. Most germ infested place I have ever been, got Covid on the way back home
Lol i forgot the CDC just flat out lied and justified it with some bullshit about conserving masks for healthcare or some shit. I made a whole slew of cloth masks that never worked. I mean, they “worked”, but not enough to matter.
Cloth masks were never going to stop you getting sick, they were to stop you from spreading virus too far from your body. But that only works to slow spread if people even bother to wear them
And even as shitty as they are on an individual basis, they actually really helped when we had near universal masking at the beginning of the pandemic which significantly reduced the amount of virus in the air! The more people who are masking, the less perfect any individual’s masking has to be. Amazing what we can accomplish when we all work together to protect each other’s health!
But of course, we live in “personal risk assessment” hellworld, so you’d better have an N95 or better and make sure it fits perfectly or you’ll get got thanks to everyone else blasting their aerosols into every cubic inch of the environment.
Right? I haven’t had any kind of infectious disease - cold, flu, rsv, whatever, nothing, since 2019! It’s awesome. Yeah, i wear a mask and that sucks, but i also don’t get sick ever!
We should have been doing this all along. Like, it was right there the whole time!
And it protects your lungs from wildfire smoke, and it makes it harder for the authorities to identify you, plus you look like a ninja
I flew recently and also just saw like maybe a handful of people masked.
It’s really worrisome with the plagues and the failing planes. Wish you a safe trip!
Ugh, stay safe. Mask, nasal spray, concealed carry, mouth wash, etc. you know the drill.
One of these is not like the others.
Sorry. Not mask. Respirator.
Mood.
Yeah I’ve been going shopping looking like Bane with my n100 respirator
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It’s a surprise tool that’ll help us later
Hand loading my bullets with fish mox and st. John’s wort as we speak.
Yep. When I ride on public transit I’ll see maybe a handful of people wearing masks… Shit’s fucked.
My pharmacy’s pick-up line is on top of the aisle with all the cold medication. I’ll be one of the only masked people in there, while obviously symptomatic unmasked bozos squeeze in between folk to look for Dayquil, which is often out of stock.
gotta start going through the drive thru
on foot/bike if you have to
I’ve decided I’m not flying anymore if I can avoid it, last time I flew was 2022 for a wedding and the experience was terrible enough to completely turn me off to that form of travel.
Not even taking into account that my wife and I were the only masked people, the whole hearding cattle experience makes me want to be a hobbit.
It’s only killing 4x as many people as the flu, you know, like all typical colds.
Uhm… sorry sweaty, but Biden ended covid, remember?
COVID ended Biden
I’ve unfortunately had to fly a ton this summer for various reasons and I’ve pretty much resigned myself to being the only person on the plane wearing a mask anymore. Of course that didn’t help me when I ended up getting it from a doctor who showed up maskless and very obviously sick to a social event that I foolishly assumed would be safe (outdoors and all doctors who presumably should know better)…
all doctors who presumably should know better
Some of the worst people I’ve ever met were doctors. They ain’t smarter than the rest of us, just privileged enough to afford medical school.
Speaking in liberal platitudes will get you unbearably far in this god forsaken shithole
You can be the most fascist person in existence but as long as you cover your vitriol in a layer of academia-infused buzzwords and cultist behavior, you will appear intelligent enough for the average American blockhead.
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Seems bad
Is there a source that isn’t “thegauntlet.news,” especially given that the top level of that domain seems to be unused? I don’t want to go “oh good, 1 in 33 people have covid right now” and be like “uhhh source is some blog”
Their source is “some tweet,” because now that the CDC has stopped collecting data it’s based on estimates from wastewater samples.
The People’s CDC has more links.
Not directed at you but I’m real damn tired of Twitter being used as a source for fucking anything. I don’t even care if it’s correct, sourced, verified, primary or whatever.
I agree. That people default to posting their research on Twitter is an indictment of not only contemporary journalism and academia but also of . . . pretty much everything else. I hate it, and I hate it even more when months later, I’m trying to figure out where I read something and it turns out to have been a Twitter screenshot or a dead link.
This. There’s no “good” data anymore, the governments of the world have completely given up.
Even wastewater as I understand we don’t know quite what to do with it. A strain that puts more virus in your stools might create the impression of more infection, while a strain that deposits less virus might mask how bad it is.
this time around i know 3 people that either currently have covid or recently had it in the past few weeks… and one of them is a professional cheerleader who ended up going to the ER and has been out of work for 2 weeks, still having a fever and can’t get out of bed
one other says they can’t think straight and need to sleep a lot, and the other said “it felt like a very minor cold, little head fog for a day but that’s all”
the “cant think straight need to sleep alot always feel tired” is the long covid i have. 3+ years going. it got a bit better. not a whole lot.
the only thing that saves me is my amphetamine prescription
i wonder if that happened to me too or if im just lazy and didn’t realize it before… over the past few years it seems i can sleep 11+ hours a day if i had the ability and i’d still not feel fully rested… but at like 7 hours my body burns and hates me… so i try to get 8 minimum where possible
i had an Rx for adderall for a couple years but i realized it wasn’t really helping me do much other than just not sleep
i’ve felt like this way before covid lol
I guess doing abatement work is good right now eh
Hey, that’s me! I got it right now!
Hope you feel better soon!
Samesies, I also am doing my part
What’s the best booster for this recent variant? My girlfriend and I are going to a convention in 2 weeks and this is the last thing I want for us
They haven’t released the new boosters yet, so you’ll be getting one based on an old strain no matter what. The most important thing is that you get a booster like today if you want to have protection, peak protection isn’t immediate.
o7 I’ve got it for tomorrow morning
Nice, I’m glad you got it in. From studies, 2 weeks is right around the absolute peak of your protection. Good luck!
Thanks!
The best time would’ve been 2 weeks ago, but the second best time is now. Like literally tomorrow.
Every time I think about ‘getting my shit together’ and getting a pmc job instead of delivering boxes outside, I see a headline like this.
at least at the pmc job maybe you can be remote? but honestly fully remote jobs seem to be still declining because of the management birdbrains who demand to have everyone in person
Avoided it primarily by being remote, boosting, and masking the last few years. I go to one fucking kids birthday party this past weekend and fucking got it.
classic
I’m fully remote and I’ve had it… honestly I don’t remember, I’m pretty sure twice, both relatively early on (2021). I sincerely wish I had been more careful. And now that booster vaccines, N95s, at home NAAT tests, etc. are available, nobody uses them. It’s fucking insane
Yeah I just restocked on N95s and shit, but I’m going back to full isolation for a while. People too crazy
I was lucky to have only caught it once in dec 2020, though my grandma got it from the same place and she died.
I do have trouble breathing sometimes and my taste and smell are still altered, albeit mildly.
I love our new summer respiratory illness season.
