syncytia

[mellowtigger]

Covid will not end in 2022. I think that 2022 will instead mark the beginning of public understanding of just what covid means to humanity. After reading this very long article which cleared up some concepts for me that I'd encountered before, I realize that I haven't been pessimistic enough about #LongCovid.  I added a new postscript (and major concern #5) to my existing thread on covid.  Don't get covid.

China knows what's what. So how is China responding? They have bartenders in full hazmat suits, encourage city-wide strict lockdowns to enforce their zero-covid strategy, cull entire animal stocks at the first sign of infection, and are building a new barbed wire fence around the country.

My guesses for how the population of the West will react when they finally come to the same understanding of what SARS-CoV-2 is doing in the human body are... worrisome.  Expect to hear frequent use of the phrase "undetectable viral load" this year with its implied underlying persistent infection, and wonder what the speaker has to gain from perpetuating this misdirection.

I promise not to mention covid again for at least 6 months.  Well, unless I'm personally affected by it before then.  I know how depressing my interpretation is, and I know I'm developing a familiar shrill voice, so I'll avoid subjecting everyone to it for a while.  But you'll know that they know when the powers-that-be start exempting essential workers from insurance/compensation claims for help.  That's your signal that the economic triage for expensive lifelong costs has begun.  Yay, capitalism.

I need a 100% remote job.  Or a lottery win.  (I'd have to play the lottery first.)  Anything that keeps me safe at home.

Comments

[foeclan]

I usually go to a bear event called Fur Flee around this time of year. It was canceled last year, for obvious reasons. They have a 'dark room' on the hospitality suite where people have sex. And it's fun. But the past few times I've gone, there's been, to me, an alarming amount of barebacking. So when the newsletters showed up, and they were requiring vaccinations and such, all I could think was, 'These guys can't wear a rubber for a disease that's killed over 35 million people, how can I trust them with this?'. So I canceled my hotel room and will be skipping it this year.

[mellowtigger]

There are so many similarities between this epidemic and the last one, it's just uncanny. :( The thing that creeps me out the most about this current epidemic are the calls for putting kids into classrooms without masks. They pick the least-sterile environment known to humanity (okay, maybe just a slight exaggeration for comedic effect) and then add the least-protective behavior to it. I just... GAH! There's a lot we still don't know, but it's so painfully obvious that this is NOT the flu that I just can't comprehend why the various denialists (anti-vaxx, anti-mask, back-to-normal) are given any airtime at all.

Yes, always wear appropriate protection. :)

[threemeninaboat]

Or, as I told my colleague, "It's a GREAT time to be in medicine! Everything is different and wrong!"
ee: "It is not. I am tired."


Further proof that we are all tired: He's my last health care provider, all others have retired.

[mellowtigger]

Falling healthcare staff levels was on my list of bulletpoints in my first draft of this post. I cut it for brevity. (I do make an effort, truly. LOL) Thanks for mentioning it. It is a cause for concern about long-term impacts of this slow crisis.