Notices by VeeRat (veerat@zeroes.ca)

An excellent response to that horrible NPR article where the woman author thinks missing out on restaurant dining is just as serious an issue as her husband potentially becoming further disabled by Long Covid.

"This article is not merely an upsetting look at an individual’s victim-blaming mindset about her husband’s indefinite exclusion from public spaces. It is a piece of propaganda intended to further the perception that demands for COVID mitigation are unreasonable complaints, rather than critical activism for basic public health infrastructure."

#Covid #CovidIsNotOver #LongCOVID #WearAMask @novid

https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/disabled-peoples-exclusion-from-indoor

Another day, another old friend getting back in touch with me, and me discovering that they have a form of long covid but refuse to acknowledge it. They are "burnt out on hearing about covid" and "not getting the new shot because it will make things worse" (their doctor told them this!). And also they have "mysterious" heart disease issues, which have become worse recently. No idea why!

Whatever, I guess they go into the pile with all my other old friends whose eyes glaze over when I say the word "covid" as they tell me how "it's no big deal, after all it's mild now" and firmly tell me basically "you do you" and change the subject or end the conversation.

This friend used to talk about how dystopian things are becoming. I guess once you become a part of the dystopia, it's all suddenly Business As Usual.

#covid #CovidIsNotOver #LongCOVID #dystopia #Denial @novid

The covid booster rollout in the US has been terrible, and it's making me think it's on purpose. I hope no one gets too discouraged. It's reminding me of the ways they discourage people to vote.

An example is the experience of a friend in southern New Hampshire. She and her husband tried to book appointments at CVS. They couldn't find any CVS pharmacies with any covid vaccine stocks at all in their town or surrounding towns, and had to travel a few towns over. And then they could only find Pfizer, no place had Moderna. Yesterday (Saturday Sept. 23rd) was the first appointment they could get, they had hoped for earlier in the week.

When they arrived, only her husband was in the system as having an appointment. He has Aetna insurance and she doesn't, and Aetna owns CVS, so maybe their system worked better for their own members. They took her too anyway. She said someone at the counter was needing to do manual work to get people's insurance coverage for the shots into their system, which brings the potential for typo's and resulting claim denials.

CVS is apparently booking multiple appointments for the same time slot. She said there were 4 people booked for her husband's appointed time, and the pharmacists told her that was corporate policy! She said the pharmacists were run ragged, no time for breaks, trying to get shots done for 4 people every 15 minutes, and of course not everyone arrives on time so there was a long queue and wait. This on top of the wait due to the manual insurance entry. The pharmacy was crowded with waiting people, most not masked.

I don't want to catch covid while waiting in queue to get my booster! Low stocks and overbooked appointments sounds like maybe they didn't expect so many people to want one, but other aspects of the rollout should have been expected.

Personally, I am waiting on Novavax approval. My reasoning is the specific protection it provides for FLip variants, which the mRNA vaccines do not. But we are in a wave now, so it might not make sense for everyone to wait. I have no kids and work from home, so I have less daily risk of exposure. Maybe in a week or two, these hiccups with appointments and insurance will clear up as well.

#Covid #Vaccines #Boosters #CovidIsNotOver #Novavax @novid

@novid @trendless We have not had #covid in my household. It has taken work but every new study that comes out, and seeing the changes in people around me who have been infected, just shows me how important this work is.

“The California Supreme Court has ruled: If you catch Covid from work and then a family member dies from it, you can’t sue your employer. The ruling was unanimous.”

You can’t sue your employer, and you won’t get sick time or disability payments. We have to protect ourselves and fight when we can.

#CovidIsNotOver #MaskUpN95 #Covid @novid

https://jessicawildfire.substack.com/p/how-you-do-anything-is-how-you-do

@Geoffberner @freemo The problem with this line of thinking is that heart disease isn’t contagious. I can go to public places like my doctor’s office and sit in the waiting room next to someone who has heart disease with no worries. I can no longer go anywhere, including necessary medical appointments, without worrying about catching something that is the third leading cause of death. And #covid continues to mutate. Not to mention no cure for #LongCovid which now affects millions.