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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.