I usually hate anecdotal stories, especially as it's the tool of the right to defend pseudoscience. However, there's a heap of scientific evidence behind us.
In the last six months, I've a lot of older people and family passed due to heart troubles, including my dad. I would never say anything out loud, as it's just rude, as people are grieving and I don't know for 100% sure (the fecking burden of not being a reactionary). Like a friend's mum died of heart failure 3 months after a COVID infection, and I thought to myself "this is a very good chance that COVID increased her risk" but I'm not going to be a knob and say that out loud. You know who didn't fail to give their opinion? Fucking antivaxxers everywhere. "Did you mother get the jab?" "Fuck off her last vaccine was in 2021".
The other massive glaring thing I see every day is my students. Exam scores are way down, while behavioural and emotional problems (including medication) is up. COVID infections definitely can hurt kids' cognitive ability and cause an increased risk of neurological problems. I've just see way more fighting, anger, and serious emotional troubles in school than I ever have in my 20+ years of teaching. Students are missing way more school due to illnesses like COVID but also other viral stuff like the cold and flu than they ever used to, and they're falling behind because of it.
Total shot in the dark, but I see more of my close friends struggling with depression, anxiety, and low energy than I ever remember. I don't mean to downplay the genuine struggle that is mental health, people definitely had symptoms before COVID and many other issues are completely unrelated to COVID. I'm just seeing an increase across the board with people I know, especially people who I previously considered to be a rock.
I know that anecdotal evidence isn't worth considering, but we've being posting hard science for years, and I think it's fair that we start to notice patterns in our community.
I got it for the second confirmed time recently and the symptoms lasted almost 2 full weeks, testing positive on antigen tests the entire time.
I was listening to knowledge fight yesterday and they were talking about Alex's grift he released in 2021 called reset wars. One of the hosts made an offhanded remark like "keep in mind this was released during the pandemic.... Which is ongoing but this was released when thousands of people were dying a day"
I almost yelled at the car stereo. We know there's a MASSIVE spike in infections right now but we don't have any data other than wastewater so there's no way to have an accurate death count.
Another grim thing i heard i think on the death panel podcast was that one of the reasons recent strains of COVID seem "less deadly" is because most of the people who were at risk of dying to a single COVID infection are already dead. That was a big wake up call for me to get my shit together honestly.
It relates to your comment about it being a burden, people who would ostensibly be on our side are more likely to hedge and "uh well i guess" their way through anything about COVID while any reactionary just shouts whatever they heard last at anyone who will listen
I enjoyed the Formulaic Objections series but it did occasionally become clear that the hosts are liberals who are not critical enough of US lies... have they made any progress in that regard or are they still talking about Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine
They don't talk about it much but yeah Jordan is still some kind of weird incoherent leftish guy who yells about how putin is the devil once in a while. Dan still is a fence sitting civility guy who doesn't really get into his own opinions much. I wouldn't listen to their episodes about Alex's reaction to tucker interviewing putin, if I were you lol
if only these pesky compradors we install would stay loyal, this empire thing would run just fine