As I sit in my office building for 8 hours with a mask on, listening to people around me act like it’s over. I am counting down the seconds till I can be back in my house, safe and sound.

  • FishLake@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    2 days ago

    I know that feeling. In elementary education we’re all still “recovering from COVID” as if the significant lapses in student academic success were caused by kids coming to school with masks on for awhile and not gestures broadly at everything including the virus that affects cognition.

    • nothx [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 day ago

      Remote classes is another thing that gets blamed. Never the virus with known long term effects.

  • un_mask_me [any]
    ·
    2 days ago

    I still mask everywhere, and am usually the only one. Someone is sick every other week with something or other, and it's so demoralizing. It scares me because people I care for have had it multiple times and each one has developed some additional medical issue in the last 3 years. Yet there's no precautions taken, no thought to being sick a week out of every month, no concern for the persistent coughs and memory issues. I can't even address the fact that it puts vulnerable people at risk still, that masking shouldn't be just a personal choice but one made in solidarity with every comrade.

    Show

    • nothx [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Yeah, it’s very demoralizing. My wife and I are also the only maskers and are dealing with the long term effects of getting it once, I cannot imagine the people who keep on willfully getting it.

      100% with you on masking in solidarity and definitely appreciate the couple of people I know who will when I’m around.

    • nothx [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, I’m passed the point of expecting anyone to respect my mask, I’m gonna keeping doing what’s is right for me and my family. It just kills me to hear people act like it’s over while I’m sitting right there lol.

      Keep fighting the good fight!

    • Doubledee [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 days ago

      I'm kinda lucky, my workplace has a much larger proportion of maskers than it sounds like the average. Still probably lik 5-10% at most, although it gets noticeably more common when something 'starts going around' for a week or two.

      • nothx [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        1 day ago

        it gets noticeably more common when something 'starts going around' for a week or two.

        This is amazing honestly… I would never expect that kind of response. Most of the people I work with come into the office coughing and eating cough drops like crazy, then they go home early begrudgingly.

  • BashfulBob [none/use name]
    ·
    2 days ago

    Pre-vaccine COVID was significantly scarier, especially in the early incarnations of the virus when the death rate was at its highest.

    We're getting back to flu being the predominant lethal strain of disease... which fucking sucks, because masking and hygiene and distancing had put the biggest dent in flu mortality in my lifetime. But its becoming a poor / vulnerable / elderly disease problem instead of a People Who Matter problem, because there are so many effective (expensive) interventions available to treat it at onset.

    • nothx [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Don’t get it twisted, this conversation was not between people who understand the nuances of public health. It was the treat brained people who yearn to be in the office and eat shitty pizza with their colleagues.

      COVID is still scary, I wouldn’t be wearing a mask 8 hours a day at my email job if it wasn’t. I also like avoiding the flu and all the other illnesses that we as a society have deemed okay to spread to each other.

      This was merely a rant post because it pains me to sit at my desk behind a bunch of people who minimize my concerns and experiences. I totally see your point tho, and don’t mean to belittle it.

      • BashfulBob [none/use name]
        ·
        2 days ago

        https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202404159

        Researchers at TAU and the University of Lisbon have developed a nano-vaccine against COVID-19, delivered via nasal spray without requiring cold storage. Preclincial studies show the vaccine was effective against all major SARS-CoV-2 variants.

        Hopefully this brightens your day.

        • RaisedFistJoker [she/her]
          ·
          2 days ago

          We've been wishcasting the nasal vaccine for a long time, I wont let my hopes up until thats passed stage 3 clinicals

        • nothx [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 days ago

          I have heard rumblings of this. Definitely a bright spot.

    • Hello_Kitty_enjoyer [none/use name]
      ·
      2 days ago

      We're getting back to flu being the predominant lethal strain of disease

      the flu being equally lethal as covid is partially driven by covid weakening immune systems

      • BashfulBob [none/use name]
        ·
        2 days ago

        The post-COVID degradation of general preventative care and the anti-vax hysteria might be playing a role, as well. How many hospitals don't have enough saline to treat the influx of flu-victims during the peak of the season? How many clinics and ERs have simply shuttered due to skyrocketing costs and skinflint insurance companies? How many elder care facilities have lost too many staffers (traditionally popular jobs among now-unwelcome migrant workers) to function as anything except morgues?

        Even absent the threat of COVID, domestic society is being hollowed out by finance and private equity.

  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
    ·
    2 days ago

    I'll say it as a shorthand for the year and a half I didn't have to work sometimes.

    • nothx [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, fair, I totally see the way it’s been adopted like that. Still just irks me at times.