Evidence suggests that measles immunity fades about 10-15 years after vaccination. If it's been more than 10 years since your MMR, or you can't find the latest record of vaccination, update your shot.

And WEAR A MASK. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases of all time. There is NO reason to expose yourself when a KN95/N95 mask offers so much protection.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8189124

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/28/nx-s1-5312088/measles-texas-outbreak-contagious-spread

#measles #mmr #vaccines #maskup #epidemic

Last week a colleague who had been ill returned to work, wearing a mask. She said "I am following your example".

This is one of the reasons I mask - even though I totally suck at doing it properly and also forget.

To hold the space.

#MaskUp #CovidIsNotOver

I still can’t believe having to mask temporarily during a global pandemic broke so many people.

It’s been 5 years & they’re still irrationally angry at the sight of a mask.

They’ve abandoned all sense of self preservation and community care, and lives will continue to be lost because of it.

#pandemic #maskup #covidisairborne #covidisnotover #sarscov2

Would techbros be more into COVID safety if you called it "neurosecurity"?

#covid #pandemic #covidisntover #maskup

I went to the hospital yesterday for an iron infusion. The infusion center includes patients receiving immune suppressants for treatment of autoimmune diseases, and cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. I was masked as always, and I saw only one staff member masked, and only one other patient (and their family member) wearing masks!

#WearAMask #MaskUp #CovidIsNotOver

Calling #CovidCautious folx in Northern England, UK! Friends of mine are putting together a Covid-safer #punk gig at an awesome #LGBTQ+ venue (involving masks, HEPAs, PlusLife, far-UVC etc) and it's just weeks away with tickets left! So if you can make it to #Sheffield, go buy one, become a member of Gut Level venue, mask up, and let's show the world how it's done because this is what punk is all about! https://wegottickets.com/event/640853 #CovidIsNotOver #MaskUp #Yorkshire #York #Leeds @violetblue

If you’ve got a little wooden keepsake box, you can easily load it with 3M Auras and have a classy way present N95s to visiting guests.

#MaskUp #CovidSafeScouts

My wife just saw some dude jogging in Hollywood with an n95 on, and you won't believe this, but he was breathing just fine!

No struggle or huffin' and puffin'. It's like it's totally possible to do very normal things while protecting yourself!

Insane, I know RIGHT?!

#sarcasmfont #maskup #lafires

New reference dump from @violetblue and it's a doozy

https://www.panaccindex.info/p/what-covid-19-does-to-the-body-sixth

#CovidIsNotOver #maskUp #cleanAir

💥 Announcement 💥

After meeting with the owner and staff of White Oaks Bookstore in Vancouver, WA, where I've often seen workers and customers masked up, I'm including this wonderful small business on my respirator restocking route. They are just down Main street from Kindred homestead supply, who also has a free mask basket out front.

Today I gifted them with a basket of 30 KF94's, 10 kid-sized KF94's, 8 KN95's, and 4 N95's. The owner and staff were thrilled, I introduced them to the #MaskBlocPDX account on Instagram, and am similarly excited to be able to support this local community champion of public health.

#communityhealth #mutualaid #maskbloc #vanwa #publichealth #maskup #supportlocalbusiness

Yesterday we evacuated my future mother-in-law from her home. The smoke was so thick from the #eatonfire and #palisadesfire that I could still smell it through my N95 (granted, my facial hair may have prevented a perfect seal).

If you have been affected by any #lafire, including these two, the #hurstfire, #sunsetfire, etc. please, for your health, wear a mask/respirator when you step outside.

#maskup #losangeles

Y'all. Pay attention.

Please.

"SARS-CoV-2 causes the same genetic changes as every other virus known to cause cancer. [The idea that viruses can cause or lead to cancers is not new. Viruses like the Epstein-Barr virus, hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses, HIV and human papillomavirus are well-known pathogens associated with malignancies]."

This is just one excerpt that I could've pulled from the interview. I thought that this one was a shocking enough one that it might help some people pay attention, though.

This is a long read, and I know most people don't want to take the time to read, let alone understand it. Yet, this is one of the shortest and most accessible overviews of the mistakes in public health and messaging over the last five years that I have found to date.

This article finally gives me a piece of data that I've been looking for: 10 viral particles is all it takes for COVID to transmit from one person to another (and yes, I will be looking for other sources of this number somewhere out there in the data). As a infectious disease lay person nerd, that number means a lot to me. It means Covid is as transmissible as Norovirus. Actually, it is more transmissible.

To everyone still #masking, cleaning the air, monitoring CO2, and being conscious about not being a spreader of any disease, I thank you.

It sucks that we are in the minority.

You're doing the right thing, though. You're doing what you should be doing to effect public health, while everyone else, including public health officials, has lost their minds. Stay strong. The fight is not over.

For everyone not doing any mitigations to prevent being a viral reservoir in which COVID can continue to mutate -- know you can change your habits! You can change what you do in your life to protect yourself and others, even now, even after repeated infections. I highly encourage you to consider starting taking precautions again.

It's not difficult and it's not prohibitively expensive. I would argue that precautions are much less expensive in the long run than fighting cancer, immune deficiency, repeated bouts of pneumonia, etc. -- yet I understand it feels like swimming upstream.

Most people don't want other people to think that they are weird. Most people don't want to stand out. Nobody wants to be the tall poppy. But what we are losing in health and productivity and longevity because we have given into rampant transmission and reinfecfion with this virus is obscene.

You might have an employer who is hostile to the idea of taking your health in your own hands. You may be in a workplace that is designed to encourage viral spread. Your family or roommates might be entirely hostile to you taking precautions.

They are wrong.

A lot of money was wasted in the first couple of years of the pandemic not doing the things that we could've done to protect people and workers indoors -- filtering the air, monitoring indoor air quality, implementing UV technology, having people mask when they have symptoms or they think they've been exposed, and providing enough paid sick leave so that people can isolate and not infect others. Those are not our culture. We still have a long uphill battle on multiple fronts in that regard.

We're basically 100% in individualist Wild West territory at this point. It's going to get worse as the new administration enters the picture in the United States. More mask bans, more ignoring science, more "Let Er Rip" mentality. It's easy to give up and just go with the flow, though the price of that flow is two or three or five infections a year, each of which will lead to further health problems down the road.

It takes a lot of time and energy to resist. I'm in a position from which I can resist, though. Few others are in my particular situation. I have time and energy to devote to understanding the effects and costs of failed public health. I have a deep and abiding interest in understanding infectious disease as a lay person. Part of this is baked into the ethics and responsibilities of my profession. I hope that as I digest this information, it is helpful to you as a person who doesn't have these same privileges.

My personal stance is, I don't give a rat's ass what anybody thinks about me and my continued infection precautions. I know that I'm moving as ethically and responsibly as I can in the world. I also understand the risks of infection for my own self (high, terrible) and the risks of potentially infecting others.

I'm an outlier. But I ask you to consider joining me as we enter the second half of this pandemic's first decade. This is the only way public health is going to happen -- if we take it into our own hands and stop believing convenient fairytale bullshit and weakened public health entities.

Breakdown (tl;dr):

-- Public health has failed

-- disinformation is rampant, even from organizations that should be trustworthy

-- COVID is airborne and only takes a few particles to infect someone

-- COVID continues to evolve and evade rather than become "milder"

-- COVID can break your DNA, becoming a cancer precursor

-- vaccines are your LAST line of defense

-- Immunity debt is bullshit!

-- Masks work; even a beat up 30 day old 3M Aura mask filters well

-- Cleaning the air with HEPA filters is highly effective at reducing transmission indoors

For those of you still with me on this subject, those who have made it this far reading, as well as those of you who are becoming precaution-curious, here's a cookie:

"I think that if you’re out there taking COVID seriously, and if you’re out there still trying to avoid repeated infections, you’re still doing the right thing. It is still possible to avoid being infected and a worthwhile goal."

#MaskUp #CovidIsNotOver #CovidCausesCancer #CovidKills

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/12/31/zgyj-d31.html

Thank you NYC for setting such a great example of public health messaging!

Respirators protect you from all kinds of airborne viruses - including Covid.

If you can’t afford one - check for a mask bloc in your area.

Make 2025 the year you up your mask game!

#maskup #CovidIsNotOver #covidisairborne #longcovid #publichealth

Today in “Samuel Pepys’ Diary reimagined”:

“Not even in doctors’ surgeries and hospitals masks are mandatory anymore. Meanwhile, patients keep dying of hospital-acquired illnesses, including pneumonia and other airborne infections.”

https://babumenos.com/SPDR/#a2024-12-28

#MaskUp #WearAMask #COVIDisAirborne #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #HAI

Speaking of vaccinations, my fellow New Yorkers should be aware that whooping cough (pertussis) cases have been increasing in Tioga county.

#NYS #MaskUp #Vaccinations

https://www.wbng.com/2024/12/16/whooping-cough-cases-rise-tioga-county/

New introduction post - joined in Nov 2022 (as many did) and back now after a hiatus. I write about Covid, disability justice, ableism, eugenics, the experience of being chronically ill during a pandemic and life, loss and grief. Looking forward to connecting with people here again! #CovidIsNotOver #COVIDisAirborne #chronicillness #Ableism #DisabilityJustice #WearAMask #MaskUp #CleanAir #DisabilityRights

My latest article is about the shooting of CEO Brian Thompson and how NYC Mayor Adams seems poised to use it as an excuse to bring in a ban on masks (which he’s wanted to do for awhile).

Mask bans are discriminatory, ableist and put lives at risk.

We are still IN an airborne pandemic. Everyone - whether disabled or not - should have the legal right to protect themselves from infection.

People need masks for all kinds of reasons. Pollution, wildfire smoke, allergies AND Covid. No one should be forced to risk their health because a necessary medical device has been criminalized for absolutely no reason.

Make no mistake - these bans won’t stop crime. Studies have shown that sunglasses obscure identity more effectively.

The only reason to ban masks is to pander to those on the right still angry about mask mandates - and to make it easier for the government to surveil its citizens.

Ironically those who screamed the loudest about freedom and bodily autonomy during mask mandates are eerily quiet about mask bans - despite the fact that they represent escalating fascism and government overreach.

We really are on our own.

Please - mask up. Do it in solidarity with disabled people who NEED masks in order to safely access public spaces. Do it to support the Covid aware people who just want to avoid infection. Do it to send a message to the government that you don’t believe anyone is expendable. Do it to protect our right to mask in the future.

It’s not too late - but we must get loud, work fast and wear our masks.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/nyc-mayor-wants-to-ban-masks-in-the

#maskbans #nomaskbans #noNYmaskban #covidisairborne #covidisnotover #sarscov2 #wearamask #respirator #brianthompson #luigimangione #ableism #discrimination #disabilityrights #disabilityjustice #maskup

a German-language article on how the number of scarlet fever cases have risen in Bavaria. It mentions that you can catch it again and again, and that it is #airborne . Also that it can have rare but pretty terrible side-effects such as streptococcal toxic shock syndrome.

Another good reason to #MaskUpButtercup

#MaskUp #YallMasking #ScarletFeverIsNotOver

https://www.br.de/nachrichten/wissen/scharlach-faelle-bei-kindern-in-bayern-das-sollten-eltern-wissen-symptome-risiken-behandlung,UW9wlA9?at_medium=mastodon&at_campaign=BR.de

If anyone builds some #CovidIsNotOver #MaskUp #AntiCovid etc starter packs, I'll gladly add them to https://links.zeroes.ca

"Neuropsychiatric complications reltd to SARS-CoV-2 infections are termed #COVID-19-associated neuropathologies & may inc. cognitive deficits (Quan et al., 2023; Taquet et al., 2022a), sensory disturbances (Trott et al., 2022), & sleep disorders (Alimoradi et al., 2021). Of relevance, a 2-year retrospective cohort study on 1.28 million patients found a persistently increased risk of psychosis, cognitive impairment, dementia, & epilepsy (Taquet et al., 2022b)."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666354624001662

#MaskUp

I worked pretty hard on this piece and was so pleased to have the brilliant @riotmuffin turn it into a zine that, in turn, has raised nearly £100 towards @sheffieldmaskbloc. What next? It's going to serve as the basis of a documentary! Stay tuned! https://www.mediaactivist.com/recovering-from-shock/ #COVID19 #CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsntOver #LongCovid #MaskUp #MutualAid #AntiFascism

A plea to maskless health-care workers from vulnerable patients.

"If your trauma is so severe that you can’t mask for a vulnerable patient – or worse, you lash out at a patient for masking – then you need to carefully assess whether you should be in a patient-facing role."

"If masks remind people of the pandemic, that should be a good thing. People need to know the pandemic is not over and that by not masking, they are taking serious risks with their health."

@auscovid19 #PandemicIsNotOver #MaskUp😷

Source: https://healthydebate.ca/2024/11/topic/plea-maskless-health-care-workers-vulnerable-patients/

I am getting pretty nervous about my surgery this Thursday. I have endometriosis, and need to have that tissue removed from connecting both my bladder and bowels, while they also remove my inner junk partially. There is no knowing how much my innards have glued together before they go in, but I hope it all will go quick and easy - and that I get to go home asap.

I will be in open ward with maskless people, and it scares me.

#covid #endometriosis #hysterectomy #deepBowelEndometriosis #maskup

Facts.

1. #MaskUp
2. #Vaccines - get them in the next 60 days.

#covid19 #healthcare

“If you’ve been fighting for Covid mitigations for the last five years - you more than likely saw this coming. It was painfully obvious when the great unmasking occurred that many people on BOTH sides of the aisle didn’t care about the “vulnerable”. Didn’t care about community or protecting their neighbours. Didn’t care about anything other than their own ability to go to brunch, travel, socialize and get ‘back to normal.’

I’m not saying people should have shuttered inside their homes forever. None of us are. But they should have kept masking. There was no reason to stop. Respirators are highly effective at stopping the spread of Covid. The vast majority of people CAN wear them. We have mask blocs all over the world to provide masks to people who can’t afford them. It’s a simple thing you can do to protect yourself and - perhaps more importantly - protect others.”

If you missed my latest - it’s about the U.S. election, disability rights, eugenics, fascism and how we got to where we are. Perhaps more importantly - it’s about what comes next.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/how-did-we-get-here-and-what-comes

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhealthcare #MaskBans #NoMaskBans #fascism #election2024

"degradation of PPE is not uncommon when workers are in close proximity to contaminated milk or animal manure"

I did think ethanol degrades electret respirators (N95s) but is soured milk really offgassing so much?

And proximity to manure - does methane or something degrade electret material?

"with almost any infectious disease, but especially one that is respiratory in nature, asymptomatic cases of infection are “absolutely anticipated.”"

orly

"“We will have a bird flu pandemic,” Robert Redfield, former director of the CDC, bluntly predicted in a television interview in June. “It’s not a question of if; it’s more a question of when … Once the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor and then go human to human, that’s when you’re going to have the pandemic.”"

strong words from a person who doesn't need to mince to keep a job

"“I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that H5N1 is going to be the cause of the next pandemic,"

says someone with a John Hopkins job to lose.

"“It can be probably hard to use a lot of this PPE,”"

Ag workers aren't toddlers. They can don and doff. They can't fit test without access to fit testing equipment but that's not on them, that's on the agricultural industry to provide.

All from https://fortune.com/well/2024/11/08/bird-flu-human-spreadsafeguard-people-livestock/

#BirdFlu #H5N1 #PPE #MaskUp

People spend their lives running from suffering. Doing whatever they can to avoid feeling pain. The idea of “forever suffering” is terrifying to them. I think this fear is behind a lot of the disdain we see directed at disabled people.

We remind others that suffering can be permanent. That it can’t always be outrun.

We exist in the grey. Our illnesses won’t kill us - but they also won’t ever get better. There’s no cure on the horizon. No “are you better yet?”

This reality scares the crap out of people.

As such - they pull away from us. They abandon us or treat us with such disdain that we walk away from them. The ones that stay often expect us to hide how sick we are. To plaster a smile on our face and say we’re “fine” so that they don’t have to feel uncomfortable.

When they ask how we’re feeling or if we’re “any better”… they don’t want to hear the truth. In fact - if you tell them the truth you could find yourself facing a lecture on “positive thinking” or how you just need to “try harder” and you will suddenly overcome your illnesses.

People are unable or unwilling to face the realities of chronic illness - so they make it harder for us to face it as well. They treat it like it’s our fault. Like we did something to become ill or like we could get better if we “really wanted to”.

They will push our boundaries, gaslight us and yes - put us at risk for covid. So this is your reminder that it is ok to set and hold boundaries. It’s ok to protect yourself. If someone won’t be there at your worst - they don’t deserve you.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-dont-do-sick-if-you-cant-hide


#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhealthcare #MaskBans #NoMaskBans

More proof of #covid and #longcovid damaging the heart. We know COVID causes serious heart conditions, heart attacks, etc., we have so many studies and stats, why this isnt important to the majority of people, why this us not leading to infection control measures like masking, is something I will never understand. But I'll be continuing to #maskup as I know #covidisnotover and #longcovid is a dice roll away, increasing chances each infection.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20241101/Elevated-cytokines-found-in-the-blood-of-long-COVID-sufferers-explain-heart-problems.aspx

People are angry that hospitals are bringing back mask mandates due to COVID outbreaks.

Patients like me are angry that we have to risk infection to get medical care. Some of us have died due to hospital acquired COVID.

Masks make sense in hospitals - why oppose them?

I’ve yet to hear a decent argument against mask mandates in hospitals.

The people who oppose them are almost always the ones screaming about how strong and healthy their immune systems are - so theoretically they never spend any time IN a hospital. Why do they care?

Inevitably people just trot out the tired “if your mask works then no one else needs one”… which just highlights that they’ve never spent any significant time in the hospital.

If you’re sick enough to need the hospital there’s decent odds something might prevent you from masking.

Even if you CAN mask - if you’re admitted what do you do when you need to eat, drink or brush your teeth? What if you require oxygen, having vomiting or airway complications?

The responsibility to stay covid safe shouldn’t be left to the patient.

It’s cruel and unusual punishment.

Mandatory masks mean that patients are protected by those around them - which is how it should be.

No one should have to risk covid to get care - and the normalization of hospital acquired covid needs to stop.

If you’re someone who opposes masks in healthcare - or who doesn’t understand WHY they’re necessary - please read my plea to healthcare workers.

Vulnerable patients feel unsafe. Expendable. Terrified.

Needing the hospital is scary enough - we shouldn’t have to worry about forced infection too:

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/a-plea-to-maskless-healthcare-workers

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhe

A few months ago a friend told me I needed to stop “being a burden” on those around me & find somewhere with round the clock care to live & accommodate my disabilities. Knowing no such place exists for someone like me - I gave them a challenge.

I told them that I had looked for such a place many times - and I’ve come up empty because people like me (relatively young with unstable chronic illnesses) fall through the cracks. We aren’t considered when care homes are being established.

We have homes for the elderly, rehab centres and hospices but almost nothing for a young person who isn’t imminently dying but also has no expectation of improvement. I challenged this friend to find me a place - within a reasonable budget - and said if they did I would move.

Of course they were unable to find anything - and in fact even when they tripled their budget they came up empty. There was one contender that provided a brief glimmer of hope - but as soon as they discovered my heart condition they said no.

The reason? “She’s too unstable and we don’t have adequate monitoring. She should be in hospital or try hospice.” Most chronically ill people know that hospitals are short term solutions & will often discharge you before you’re strong enough to be on your own.

And hospice? You can’t enter hospice unless you are imminently dying. So around & around this friend went… hitting all the same roadblocks I’ve hit time and time again. Finally they asked if I considered private in home nursing?

In home nurses where I am start at around $36/hour. If you need round the clock care that’s just over $6000 a week. Clearly not an option for the vast majority of people.

Finally my friend conceded that I was right and there was no magical place where I could have round the clock care & cease being a “burden” to those around me. They were flustered and apologetic & kept saying “I just assumed you hadn’t really looked”.

Therein lies the problem for so many of us - our friends & family always seem to assume they know better and/or that we have simply failed and not “tried hard enough”. The reality is we often spend all our energy looking for solutions - but those solutions simply don’t exist.

I thanked my friend for apologizing & for their efforts in trying to find a place - but I also asked them to consider how it feels to be called a “burden” just for needing support to survive. To be told you needed to go away & stop “bothering” friends & family?

Of course my friend didn’t have an answer - just uncomfortable silence followed by some muffled apologies. I share this story to implore people to stop assuming disabled people haven’t already tried the things you’re suggesting.

This doesn’t mean it’s wrong to make suggestions. But if we tell you we’ve already tried it and it’s not an option - believe us. It’s exhausting spending your days dealing with chronic illness - we don’t need to be explaining ourselves to people who should have our back.

Lastly - disabled people are NOT a burden. There’s nothing wrong with needing help to survive. Telling someone they should feel bad about receiving that help is an unkind thing to do. Please offer help or keep quiet. Most importantly - believe us when we say we’ve tried.

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidIsNotOver #CovidCautious #sarscov2 #maskup #WearAMask #CleanAir #Pandemic #Disability #accessibility #DisabilityRights #N95s #Ableism #CommunityCare #Eugenics