IsisStormDragon

Isis E. Prosser

@IsisStormDragon

Writer, Procrastinator

Demiromantic asexual lesbian in love with Samus Aran. White. 28. Dragon who hoards stuff. I designed a small game once; hope to design more someday.

(IsisDreamWeaver, from Twitter, for any who know me from there)

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IsisStormDragon
@IsisStormDragon
krveale
@krveale
nex3
@nex3

GDQ having no mask requirement when raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation is a particularly bitter irony. fuck cancer in theory but fuck people with cancer in practice

SomeEgrets
@SomeEgrets

i said it in comments but it bears repeating, i think, that a not ignorable number of attendees are likely flying directly from FurCon to AGDQ, and from AGDQ to MAGFest - none of which have anything even approaching resembling a responsible covid policy. it's reckless and grossly negligent on the part of the event organizers

i also have to wonder how much of people's willingness to go along with this comes down to piss-poor science communication. everything being communicated for the last year and a bit has been "post covid," "back to normal."

you get weird looks if you're one of the ones still masking

everytime someone gets sick, it's always "just a flu" or "just a cold"1 even if nobody took a single test (never mind the rapid test false negative rates...)

  1. although that shit's rampant too, because it seems like everyone's had it three or four times, i wonder who even has a functioning immune system left at this point

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in reply to @nex3's post:

SomeEgrets
@SomeEgrets

i honestly think our science communication was so bad that... i'm not sure a lot of people really understood them in the first place?

like there are still a few people i see around using them, right? but they'll be wearing the same old cloth masks from 2020, or only covering their mouth with their entire nose just hanging out

it just... can't be malicious compliance at this point, because wearing one at all makes them an outlier? but, i don't know, what else can i conclude here other than people never really understood?

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nex3
@nex3

yeah, I think this is basically it. the CDC and other government organizations were hell-bent on downplaying the pandemic for economic reasons while also emphasizing the vaccine as a panacea to drive up vax rates, so most people have no understanding of the real risk profile at all

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secrets
@secrets

I until recently helped run a medical research conference, everyone who attends works in a lab, we've had so many in-person covid lectures and workshops with maybe 10% masking and I'll get comments all day when I wear one. It's not a lack of education

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PineappleAnna
@PineappleAnna

This is probably not a hot take to you, but I sorta feel like GDQ should have both learned and burnt from attempting to hold a high attendance convention/event in the middle of 2022 when Covid was even less over than it is now...

Speedrunning as a global interest deserves better.

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PineappleAnna
@PineappleAnna

In early 2022, when it was announced that SGDQ 2022 would be an in-person event, many people were still acknowledging that Covid was still A Thing That People Should Know Still Exists. And they made decision to hold the event anyway...

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in reply to @SomeEgrets's post:

somnirespiratoryflux
@somnirespiratoryflux

I've been thinking for years now but been too afraid to say it, but honestly anyone who's run a convention that's met in person since March 2020 (if not earlier) is being incredibly, stupidly irresponsible and probably at least part of the reason things are still as bad as they are now. I'm a bit more hesitant to put blame on any individual who attends them, since some of them probably didn't get or spread it, were more careful, etc., and in some cases people who are paid to do con appearances and panels and such need that paycheck for their livelihood and can't realistically refuse... But there are plenty of people who can't realistically attend with COVID still a thing, even if there are strictly enforced mask requirements. Like me.

The last con I went to for anything was in July of 2019, and I genuinely can't even consider going to any since then because my fiancee is at a dangerously high risk of serious complications if she ever gets COVID again. (I don't want to go into the personal details any more than that, I hope you understand.) We have to live so carefully even in our own home because her parents still have to go out to get groceries (at least curbside pickup helps) and stuff like that now and then, and we're lucky we live in a single home that's pretty far from any other people or else we wouldn't even have that. And seeing people so flippantly just going to conventions they don't need to while I can't even go to the grocery store anymore... It's frustrating, and I'm afraid to complain because I don't want to "spoil other people's fun". But frankly, I think that even just mask mandates aren't going far enough, these events just shouldn't have come back as fast as they did at all and I'm sure that we're far from the only people paying for it.

(Obviously the problem goes beyond conventions and to just being in public in general, and trust me, I understand cabin fever at this point, but I still feel like this has been bottled up for too long. I don't want to complain at you, I'm just interpreting this as a good space to complain with people. And I'm sorry for the wordiness, I'm like that anyway but with this there's a lot to say.)

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SomeEgrets
@SomeEgrets

it's all good, i'm not in quite as precarious a position, but have had a lot of similar thoughts (type 2 diabetic with elevated risk, parents old and have both had chemo+radiation therapy so i worry about their immune systems)

i mostly stay home, wear a full P100 respirator for shopping and just put up with the weird looks, at least N95 anywhere else... i live alone so it's very lonely

so not exactly the same position but i can empathize

glad you at least had a space where you could like, externalize some of that. it's tough feeling like your concerns can't even be aired because everyone else has moved on

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