Oh, thirty?
30, 30, 30, hmmm…
Three whole decades!!!
My past self might be surprised to learn that I've lived this long. And with every passing year, I grow even more thankful for all the time I've gotten to share with you!
So I've now survived through my twenties and into the ages of responsible adulthood, supposedly..
And on this milestone year, I'd like to ask for a gift for my birthday.
I'm not going to ask you to donate money, or sign something, or change how you do things.
For this little gift to me, could you read the words I've written here?
Will you do that for me?
I would really like it if you would!
Please? For my birthday?
Okay, here it is! Click this!
This is a sign with bright colors and bold text.
This is a big label to alert you of high voltage, of flammable materials, of deep water, and of a Level 3 Biohazard.
This is a warning about danger.
The acute illness is not the danger.
The sickness that feels like a cold or flu is not the danger.
The danger is what happens after.
I don't want to clutter the bottom of this post with a thick block of URLs, because this is not an academic paper. This is a warning about danger.
To reference published material, I'll put a number in brackets like this: {0} and you can trust that I'm not making shit up, okay? I'll be happy to provide any particular sources upon request.
2020 was a scary year. A new SARS virus had just been identified in China. And then, all of a sudden, things got shut down. New policies and requirements and restrictions were dropped in with little warning. Places closed. Charts and graphs and lines and data and big numbers were shared all over the place. There were so, so many bodies.
2021 looked a little less scary. Vaccines rolled out to combat the SARS2 virus, and people found ways of adapting to a different lifestyle. Some places started opening back up, with changes made to do things in safer ways.
2022 was the year where many people stopped worrying. New boosters for the vaccine were available, and many people got them for additional protection. Many people were going out to dinner, traveling for vacations, celebrating holiday gatherings, and throwing away those extra masks.
2023 appears as if everyone wants to forget about the previous 3 years. The posters have been taken down, the sanitizer was put away, the policy pages were deleted. Masks aren’t required at doctors’ offices. The hospitals don’t even test for covid anymore.
And it is a fucking nightmare. {1}
Right now, there is nothing being done to limit the spread and further mutation of the SARS2 virus.
And so, there is no immunity. You can get infected again and again and again. {2}
Every infection causes damage to your body. {3}
This damage is cumulative, building with each infection. {4}
Every infection has at least 1/5 chance of resulting in long-lasting troubles. {5}
The chance of suffering lingering incapacitation increases with each new infection. {4}
Disabilities commonly caused by COVID can cause greater suffering than late-stage cancers. {6}
The only way to avoid this fate is to avoid catching the virus as much as possible.
The virus can spread even without symptoms. {7}
The virus can spread even hours after people left the room. {8}
The virus can spread even outdoors. {9}
The virus can spread even while wearing a mask. {10}
The virus can spread even after a negative rapid antigen test. {11}
Every time you share unfiltered air with another person, you risk losing core functionality and acquiring a new disability for the rest of your life. {12}
You can reduce those risks with air filtration, external ventilation, and wearing a respirator. {7}
A respirator provides respiratory protection. {13}
Masks with ear loops do not. {14}
The vaccines will make you less likely to go to the hospital for acute SARS2 infections. {15}
The vaccines will not prevent you from catching the virus. {16}
The vaccines will not prevent you from spreading the virus. {17}
The vaccines will not keep you out of the debilitating fog of lingering sequelae from Long COVID. {18}
You may not notice the damages caused by SARS2 infections. {19}
Because you won’t feel some Post-COVID effects like missing CD4 T-cells. {20}
Another virus that causes a loss of CD4 T-cells is called HIV. {21}
Having low CD4 levels after HIV is called AIDS. {21}
It can take many years for HIV to progress to AIDS. {21}
The SARS2 virus was identified in 2019, which was not very many years ago.
There are many papers that compare COVID to HIV. {22} {23} {24} {25} {26} {27} {28} {29} {30}
You are in danger.
The danger is what happens after.
Thank you so much for this gift of your time, your energy, and your attention.
For my birthday, I want you to carry the burden of this knowledge with me.
I know that holding on to this knowledge is very inconvenient.
Maybe you will heed the warning signs, and make alternative plans that are safer.
Maybe you will remember reading the signage later, and bring a respirator for a busy errand sometime.
Maybe you will ignore the signs entirely, and confront the danger in your own ways.
But I need to point at these signs now.
Because I cannot bear to sit silently for another year.
I love you.
You are in danger.
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This post was originally written for my extended family normies who are still on facebook. I haven't been active on there since high school, but it was a useful platform to make the big transgender announcement a couple years ago. Since then, I've been making a yearly post on my birthday to stay in touch and share updates and stuff. The tone of these posts has just been happy and fluffy so far, to emphasize my big new gender euphoria and cute pics. But as more loved ones try to ignore the consequences of SARS2 infections, I just cannot bear to sit silently for another year. I refuse to reinforce the falsity that "the pandemic is over." I feel proud of what I wrote, so I also want to share it here on cohost where I've been focusing most of my social energy. Formatting the post then gave me a perfect excuse to play around with some tasty css crimes! >:3
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I didn’t include my sources as an intentional creative choice. Warning signs don't have their literature attached, they are simply an alert about a hazard. I'm also very intentionally not asking for debate or scientific evaluation here. I wrote this to resonate at an emotional level in a memorable way. I hope for this to stick around a little longer than a summary article or a detailed infographic. I do have a list of links in my own document for reference, but there are so, so many more additional resources beyond that first stuff I grabbed. Being comprehensive about this would have increased its size by forty pages, at least. COVID has been around for less than four years, and it's already among the top diseases for most published research in the world.
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big big big thanks to @YellowAfterlife for the inline details generator tool !!
& @lexyeevee for her CSS Baby tutorial series !!
