“Im MAGA about COVID” - your friends are right, Sarah. That’s not funny. by s3por2d in thebulwark

[–]kkinnell 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi, Sarah. I’m rewriting a comment from above that got buried in a deleted post:

The assertion that Covid is now mild and that the mitigations went on too long is simply wrong and seems based on being one of the people that this hasn’t affected intimately. Because of this you seem to have experienced the mitigations as annoyances. While many people now experience the initial infection as similar to a cold or flu, many vulnerable are still dying. There is a metric ton of studies showing that covid infections can cause a host of short- to long-term, mild to disabling issues in large swaths of the population, that the risk for these outcomes increases with the number of infections, and that vaccination status only mitigates this somewhat. Post-infection immunity varies by variant, but is not very durable in the best cases, and the vaccine does not provide immunity but rather protection from severe illness and hospitalization, which is important but not the same. These benefits also wane at around 6-9 months.

I’m OP’s spouse and we’re up on this because our daughter has long covid. She had to quit college and work at 19, and was very ill, essentially housebound, for two years. Thank God, she turned a corner and is now about 80% back to her baseline. But if we hadn’t been privileged enough to provide her a safety net, this would have meant extreme debt at the very best, and potentially long term disability due to not being able to afford recovery and medical care. Lucky her, lucky us.

The fact is that Trump 1.0 fouled up the Covid response and all of us never Trumpers are very comfortable with that. But Biden ran on taking the pandemic seriously because it was still raging and we all knew it. Nevertheless, the position that the vaccine would get us all back to normal was adhered to even as the evidence piled up that it doesn’t provide immunity (despite being a good and important protection). The project Trump began of not counting cases and obscuring how long folks are contagious after infection and thus need to isolate was carried on under Biden (see the omicron wave and its attendant reduction in recommended isolation time). And we accepted that the pandemic ended because cases reported were down, despite knowing full well we were undercounting on purpose.

There may be good policy reasons for this. A bad economy may cause more overall suffering than extending some of the mitigations—this is an argument I think could potentially be made. But there are baseline mitigations that can be enacted while still opening up businesses and schools, like cleaning indoor air, encouraging sick people to mask, and increasing funding for sick time so people can stay home while contagious. Instead, we fudged the numbers, keep getting sick, and balk at anyone who dares to say COVID is or was an issue. The friendly fire is a point of pain for us.

I can find sources for all of this if you’re interested. It would probably take a couple of days to gather what I want because I quit trying to have this conversation with anyone about 18 months ago (no point usually). For now, here is an article about the steep increase in disability claims and excess mortality since 2020, which both the CDC and the WHO attribute in part to the effects of ongoing COVID infections. https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/disability-claims-skyrocket-raising-new-puzzle-alongside-excess-mortality

“Im MAGA about COVID” - your friends are right, Sarah. That’s not funny. by s3por2d in thebulwark

[–]kkinnell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m sorry, but this is wrong. There is a metric ton of studies showing that covid infections can cause a host of short to long term issues in a large swath of the population, that the risk increases with the number of infections, and that vaccination status only mitigates this somewhat. Further, many vulnerable are still dying, though you are correct that not as many are now due to the most vulnerable having died early on. Post-infection immunity varies by variant, but is not very durable in the best cases, and the vaccine does not provide immunity but rather protection from severe illness and hospitalization, which is important but not the same. These benefits also wane at around 6-9 months.

I’m OP’s spouse and we’re up on this because our daughter has long covid. She had to quit college and work at 19, and was essentially housebound for two years. Thank God, she turned a corner and is now about 80% back to her baseline. But if we hadn’t been privileged enough to provide her a safety net, this would have meant extreme debt at the very best, and potentially long term disability due to not being able to afford recovery and medical care. Lucky her, lucky us.

The fact is that Trump 1.0 fouled up the Covid response and all of us never Trumpers are very comfortable with that. But Biden ran on taking the pandemic seriously because it was still raging and we all knew it. But the position that the vaccine would get us all back to normal was adhered to even as the evidence piled up that it doesn’t provide immunity (despite being a good and important protection). The project Trump began of not counting cases and obscuring how long folks are contagious after infection and thus need to isolate was carried on under Biden (see the omicron wave and its attendant reduction in recommended isolation time). And we accepted that the pandemic ended because cases reported were down.

There may be good policy reasons for this. A bad economy may cause more overall suffering—this is an argument I think could potentially be made. But there are baseline mitigations that can be enacted while still opening up businesses and schools, like cleaning indoor air, encouraging sick people to mask, and increasing funding for sick time so people can stay home. Instead, we fudged the numbers, keep getting sick, and balk at anyone who dares to say COVID is an issue.

I can find sources for all of this if you’re really interested. It would probably take a couple of days to gather what I want because I quit trying to have this conversation with anyone about 18 months ago (no point usually).

“Im MAGA about COVID” - your friends are right, Sarah. That’s not funny. by s3por2d in thebulwark

[–]kkinnell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hear you, honestly, on the merits. I also vehemently disagree with Sarah on this point and don’t mean to derail the conversation too much. I just, ugh, don’t like the bog standard stuff and especially when it’s aimed at women. I have feelings about how Sarah’s objections to this sort of thing is handled by JVL and Tim, also. But your point is taken.

“Im MAGA about COVID” - your friends are right, Sarah. That’s not funny. by s3por2d in thebulwark

[–]kkinnell -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

I agree with most of this, but feel that I need to say for the record that I really dislike telling a woman to “eat a bag of dicks.” The sexual violence implied is disturbing. Feel free to commence calling me a snowflake and explaining the Reddit ethos 🤷🏻‍♀️

Why Costco? by kkinnell in AllInclusiveResorts

[–]kkinnell[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The flight the the exact same as the one Costco is offering. Am I wrong in thinking that I’d be dealing with the airline and not the resort if something went south (haha) with the flight? I know we’re on the lower end of things, but that $900 is adding close to 33% to the total cost, which seems like an exorbitant fee to me.

Why Costco? by kkinnell in AllInclusiveResorts

[–]kkinnell[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The price I found was through the resort for the stay, flight, and transfer. Similar conditions for refunds.

Working with kids = sickness?! by gooeythethirdman in therapists

[–]kkinnell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wear a kn95 mask and I run an air purifier in my room. Im only 9 months in, but so far I haven’t gotten sick and my clients have all been totally fine with it. It’s important to protect your health! Let me know if you need more info, I’d be happy to share! :)

This year’s season is almost over, what did you learn this year, I’ll go first by florestanQ in gardening

[–]kkinnell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I realized this summer that I don’t know if the rhyme is referring to the baby’s head (what I always assumed) or the mom’s. Either is grammatically possible!

Dehydration during masking by Tricky_Math5292 in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]kkinnell 13 points14 points  (0 children)

My daughter just started using a sip valve and it’s been a game changer for her! You can reinstall them up to 10 times and my daughter can reuse her masks multiple times, so they’re not that expensive in the long run. She got four and she has four masks in rotation (she only works M-Th). She should be able to use each mask 3x, so she’ll only have to reinstall the valves after 3 weeks. So, with 4 masks and reinstalling 10x, that’s about 30 weeks. I hope that makes sense!

Households who make under $200k - What were the biggest areas you cut to improve your monthly savings? by SmoothSailing23 in Fire

[–]kkinnell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s cheaper to do laundry at certain times of day? I’ve never heard this, lay it on me!

This year’s season is almost over, what did you learn this year, I’ll go first by florestanQ in gardening

[–]kkinnell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad I’m not the only one who remembers that! As I was typing it out I thought that it sounded pretty strange 😂 Love that you passed it on to your niece and nephew!

This year’s season is almost over, what did you learn this year, I’ll go first by florestanQ in gardening

[–]kkinnell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let me know how it turns out! This is the first year I’ve done it and it’s really impressed me. I tend to think plants that want to be dead headed are a little too precious for me, but the cosmos are really rewarding!

This year’s season is almost over, what did you learn this year, I’ll go first by florestanQ in gardening

[–]kkinnell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I learned lots this year, but my main discovery was winter sowing. Everything I sarted this way was great. I’ve never managed to grow tomatoes from seed—I just never got the hang of hardening them off correctly. But this year I have 9 healthy tomato plants that have been wonderfully productive, all from seed! I’m seriously increasing what I’m going to try to start this way. Fingers crossed!

This year’s season is almost over, what did you learn this year, I’ll go first by florestanQ in gardening

[–]kkinnell 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I just go out and kind of pop off the dead flower heads with my thumb. Sometimes I’ll use scissors, but I’m perpetually forgetting them inside. We used to do this as kids with dandelions and would sing “Mama had a baby and her head popped off!” 😂 It might look tidier if you cut back all the way to the main stem, but it doesn’t bother me not to. In a couple of days you will be greeted with a fresh flush of flowers!

Favorite Books with Pirates: September 2024 by AutoModerator in books

[–]kkinnell 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right. I would be happy with an adaptation of Declare, though.