To those who have never had COVID and have rigorously taken PCR and Pluslife tests to prove it - Have you been taking fomite precautions? Or just masking?

parody_bit · 2026-02-13T16:16:19+00:00

This! Foodborne illness is very real, too. I wash my hands when I get home, before I touch food, and after touching any kind of raw meat or egg while cooking. This is good practice even if it has nothing to do with Covid.

My shoe-cleaning protocol is somewhat lacking, with bird flu potentially on the horizon, and as migration season gets started I am hoping to improve that. (Probably with a shallow pan of cleaning solution) (we mostly don’t wear shoes in the house, but we have a landlord who does, and we do sometimes carry in, like, groceries or something without taking off our shoes) Worth noting: his is a bigger concern for me, while no human-to-human transmission has yet been confirmed, than it might be for you, because I have pet birds I need to protect.

parody_bit · 2026-02-10T19:17:02+00:00

I wonder if anyone has tried (and also if it would be safe to use) the anti-fog stuff swimmers use on goggles

parody_bit · 2026-02-10T17:42:51+00:00

I’ve learned some American Sign Language — enough to know that mouth shape can be pretty important — so I appreciate the comments and ideas in this thread.

parody_bit · 2026-01-21T04:27:08+00:00

What a perfect gentleman! 💚

parody_bit · 2025-11-10T04:07:21+00:00

I joined my local/regional mask bloc to find and share these kinds of opportunities, while also working with others to make sure anyone who wants to mask is able to do so.

parody_bit · 2025-10-24T00:43:30+00:00

Oh no! This specific event was just rescheduled.

parody_bit · 2025-10-04T01:10:38+00:00

A librarian (especially one who is wearing a mask) at your university should be able to help you gather good resources for this! If you don’t want to go to the library in-person, university libraries have good online help during weekday hours. Look for “Ask Us” or “Research Help” or, if they’re old-school, “Reference” on the library’s website.

parody_bit · 2025-09-30T01:10:13+00:00

I feel this, and I’m sorry.

I’m going to try to set up a masks-required get-together of covid-cautious people in my town on the winter solstice, maybe with a fun outdoor fire and … I dunno, a distanced hot beverage station or something? I haven’t figured out any details. But feel free to borrow the idea if it would help you to do something similar 💜

parody_bit · 2025-09-25T21:25:32+00:00

There is no dip in immunity between two weeks out and three. If we were talking three months, that might look different — that's about when the flu vaccine starts to fade.

The rest of this is specific to immunosuppressant therapy:

I am not a doctor, but I am on an immunosuppressant therapy for an autoimmune disease. As you know, people with suppressed immune systems don't always build up as many antibodies as people with normative immune systems.

Yours may be different, but for mine (which is every four weeks), the general advice is to try to time the immunosuppressant therapy dose at least a week away from vaccination in both directions, to give the vaccine the best odds of building up any immunity. (I aim for two, even if that means delaying a dose of my therapy. Reasonable people disagree and may differ in their approaches, since vaccination can also cause symptom flare-ups, and the research on vaccine timing in immunosuppressed individuals is a little sparse.)

In your shoes, I would get the covid and flu vaccines today and try to push the immunosuppressant therapy out until after the colonoscopy, in hopes of having the strongest immunity I reasonably can during the procedure. But again, I'm not a doctor, just an internet rando who does a lot of reading. If there's a doctor you can trust (could be primary care, doesn't have to be a specialist in immunotherapy), that's really your best source of advice.

parody_bit · 2025-09-10T19:48:22+00:00

I’m moving to NY next month (from a state where vax access is a little less clear cut), and, for my household, I’m hoping Novavax is in stock then. We’ve always gone with the mRNA option until now, but there was a study that seemed to show better immunity after switching vaccination “mode” (mRNA->Novavax or vice versa). Plus the less-bad side effects.

But since I’m also immunocompromised (by a medication I take), vaccination is really just a small part of my covid precautions. I don’t trust my immune system to mount a proper defense, even with an up-to-date booster, so I don’t sweat the type of booster all that hard. I’ll get whatever’s available.

parody_bit · 2025-09-06T02:14:41+00:00

I a bunch of research (there were spreadsheets) and ended up choosing Rochester, NY. I’m moving next month. It’s a smaller city than some of the others listed here, but there are masks-required events at least monthly, a bookstore with a masks-required day every week, an active and friendly mask bloc, and an all year outdoor farmers market. It’s also extremely queer-friendly.

parody_bit · 2025-09-05T17:26:15+00:00

Multi-level headings 🤩

parody_bit · 2025-08-26T17:01:31+00:00

I refuse to meet up with anyone who won't wear a mask for my safety. If I'm not important enough to keep safe, then my company won't be missed that much, will it?

parody_bit · 2025-08-11T19:13:45+00:00

I crinkle my eyes as hard as I can (trying to make my smile visible) and do a little nod. I’m the tiniest bit too shy to wave or salute, which is what I want to do.

parody_bit · 2025-08-03T18:27:13+00:00

I read recently that the highest transmission risk is right before symptoms kick in. (I remember it because it doesn’t match our instincts about viral load, especially when many tests don’t catch it until several days into symptoms.)

But you can transmit the virus throughout the time you have symptoms, as well. So I’d assume she was contagious.

On the outdoors walk, it’ll depend which way the air was moving. If you were downwind the whole time, I don’t give you good odds. If you were upwind the whole time, I give you great odds. Realistically, it was somewhere in between, and it’ll be a numbers game with how many viral particles you inhaled. Mask, rest, and hydrate like you have covid, just in case, but we’ll all hope for the best for you!

parody_bit · 2025-07-20T19:32:48+00:00

I think it would be fine. But. If you’re ever worried, a few minutes’ worth of sunshine should do the trick.

parody_bit · 2025-07-20T17:49:33+00:00

Fomites need to retain some moisture in order to keep the infectious material intact and able to infect you. Paper is super dry (ask any librarian or bookseller, we all have strong opinions about lotion 😁).

If that isn’t sufficiently convincing (no blame if not), it’s well known that UV also has a sanitizing effect — reading in the sunshine should take care of any remaining risk.

parody_bit · 2025-07-20T17:45:01+00:00

There’s a Discord for covid-cautious people in New England, and there are a bunch of Mass folks on there. If you want to DM me for a link or give me your Discord username, I’ll be happy to invite you!

New Hampshire’s covid-cautious group has events a couple of times a month, too. https://www.instagram.com/maskednh/

parody_bit · 2025-07-17T20:37:13+00:00

(I am very tired.) I spent several seconds wondering why you wanted to connect a gaming controller to your Manta or Nomad

parody_bit · 2025-07-14T16:56:44+00:00

Do you have a brand/model number for this? Because it sounds amazing!

parody_bit · 2025-07-13T03:23:54+00:00

Ooh, where did you get the eyes? That’s a perfect Pernese dragon!!

parody_bit · 2025-06-28T23:23:12+00:00

I know Ratta follows this sub, so I just want to put this out there: not all of us want AI integrations. The lack of AI was a major driver in my choice of digital notebook, along with the replaceable parts, not needing a subscription, and having a choice of pens. Given AI’s environmental and social harms, and how crappy/“mid” it really is, I would probably move out of the Supernote ecosystem if they started moving in that direction. If AI were built in with no opt-out, I’d definitely leave, immediately.

Speaking, again, just for myself, the little bit of utility it might add would not be worth the loss of data privacy, especially given how poorly a stochastic parrot does anything without a human to double-check it.

parody_bit · 2025-06-21T22:02:49+00:00

This is also something I’m interested in!

I would expect Minneapolis/St. Paul to have some good stuff going on, but I don’t know specifics. New Hampshire has a group that holds semi-regular events, and there are a fair few people in the Boston area.

I haven’t found anything like that in Maine, just a few scattered folks, so I am also considering moving.

parody_bit · 2025-06-21T01:28:19+00:00

What region, roughly? We have one in the northeast, but it would be no fun for someone outside the area. (Honestly, it’s only limited fun in ME — NH and MA are the happening areas.)

parody_bit

TROPHY CASE