I went to one of Sen Merkley's town halls, and more than what was said (though some good things were discussed), the most amazing thing to me was that 2-4 people in each 80 person seating block were wearing respirators (high quality masks).

That is a TON of folks for where I live. I cried happy tears. It wasn't the Senator or most of the staff (yet?), but it was still beautiful.

#WearARespirator #WearAMask
#ProtectEachOther
#WeKeepEachOtherSafe #CovidIsNotOver
#CovidCompetent #CovidSafeScouts

So in BC there's either a SARS-CoV-2 variant in circulation that causes a productive cough (mucus, not just a dry cough)

or there's quite a few people [edit: out of those who have COVID-19, who are few relative to the last 2 years] getting co-infected

anyways, in short right now it's not prudent to assume if someone has a productive cough that they don't have COVID-19.

And with the amount of coughing - it might be wise to mask!

If masking all the time is too much, why not keep a flat-fold N95+ in a pocket or purse, and pop it on when someone's coughing or sneezing, until you leave the room?

#SARSCoV2 #COVID #COVID19 #COVIDIsNotOver #COVIDisAirborne #CovidCompetent #CovidAware #CovidCautious

Parent: "The kids have been sick for weeks, they're probably not contagious any more."

Everyone else: "great!"

Me: "I'll just keep this  on thanks."

Parent: "But how will you eat?"

Me: "I can manage without snacking, don't worry!"

(very few days later)

Them: "I feel so sick, I can't even imagine going for a walk around the block. Brutal!"

Me: "doing OK over here - get well soon!" (privately thanking the mercies that the respirator seal seems to have been good enough)

#N95 #N95sSaveLives #respirator #COVIDisAirborne #AirborneAware #CovidCompetent #flu #influenza

2025_8_19 The symptoms are coming from inside the house.

2026-3-9 edit: A previous version of this page held steps you can take during the acute infection to lower your risk of Long Covid, or lower the severity of how a reinfection will worsen your existing Long Covid.

Information on supporting a FULL recovery from SARS-CoV-2 is now more accessible on its own permalink page here, or from the top bar: Information > Got a Covid Infection?

https://www.illmarks.com/symptoms-are-coming-long-covid-prevention-tips/

#allergy #art #backToSchool #backtoschool #besafe #bodyHorror #bodyMapping #cdc #chronicIllness #covid #covidIsAirborne #covidIsNotOver #covid19 #covid19 #covidcompetent #CovidIsntOver #environmental #health #healthcare #longCovid #longcovid #maskUp #maskup #mastCell #mastCellActivationSyndrome #mastCellDisease #mastcell #mcas #medArt #medart #medblog #medicalArt #MillionsMissing #pwme #SaltingTheVibes #SaltingTheVibes #sarsCov2 #sars2 #sciArt #SciArt #WearAMask #WearARespirator

3 friends and have met for a video call weekly since early 2020 (with a few missed weeks). I am quite certain this anchor is a reason I haven’t lost my will to live.
We are all #CovidCompetent. It’s the only time in my week where reality is acknowledged and we can talk freely without “back to normal“ pressure.

May everyone have meaningful support for their emotional health.
#CovidIsNotOver

A recent common cold may nearly halve risk of COVID-19, study suggests

So Covid-Competent folks - this is going to land different in different quarters.

• The previously evidence-supported paradigm/metaphor "the immune system is a candle not a muscle" might need to be abandoned for a third, more nuanced position[+]
• Of course there's the need to check the paper itself, and if it's solid, to replicate / validate, but beyond that.
• Folks with immune dysregulation can't all just catch rhinoviruses all the time to keep the system active.

[+] probably approximately: "microbes vary:

• some are overwhelmingly beneficial, eg. in our gut;
• some have mixed costs and benefits like rhinovirus or conditions when they become pathological like candida, and
• some basically only have costs like influenza(?), SARS1 and SARS2, measles"

re: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/recent-common-cold-may-nearly-halve-risk-covid-19-study-suggests

#COVID #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #CovidCompetent #AirborneAware #rhinovirus #paradigmshift

in this week's COVID-19 roundup from @ducky includes highlights like:

paper from Germany found that 21% of masters’ athletes (median age in the high 50s) had Long COVID. The prevalence did not differ by sex, athletic specialties, training load, or prior competition level. Long COVID can happen to healthy, fit people!

(emphasis hers)

from market vendors who self medicated:
taking aspirin increased the risk of COVID-19 infection by 134%;
taking vitamin C decreased the risk of COVID-19 infection by 56%.
Meanwhile, not getting a 💉 COVID-19 booster increased their risk by 238%.

and

for immunocompromised people, taking Paxlovid for 10 or 15 days instead of five days didn’t make a whit of difference.

summaries of more papers, and citations for it all, at https://covidbc.webfoot.com/2025/07/19/2025-07-19-general/

#COVID19 #COVID #SARSCoV2 #Pandemic #CovidIsNotOver #AirborneAware #CovidCompetent

Edit: @ABScientist shared https://ccnse.ca/sites/default/files/Fomites%20and%20COVID-19%20March%2022%20final%20in%20template-revised.pdf !

hey Covid-Competent, well-informed folks! I have a favour to ask!

has anyone bookmarked a good reference for what % of SARS-CoV-2 cases are due to fomite transmission?

the US CDC was at one point saying:

each contact with a contaminated surface has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing an infection [1]

but that's not a % of infections, it's per contact with contaminated surface. That's supported a few ways, eg. by a sampling that included counting touchpoints:

The estimated risk of infection from touching a contaminated surface was low (less than 5 in 10,000) by quantitative microbial risk assessment [2]

but that study didn't actually culture virus, they checked RNA levels and counted touches (and again, is per contaminated touch, not per case)

Try as I might, I can't actually find a grounded estimate of how many actual infections have been fomite-driven at any point in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

[1] https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/surface-transmission.html
[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7927285/

@askazero

#SARSCoV2 #COVID #COVID19 #COVIDIsAirborne #CovidIsNotOver #CovidCompetent #AirborneAware