Dr. Damien P. Williams, Magus
Periodic reminder that we are not anything like "post"-pandemic. We are mid-pandemic; Peri-pandemic; Right smack dab in the fucking middle of a goddam pandemic and no amount of squeezing our eyes shut and plugging our ears and going "la la la it's not real" while wishing it were otherwise will make it so.
Feb 3, 2023 at 7:20pmWeb
Show threadDr. Damien P. Williams, MagusFeb 5, 2023

Other periodic reminder that the idea that COVID is "only" killing 500 people a day— like a 9/11 every [six days] is "acceptable" somehow— is generally agreed to be a gross undercount: https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/covid-19-deaths-in-the-us-continue-to-be-undercounted-research-shows-despite-claims-of-overcounts/

Did you know people are still misidentifying or even intentionally mislabeling cause of death wgen COVID is concerned? And that the lack of widespread free testing in official centers where results get recorded and tallied only makes that worse? And that doing things like ending the access to free AT-HOME kits will make that EVEN WORSE?

Because that should like… obvious, no?

Putting on heavy rubber gloves and boots and telling everyone the electric fence is perfectly safe; putting on suglasses at high noon and saying it's dark outside.

*Deep breath interlude*

Stuff's not over. And pretending it is and intentionally making it harder to know for sure for the sake of political expedience will only ensure we're stuck in it LONGER.

COVID-19 Deaths in the US Continue to Be Undercounted, Despite Claims of ‘Overcounts’

Following recent claims within the public health community that US COVID death counts are overestimates, Andrew Stokes and Dielle Lundberg present new excess mortality data in a commentary in The Conversation, revealing the opposite.

Show threadDoug BostromFeb 5, 2023

@Wolven

It's good times for deep breathing exercises.

Show threadnmcknightFeb 5, 2023
@Wolven
Show threadBadtux the Snarky PenguinFeb 5, 2023
@Wolven Not to mention that the at-home tests are notoriously unreliable. I've suspected I had COVID-19 a couple of times, but the at-home tests never said I did. Without access to free and quick PCR testing, there's no way of knowing whether I had COVID-19 or not.
Show threadMudManFeb 5, 2023

@Wolven Is this a low vaccination US thing?

I mean, I'm still masking in public indoors places because I have immunocompromised people at home, but over here in the land of high 90s full courses of vaccination it's... fine? More flu than Covid cases going around, although Covid still gets more people in hospital. Some deaths, but not that many and largely on the sixty-and-up segment. Excess mortality is back to normal. Long covid is a worry, but it's not stopping the return to normal so far.

Show threadMudManFeb 5, 2023

@Wolven Government called my elderly parents to discuss an additional booster this week on the phone, they exchanged notes with the nice government lady. I forgot to ask if I can just get a booster myself as a walk-in, but I hear through the grapevine that you can either book an appointment in one public hospital or walk in on certain dates on another. The government is about to dismiss the last few mandates to mask up.

I don't know how different this is in the US.

Show threadDr. Damien P. Williams, MagusFeb 5, 2023
@MudMan not just vaccination, but masking, indoor air circulation measures, distancing, the whole of it
Show threadMudManFeb 5, 2023

@Wolven But all those restrictions are lifted here, too. The only mandatory masking remaining (and about to be lifted) here is in hospitals and public transportation, which is probably offset by the US just using it less anyway.

The only real difference I can think of is vaccination rates.

Show threadSamhain NightFeb 7, 2023
@MudMan @Wolven Vaccinations help stop you from dying, mostly, but they don’t stop you from catching Covid, spreading Covid and/or getting Long Covid which can potentially kill you.
Show threadGrassroots JoeFeb 7, 2023
@samhainnight @MudMan @Wolven
They don't "stop" but they do reduce the risk of contracting COVID, of getting long COVID and reduce the spread.
Our low uptake of the bivalent booster is undoubtedly increasing cases, hospitalizations and fatalities.
Show threadMudManFeb 7, 2023

@joeinwynnewood @samhainnight @Wolven Right. Here it's available widely, but so far they've only actively reached out to schedule it for older people and people at risk, which seems to have been enough when paired with the original three shot course to contain spread. Like I said, we saw higher infection counts from the flu.

There's still increased pressure in hospitals and primary care is in a global crisis right now, but numbers are much lowe than in the heat of the pandemic.

Show threadisotope239 🥸💻📚 🇺🇦Feb 5, 2023
@Wolven I've never understood the massive mismanagement of testing throughout the pandemic. It wouldn't be that difficult to set up a database for each state that allowed folks to enter their self-test results, just as an example. The NM DOH has done an excellent job of vaccinating people, but they've done little to track testing results which is baffling. Allowing people to formally submit their self-tests wouldn't be perfect by any means, but it'd give a clearer picture of what's going on.
Show threadisotope239 🥸💻📚 🇺🇦Feb 5, 2023
@Wolven And don't get me started on masking, it's easy to do, reduces risk for you and others, and is simply the practical thing to do. In the US, at least, not wearing a mask in public is pure laziness. I went through DFW airport yesterday and while there were quite a few people masking, a great many of them were wearing surgical masks below their chin. Is there some magical thinking that if the mask is just on your face somewhere it wards off the virus like a charmed amulet?
Show threadGeoff WilbournFeb 7, 2023
@Wolven
Show threadtoxtethogradyFeb 7, 2023
@Wolven The reason 500 a day became acceptable is because it used to be 4,000. So people think it's safe to crawl out of the bunker, now that it's "low". Thank you, Bill Maher, for downplaying the seriousness of the whole thing. Wish you felt the same way about trans athletes...
Show threadJessie Ann (she/they)Feb 3, 2023

@Wolven

I vaguely remember estimates from the very beginning of the outbreak that this thing would take around five to six years.

*But* these estimates were assuming we do everything right, or at least strive towards doing the work that needs to be done.

Needless to say we’re pretty fucking far from that being the case while being barely halfway through the timeline of a best case scenario.

Show threadDr. Damien P. Williams, MagusFeb 3, 2023
@anka Yup. Gonna be a pretty bad decade.
Show threadJason Haar Feb 3, 2023
@Wolven @anka just in time to distract people from taking action against climate change. 😞 And no, I don't want to imply conspiracy. Sometimes sh*t happens. Pandemics are a guaranteed phenomena over time.
Show threadJessie Ann (she/they)Feb 4, 2023

@jhaar

Who needs conspiracy when with so much power you only need opportunism

@Wolven

Show threadGTMLosAngelesFeb 3, 2023
@Wolven
Post-truth, however, is apt for discussions of media and public health policy.
Show threadTonyTrink1969 🏳️‍🌈Feb 3, 2023
@Wolven #TrueStory
Show threadkira :3Feb 3, 2023
@Wolven We're at the point where mainstream financial news is writing about the economic toll of mass disabling, a 9/11 per week of acute deaths, and an overall mysteriously higher overall rate of death. They're the last ones who'd like to admit it.
Show threadVoronFeb 3, 2023
@Wolven Politicians & the media’s overriding concern is that of the wealthy shareholder class.
Valid Covid concern = reduced consumer spending & reduced job seeking…so we are screwed b/c those w/ power care not about deaths & illness among common folk.
Profits over people 🤷‍♂️
Show threadOrion EdwardsFeb 3, 2023
@voron @Wolven the billionaires can’t extract labour and profits from people if those people are too sick to work. You’d think they’d be starting to figure it out by now 🤦‍♂️
Show threadDr Grace PengFeb 3, 2023
@Wolven https://onewilshire.la/@gspeng/109797143350246818
Dr Grace Peng (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image It’s demoralizing how, after each Covid wave, the baseline keeps going up. What happens when our baseline is as high as earlier waves? Cal-SuWers for my LA county sewageshed https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/CalSuWers-Dashboard.aspx

OneWilshire
Show threadTill O'Rly Feb 3, 2023

@Wolven we have vaccines though, which work (source: been there, done that).

Since Switzerland didn't handle that whole thing optimal (I still believe, one hard global Lockdown for around a month would probably had cost way less and maybe COVID19 died out) basically everyone I know, had it at least once. The later the infection happend, the less bad it was, at least for the people I know

Funfact: some scientists think we're still living in the Spanish flu pandemic.

Show threadIdealistic Pragmatist Feb 4, 2023
@Wolven @likelyjanlukas the “peri-“ prefix is excellent for this, I think.
Show threadisotope239 🥸💻📚 🇺🇦Feb 4, 2023
@Wolven Mid-pandemic is more like it alright. The stats in NM are pretty close to what was going on about this same time in 2021 before the vaccines were widely distributed. What's interesting is that most of the deaths are happening in the two red corners of the state. You see a lot more masks (and vaccinated people) in the blue part.
Show threadValerieFeb 4, 2023
@Wolven Thank you! I keep saying this to friends and family. I continue to mask up in public and social distance and I am definitely in the minority.
Show threadStephen ColesFeb 4, 2023
@Wolven We still regularly wear masks in the office at @letterformarchive and when we share video on social there is always someone asking why I’m wearing a mask rather than talking about the book we’re showing. Latest one even complained that showing ourselves in masks was “giving her stress” and we should move past it now!
Show threadRDS (shawphd on Twitter)Feb 4, 2023
@stewf @Wolven @letterformarchive Masks break the illusion of safety; their use of denial as a coping mechanism can’t handle the discordance.
Show threadJoeJoeTom 🏳️‍🌈🎶🪨💛🤍💜🖤Feb 4, 2023
@stewf @Wolven @letterformarchive What really gets me about these mask-askers is, who really cares why anyone is wearing -any- article of clothing? Whether it’s protection against COVID, an avant-garde fashion statement, hiding plastic surgery gone wrong, disguising oneself from bounty hunters from the planet Susurpitamenza ... who cares?
Show threadLaukidhFeb 4, 2023

@stewf @Wolven @letterformarchive I get stressed when I don’t see them.

For a while I was unfollowing and blocking anyone who posted an indoor unmasked photo with strangers. Especially people I knew worked with cancer charities and should know better.

Show threadStephen ColesFeb 4, 2023
@Wolven Grateful for our followers who talk some sense in comments so we don’t always have to.
Show threadPax Ahimsa Gethen 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 5, 2023

@stewf @Wolven

I find masks stressful too, but I still wear them, to protect others. And I'll keep wearing masks as long as health experts recommend them.

https://funcrunch.medium.com/i-mask-when-asked-7b71101a9834

(ETA: I've upgraded to wearing KF94 masks since writing this blog entry in December.)

I Mask When Asked - Pax Ahimsa Gethen - Medium

It has now been three full years since the COVID-19 virus was first identified in Wuhan, China. When the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in March 2020, my city, San Francisco…

Medium
Show threadSpicewallaFeb 4, 2023

@stewf @Wolven @letterformarchive

They have a point. It is quite stressful to be reminded of one's own selfishness.

Show threadCarmela 🍉🔻Feb 5, 2023
@Wolven Yes to this. Calling anything post-pandemic has become my new pet peeve
Show threadEthan 🌒Feb 5, 2023

@Wolven it’s so fucking exhausting. i see like one other person masking at the grocery store every other time i go. and my area is huge for tourists.

sucks!!

Show threadDave DiamondFeb 5, 2023
@Wolven @eniko People like to say "post" and "after" and "since" - I always suggest they say post-lockdown instead of post-pandemic.