2/ I am really, really tired of this. The masking, the avoiding everyone because of the masking, the being a weirdo and best forgotten because of the fucking masking. I haven’t breathed air around people outside my household without an #N95 for years. Years! It take a toll. And you know what’s worse?

All of you who gave up. Who gave in. Who knelt before the great god of Back to Normal even If It Most Definitely Isn’t.

It’s hard to come out and say this, but you’ve done real harm.

3/ You decided that all that social distancing and Skype stuff and work that, it turns out, could be done perfectly well from a computer wherever it happened to be, who wore the mask as a badge of honor. SO much smarter than those Trump-voting anti-vaxxer rubes with their neck gaiters and then very quickly nothing but a naked sneering snout.

You were better than all that, good liberal, comrade in concern for all the letters of the acronym and people of color or whatever, a fine, caring person.

4/ Until you fucking weren’t anymore. Until it dawned on you with your mRNA shots that went from 95% effective at even getting infected but it would be an event for History if you actually got really sick, that you were unlikely to be one of Those People. (I got four of ‘em, all Moderna. No more.)

Then our guy (the one I gave $1,800 to because we couldn’t survive another Trump term, for which I received numerous begging letter that always receive a rude reply) won.

He bowed his head before…

5/ …the reflecting pool at the hundred thousand (can you believe it? All that fuss for a mere 100K of Those People!), said all the right things for a change and we watched what the man had to say, with relief.

Until he fucking wasn’t anymore. Until his #CDC, not the one run by Drink Bleach Guy but the “I’ll give it to you straight from the shoulder” guy, turned into an organization run by either liars or fools.

Until Rochelle Walensky smiled bare-faced on TV and told us masks were for losers.

6/ Now, after a few short years if that, after shutting up about the Herman Caine awards and quietly savoring the thought of fewer Trump voters due to their obviously stupid life choices, you have decided that you’re over all that #pandemic shit. It’s over.

You should know better. One thing I will not do in this rant is write one single word about why. About why you are either a liar to yourself and everyone else about the dangers of a virus that is in fact still circulating, just less so…

7/ …than it has most of the time, or sadly underinformed or (I don’t know which is worse) misinformed about its dangers of you are willing to inhale the unfiltered exhalations of crowds of people.

I spent way too much time doing that on Twitter. Still people there doing it—bless you, Tern, for all your tweets even now. I just decided enough was enough. I’ve acquired a certain amount of knowledge about #covid19, from scientists including some who apparently now disbelieve their own work.

Enough is enough. If you are unmasked around people outside your household on a regular basis, even now during a relative lull which is great but still around a fifth or maybe fourth of what was considered a lot, that’s a decision you have made that I have not. I can’t change what I think of you for having done that. Sorry, but there it is.

This rant is dedicated to my fellow liberals who are not quite the free thinkers they might like to imagine. Who have left this exhausted remnant behind. //

And also to a professor who published some of the work on #LongCovid that convinced me I did not want any part of this virus, and so far still haven’t. (And have paid the price.) Who testified before Congress wearing a #KN95 and then, still talking about the serious roll-sevens level risk of life altering outcomes even with your vaccines. And who now has appeared speaking at a conference apparently not believing in the implications of his own research.

Thanks a lot man. A real punch in the gut.

@edsuom I still mask up in most public spaces. Yes, I will admit to taking the mask off if there are very few other people present. But I'd say I stay masked 95% of the time.

The one time my family and I caught COVID, it was because a friend in our "pod" hadn't masked up. 🫤

Yesterday, I once again joined my Zumba class and danced with my mask on. A lady afterward said to me, "You're so brave. It's wise to stay masked. I don't know how you dance with it on, but you're wise."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@courtcan @edsuom This week my partner took a mask off at in person meeting. Is now +ve for Covid after successfully steering clear for years with masks and vaccinations.

I had the same fail earlier this year when I unmasked at a music festival. New variants (mutations) are still getting people and some people are still dying or getting LongCovid. So wise to mask up! 😷 👍

@Kay @edsuom Crowds are just not a wise choice for going about bare-faced anymore.

Related: I have #ChronicSinusitis. It flares up if I catch any kind of respiratory bug. Since my immune system is almost constantly trying to keep my sinuses healthy-ish, I catch absolutely everything.

So masking up just makes extra sense to me! Covid or no, I'm glad not to catch a cold from the unmasked guy who came to an event saying he was healthy but his whole family was sick! 🙄