Ed SuominenApr 23

RE: https://mastodon.social/@augieray/116448266125651054

Mastodon quoting doesn’t allow me to include Mr. Ray’s second paragraph, in which he expressed understanding of my own decision not to eat in restaurants no matter the #Covid19 levels, and appreciation for my own understanding of his slightly different risk calculation.

This is far different from the dishonest posturing of Covid minimizers on Twitter like Bob Wachter with his infamous threads that basically came out saying, “Probably won’t happen to me, let’s eat.” Augie Ray has never once minimized this #pandemic. To the contrary, he has been an indispensable source of information now that society is deep in the denial stage. A little more about this, please… 🧵

Show threadEd SuominenApr 23
1/ I followed and all too often interacted with many a #Covid influencer on the bad old Nazi bar before the world’s #2 fascist narcissist took over the place. There was the bicoastal selfie drama queen, virologists who started to seem like champions of the pathogen rather than scholars of it, many an epidemiologist who started out full of public health righteous indignation that eventually collapsed into peace-making acquiesce and finally outright abandonment.
Show threadEd SuominenApr 23

2/ These were not people who spent their personal time, unpaid and largely unacknowledged, posting weekly updates about all the nasty things that #SARS_CoV2 was doing to people on a horrific global scale, things that it very well could do to you.

I’ll give you an example of someone who was more like Mr. Ray, restaurant visits or no restaurant visits.

Show threadEd SuominenApr 23
3/ AJ Leonardi is a PhD of #immunology or some other related field that I might not specifically remember. Within months after the #pandemic began, he sounded the alarm about the damage this #virus could do to T-cells. He strongly advised people not to listen to what he called (possibly paraphrasing) “used virus salesmen,” i.e., those who wanted you out there partaking in the germ-filled air.
Show threadEd Suominen

4/ You don’t want this virus in you because it could fuck up your immune system. That’s my blunt summary of Dr. Leonardi’s teachings, which helped cement my own resolve to never get infected if I can help it. So far, never have. My #N95 mask is a permanent part of my life now.

We now are seeing the devastation this virus has had on people’s immune systems. And there are now papers, few if any of which acknowledge Dr. Leonardi, I’m guessing, that document the very quantifiable result of all these mass infections.

He was right. And it didn’t do him much good. As far as I know, his warnings didn’t help his career any. They certainly didn’t help his popularity.

Apr 23 at 12:59amWeb
Show threadEd SuominenApr 23
5/ The entirely reasonable rules of my Mastodon instance prevent me from describing how I feel about a certain sociologist who somehow found herself pontificating to the media about immunology. She was one of many who assassinated the character of Dr. Leonardi. The bearer of ill tidings had reason to fear the wrath of the king. Nor do those warning about the behavior of the very smart people who a mere year earlier had looked at the unmasked masses with scorn. They don’t want you around to tell them.
Show threadEd SuominenApr 23
6/ So, please anyone who has read this thread to the end, fellow traveler down a lonely road of #ZeroCovid or maybe the still-excellent #AsLittleCovidAsPossibleWhileStayingSane, let’s not do this same thing to one of our own. Give @augieray a follow if not a kind word of thanks for all he’s done, and if he’s going to have brunch with some buddies on a quiet Monday morning, wish him bon appetit. //
Show thread@iveylineApr 23
@edsuom @augieray Just had my latest COVID booster yesterday. I do it evrry 6 months. I want to do all I can to prevent this nasty virus from damaging my body and mind. I know several people who have duffered from lomh COVID. It's seriously debilitating
Show thread@shezza_tApr 24

@edsuom Good thread, well said.

This year I’ve started taking an approach closer to @augieray’s: carefully choosing when to go to places we’ve been avoiding since 2020. We’re lucky to have friends who are happy to do early evening, midweek, or outdoors venues; and we keep a close eye on the local numbers.

We have places we mask as routine (healthcare, public transport and any busy indoor space), and we test before visiting vulnerable family.

If the numbers change, we’ll adapt our approach.

Show threadRecovered ExpertApr 24
@edsuom Full ACK and 👍 for that post.
// @augieray
Show thread@shezza_tApr 24
@edsuom Dr. Leonardi’s explanations were invaluable in helping this layperson understand the potential harms of COVID. It’s such a shame his work was ignored.