When I returned from a wonderful small-scale workshop in the Peak District, one of my fellow participants wrote in the WhatsApp chat that he had tested positive for Covid-19. He urged us to look out for symptoms and to test ourselves. I felt fine and did 2 RCT tests a day apart nonetheless. I am very grateful to him for his caution and for warning us.
I appreciate this piece, too. I think I keep reading tweets from T Ryan Gregory, Amanda Hu, and various others who warn about Covid realities, in what looks to me like an un-bought way that I trust frankly more than the mainstream messages, because "you all" Covid Conscious people bolster me to keep acting on the precautionary principle. As a teacher who works with adolescents in a hospital, the last thing I want to do is get Covid from or give Covid to a student or colleague. This is so basic to me. I don't want to be harmed by or harm my precious students and colleagues. So I keep wearing my trusty N95's!!! And I keep running my two HEPA filters in my classroom!!! (And replace the filters when needed!!!) And I keep avoiding being respirator-less in any indoor space with others (I am the only human in my home). So, I haven't gotten Covid or--to my knowledge--given it. That, to me, is pretty important. It's nice to know my actions can have this very positive effect. I'm not thrilled about wearing an N95 so much, but it keeps seeming to me like way better than the alternative. In life, in reality, we don't always get to choose between the perfect and the less-than-perfect. Sometimes the choice we are faced with is between better and worse, with the better not being wonderful in every way. But it's still BETTER. Thank you for writing about denialism here, because this denialism is terrible! It's preventing people from seeing the real immediate choices and long-term possibilities before us: the "better" choices of acting to prevent Covid's spread right now and building towards reducing or even ending Covid's harms step by step and strategically and collectively in all the many ways that we could take up (restoring paid Covid sick leave, using robust surveillance testing, serious indoor air ventilation/filtration, etc., etc.), versus the "worse" choices of doing little to stop spreading this disease. What can break denialism? Truth and compassion, truth and compassion!
Thank you for this essay. I got COVID the first time on 29 Feb 20 (and again on 08 Jan 22) and went from being an active, capable, productive human being to being disabled, for 3.75 years and counting, both physically and cognitively, with no end in sight. That has been horrible.
Also horrible has been the failure of virtually all of my long-time friends and colleagues to stay connected or reach out in any way. I, with millions of others in the US with Long COVID, have largely ceased to exist. We're unpleasant reminders that the pandemic is not over, and any empathy toward us is apparently a dangerous and untenable step onto a slippery slope that might end in acknowledgement and acceptance of a new and unpleasant reality.
Thank you for this. I was already familiar with the effects of chronic illness as my daughter has had Lyme disease for the last 12 years. So far I have avoided Covid but the strain on family relationships is immense. What is the single rabbit to do if they find themselves living in the shining wire warren?
I appreciate this piece, too. I think I keep reading tweets from T Ryan Gregory, Amanda Hu, and various others who warn about Covid realities, in what looks to me like an un-bought way that I trust frankly more than the mainstream messages, because "you all" Covid Conscious people bolster me to keep acting on the precautionary principle. As a teacher who works with adolescents in a hospital, the last thing I want to do is get Covid from or give Covid to a student or colleague. This is so basic to me. I don't want to be harmed by or harm my precious students and colleagues. So I keep wearing my trusty N95's!!! And I keep running my two HEPA filters in my classroom!!! (And replace the filters when needed!!!) And I keep avoiding being respirator-less in any indoor space with others (I am the only human in my home). So, I haven't gotten Covid or--to my knowledge--given it. That, to me, is pretty important. It's nice to know my actions can have this very positive effect. I'm not thrilled about wearing an N95 so much, but it keeps seeming to me like way better than the alternative. In life, in reality, we don't always get to choose between the perfect and the less-than-perfect. Sometimes the choice we are faced with is between better and worse, with the better not being wonderful in every way. But it's still BETTER. Thank you for writing about denialism here, because this denialism is terrible! It's preventing people from seeing the real immediate choices and long-term possibilities before us: the "better" choices of acting to prevent Covid's spread right now and building towards reducing or even ending Covid's harms step by step and strategically and collectively in all the many ways that we could take up (restoring paid Covid sick leave, using robust surveillance testing, serious indoor air ventilation/filtration, etc., etc.), versus the "worse" choices of doing little to stop spreading this disease. What can break denialism? Truth and compassion, truth and compassion!
Thank you for this essay. I got COVID the first time on 29 Feb 20 (and again on 08 Jan 22) and went from being an active, capable, productive human being to being disabled, for 3.75 years and counting, both physically and cognitively, with no end in sight. That has been horrible.
Also horrible has been the failure of virtually all of my long-time friends and colleagues to stay connected or reach out in any way. I, with millions of others in the US with Long COVID, have largely ceased to exist. We're unpleasant reminders that the pandemic is not over, and any empathy toward us is apparently a dangerous and untenable step onto a slippery slope that might end in acknowledgement and acceptance of a new and unpleasant reality.
I appreciate your acknowledgement of us.
Thank you for this. I was already familiar with the effects of chronic illness as my daughter has had Lyme disease for the last 12 years. So far I have avoided Covid but the strain on family relationships is immense. What is the single rabbit to do if they find themselves living in the shining wire warren?