14 Comments
Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider, Samantha Grasso

Appreciate this post so much but I do wish it also included a push for people to mask. Many people realize Covid is still a thing, but don’t take the most basic protective measures because once they got vaccinated they stopped caring about other people’s lives (we can’t even get medical staff to mask up in hospitals rn). I hope Caitlin recovers soon and isolates until testing negative for 48 hours. Everyone please mask up, avoid indoor crowds if you can, and stay safe out there 💓.

Expand full comment
Mar 7·edited Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider, Samantha Grasso

I'm gonna be this gal: it's HIPAA.

Best wishes to Caitlin for a swift and easy recovery, no whammies, no long COVID.

Expand full comment
Mar 7·edited Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider, Samantha Grasso

Please bounce back quickly, Caitlin. Good Irish name.

The world is in denial over this dangerous respiratory disease that crossed over from animals to humans. We're seeing solid evidence that people who get infected more than once can develop serious, incurable conditions later in life. I myself have stopped going to indoor concerts for life. I mask on all forms of transportation. I will only work remote jobs. And I probably go to four indoor events each year that I can't avoid. I am very privileged. My one and only infection was in November 2022 (caught at an indoor concert, where I was loosely masked). My partner got a second infection in May 2023. We have to keep this 'goals allowed' number low, because the higher the number, the greater the risk. And thanks to the immaturity of humans, this pandemic is still a pandemic. I used to think that the number of new cases would drop low enough to become endemic. But it hasn't. So it is quite possible that sometime in the 2030s we get a new pandemic while this one still simmers.

And we still have the worst years of GOP minority rule to look forward to.

Expand full comment
Mar 7·edited Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider

get well and keep us informed to the truths most (legacy media) conceal.

lol

Expand full comment
founding
Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider

Get well. And dead right, it ain't going away. I'm looking forward to an updated booster this Fall.

Expand full comment
Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider

Hoping for a quick full recovery Caitlin!

Expand full comment

As actual rates don't seem to make the news any longer, I went on a data hunt - about 20K people were hospitalized for Covid last week. I can't help but think that this number is under-reported as many states have given up on reporting numbers if not actively ignoring the pandemic.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, c.f. measles in Florida...

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/healthcare/2024/03/07/measles-returns-to-florida-jacksonville-area-medics-urge-vaccine-use/72793699007/

https://www.wusf.org/health-news-florida/2024-03-01/measles-what-to-know-florida-outbreak

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/28/1234483734/floridas-response-to-measles-outbreak-troubles-public-health-experts

Expand full comment
Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider

Sadly I just think it’s never going away. We’ll be getting yearly boosters along with our flu shots forever. Get better soon Caitlin!

Expand full comment
Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider

Hope you feel better soon, Caitlin!

Expand full comment
Mar 7Liked by Caitlin Schneider

Get well soon, Caitlin!

Expand full comment

Rest well, Caitlin! I hope you got some Paxlovid, and then some Gatorade to wash away the taste.

Expand full comment

I stopped being a covid scold awhile back but I just got back from a physical and I'm shocked at how many people weren't wearing masks. In a medical facility!! Where sick people go because they're sick!!!!

Expand full comment

As a healthcare worker (pharmacist) married to a healthcare worker (nurse), THANK YOU. Hope you feel better soon, Caitlin!

Expand full comment
Mar 8·edited Mar 8

Exactly one year ago today, I got COVID-19, probably from the [expletive deleted] sitting next to me on a packed flight from Dallas to Vancouver, who coughed the whole way and wasn't wearing a mask, because he's an [expletive deleted] and the airline and the country are run by cowards and [expletive deleted]s who started pretending "The pandemic is over!" when it wasn't even remotely over. I was wearing a mask the whole way, of course, and I was as fully vaccinated as I could be, but evidently, that wasn't enough against a dense miasma of virions. So I was badly sick for about a week and mildly sick for another week or so. Worse, I gave it to my partner, so she was sick for about two weeks too.

And then, at the end of May, things got much, much worse. I spent the next two-and-a-half months in the slough of "long COVID": coughing, debilitating fatigue, fever, shivering fits, and gastrointestinal symptoms, among others. As one of the circa 6 million Canadians who don't have a "family doctor"*, I sought help at an urgent-care facility**, which was utterly useless. They never even suggested I might be suffering from "long COVID", never mind that a battery of tests showed I *wasn't* suffering from a bunch of other things (e.g., flu and RSV, as well as several more exotic ailments).

As it is, I consider myself very lucky indeed to have made what seems to be a full recovery after only two-and-half months. Many people suffer worse and longer, sometimes far longer, possibly even the rest of their lives. And my partner, thank goodness, hasn't suffered anything of the sort.

Meanwhile, as Tom Scocca wrote today at Defector***:

"The State of the Union is not even talking about how a million people died, way more than a million, and everyone just picked up and kept going and started pretending it didn't really happen, or that it wasn't really that bad. [Applause.] The State of the Union is people still dying. [Applause.]"

Best wishes to Caitlin for a prompt and full recovery.

* See https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/meet-the-canadians-without-a-family-doctor-1.7116475. The Canadian healthcare system isn't inherently bad, but after many years of neglect, tepid support from the (currently governing) Liberals, and sociopathic hostility from the Tories, it's in deep trouble.

** In Canada, "urgent care" doesn't mean for-profit. The facility I visited, like many others, is owned and operated by the (provincial) government.

*** https://defector.com/my-fellow-americans

Expand full comment