California is in the middle of its worst summer COVID wave since 2022, with virus levels and infections surging across the state.
    • leisesprecher
      141·
      1 month ago

      At least for covid, hand sanitizer is completely useless, though. It’s not transmitted via smear infection (or at least very very rarely).

      For other stuff it might be helpful, but even then moderation is a virtue, since that stuff dries out your skin and might create more open wounds - ask any nurse.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
          81·
          1 month ago

          Don’t worry, I’m sure he also refuses to wear his seatbelt and washes everything in the house with ammonia and bleach mixed together thoroughly.

      • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
        61·
        1 month ago

        You’re awesome 😎!

        I’d love to give you a Dixie cup of apple juice and a Graham cracker, and a little square of carpet so you can be comfy with a full tum-tum during story time, but I don’t know where your kindergarten is.

  • Zier@fedia.io
    463·
    1 month ago

    In countries that have high pollution rates, wearing a mask is normal, for pollution. Only in America is trying to take care of yourself viewed as wrong. I literally don’t care if other people think I’m bizarre, I will wear a mask whenever I feel like it.

    • No_Eponym@lemmy.ca
      6·
      1 month ago

      I have never understood how people would want to get sick more, or be served by people who could get them sick. Who has time and money for all this illness?

  • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world
    321·
    1 month ago

    Uh yeah. Those of us can’t afford to be more sick that we already are never stopped wearing masks. I’m disabled and catching COVID once, while not too bad in the acute phase, has wreaked havoc on my health long term. It’s not worth fucking around and finding out.

  • Mossy Feathers (They/Them)@pawb.social
    225·
    1 month ago

    I hate that COVID has become normal. I know it was destined to become normal the moment it spread outside of China, but I hate that it has. It wouldn’t bother me if it was just COVID - it’d suck but it wouldn’t be a big deal. However, the fact that COVID can be so destructive, even in mild cases, is what concerns me. The fact that someone can have a mild case of COVID but have the symptoms stick around for months, years, or even permanently, makes me wonder if COVID is going to be the next lead (alongside microplastics). The more you get it, the higher the chance it’ll fuck you up, and if everyone gets COVID >10 times over their life, that’s a pretty big chance to permanently fuck up your brain and body; and the damage is going to add up every time you get it.

    I know that >10 cases seems like a lot for one person, but considering the vaccines don’t have a 100% prevention rate and that vaccinated people can still get long-covid, I don’t think it’d be far off for people who were under 20yrs old during the lockdown. I’ve had COVID 2~3 times (one was unconfirmed but felt like COVID) so far despite the fact that I still don’t go out much, I’ve been trying to keep up with vaccines and I’ve been trying to stay masked (though I’ve gotten kinda lax on the latter). That means I have an average of about 0.5~0.75 times a year since COVID first happened despite trying to avoid it. Someone who doesn’t bother trying to avoid it might have a significantly higher rate.

    Is COVID gonna be the new dementia? It sounds like we’re making some pretty big strides in figuring out dementia so I’m honestly betting that it won’t really be a thing in another 20yrs (or we’ll discover that it’s basically impossible to prevent without another 100yrs of biotech); is COVID gonna take over as the primary cause of abnormal mental and/or physical decline?

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      11·
      1 month ago

      Already 4 million people out of work in the US because of long covid, and 8% of the population are reporting it.

      Yet like dementia was a couple decades ago, it is being treated by parts of the medico-political establishment as if it is the patient’s fault, or even a mental illness.

      We never learn, nearly every new chronic illness that popped up was first treated as “hysteria” or “mental” or “psychosomatic” in the past, until we figured out the pathology. From most autoimmune diseases, to peptic ulcer to epilepsy…

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
    123·
    1 month ago

    Right from the outset, my wife’s coworker got her sick, which spread to my two little kids and then to me. They only work two days a week in person and it’s not heavily enforced, but people still lack the fucking common sense to quarantine themself after symptoms go away but when you’re still contagious. Smh

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 month ago

        The CDC guidelines aren’t about prevention but a trade off between prevention and economic activity.

        You can very well be contagious during that period, but it’s too much of a burden on the system to wait until you are definitely not contagious.

        Up here in Canada when they changed the rules and had the big press conference they even explicitly mentioned that it was in part due to economic reasons and it would allow some additional spread when asked directly.

        Edit: and they even recommended wearing masks to work for a few more days afterwards just in case, but of course no one did.

      • FuzzyRedPanda@lemm.eeEnglish
        53·
        1 month ago

        While I think the CDC is correct in this particular case, you’ll have to excuse those of us who no longer trust the CDC after they intentionally lied to the public numerous times during the Covid-19 pandemic and contributed to the death and permanent injuries of US Americans who became infected due to their misinformation.

        • PrettyLights@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 month ago

          you’ll have to excuse those of us who no longer trust the CDC after they intentionally lied to the public numerous times during the Covid-19 pandemic and contributed to the death and permanent injuries of US Americans who became infected due to their misinformation.

          I hear this same line from anti vaxxers

  • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
    7·
    1 month ago

    I was recently traveling around the pacific and 20% of all chinese, australians, and americans were coughing up a storm, not a mask in sight (other than us)

  • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
    5·
    1 month ago

    I think avoiding crowded indoor areas and washing your hands every time you return home, or before eating or drinking anything, are good policies in general. If more people just did those things we’d see less communicable disease overall.

    Then again I’m routinely horrified by the amount of people who barely wash (or don’t wash at all) their hands before exiting public restrooms…

    • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
      3·
      1 month ago

      Recently got to help clean some piece of shit’s old apartment so friends could move in. There were yellow-ish stains around the lightswitch. And plenty of other places around the loo too, but point is: some people are disgusting.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      1 month ago

      You can absolutely become infected with Covid by having touched something someone coughed on.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
    22·
    1 month ago

    My work has moved to a “hybrid” model, aka forcing people into office. I was in 2 weeks ago… And caught COVID. For over a week, existence has been… Not great. I do not feel like myself yet. First day in a while I even played video games, and it took a lot of effort. My breathing is way better than it was a few days ago. But my mind is still so… Cloudy isn’t the right word… It’s like if your brain is normally powered by your local power grid… It’s now powered by a AA battery that you found in the junk drawer. There are things I can’t remember to things that I know I know very well. There were days I woke up drenched in sweat so I assume I was running a high fever for a few days.

    All that to say is I wish we weren’t at this point we’re covid still a thing. We had an opportunity to eradicate it. I did everything right. I got all my shots, I got boosters regularly, and even when I was forced into office I isolated away from people but it wasn’t enough.