SARS II: Respiratory Boogaloo

Does this control for how we've spent the past 3.5 years obsessively avoiding exposure to germs? Wouldn't that alone account for weakened immune systems?

non paywalled link:

https://wapo.st/48lhGh6

There's damage to the immune system, it seems. You know how certain viruses like HPV and HIV can hide in the body for long periods of time before flaring up again? It looks like COVID can do something similar, only it's tearing up things related to our immune systems.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed a bill that makes vaccine mandates illegal in the state of Arkansas.

I'll be curious in 10 years to look back and see how many kids she just killed.

'Pro-life.' Oh, don't worry about Bobby, he's got whooping cough. That won't impact Timmy's smallpox.

Oh, yes. I know lots about HPV.

Unfortunately, the article does not mention specifically what you describe.

Y'know, people say stuff like this, but I don't see them going around licking doorknobs.

Consider my name and imagine what dirtier things I lick regularly.

I'm told Thai ladyboys' asses are quite germ free after you're done with them.

Bob must be filthy

Got the new booster. My shoulder hurts like it’s been punched with a knife. Not feeling like absolute garbage today though, so that’s good.

Supposedly, taking Benadryl helps mitigate the side-effects of the vaccine.

Don't forget to update your phone plan now that you've got 5 G's

New Research Links Common Cold Viruses With Rare But Life-Threatening Clotting Condition

Update: a lot more coworkers caught it and the office basically shut down for two weeks ("don't come in unless you absolutely have to, and wear a mask").

Oops. Better shut down the world for two years again!

The world continued along just fine. Some things just slowed down.

https://x.com/republicandalek/status/1705677816480547073?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

Lol. Seriously check your privilege on that statement.

He's from California, which I'm told was the most draconian place to be during COVID, so I kinda take his word for it.

Maybe you check your privilege? "Essential workers" did not have the luxury of remote work. My mother in law got COVID twice while taking care of people on death's doorstep. It's not like the global economy stopped. It very much continued -- otherwise we wouldn't have masks, COVID tests, COVID vaccines, or toilet paper.

Nothing stopped, it just changed and slowed down quite a bit.

I miss those days.

"Essential" like most of Hollywood. And hairdressers for politicians.

I believe @Rimjob Bob was working in China at that time but was on vacation in Vietnam when China locked down and was stuck in Vietnam for a year not able to work or get to any of their stuff.

That said I don’t think the way communist dictatorships handled COVID is useful when discussing how the US handled it.

Communist dictatorships? Let's not forget that countries like Australia and New Zealand were equally strict in the early years with their controls on movement.

Yes, people like me displaced and cut off from family for literally years.

Millions of kids set decades behind in their achievement, as a result of being kept out of school far too long.

Small businesses, especially restaurants, gone forever. Livelihoods destroyed.

Inflation is still making people poorer in most of the world.

And all these are knock-on effects of (excessive) government interventions, not the virus itself.

So yeah, it's great that @Fisherman's Worf had an easy pandemic. But perhaps empathy for the less fortunate is indicated.

If you had a white collar job, able to work from home, not having to expose yourself to the virus, not having your income disrupted? Guess what, you were exceptionally privileged. Deal with it.

Boo hoo.

We all survived. 'Cept @Zombie

While you make good points, and I don't disagree that I was privileged in how I experienced the pandemic, you're straying awfully far from my original point: the world did not shut down. It kept going. Some things just slowed down. And that is not inconsistent with some of what you just said.

I am really sorry that you got stuck in a different country for so long, I can't imagine what that must have been like. It pales in comparison to my experience.

This one vaccine can protect us from all COVID variants

Hook me up.

It's still being tested on mice, rabbits, and guinea pigs. Lawyers are next.

That's fine. We're all animals.