Thread by @LaurynIpsum

I think we have a serious misunderstanding of what mild means in relation to Covid. Remember, mild just means you don’t need to be hospitalized/it isn’t going to kill you. I have “mild” Covid and have been coughing up bloody phlegm for days.

I’m so sick of people acting like it’s just going to be a bad cold because of the vaccine. I’m vaccinated and boosted. It MIGHT be a bad cold for you. It might also be the sickest you’ve ever been in your life.

For two years I’ve had people treat me like I’ve been overreacting because of how cautious I’ve been. I’ve basically given up entirely on trying to tell friends when they are exhibiting outrageously dangerous behavior, because they’d just get mad and gave me shit for it.

For two years I’ve tried to explain to friends that people like me are more likely to get really sick. Or how incredibly terrified I am of long Covid because of my already existing health conditions. And for two years a lot of friends have dismissed those concerns.

I know more people sick now than at any point in the pandemic. And most people I know are still going about as if nothing has changed—as if we aren’t in the middle of a massive surge of a strain that is significantly more contagious.

I don’t get it.

What am I missing? I feel like I have to be missing something, because none of this makes sense to me. I know we are all tired, trust me, I am too. I’ve barely left my bed for days. But we have to learn to adapt and adjust our behavior as things change.

Learning to live with Covid doesn’t mean throwing our hands up and saying fuck it. Acknowledging that this isn’t all on the individual and that there has been total governmental failure doesn’t absolve us of literally all responsibility.

✨Multiple things can be true at once✨

Maybe it’s that we want a clear cut an dry answer. If I do x, then y. But then something changes, and doing x might not be good enough anymore. The goal post keeps shifting as the virus changes.

That doesn’t mean the advice before was wrong, it means the circumstances changed.

What if we look at it like Pokémon? If your opponents Pokémon evolves they now have different attacks, especially if it’s a situation like eve that changes types entirely.

Would you send the same Pokémon to fight against Flareon (fire type) as you would against the normal eevee?

The Pokémon evolved, so you adjusted your fighting tactics.

As the virus changes, we adjust our tactics. I’m sure we will adjust again when the anti-viral comes out next year. We have to accept that the goal post won’t stay in the same place.

Right now, we are dealing with a different Pokémon. So we need to adjust our behavior. Remember make calculated risks. Seeing a movie in the theater right now is a lot more dangerous than it was a month ago. Acknowledging the changing risk level is part of making calculated risks

No matter what, we HAVE to start talking about long Covid more seriously, and really come to terms with the potential severity of it.

We have to stop writing that off as if it’s statistically improbable. Some studies say 1/10, some days 1/3. That’s FAR from improbable.

That’s fucking serious. Are you willing to take a 1/10 change you’ll become disabled? What about a 1/3 chance? Taking that risk into account is part of making calculated risks. If you’re not doing that, you’re leaving a massive factor out of your calculations.

It’s not fun to think about, but we have to. I’m begging you please. Start taking the idea of long Covid seriously and factoring it into your decision making process. Take your friends seriously when they say they are worried about it. Don’t tell them it’s fine or unlikely.

I’m so tired and I feel so heartbroken. I don’t know what to do. As I’ve said before, I don’t mean to talk down to anyone. That’s not my intention here. I’m not trying to infer morally superiority, because I’m not.

I want you all to be okay.
I want your loved ones to be okay.

I hope your holidays are treating you well, and I wish all of us a happy (or at least tolerable) new year.

Hang in there.
❤️