Thread by @ebonstorm

Hey Twitter! It's been a while. I used to write here all the time hanging out with #scifichat, #comicschat, #litchat, talking about #science, #tech, #autism and a dozen other topics which broadened my horizons and let me share my diverse interests in almost everything.

Then my life got incredibly busy. My son went to high school and coupled with his #autism, our lives became super-complex. I lost my job and my car gave up the ghost after four years of @Uber. Then the unthinkable, my wife experienced #renalfailure.

4 years ago, she underwent an operation for #peritoneal #dialysis. This form of at-home dialysis would let her take care of her renal needs at home avoiding the need for external #hemodialysis centers. In hindsight, this may have saved her life.

texastribune.org/2021/03/30/pan…

We had to retool our home for her dialysis equipment, we had to store materials for at home dialysis which includes an incredible amount of fluid which is processed by the body and extracts the toxins and fluids our kidneys normally process daily.

If you have ever taken your #kidneys for granted, and let's face it, we all do, I can assure you, your kidneys rank right up there with your #heart, #lungs and #liver as organs you never want to have to do without. With this change, our lives contracted, and simplified.
#dialysis

I stopped having the time I needed to write, to create new analyses, new treatments, as much as I wanted to hang out with the #amwriting crew or the #scififri crews, my family was all I had time for. I missed my Twitter friends.

There was only the mission. Protect my family.

Instead of creating new ways of sharing my @Quora superhero content, I focused on my podcast on #climatechange with the @GoodMenProject and writing articles on #scifi, #comics and #movies on @scifi4wifi (Scifi.radio).

My podcast, Climate Change by the Elements became my outlet for my science nerd needs and I discovered there was a need for enthusiastic people to talk about the challenges of transforming a world beset by #climate challenges, #social issues, and wild #weather phenomena.

For the last three and a half years, my #podcast which lasted for an hour a week, at least three weeks a month, became how I focused my previous decade of interest in #environmentalism and channeled it toward a conversation about our pending #climatedisasters.

Until two years ago, when the #coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, the Alpha strain showed up and began terrorizing the world. I didn't put #climatechange on the back burner, I just added the coronavirus to my menu and began curating articles on Facebook.

I wrote articles on the #pandemic, incendiary and passionate, because I wasn't clear if people understood what we were up against. Three years later, I am absolutely certain the layperson is no more aware of the threat than they were when this started.

People are still asking the wrong questions and drawing the wrong assumptions, confusing their political lives with the continued assault of the virus on every person on the planet.

I blame the media for allowing itself to be used to confuse rather than inform people.

Rather than try and explain everything I have learned since the pandemic began, I will say that if you are interested, there are dozens of passionate, intelligent and capable people in my feed and on this platform who can tell you whatever you need to know about the pandemic.

I share their posts regularly and will occasionally expound on Facebook when I find or write an article I think you will want to read. My curation is called Pandemic Earth.

facebook.com/pandemic.earth

It is clear everyone is experiencing "pandemic fatigue." But you have to put that feeling aside. You have to dig deep and recognize as long as people around the world are fighting this disease without the tools they need, WE WILL ALL BE FIGHTING THIS DISEASE.

In perpetuity, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Why? Because as long as the disease exists in pockets where unvaccinated people struggle for survival, the #coronavirus will continue to #mutate in those regions. Every #mutation will not be dangerous. But SOME will be.

If they are, they can become capable of deadlier infection (Delta) and increased mortality (Delta) or increased communicability (Omicron), evading established vaccines (Omicron), or having the potential to cause long-term harm to anyone who is infected. (Long COVID).

As a novel virus, we don't know what its affects may be in the future. We don't know how a world which has abdicated it's responsibility to fight the disease may be giving hundreds of millions even greater risks in the future.

businessinsider.com/biden-covid-19…

I plead with you: Avoid infection, first and foremost. Physically distance, reduce your exposure to crowds, sanitize regularly, wear a quality mask (N95) and avoid places where people don't wear masks. Vaccinate and get boosters where possible. Layer your defenses.

Don't expect "herd immunity" to save the day. Several countries have tried it and it is proving to be impossible, due to how quickly the virus mutates and adapts. Our only hope lies in vaccination and prevention of disease transfer between Humans.

cnbc.com/2021/10/12/uks…

Our culture has determined that we have to choose between our work or our lives. That is not a choice.

Dead people can't work.

Protect yourself, protect your family. The long-term implications of infection may be a lifelong disability you never considered a possibility.

What does the future hold for #climatechange, #climatedisasters, the #coronavirus #pandemic and the social ills plaguing our country such as #WhiteSupremacy, mass #unemployment, and learning to live long-term with this virus?
No one knows for sure.

Our only hope is to keep learning, to remain flexible as the virus mutates, our mindsets must be mutable as well, adapting our behaviors as our needs require us to. Our medical workers, our medical system, doctors and nurses, need us to be smarter.

washingtonpost.com/health/2019/10…

Otherwise, when we truly need them, they will be too tired, our hospital systems too worn down to be of service and if that should happen, the virus will not only cripple our medical capacity, but our social, cultural and economic capacity as well.

It's good to be back chatting again. Even if it was only for a moment. I hope we can talk more in the future and as always feel free to send me a question, because what is an Answer-Man without questions?

Take care of yourselves. Stay safe. Stay alive.

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