1. COVID (and a bit on pandemic preparedness in general): some thoughts on what could be done.
2. First, the caveat is that my background is not in health, so I focus on the social aspects. My perspective is obviously European but I’ve tried to write this from a global POV. So dear reader, please keep in mind that the context does vary across the globe.
3. Second, as previously outlined, complicity and fear have made COVID a taboo. Thus, IMO effecting change requires choosing if the 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 goal is to raise awareness of COVID or to persuade people to take useful action without referencing it.
https://x.com/kamomatou/status/1961357915647791570
4. The obvious solutions are cleaning the air and improved vaccines and therapeutics. A tool I haven’t seen discussed too much is an affordable diagnostic test for LC to assess its true prevalence and to build a stronger case for investing in other tools.
5. There’s a temptation to think you could bypass governments, disappointed with the PH authorities, but any solution will necessarily be ‘mixed economy’, involving both market and government. First, a govt regulatory approval is typically required.
6. Second, the consumer can’t fully assess the quality of potential tools and must simply trust they work. None of the potential solutions is comparable to a typical consumer good: the consumer can decide for himself if he finds, say, a tablet useful enough to buy.
7. Traditionally, the state provided the said info for such goods - so if you intend to bypass the government, what’s your solution to this problem? Eg which layperson can assess exactly which far-UVC is safe and effective? I certainly have no idea.
8. If better vaccines are not sterilising, not sure they alone would change much; depends on the duration of the immunity. Anti-vaxxerism and immunity debt obsession are obviously issues but still, many non-CC would likely take an affordable and effective vaccine.
9. Given the wide impact of COVID on the body, I’m sceptical that there could ever be a limited range of medicines to undo the damage. And who would pay for medications presumably for many people over a long period? W/ ageing populations, healthcare budgets are under strain as is
10. Even so, if you can, donating or raising money for research and highlighting the importance of research and therapeutic access to your elected representatives make sense.
11. Cleaning the air is often mentioned as a cure-all. A particular strength of cleaning the air is that it would improve general pandemic preparedness and fight against other airborne diseases.
12. Cleaning air in schools and healthcare facilities alone would likely do a lot to limit transmission. But the question remains, who would pay for it? Most governments even in developed economies are already heavily indebted. Plus:
https://x.com/kamomatou/status/1961357966382076035
13. Having said that, despite the challenges, cleaning the air could muster support perhaps from surprising non-CC folks (see also the rest of the thread for the context):
https://x.com/kamomatou/status/1977713905330770226
14. A more indirect way to help is to support organisations that aid patients with typical COVID-induced issues (eg I’ve supported the British Heart Foundation since 2020) or provide medications to keep HIV in check (such patients are fertile ground for new variants).
15. I’d be keen to hear about other similar, wonderful examples of how people have navigated the social aspects of mitigation measures because they remain the trickiest part:
https://x.com/Liesl4CleanAir/status/1966906054496972933
16. CC men, you’re doing God’s work by advocating for public health to other men even if it is an uphill struggle!
https://x.com/kamomatou/status/1961357982152753629
17. Finally, just continuing with the CC lifestyle as it incentivises firms to keep supplying 𝐚𝐧𝐝 developing relevant products (I recently learnt this the hard way after my favourite respie got discontinued..).
18. Related, supporting mask blocs and LC patients if you can; depending on the context, consider also handing out respies to people wearing surgicals - the case I have in mind is an elderly person who does try to protect himself but is not up-to-speed.
19. In short, no easy fixes, even with constantly improving tech because the social aspect is THE bottleneck. Hence, tenacious advocacy, building broad coalitions and engaging with non CC and policy-makers are key and this is my reading also from earlier PH successes.
20. Re tenacity, people are of course tired, I certainly am, so consider your own bandwidth. If advocacy now feels like shouting into the void, maybe focus solely on other CC people and LC patients; the latter especially could really do with support, so you should do it anyway!
21. Related, looking after your own bandwidth is important: what is sustainable for you? This is why I make these art fit for pandemicene posts, in case they help also others to process things, and have posted about joy - after all, there must be more to life than just getting by
23.See also covidconscioustherapists.com
24. 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒇𝒖𝒍: Assuming only masked up CC people care about infectious diseases - simply not true; trying to shame people into action; doomscrolling - doing something, whether to bring yourself some joy or help someone else, beats it any day.
25. My stance on universal masking. And even if miraculously everyone could somehow be persuaded to wear respies for a limited time, COVID would probably return from animal reservoirs or chronic human infections.
https://x.com/eperea/status/1803815983154434435
27. Drawing conclusions from anecdata, NO MATTER HOW CAVEATED or what your credentials are (esp. if credentialed / a big account). I understand the human interest angle BUT your sample will never be large and representative enough while plenty of proper research exists.
29. IMO 'Everything is Covid' is a mirror image of 'anything but Covid' and likewise unhelpful. Covid is subtly pernicious, yes, but attributing every single health issue to it risks a similar credibility problem that overselling vaccine effectiveness has caused.
(In particular, note that arguing for caution based on the UK's rising inactivity does beg the question of why we don't see the same labour market issues elsewhere.)
https://x.com/kamomatou/status/1961357961260884191
30. There are various negative societal / health trends that began appearing already before 2020.
In addition, note that there is credible 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐥 evidence on the adverse impact of, say, smartphones eg nber.org/papers/w34388
In addition, note that there is credible 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐥 evidence on the adverse impact of, say, smartphones eg nber.org/papers/w34388
31. If you ignore (30), how are you different from a COVID denialist who ignores evidence on COVID because it clashes with his worldview? More generally, the world 𝐢𝐬 complex and involves 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 issues at once - being too reductionist will 𝐧𝐨𝐭 help to make a case. /end
.@CovidSolidarit1 .@DrInfoSec finally got around writing the sequel
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