A hypothetical.
In about six months, under a new government in New Zealand, a new Covid variant comes into play.
Its primary symptom is severe muscle pain - enough to prevent work.
Additionally, people seem to recover for a few days, only to get worse again as time goes on.
(🧵) There’s no masking requirements, and no isolation required, so the spread is quick, and within three weeks case numbers are well over 20,000 a week - according to wastewater results, because tests are no longer available.
Emergency Departments are having to triage who gets seen.

The US CDC has updated their site on Covid impacts:

“COVID-19 can cause serious health problems, so it’s more important than ever to protect your child’s health.”

“Consider having your child wear a mask to school.”
@minhealthnz will NZ advice be updated?
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20… Our advice is hard to find and is part of a video transcript on the Covid-19 website saying “COVID-19 is generally a mild or even asymptomatic illness in children.”

There’s plenty of evidence to support that even mild illness can have profound impacts.
👇
phcc.org.nz/briefing/longe…

The CDC has just released higher standards for ventilation in buildings.

Any government who claims to be thinking about the future should be doing this.

In Aotearoa, we’re leaving school and workplace communities to advocate for clean air themselves 🫠

cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

https://twitter.com/j_g_allen/status/1567817335007838215

On Monday 16th there’s a free webinar happening on the subject of winter health, courtesy of the Covid Action team.

The experts we’ll be hearing from are all brilliant advocates for stronger public health protections - urgent, important viewing.

Details: events.covidaction.nz/health#s4

About a month ago a leader tried to talk about the violence of cis white men & every single man with power shut her down.
What would the justice experience of these women have been like if men in power acknowledged violence?
Would it have taken 5 years to convict John and Steve? "The statistics out there don't tell the whole story because... it's working within a system that favours Pākehā men."

They tried to silence her because she is right - and that threatens the status quo that allows the activity in the news this week.

i.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/1316…

“Poor ventilation, the committee heard, was a major factor in the spread of the coronavirus.
It recommended the establishment of an advisory body… to develop new national air-quality standards.”

Aotearoa too (urgently), thanks @nzlabour cc @NZGreens
thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/health/20… Clean air should be a focus for anyone in business or school leadership who wants a healthy place for employees to work & for kids to learn.
It is baffling that whoever the “business lobby” are, this clearly isn’t being pushed - clean air means better productivity & bottom line.

Increasingly so concerned about how winter is going to go. We’ve got so much clear, unequivocal data about the long-term effects of Covid.
It shouldn’t just be “does this land us in hospital?”
It should be “what is this doing to our quality of life?”
Why aren’t we asking this? The few masks I am seeing are the old surgical ones.
We’re not communicating how to protect ourselves.
We’re not pushing for better ventilation.
We’re not acting to support workers with long term impacts.
We’re not acting to support those who can’t work because they had Covid.

Ten things to know today if you have Covid:
1.) Rest - rest as in inert, as in don’t move.
Don’t get off the couch, don’t engage your body or brain. Rest as in stare out the window or at the ceiling, more bored than you’ve been in your life.
It. Will. Help. You. Down. The. Track. 2.) Take leave. Take it today. You’re not going to need a week; you might need two, you might need six. The more recovery time you can load in at the front end of this thing, the better.
It is vitally important that you don’t try to push through & that you practice that ongoing.

Semi regular reminders:
Infection = very bad
Reinfection = incredibly bad
Long Covid = you do not want

If you don’t have it, avoid it - mask.
If you do have it, if you have access to sick leave or annual leave, take it now. Take two weeks if you can - it is *critical* to rest.

https://twitter.com/Thoughtfulnz/status/1595935920985083904

By rest, I mean don’t look at your phone, don’t email people from the couch, don’t “just quickly do xyz”, don’t exercise.
I mean *completely stop your life to the best of your ability*.
You are aiding your recovery later by stopping now.
Also, the fatigue will linger. For weeks.

It is really and truly something that experts have said there are parallels between the effects of COVID-19 on the brain & the early stages of Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s and not only has this not been shouted from the rooftops, there is still no movement on masks or ventilation. How else do we need to be convinced that masks & ventilation are a good idea?
It’s been vehemently supported by experts.
Studies say 1 in 5 will get Long Covid.
Workforces are being decimated, particularly in schools
Impact to the health of children is documented (#LongCovidKids)

I’m a fairly low-key canary in the coal mine on Long Covid from a lived experience perspective, & I get annoyed when men with no discernible expertise tell me that I must be lying - so hats off to every single expert dealing with Johnny Contrary and Ben Misogyny in the comments😬 Yes, it’s #notallmen & #notonlymen - but overwhelmingly it is men who are rude, sexist, condescending - I often wonder how they are with their work colleagues & their families if this behaviour is acceptable to them.
It is no wonder that entering into public life is a big call.

Questions of the day:
It’s day 187 of the traffic light system and yet nobody has explained clearly why masks and ventilation aren’t required in schools and workplaces despite the evidence for both of those things and advocacy by 200+ experts and we’re all just… fine with that? The CDC found that 50% of people are still positive after 5-9 days and yet we are telling people that they can leave the house when they are still testing positive for Covid-19 at day 7 - when even the CDC is saying avoid close contact with people?
Why would we advise this?

https://twitter.com/cdcgov/status/1496910303065481224

There are many baffling and concerning aspects to this story, but most of all the fact that not a single expert is featured here to refute many of these comments.

A few things to note:🧵

newsroom.co.nz/the-debate-tha… The evidence is clear that masks should be worn to prevent transmission.
The expert advice has been clear for quite some time now that ventilation is key.

So, in light of people chasing the PM in their vehicle, breaking into offices, trying to arrest Andrew Little, can we agree that hunting down other people is not a good thing & perhaps people should stop before this stuff escalates & genuine harm occurs (because it always does). In all seriousness it does make me uneasy because it’s born of outraged entitlement to a world that doesn’t exist, stoked by people with agendas which also include misogyny and racism.
It’s perceived loss.
It’s uneasiness with giving up power - “equality feels like oppression.”

I have just started Euphoria & think Zendaya & Hunter Schafer are brilliant. I like the fact that it centres the experience of growing up in a culture that both sexualises young women & punishes them for that sexuality.
This is an on the money review imo:
dazeddigital.com/film-tv/articl… It’s easy to be dismissive of “teen” shows, but I like that every episode of Euphoria feels like a tightrope & you don’t know which way a particular character is going to tip - I can usually call these things but I never know with this writing. The cinematography & costumes are🔥

How we focus our support & who we amplify is something to ponder, when a politician can stand up & advocate for removing references to the Treaty from the law, WEAG recommendations are vastly untouched, & the new social insurance scheme benefits white, middle-to-high income men. Equity & justice are not something that just happen.
It means calling out & refusing to normalise racism - especially when it’s presented by people with consistent pattern of toxic behaviour, especially when those people are given a disproportionate platform, no questions asked.

I want to talk about the “rule by fear”/“freedom” narratives that are being pushed - overtly and via meme-worthy, shareable content that gets disseminated quickly.
This is a narrative that not only deliberately undermines our Covid response but sows distrust, and fear in itself. The thing is, when you platform a lie, harmful narrative or a conspiracy theory by thinly disguising it as an opinion piece, press release, or Tik Tok you’re causing deliberate harm to those who trust you to tell them the truth.

This “ruling by fear” opinion is not the truth.

Something that I don’t think is talked about enough is that “mild symptoms” in regards to Covid-19 means *not requiring hospitalisation*.

That is a decent range of limited symptoms showing, to the full smorgasbord - you do not want to be anywhere near the full smorgasbord. I don’t say this to fear monger. I say it because “learning to live with it” means people will show up to hospitals with the smorgasbord.
And, people who are vaccine hesitant see “mild” & go oh, it’s fine - when mild can still mean struggling to take a breath, heart palpitations,

How many women watch, listen, hear the way Mike Hosking, Barry Soper et al talk about women & absorb the overwhelming silence from their colleagues as implicit acceptance?

I know I do. I see the voices of men defending Mike Hosking preferenced over the voices calling him out. I see the points that women are making about consistent toxicity, about disdain and condescension being ignored in favour of “but she just can’t hack it.”

It’s always “you should have to endure our behaviour” - never “our behaviour has to change.”

It’s always who speaks louder.

It’s weird that a male presenter can call a woman a “a shallow, self-absorbed, attention-seeking, woke, bandwagon-riding hussy” but if a man said that in the workplace he’d be fired.
It’s weird that these men can write & speak about women like this on a national platform.

https://twitter.com/2covet/status/1369890148448538632

It’s weird that brands who conceivably sell to women are okay with it.
It’s weird that other men in media who have women as their audience are all fine their colleague talks like this.
It’s weird that the media workplace culture means women in media have to hear it - & let it go.

Just because some of the men in the media do not think their own misogyny exists, does not mean it doesn’t come through clearly in the way they write.

Discomfort with their words & approach is not unusual & the proclaiming that it’s “just normal” is a bad take - it is toxic. Men saying that the toxic behaviour of other dudes is normal & fine is a trope I’d like not to continue in 2021, yet here we are.

Challenging is good; disdain, condescension & toxicity isn’t challenging - it’s Piers Morgan.

It serves no one to have misogyny as a game plan.

I want to talk about this, today.

It’s really been bothering me & I’m going to try to articulate why.

I think what it comes down to, ultimately, is the ripple effect.

I think, what it comes down to is tangible, real harm. Once you start to platform fascism as normal life, it’s really hard to go back.

It’s like any kind of hate (or love) - once you platform it, it takes on a life of its own - and, crucially where hate is concerned, *it validates the position & makes it mainstream.*

Hate is easy.