#1 year of vaccine drive

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

wait, Derin how did your leaving make the hospital shut down?

I used to work as a live-in nanny for a pediatrician.

Now, the thing about hospitals in my country is that they are massively understaffed and massively underfunded. This is especially true outside the major cities. The staff are worked to the bone and receive little to no help in things like finding accommodation or childcare, making working in rural areas a very uninviting prospect; staff come out here, get lumped with the work of three people (because there's nobody else to do it), burn out under the workload and leave, meaning that those remaining have even more work because that person is gone. It's unsustainable and the medical staff are doing their best to sustain it, because people die if they don't, so to the higher-ups it looks like everything's getting done and therefore everything is fine.

My friend (and boss) worked one week on, one week off, swapping out with another pediatrician. This was necessary because it would not be physically possible for one person to handle the workload for longer periods of time. The one single pediatrician had to hold up the entire pediatrics ward, which was not only the only public hospital pediatrics ward in our town, but also the one that served all the towns around us for a few hours' drive in all directions. I regularly saw her go to work sick, aching, tired, or with a debilitating 'I can barely make words or see' level migraine, because if she took a day off, twenty children didn't get healthcare that day, and some of these kids' appointments were scheduled weeks in advance. She'd work long hours in the day and then be called in a couple of times overnight for an hour or two at a time (she was on-call at night too, because somebody had to be), and then go in the next day. Sometimes she would be forced to take a day off because she physically could not stay awake for longer than a few minutes at a time, meaning she couldn't drive to work.

Cue my niece's second birthday coming up in Melbourne. I'd been working for her for about 3 years, and she (and the hospital) had plenty of advance warning that I (and therefore she) needed one (1) Friday off. That's fine, we'll find someone to work that Friday, the hospital said. Right up until the last week where they're like "oh, we can't find a replacement; you can come in, can't you?"

No, she tells them; I don't have anyone to watch my kid that day.

Oh, surely you can hire a babysitter for this one day, they say. Think of the children! We really really need you to work that day. I know we said it'd be fine but we need you now, there's no one else to do it.

There are no other babysitters, she told them. Unless you can find one?

That's not our responsibility, they said.

But I'm not changing my plans, she's got plans by now as well, the hospital knew about this one day weeks in advance, and with absolutely no reserve staff they're forced to reschedule all pediatrics appointments for that Friday. Not a huge deal, it happens on the 'physically too overworked to get out of bed' days too. I go to Melbourne, she goes back to her home in Adelaide for her recovery week, all should be on track.

My niece gives me Covid.

This was way back in the first wave of the pandemic, and there were no Covid vaccines yet. The rules were isolate, mask up, hope. I had Covid in the house, and it would've been madness for my friend and her toddler to come back into the Covid house instead of staying in Adelaide. There was absolutely no way that a pediatrician could live with someone in quarantine due to Covid and go to work in the hospital with sick children every day. And no support existed for finding another babysitter, or temporary accommodation, so the hospital was down a pediatrician.

The other pediatrician wasn't available to do a three-week stint. They were also trapped in Adelaide on their well-earned week off.

Meaning that the only major pediatrics ward within a several-hour radius had no pediatricians. They had to shut down and send all urgent cases to Adelaide for the week. To the complete absence of surprise of any of the doctors or nurses; of course this would happen, this was bound to happen, it presumably keeps happening. But probably to the surprise of the higher-ups. After all, the hospital was doing fine, right? Of course all the staff were complaining of overwork and a lack of resources in every meeting, but they could always be fobbed off with the promise of more help sometime in the future; the work was mostly getting done, so the issue couldn't be too urgent.

It's not like some nanny who doesn't even work for the hospital could go out of town for a weekend for the first time in three years, and get the only public pediatrics ward in the area shut down for a week.

[bamsara]

A couple years ago when I was looking for a place to live, I was offered this place for $300 a month (Very, very small 1 bed, 1 bath, plumbing and electric hardly worked, no AC or heating, house was moldy and falling apart, ect) and I was desperate but what really made me consider it was that when the landlord opened the front door, there was like 4 cats just sitting in the living room

Guy apologized and explained that there were a lot of stray cats in the area, they can get inside the house through the walls and kinda made it their place to stay (they were friendly) and explained that if i lived here then I'd have to be okay with cats coming in and out

Which, normally is something other folks would be concerned about, but I could not tell this guy that the house coming with the 'pest' problem of like 13-ish cats was a bonus for me

I didn't end up staying there because of the health hazards but sometimes I think about those cats and driving back over there to see if I can catch them and hit em with the indoor-neutered-vaccinated wombo combo.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #25

June 28-July 5 2024

The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Is putting forward the first ever federal safety regulation to protect worker's from excessive heat in the workplace. As climate change has caused extreme heat events to become more common work place deaths have risen from an average of 32 heat related deaths between 1992 and 2019 to 43 in 2022. The rules if finalized would require employers to provide drinking water and cool break areas at 80 degrees and at 90 degrees have mandatory 15-minute breaks every two hours and be monitored for signs of heat illness. This would effect an estimated 36 million workers.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced $1 Billion for 656 projects across the country aimed at helping local communities combat climate change fueled disasters like flooding and extreme heat. Some of the projects include $50 Million to Philadelphia for a stormwater pump station and combating flooding, and a grant to build Shaded bus shelters in Washington, D.C.

The Department of Transportation announced thanks to efforts by the Biden Administration flight cancellations at the lowest they've been in a decade. At just 1.4% for the year so far. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg credited the Department's new rules requiring automatic refunds for any cancellations or undue delays as driving the good numbers as well as the investment of $25 billion in airport infrastructure that was in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The Department of Transportation announced $600 million in the 3rd round of funding to reconnect communities. Many communities have been divided by highways and other Infrastructure projects over the years. Most often effecting racial minority and poor areas. The Biden Administration is dedicated to addressing these injustices and helping reconnect communities split for decades. This funding round will see Atlanta’s Southside Communities reconnected as well as a redesign for Birmingham’s Black Main Street, reconnecting a community split by Interstate 65 in the 1960s. 

The Biden Administration approved its 9th offshore wind power project. About 9 miles off the coast of New Jersey the planned wind farm will generated 2,800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power almost a million homes with totally clear power. This will bring the total amount of clean wind power generated by projects approved by the Biden Administration to 13 gigawatts. The Administration's climate goal is to generate 30 gigawatts from wind.

The Biden Administration announced funding for 12 new Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs. The $504 million dollars will go to supporting tech hubs in, Colorado, Montana, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada, New York, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. These tech hubs together with 31 already announced and funded will support high tech manufacturing jobs, as well as training for 21st century jobs for millions of American workers.

HHS announced over $200 million to support improved care for older Americans, particularly those with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. The money is focused on training primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and other health care clinicians in best practices in elder and dementia care, as well as seeking to  integrate geriatric training into primary care. It also will support ways that families and other non-medical care givers can be educated to give support to aging people.

HHS announced $176 million to help support the development of a mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccine. As part of the government's efforts to be ready before the next major pandemic it funds and supports new vaccine's to try to predict the next major pandemic. Moderna is working on an mRNA vaccine, much like the Covid-19, vaccine focused on the H5 and H7 avian influenza viruses, which experts fear could spread to humans and cause a Covid like event.

[phoenixyfriend]

Do you think "Daphne is the one handling the budget" is at all a popular headcanon for the Mystery Gang?

I like the idea of Daphne pulling out some reading glasses to do the gang's bookkeeping in the shotgun seat on long drives. The bankrolling is definitely Daphne and Shaggy (they're the ones that come from money), but it's probably still a pretty limited amount of money to work with just based on how young they are.

I want to say that Shaggy's money is in some kind of trust until he's 25. Meanwhile, Daphne does have an allowance, which is pretty big since her parents know she's traveling and they may not approve of the company she keeps, but they DO want her to be safe... but it's not enough to just spend willy nilly, considering she's the bulk of the funds for four people and one dog.

Someone has to plan out what they spend on, like... food and hygiene. Trap supplies. Laundromat usage. The occasional motel night if the elements are making 'sleep in the van' a bad idea. Phone plans, depending on the era. Health insurance if their parents don't have them on-plan (depends on the year). Car insurance (legally required). The van is old enough to require maintenance and have a pretty crappy mpg, so the gas budget is pretty high. Yearly inspections and other "let's not get stopped by the cops" stuff. Vet visits (vaccinations, teeth cleaning) for Scooby. Medication for various chronic conditions they may have. Replacing Velma's glasses when they get broken or her prescription changes. Fred's hair gel, which I assume he has. Shaggy's weed stipend. So much sunscreen. Etc.

Like they do have homes to go back to in case they truly run out of money, but it's still a lot to cover, and emergencies on the road do happen.

Modern setting Daphne just does an accounting course online and gets a CPA degree all in service of: 1. Managing the team's money 2. Catching bad guys via audit

(I'd suggest a correspondence course for an older setting but they're always on the move so idk how effective that would be.)

[covid-safer-hotties]

Ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 drives escape from mRNA vaccine-induced humoral immunity - Published Dec 9, 2024

I wish Cell's URLs would embed correctly...

Further scientific proof that vaccination alone is not enough to beat covid. Our science and vaccine production just can't keep up with covid's rapid mutations in our "let it rip" public health response. We have to use all the tools at our disposal to bring the pandemic to an end.

Highlights • Primary vaccination reveals regions of vulnerability within the mutational landscape • mRNA booster vaccination significantly enhances neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 mutants • Individual omicron mutants reveal gaps in mRNA-boosted humoral immunity • Variant-specific vaccines markedly improve neutralization breadth

Summary With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic 4 years ago, viral sequencing continues to document numerous individual mutations in the viral spike protein across many variants. To determine the ability of vaccine-mediated humoral immunity to combat continued SARS-CoV-2 evolution, we construct a comprehensive panel of pseudoviruses harboring each individual mutation spanning 4 years of the pandemic to understand the fitness cost and resistance benefits of each. These efforts identify numerous mutations that escape from vaccine-induced humoral immunity. Across 50 variants and 131 mutants we construct, we observe progressive loss of neutralization across variants, irrespective of vaccine doses, as well as increasing infectivity and ACE2 binding. Importantly, the recent XBB.1.5 booster significantly increases titers against most variants but not JN.1, KP.2, or KP.3. These findings demonstrate that variants continue to evade updated mRNA vaccines, highlighting the need for different approaches to control SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

[s0uth3park]

Random SP headcanons pt2

Pt 1

Tweek tried to, but ultimately will never, learn how to drive with heavy advice from his loved ones (Craig). It’s too stressful. It’s dangerous because of his anxiety and tics for others and himself. No driving for Tweek. Please.

Cartman doesn’t make fun of Craig for being “half ginger” because he’s a little scared of him… kind of.

Speaking of, Cartman showed Craig his own wiener (as per TxC) of his own volition.

Fat fucking crush on Kyle btw.

If Stan hates that he looks like his dad then he hates that Kyle looks like his mom btw. Because… alcoholic x radical canadaphobe?? Fuck knows.

Stan shakes on weed (no projection here). He can’t feel it though.

Speaking of, Tweek can’t feel his own shaking.

Cartman wishes that Kenny would act how he would / seeks Kenny’s validation, hence his criticism of Kenny of the most menial of things (ie. holding a candle in Put It Down).

If there was money for it, Karen would own a lot of stuffed animals.

Kevin and Karen do not carry the gene for red hair. Or blond/blonde hair.

Cartman loves his fucking grandma. (No projection I swear)

Jimbo holds some affection for Liane but is just a gay old fuck. Jimned 4eva

Did I mention in my last post I think, despite Mrs Valmer’s canon design, that Mrs Tweak has the biggest tits? I’m saying it again if so

SHE AND RICHARD SCREW SO BAD I KNOW I SAID BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND–

I know I said last post that I didn’t know how Tweek and Butters would be cousins but now I’ve decided… people can think differently because anything goes but for me it’s through both fathers. Tweak Bros. originates from Mrs. Tweak’s father and to earn the right to marry her he had to win him over and show his dedication to the profession

Richard and Stephen got grounded a LOT

Linda and Sheila’s hair always smells incredible (so much product)

Sheila is the type of grandma to give out stale sweeties

The Marsh name ends with Stanley. The bloodline ends with both him and Shelley

Heidi is the mother of Kyle’s kids (coping)

Cartman only became homeless after his mother died

He never worked ever (garageman future aside)

Clyde got vaccinated guys we can all rest now (the bad future self came back to tell him to never do it but once the good future is put into play he gets vaccinated because there was no bad future to come back to tell him)

Clyde is very girldad coded, soz

Bebe’s dad is a bit younger than her mom (he is the ultimate girldad… Mr. Stevens I wish I knew your name)

Clyde gets more insecure about his weight / appearance as he gets older. For now he is young however so let him live (his pudge is the pudge ever and he is sonboy if not a carnal dream and a half… latter only in pcov ofc)

Mr. Stevens helps Bebe with her homework a fuckton (particularly maths)

Butters bites his nails

Butters (after growing up) loves strong women. Look at his Pcov design and tell me he doesn’t want / have / respect a buff wife.

If Butters wasn’t grounded as much as a kid he wouldn’t have a fear of expectations as much as he does, meaning he would have probably gotten a better job than working in Dennybees or whatever it was called. Bro could have been a multi billionaire girlboss

I just want someone to hear this it’s not really a headcanon but BHLK Queen Thistle? LINDA STOTCH? Same character different nationalities istg

Kyle plays chaperone a fair bit to the guys

Kyle, Tolkien and Craig are the most sensible drivers out of All The Boys (Tolkien behind Craig and Kyle if I’m being honest)

Kenny and Bebe (Bebe isn’t a boy but YKWIM) are the fucking fastest / most reckless

Clyde and Stan are sort of not great but not bad drivers

Jimmy is rather close to Tolkien in terms of driving skill yk

Butters, Cartman, Tweek don’t drive – Cartman out of laziness / expectation of chaperones, and Butters and Tweek out of stress… Tweek tried to learn though

Craig in later years drives Tweek everywhere

Tweek and Cartman have experienced heart attacks (in later years) but for different reasons to the other. Clyde has come very close. So has Craig, though not as close.

Tweek dies before Craig.

Stan dies before Kyle.

Butters dies before Kenny (ironically).

Craig visits Tweek’s grave with flowers every week??

Craig, as an old man, wears a lot of fucking cardigans. Grandpa shirts too (the things without the collars).

Tweek and Craig have matching anythings. Typically slippers.

Bebe is very handsy and sometimes possessive. Clyde thinks it’s “sweet”. (The dudebro sweet not the romantic sweet through the possessiveness originates from romanticism).

In Pcov Clyde is a delivery man, actually

Out of all the couples, it would always be Clybe to cause the most hickeys

Bebe has a flatter ass than brilliant boobs (opposite for Wendy, though Wendy isn’t flat chested)

Nichole bleaches her skin in the future (it’s sad but look at her design. Out of everything else it’s the most unrecognisable and it’s awful) (ETA: when I say awful I’m talking about why most people bleach their skin and how it can affect one’s health – people can do as they please but ultimately skin bleaching isn’t a… great??? thing, socially and health-wise)

Nichole loves 60s/70s paraphernalia and fashion (the ultimate flower power child)

Wendy and Cartman fuck at least once in their lifetimes. They take it to the grave, but because of this Cartman doesn’t die a fucking virgin

That sounds so damn harsh wth but it’s true (I think Cartman doesn’t really have any labels moreso is just attached to certain people when it’s not just himself *cough cough* Kyle and Wendy *cough cough*)

Jimmy can see perfectly fine out of both eyes until he reaches teenhood

Jimmy has two brown haired alleles

Cartman doesn’t make fun of Kenny or Craig for having a ginger / red haired parent because he thinks they’re pretty cool. He lowkey ships them / wants to be them.

Cartman has the gene for ginger hair.

[superm4ks]

https://x.com/_allthatglitz/status/1865767505974960216 these charles fans need a wake up call. like are they not familiar with idk cota 2018? p18 to p2? no sc? one second away from the lead? max been delivering these kind of performances since he was a 20 year old like... he is not HIM..

Here's the twt for ref. Dont usually reply to asks about 'controversial' f1twt nonsense because like .. there's a reason p0sts like these are contained to Elons stanford experiment but I am familiar wid this person and wud like to discuss her twt further because I find it very puzzling and telling of something some sharl fans shud prolly work up the courage to confront and then like. Find peace or whtvr

Sara here a sharl fan like me. Theres a lot she believes about his qualities as a driver that I do as well. Shes fully convinced he cud be a multiple wdc winner, as am I, and that its a matter of car and personnel for it to happen. Nothing that he lacks has to do wid his lack of legacy so far. I agree wid all of that. So when I saw ur ask and read that twt my first reaction wasnt to be angry just . Puzzled. For somebody whos obvi such a strong believer in sharls' skill to think that a race like Abu Dhabi has anything to do wid Brazil.. How shud I put this, its kind of insulting. To Sharl. Like if u think these drives are in any way comparable that says more about u think Sharls limits are than what makes a drive 'the best'. Sharl hasnt had the machine, the pressure, the conditions or the narrative to complete a turn around like Brazil. But lets put Max's Brazil aside for now, and focus on Abu Dhabi, since thats whats being claimed as the performance that 'stole the race of the season'.

Ferrari arrived in Yas Marina ready to make a final stand, and , extraordinarily, still showing the pace to do so. Mclarens setup was akin to a sentient Dyson wid evil powers, but Ferrari had 2 drivers wid strong AD precedents and Mclaren , wid all due respect, pistachio my most beloved, did not. After dominating fp1, it became evident in fp2 something was wrong wid car 16, and it was announced he wud take a 10 place grid drop to fit a new battery in his horse for quali. The sole vaccinated cavallino on track, Carlos, managed a p4 in the final practice session. It was safe to assume Carlos wud make the front row in quali and sharl wud join him comfortably and begin his hunt from p10. They had a shot. Then sharl missed it. Mclaren completed the front row lockout, Sharls lap time got deleted for track limits in q2 after topping the charts and he never had the chance to disrupt papaya dominance in q3. Out of position, wid a new battery and a teammate in p2 who wud never catch the mcl38 in clean air, that was it. Sharl began the race wid imo the finest first lap of his career, sublime braking and steering into p8. From that point forward, the race was his to manage, and he did so brilliantly. Both horses took advantage of the 1st lap chaos in different ways, but while Carlos' delta to Lando meant he never did the 1 single overtake that actually mattered, Sharls delta to everyone else meant he overtook like 1 car per lap except the 1 that shud have been his to take but couldn't. As he reached George, he undercut the Mercedes, slot into fourth and waited for Lewis to pit. In the end, if Sara wants to bow to that I'll bow wid the bitch no problem. A perfectly executed race, well managed, 16 positions gained, a podium finish. Bend over, ass out, for sure. Again, I beg we remain focused on Abu Dhabi tho. So lets straighten our backs and really look at it. The 2nd fastest car qualified p19 thru driver error and made up 16 places. He finished 25 seconds behind his teammate, who in turn finished 6 seconds behind Lando. In its usual one stopper bore fest, once Lando's mcl38 bolted those hards on low fuel, as a distinguished 2024 ptsd riddled verstappie connoisseur, i knew Carlos hopes to win were dead and buried. Why they didnt just use the pit window to put Carlos on mediums and let him off into the sunset I'll never kno, but thats neither here nor there. Ferrari lost the wcc by the smallest margin since F1 started giving out points for race winners like candy ((25 instead of 10)). 14 points between both teams. Sharl definitely didnt lose Ferrari the wcc. This my analysis of his Abu Dhabi. Sara is very into having Opinions so I'm sure shes got her fair share on my take of those quali consequences, but they did matter. Just like lap 1 incidents matter. Like pace advantage matters. Like DRS matters. Abu Dhabi has 2 DRS zones along 2 straight lines, the point on any track where the sf-24 always finds lap time. One of Sara's arguments is that Abu Dhabi, unlike Interlagos, does not favor comeback drives and thats 1 of the reasons Sharls drive was more impressive than Brazil. .. 🫥 .. In 2021 Yas Marina went thru a series of changes including aforementioned DRS zones and faster corners. Chicanes 5 and 6 were turned into a single wider hairpin, specifically to promote more overtaking, where interestingly enough sharl went outside 4 cars before entering the DRS all the way to t9 in his quest to p4.

Comparing Sharl's Abu Dhabi to Max's Brazil is already extremely odd, but doing so to hype up this season's Abu Dhabi OVER Brazil's in a rage batey type of p0st that included the sentence 'no SC, no particular car advantage, no rain' was so fucking deranged even coming from f1twt I was kinda fascinated and HAD to investigate. I think the reason she felt the need to say all that was because 1) seasons over and they lost the wcc and I think we're all allowed 1 insane take for the Troubles 2) theres 0 to no chance Max's performance in Brazil will be replicated in our lifetime, because Interlagos was not Max's 'best race of the season', it was one of the best drives in Formula 1 history. If ur a sharl fan, and ur next teammate is Lewis Hamilton, I think perhaps a drive like Abu Dhabi's race where sharl was virtually flawless and displayed his potential to the fullest, is something u have to shove next to Brazil, because otherwise you've got nothing. Yet. YET. Thats what bothers me sm wid these fake ass marc herve fans, is that by saying shit like this, by comparing an exemplary comeback stint in Abu Dhabi to a drive that redefined the limits of whats possible to do on a wet track and flipped the odds on a championship title at the same time, they're saying sharl isnt capable of anything remotely close to that. Now I'm not sure what Sara's standards for sharl are, but they sure as fuck arent the same as mine. I think Sharls 2025, like 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, will be an improvement. If its Max hes meant to dethrone, then as a verstappie theres nothing more I yearn than to c how it happens. If its Lewis, the feelings the same. When u trust ur dogs to bite, u dont need to put up signs. People will know because they growl. My sharl bares teeth.

Back to my og point. Verstappen's 2024 has nothing to do wid sharl's 2024. Sharl accomplished so many beautiful things in 2024. Conquered Monaco, Monza, delivered great wheel, worked thru a rough path and became one of the season's most consistent performers, went h2h for constructors till the very end in a car that only became competitive halfway into the season. Focus on that, relish in that p3, the potential of that development, Lewis' hiring and the power he brings, the challenge, the potential start of an undeniable legacy for both, or maybe just 1. Max's 2024 doesnt fit in any of this. Brazil had nothing to do wid any of this. Release yourself from the clutches of a mold that cant be replicated because the child it came out broke it at 17. Sharl is not Max, and thats fine, he'll be something else. Maybe better, maybe not. Arent u excited to find out. Wouldst u want to live deliciously instead of angering Max fans on twt because ur jealous they already do

[talkethtothehandeth]

Here is a video that talks about the reality of living with Long COVID. This is another reminder that this virus is still prevalent and just as deadly, if not more. COVID has killed nearly seven million (documented cases) people worldwide. You are not immune, you are not invincible, and this is something you should still be taking seriously. It’s not in the past, it is still spreading and mutating and harming and disabling and killing.

Wear your masks, get the vaccines if you can.

Video Length: 1m 16s

Transcription:

"Hi, my name is Hannah, and COVID took my life from me. I was 23 when I got sick in August of 2020, and I'm turning 27 this month. I was an athlete for 10 years, and I had straight A's all through high school. I graduated with honors, multiple scholarships, and I was years in the school for my PsyD. I loved going on adventures, traveling, reading, painting, drawing, I even loved having a job. I even had a healthy immune system, and that was all until I got COVID." - "I've been diagnosed with epilepsy, and the back to back seizures have caused brain damage; it has caused dementia type symptoms, spelling problems, mood changes, POTS, which haused caused me to be hospitalized multiple times with concussions and injuries. I'm on IV infusions and medications for that." - "I have to use a wheelchair, I can no longer legally drive; diabetes, an autoimmune disease, chronic and debilitating fatigue, vision deterioration, had to have my thyroid removed, lost half my hair. I still have a hard time breathing and have low oxygen at points-- chronic pain, muscle aches, tooth decay, increased mental health issues and ideations. I had to quit my job, withdraw from school, and I never see anyone but my family and doctors I can longer draw, travel, and I really struggle with reading, which is my favorite thing." - "My loved ones are terrified to leave me home alone, and I'm scared to even sleep at night because I'm afraid that I won't wake up. I spend my days alone in bed because life has to go on without me. This is the reality of it [long covid]. And 1 in 5 infections cause long COVID. I promise you, you are not invincible."

[ersatz-ostrich]

See You Again

Chapter 3: Ten Years

Jason Todd x f!reader

Red Hood takes you to the Cave for treatment.

[A/N]: I'm so glad I gave this chapter a once-over before publishing it. I think I hammered out all 3,900-ish words of this chapter almost exclusively between the hours of 11 PM and 2 AM. I swear, this fic has me in a chokehold. Anyways, the plot thickens...and we uncover more of Jason and MC's shared history! Happy reading :)

Warnings: none

read here on ao3

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masterlist

Somewhere over Missouri

1:21:44 AM CT

“Red Hood, do you wanna tell me why you requested access to a Wayne Enterprises hangar at an R&D facility outside of San Diego?”

“Oracle, I’m in a hurry to get back to the Batcave. I need Alfred or whoever’s in the Cave to prepare the medbay for a patient with a potentially infectious virus.” 

“Hood, what’s your status?” Batman’s voice replaced Oracle’s. His voice, stern as always, carried a twinge of worry.

“I have a civilian patient with me right now. They're a target; they need to be treated under the radar.”

“I’ll have Alfred prepare a bed.” 

“Tell him that Y/N L/N’s coming back.”

A pause.

“Will do, Hood.” This time it was Oracle’s voice. “And try not to crash the experimental supersonic shuttle you just commandeered.”

“No promises.”

Red Hood turned his seat to face where you lay unconscious, strapped to one of the benches in the hold meant for military personnel. The shuttle wasn’t built for transporting incapacitated patients like yourself, so he had to improvise—something that he wished he didn’t have to do. Hell, he wished more than anything that he could have reunited with you in a different situation, one where your life wasn’t on the line, one where he didn’t have to hide behind a mask. He simply wasn’t ready for you to see him like this, not after you had gone about your life thinking that Jason Todd had died in a warehouse in the snowy outskirts of Sarajevo.

After you had passed out, he had rushed you away from the scene of the break-in, which was swarming with LAPD and government personnel, and driven out of the city with you in the backseat of the car he’d borrowed from Roy for the operation, probably breaking a few traffic laws in the process. Once he’d driven out of city limits and reached the open road, he pulled over and all but flung the backseat door open, your Styrofoam case full of vaccines and samples in his hands. He opened the case and found a mess of ice, vials, and sterile packs of syringes inside, jumbled from all of the rooftop grappling and swinging the two of you had done. 

“Vaccines are pink, viruses are clear…” He muttered to himself, picking up one of the vials and examining them under the lone streetlamp he had parked under. The vial had been labeled with the total volume and the correct dosage of the vaccine. Your penmanship, he noticed, was unmistakable, even after all of the years that had passed. Unpackaging the syringe, he dispensed the correct volume of the vaccine, flicking the syringe to dispel any air bubbles, and gingerly parted the collar of your PPE. “Shit…” The blackened, distended veins had extended further across your clavicle, tendrils crawling up your neck and around your shoulders. Grimacing, he injected the vaccine into your shoulder, packed up, and kept driving, racking his brain for the fastest way to get to the one place where he knew you could be treated. 

Now, he watched you, caught in a fever dream. You were so close to slipping away from him just as your trajectories had crossed.

“I won’t let you die, Y/N.” He whispered. “Fight it. Please. ” I can’t lose you. Not when I just got you back.

Gotham Academy

Ten Years Ago

You tapped your pencil against the thick textbook as you contemplated your last practice problem. The clock beside your dorm room bed read half past eleven, and the only light in your room came from your desk lamp, which bathed everything in a warm glow.

You were about to reach for your calculator when you heard a knock against the windowpane. You turned your head towards the sound and nearly fell out of your chair at the sight of Jason Todd waving at you through the glass. 

“What—Jason?” You hissed, rushing to open the window. “Do you know what time it is?!” Outside your window, Jason was perched atop the slanted roof, lounging as if he were sitting on a sofa rather than aging shingles. “How the hell did you get up here? You know this is the top floor, right?”

“I know. Whatcha studying for?” He replied coolly, unfazed by your scolding.

“Physics,” You answered begrudgingly, keeping your voice low. “I have a test tomorrow.”

“Physics?” Jason echoed. “So, all you gotta know is F equals MA and that’s it, right?”

“Yeah, right.” You replied jokingly. “Seriously, how did you slip away from Mr. Wayne this time?”

“He’s out of state on some business trip. Right now, it’s just me and Alfred.” 

“And does Alfred know what you’re up to?”

“...maybe.” Jason chuckled quietly. “Man, if he knows I ran off, I’m a dead man.”

“Chances are, he already knows. Guess this is the last time I’ll see you, Jailbird. Better start planning your funeral.” Jason’s grin grew wider at the nickname.

“Jailbird?”

“Yeah, ‘cause you’ll be grounded the instant you get back to Wayne Manor.” You made a show of turning away from the window, only looking back to whisper, “Farewell, Jason. I fear I may never see you again.” A beat of silence passed, and then you both collapsed into laughter, which you quickly muffled lest you both be caught by a nosy roommate or RA. After your fit had abated, Jason grasped your wrist through the open window with a warm smile.

“Seriously, though. I just wanted to see you again.” You couldn’t see the pink tint that crept onto his cheeks in the low light. You laughed softly, placing your other hand on his.

“You are one weird kid, Jason Todd.”

“Says the person who’s taking college-level physics as a sophomore.” He fired back.

“Says the person who climbed onto the roof of the girls’ dorm just to see me. You’re lucky I didn’t holler the second I saw you.” You looked past him to peer down at the scenery below. “How are you gonna get down?”

“Dunno. Same way I came up.” He answered with a shrug. “If I fall and die, I want white roses at my funeral.”

“Don’t you dare, Jason.”

Eight months. 

Eight months later, you were standing before a freshly turned plot in the Wayne family cemetery, tears streaming down your face.

“I’m very sorry, Miss L/N.” Soothed Alfred, placing a reassuring hand on your shoulder as you collapsed upon the grass before Jason’s headstone.

“You meant the world to him, Y/N. I’m sorry.” From your blurred periphery, you saw Mr. Wayne, who was always so tall, so imposing, so confident , kneeling beside you. With his drawn expression and hunched posture, he looked defeated. He looked like the weight of Jason’s death had crushed his soul into the ground.

“White roses,” was all you could choke out in between hiccups. “He said he wanted white roses.” 

You were only fourteen when he died, already a sophomore at Gotham Academy. It was the peak of exam season. Finals, projects, and presentations crept nearer and you were constantly bombarded with the pressure to perform—the ‘gifted kid’, the star student, Gotham Academy’s promising STEM scholarship recipient—but you couldn’t ignore the hole that Jason Todd left. The feeling seemed to burrow into you, eat away at you, until there was nothing left but you and your thoughts and the shoebox of a dorm room that Jason used to sneak out of Wayne Manor to visit. Staring up at the ceiling from where you lay in your bed, you wished more than anything to hear the sound of Jason gently rapping his bruised knuckles against your windowpane and to see his grinning face again. 

Now, you were ensnared in the memory of that September night when he first appeared outside of your dorm window. You were staring at the same physics problems again, eyes swimming. The clock still read half past eleven. But this body was yours, ten years older than you were that night. 

You heard tapping on the windowpane. 

“Jason…?” You whispered, inching closer to the window. Your heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t aged a day. Your fingers quickly found the latch, but when you hoisted up the windowpane, you didn’t see fifteen-year-old Jason reaching for your hand. 

“Y/N.” Jason’s voice had become deeper and rougher, and the sound sent shocks down your spine. He was taller and stronger now; his teenage body had filled out to create a solid, muscular physique. His facial features, now decorated with scars, were more angular and weathered, and his jet-black hair bore a shock of white. And yet, he was still Jason; you could not deny it. You saw it in his smile, in the crease of his eyes. “Time to wake up.”

The Batcave

3:08:16 AM ET

The beep of the bedside monitor pierced the tense silence of the Batcave medbay. 

“How long does she have left, Alfred?”

“We’re not sure, Master Jason. The vaccine seems to have stopped the progression of the disease, but there may be some unforeseen side effects.” Jason sucked in a breath. 

“We’re looking into the documents from the Polestar program,” Bruce supplied. “Oracle was able to access CDC and STAR Labs databases to extract any relevant knowledge they might have.”

“If it helps, Y/N and her team were very thorough with their documentation of the behavior of the virus in their test subjects,” Oracle remarked through the comms. “From what I can tell, they believe the virus to have extraterrestrial origins. The most recent version of the vaccine to go through animal trials seems to function primarily by genetically modifying the vaccine to stop attacking host tissue and coexist in the body without causing further harm.” Upon hearing Oracle’s analysis, Bruce hummed.

“Is she gonna be okay?”

“Trials have shown that a side effect of the vaccine is that test subjects maintain some kind of ferromagnetic property. The animals they were testing were fairly small, so the magnetism wasn’t strong, but the researchers at STAR Labs believe that the strength of magnetism is proportional to the bodily volume of the subject.”

“Magnetic, huh?” Bruce and Alfred left for the Batcomputer while Jason remained by your bedside. Your breathing was unhurried and uninterrupted, and your expression was peaceful. Your respirator was forgotten somewhere in Jason’s borrowed car, and he had helped Alfred peel you out of your coveralls and secure you in one of the beds in the Batcave’s medbay. Watching over you, he noticed how much you had changed in the ten years that you were apart—you had changed your hairstyle, which had become disheveled from your escape in LA, and it made you look more mature. The circles under your eyes had darkened over the years, no doubt from all of the late nights you had studied until exhaustion. He felt a pang of something deep and sentimental—was it nostalgia?—when he caught sight of your beauty marks, right where he remembered them.

Knowing that you were stable reassured him slightly. Still, he couldn’t imagine the battle your body was fighting against the Polestar virus.

Then, you stirred. The tempo of the bedside monitor’s beeps started to climb.

“No, wait—” Bruce and Alfred rushed through the sliding doors of the medbay. Your heart rate continued to climb. Jason stared in shock as he saw the blackened veins underneath your skin begin to recede. “What’s going on?”

“We’ll run a diagnostic. Oracle—” Bruce was tapping away at a terminal in the medbay, attempting to analyze your vitals. 

“Cave, there seems to be an unusual reading coming from your location.” Bewildered, Jason glanced around. His gaze settled on some medical instrument—a handheld scanner of some kind—quivering atop the medbay counter. 

“Could it be…magnetism?” He picked up the scanner and examined it. The body of the tool seemed to be made primarily of steel. He stepped closer to your bedside and felt the tug of magnetism in his hand as he held the scanner closer to you. 

“Oracle, you were right. I think this virus is turning Y/N magnetic.” Bruce muttered. More and more of the steel equipment in the medbay seemed to be experiencing your magnetic pull. Meanwhile, your heart rate kept rising; one hundred and twenty, one hundred and thirty, one hundred and forty—

“We have to wake her up somehow!” Jason exclaimed. The metal machinery and structures around you groaned, straining under the pull of your magnetic field. Jason himself, covered in armor and weaponry made with magnetic alloys, felt himself being dragged towards you until the railings of the bed dug into his stomach. “She’s gonna die if this doesn’t stop!” 

“I’m searching for a way, Hood, stand by.” One hundred and fifty, one hundred and sixty beats per minute—

“Jason…” The very room seemed to shake. Then, as if an invisible fist had just released its crushing grip on the room, everything shuddered to a stop. The magnetic pull on Jason was released and he stumbled away from the hospital bed, stunned. The beep of the bedside heart monitor began to slow. “Jason, is that you?” Jason’s helmet clattered to the ground.

“It’s me, Y/N. It’s really me.” Your eyes fluttered open, and they were wet with tears. Jason tore off his domino mask and reached out to caress your face, wiping the tears that rolled down your cheeks. “I’ve got you.”

“Jason!” You cried out, shooting up to throw your arms around his neck. “Jason, I thought you were dead!” 

“Y/N…” 

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!” You shouted, pushing him back suddenly. “Jason Peter Todd, where the FUCK have you been? I spent YEARS mourning you, grieving for a part of me that I would never get back, and—” Your words dissolved into sobs, and you let Jason take you into his arms. “A-and now you’re back…”

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I have a lot to explain.” 

“No, we have a lot to explain.” Bruce chimed in. “Y/N, I think you should know the truth about how Jason died.”

Wayne Manor

3:33:24 AM ET

Before he let Bruce and Jason explain everything to you, Alfred insisted on taking you up to the Manor to help you decompress and process events of the past few hours. When Alfred first pushed you out of the medbay in a wheelchair, you were astonished by the majestic sight of the Batcave—a place you thought to have existed only in urban myth. The very air seemed to hum with activity; you heard the distant chatter of various radio feeds; your skin was bathed in the cold glow of dozens of screens and electronics. The Bats’ job, it seemed, was never done. Twenty-four seven, there was always a threat to be addressed or a case to be investigated, and the Batcave was the beating heart, the nerve center, from which the Bats’ network emanated. You watched on with amazement, pride even, for the protectors of Gotham City—then, your blood ran cold as you considered what your presence in the Batcave implied about Jason and Bruce.

Sitting on the bed in a guest room on one of the upper floors of Wayne Manor, you rubbed your thumb along the rim of the glass of water in your hand. Your hands had become blackened by the virus, giving them a metallic sheen and feel. Thankfully, the vaccine seemed to have neutralized the virus; you no longer felt as if the virus was leaching out your vigor and the distended veins it had once pulsed through had just about returned to normal. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was the nature of your extremities—your hands and legs were utterly transformed up until your elbows and knees. You flexed your fingers experimentally and rubbed the pads of your fingers together. Your skin wasn’t quite like quicksilver—rather, it was a mysterious fabric, maintaining the flexibility, elasticity, and grippiness of normal human skin while glittering with the strength and resilience of metal. You clapped your hands; they sounded normal. You set your glass on the bedside table and swiftly knocked your knuckles on your glass, and it sang as if you had struck it with the handle of a spoon. 

The sound of someone knocking on the bedroom door drew you away from your experiments. You sat up, gathering the covers over yourself. Alfred had kindly offered you a change of comfortable sleepwear in exchange for the clothes you had been wearing under your PPE. 

“Come in,” You called out. Bruce entered, Jason trailing him. He had showered and changed out of his Red Hood armor. To you, he looked more youthful, dressed in a t-shirt and basketball shorts. He was beginning to remind you more and more of his teenage self. 

“Y/N. Are you comfortable?” Bruce asked.

“Yes,” You replied calmly.

“Are your…hands bothering you at all?”

“Not at all, actually. I was trying some things out, and—” You repeated your tests for the two, clapping your hands and then rapping your knuckles on your glass. “—I’ve had some interesting results.”

“Fascinating,” Bruce replied. “We’ll have to examine those further in the morning.” He took a seat in the armchair next to your bed, while Jason sat down on the bed, his weight sinking into the mattress and pulling the sheets with him. 

“I understand if it’s difficult for you to accept that after all of these years, Jason is alive,” Bruce began. “But there are some things we didn’t tell you.” 

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that I was Robin,” Jason answered. 

“It’s true,” Bruce affirmed. “I was—I am Batman. And he was Robin, my protégé. It’s one of the reasons why I adopted him.” He and Jason watched your expression as it turned from surprise to quiet acceptance.

“I see,” You murmured. “And Jason was in Sarajevo that night because…”

“The Joker captured my birth mother. He coerced her into baiting me into this warehouse, and—” Seeing Jason tense up, you reached out tentatively to run your fingers over his clenched fist. His shoulders relaxed, and he covered your hand with his.

“I’m sorry, Jason. You didn’t deserve to be deceived like that.”

“The Joker beat Jason to death and detonated the warehouse with him in it,” Bruce continued, his voice taut. His expression shadowed the one you saw on him the first day you visited Jason’s grave. “Jason died that night; that much is true. But something happened. Somebody stole Jason’s body and replaced it with a double when I went to recover his remains from Bosnia. They resurrected him, and he found his way back to Gotham.”

“Who was it?” You inquired.

“Ra’s Al Ghul, the Demon’s Head. I spent a few years training under his daughter, Talia Al Ghul, before returning to Gotham.” Jason’s expression darkened. “I was a different person then. I did despicable things…I hurt people.” Your metallic skin felt cool under his hands as his grasp tightened. “Back at Gotham Academy, we used to talk about the ways we could help people when we grew up. I…I feel like I broke that promise, Y/N. I’m a criminal and a vigilante. There’s so much blood on my hands.” You opened your mouth but made no motion to speak as you processed Jason’s words.

“I don’t know what Ra’s and Talia did to you. But the fact that you’re still here, still you , still healing after everything that has happened…I know I’m still struggling to come to terms with you coming back and everything you did after the fact. But I want to make up for all of the time we’ve lost. I want to be here with you, now.” Your voice quivered a little as you fought back tears. Impulsively, you slipped your hands from his and put your arms around him. You felt him tense up for a moment before relaxing into your touch—you figured he wasn’t used to your arms around him after all this time.

“I’m going to give you two some space,” Bruce announced. “You both should get some sleep.” After Bruce had shut the door behind him, you met Jason’s gaze. 

“After you came back…did you ever look for me?” You asked him, wiping stray tears from your face with the back of your hand. The texture of your skin felt odd against your cheek.

“It wasn’t hard to find your name in the scientific journals.” Jason responded with a sigh. “After Bruce took me back, he told me what you’d done after I died.”

“He funded my education. I attended Yale on his foundation’s scholarship. He supported me through grad school, too.” 

“I guess I never got to say how proud of you I am.” A small smile made its way onto Jason’s face. “I’ve met so many so-called geniuses, heroes and villains and otherwise, but the truly brilliant ones didn’t settle for their perceived intelligence. I’ll always respect you for working so hard to prove that you were more than just your intellect.”

“You know, we never got to graduate high school together,” You murmured. “I wish we could’ve. I would’ve settled for the Yale commencement, or even UCLA. Graduating from Gotham Academy felt so different without you there with me.” You shook your head. “Well, I know it would’ve been a long shot, anyways.”

“I wanted to be there for all of your achievements, but…”

“But you were an internationally wanted criminal,” You finished.

“Y’know, I tried.” Jason chuckled. “I don’t think you noticed me, though.”

“Wait.” Your eyes widened. “Brussels. You were there?” Jason’s expression turned sheepish.

“Yeah. I dyed the white streak out of my hair and got a fake ID and everything. I wasn’t expecting you to recognize me.”

“I had no idea…” You breathed. “That was my first ever biotech conference. You went to see my presentation?”

“Yeah,” Jason grinned. “You were amazing.” 

“And to think I didn’t even realize it was you…” And to think I went back to my hotel room and cried myself to sleep, thinking that your image had never stopped haunting me. You yawned, feeling your energy waning after your eventful night. “It’s late…I’m tired.” You reclined back on the bed. Your exhausted body seemed to melt into the expensive mattress.

“Get some rest, Y/N. You’ve had a long night.” Jason stood, but in a flash of panic and desperation, you caught his wrist and held on as if he was about to disappear into smoke.

“How about…could you just stay with me? Please?” Jason flushed an unexpected hue of pink. You quickly let go of him, feeling your face heat up to an equivalent shade. “I–I mean…you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” 

“No, I, uh—” Jason fumbled with his words. “It’s okay. I’ll stay.” He flicked off the overhead light and returned to your bedside. Sighing contentedly, you sunk further into the mattress, which dipped under Jason’s weight as he climbed onto the bed beside you.

“The last time we did this we were in tenth grade,” You whispered. “We went ice skating in downtown Gotham and then I slept over at the Manor.”

“Y’know, Bruce let me skip patrol that night so I could go ice skating with you.”

“Oh, yeah? We were out until the skating rink closed. And we were in separate rooms in the Manor, but I came over to yours because I said mine was cold,” You added. “I lied about it being drafty.”

“I knew it. You were just bored.”

“I knew you knew, Jason. If you hadn’t wanted me there, you would have called for Alfred.”

“Okay, you got me. Just go to sleep.”

“Right away, sir.” You giggled into your pillow. “Goodnight, Jason Todd.” He chuckled softly, a low rumble that struck you right in your aching, mending heart.

“Goodnight.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[A/N]: aaaa hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter! I'm a little worried that it's too OC-ish for a reader insert - I had a lot of fun designing the MC's backstory since it's such a big part of her relationship with Jason. Yes, MC is a sort of STEM prodigy (which can mean a lot in the DC sense, but in this case, she's just really good at science trust me bro). I fussed a lot over continuity and age gaps (eek!) and ended up settling with Jason having skipped a grade and MC having skipped two so that they were 15 and 14 respectively and in their sophomore year when Jason died. That way, MC would graduate high school at 16 and college at 20 (I originally wrote her going to Gotham U but then switched it to Yale, which in certain comic continuities, is Bruce's alma mater, and also because I worried that Gotham U or another Gotham university would have too much of a reputation for producing PhDs who became deranged Batman rogues) and earn her UCLA doctorate (bc STAR Labs' infectious diseases lab is in LA for some reason, thanks fandom wiki) at the astonishing age of 24 (or 25). That leaves time for a few months of work on the Polestar program straight out of grad school and for Jason to train/be brainwashed by the League of Shadows, become Red Hood, and do a bunch of other stuff first (like form the Outlaws). I worried that Jason and MC being 27-28 or older just wouldn't jive with the story or the relative ages of other characters, like Bruce or Dick. It doesn't help that Jason is apparently canonically 19 in the Wayne Family Adventures webcomic (have you even seen him in that comic?! That man is 21 at least. No way he's under twenty years of age...or maybe I'm just a terrible judge of biological age). Thanks for putting up with my deranged rambling! This was a pretty dialogue heavy chapter, which I'm not really used to writing. That being said, I hope you enjoyed reading, until next time! x

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See You Again taglist:

@witchymomfrien

If you would like to join the taglist for this fic, @ me in the replies!

[blingblong55]

To drive or not to drive- 141

Based on a request:

can you imagine medic!reader where she's like super tiny and young like 141 was her third assignment and if anything she's like only 3 years younger than johnny but by GOD she looks like a kid. and everyone thinks she's like this poor little private O-1 who got shoved in here. and then one night she got invited with the group to go out and as they're sitting at the bar, Johnny's like...are you even old enough to be here? and shes like if im old enough to stick everyone here with vaccines, i think i can drink a fruity cocktail and everyone's like but you can't even drive and readers like i never learnt how and basically the whole team just realized that reader's age and experience does not match up. like they don't know how to drive a car but damnit they just drove a humvee to amputate a man's leg in the field??

F!Reader, Medic!Reader

As the current youngest member of Task Force 141 and the only one who isn't as tall as the men you work with, always get asked, 'How the hell did they think you'd be a great match?'. And with all honesty, you don't even know that yourself. Tonight, as part of them trying to get to know you, they invited you to have some drinks with them. To the better judgement of Laswell, you accepted.

"I tell ya, lass 'ere is such a wee 'ittle thing, I bet she can't even down a drink."

"False, I can...I'm old enough to do as I please, a matter of fact." You look at the men, and all amused you finally speak up. Soap was always the one to make the most comments on who you are, your knowledge and your age. "Yeah? 're yer sure yer can even be in'ere?"

"Yes...I may not be the strongest of the bunch or the fact I am no tall man with abs and weird veiny arms..but if I can make the decision whether or not you to inject morphine in your body is enough proof. To decide if I should ease the pain of a wound inflicted by the enemy should be enough to tell you I am not defined by my appearance." You take a sip from your drink.

Ghost is impressed by your words but will never admit that to you or anyone. Gaz never took your knowledge and the way you spoke for granted rather he licked it so much he could listen to you day after day. "Couldn't even work a car if asked.." his thick Scottish accent hinting at the defeat, he loved to mess with you because you were such an easy target for his jokes. "That is true, never cared to learn." You don't deny the fact you never learnt which only fed into Soap's jokes for the future.

The other men then understood that although you weren't as they were, tall, strong and dangerous men..you, in your own ways, medical-wise, were just like them. One thing did matter here though, your age and knowledge were so far off the other, 23-year-olds are so different from medics, with the precision enough to inflict pain if needed only to gain a soldier more time to live. You might not drive or be tall and have veiny arms that look like they'll just burst at any given moment, but you were one thing..split in two. A medic, capable of anything to save a life and a human...not afraid to tell others you didn't and haven't mastered or even dare learn to drive.

It was 2 o'clock, Soap in the med bay and you with a small smirk, satisfied he had to seek you after the injury he gave himself while walking back from the pub. Maybe if he learned to close wounds and you'd learn to drive, things would be different.

A/N: Pointless ig...but it's something I suppose.

[darkmaga-returns]

In 2016, David Ihben moved his wife and three children from Chicago to Jamestown, in rural Tennessee, with high hopes for a new and calmer life.

But the dream turned into a nightmare for David and his children in December 2019, when divorce proceedings and a subsequent custody battle resulted in the forced vaccination of the children — and changed the family’s fortunes forever.

Ihben said his ex-wife decided “this wasn’t the life she wanted.” So they were attempting to develop a parenting plan in family court — when Tennessee judge Todd Burnett “pulled up the vaccine issue” after discovering the couple’s children were unvaccinated — and forced the parents to vaccinate their children.

Ihben’s two oldest children — daughter Hannah and son Joseph — were spared significant adverse events following their vaccination.

But his youngest son, Isaac, wasn’t so fortunate. After receiving 18 vaccines in one day, Isaac developed severe regressive autism. Today, he requires around-the-clock care.

The children’s mother soon abandoned the children, leaving Ihben to raise them as a single parent — even though he is still obliged to pay child support.

Ihben shared his story with Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) Vax-Unvax bus. In a subsequent interview with The Defender, he detailed the challenges he faces in caring for Isaac and the harassment he endured from officials in his community. Ihben shared documentation with The Defender verifying his story.

‘How can a judge force medical care without a doctor’s input?’

Ihben told The Defender his entire family was unvaccinated. “I’ve never had any. My dad was drafted by the Army in 1961, and he didn’t get any either. We’ve never vaccinated,” he said. “Our children had to sign religious exemptions for school.”

During divorce proceedings though, his wife’s attorney used the vaccination issue to drive a wedge between the parents.

“When we went to court, I guess her attorney knew that [Burnett] was a pro-vaccine judge and that’s something that they could get me on,” Ihben said.

According to Ihben, Burnett told the couple that it was his “personal opinion that not vaccinating your children is child abuse.” He then told the couple that whichever parent would be willing to vaccinate the children that same day would leave the courthouse with custody.

[secretlythepits]

Welcome to the World of Clinical Trials!

It’s a veritable casino where you bet the last good days of your life to hopefully get more. The odds are stacked against you, but you might be the lucky one! You might get the miracle! You almost certainly will not… but… but… winner takes all!

Door Number 1:

A blind randomized study with a promising drug. There is a 50/50 you won’t even get it. You will have to travel a 4 hour car ride every 2 weeks to get it. Or get nothing. Hopefully cancer charities can help ameliorate the costs of travel, but probably not 100%. Logistics for getting kids to and from school will be reliant on others.

Doors Numbers 2 and 3.

Honestly, you don’t completely understand them. They seem like midline therapies. Every 3 weeks. One has some similarities to a drug that didn’t work for you. Another is opposite. Maybe? You aren’t quite sure. There are side effects. They say they are only about 10% of chemo, but who knows? Again, all these are a 4 hour drive away.

Door Number 4

A vaccine for the virus that caused your cancer. It’s different than the one available to people younger than you. This is the first human trial. It will not attack the cancer, but maybe disable this virus that serves as the engine behind the cancer. You feel great now, so stable disease is attractive. However, this study is hard to get into and you can’t get a slot until the Feb. 17. How much will your cancer grow in the meantime? It’s 2 visits 28 days apart. Just a vaccine shot and wait around 6 hours to monitor. Again, 4 hours away.

Door Number 5

Is probably locked to you. It’s a monotherapy so if you are one of the 5-8% of the population that has this protein, you can get it. Did well in European trials, adding months and sometimes a year to life. Again, 4 hours away, but probably not even an option.

There is a possibility of doing one trial and then switching to another later. In some cases. But the truth is, your cancer is aggressive and time wasted in the wrong trial might be all the time you have.

Do you bet it all and hope you get the promising drug in Door 1, knowing you might not even get it? Lately, you have not been lucky. The schedule tethers your remaining life to this treatment in another city. It might not even work. It might mean bad side effects. Is the life it could extend going to even be worth it (meaning time to really live and enjoy life, not a couple extra months spent in treatment)? But, could this be the breakthrough drug that changes everything?

Winner takes all. Loser loses all.

*****

What I have learned by reading through endless medical publications is that what a lay person considers an amazing breakthrough is very different than what an oncologist does. As a regular jane, I am not impressed by 2 extra months. I also think those months might be miserable because cancer treatments usually are. 3 months of regular life is a lot better than 5 months of being in treatment. Doctors, on the other hand, are excited by anything that moves the needle. They think globally and see those two months as progress. They see the promise it is leading to, while we just see the individual life ending.

The research doctor called us after hours to give us a rundown of the studies. It was a surprise. He sent an email with descriptions for us to look over. Our real appointment with him is a Thursday zoom, but he wanted us to be informed. I so appreciate that, because it’s a lot more complicated than we thought. So many factors to consider.

These options, to blow on the dice and take a gamble, are a blessing. I think of those who already died who never had a chance. I also know that this is the way medicine moves forward. But they are also a burden. The stakes are so high.

The house always wins.

[girlactionfigure]

🩸TERROR ATTACKS, ROCKET HITS - Real time from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO - terror ramming and attempted stabbing, from a distance.  Not gory, but yes scary. )

⚠️(Kaan 11) vigilance is being raised for the possibility of another Iranian attack.

⭕FOR THE 2nd TIME TODAY - LONG RANGE HEZBOLLAH MISSILES at TEL AVIV, setting off alerts throughout central Israel. No injuries, however large pieces of missile debris falling causing damage and demonstrating why Home Front Command says wait 10 minutes after a siren.

⭕ROCKET HIT - AVIVIM (Northern town).. multiple people injured.  IDF: 50 rockets in the barrage.

⭕IDF - 150 rockets fired by HEZBOLLAH at Israeli civilians today.  1 killed, multiple injuries.

⭕HAMAS FIRES A ROCKET at Kissufim.  Intercepted.

▪️CIVILIAN FOUND DEAD IN Kfar Masaryk (Acre area, north) - in this vehicle, hit by SHRAPNEL FROM HEZBOLLAH ROCKETS.

▪️TERROR - RAMMING & ATTEMPTED STABBING - SHILOH INTERSECTION.. terror ramming of a 15 year old boy at a bus stop, followed by the terrorist exiting his vehicle and chasing a 26 year old woman to stab.  Civilian in another car exits, runs over and shoots the terrorist - saving the person being chased.  2 lightly injured.

▪️TERROR - DRIVE BY SHOOTING - JORDAN VALLEY..  An Arab terrorist shot at a vehicle and wounded two peace activists working the area.

▪️PETTY WAR POLITICS.. Yesh Atid's announces a decision to vote against the law to deport families of terrorists, because it is from the coalition.

▪️PM NETANYAHU SPOKE WITH PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP for 20 minutes, congratulating him. The conversation was warm and cordial. The Prime Minister congratulated Trump on his election victory, and the two agreed to work together for Israel's security. The two also discussed the Iranian threat.

▪️FOOD RECALL - SAN BENDETTO beverages.  Return or call company for refund.  Strange odor.  Avoid consuming.

▪️GAZA POLIO VAX CAMPAIGN COMPLETED.. (COGAT) completed with 2 rounds, hundreds of thousands of children vaccinated, hundreds of medical teams, and tactical pauses implemented with WHO and UNICEF.  93% under 10 vaxxed.

🔹NEW HEZBOLLAH LEADER SPEAKS.. pre-recorded to avoid being found.  “Hezbollah will fight because they have the will power to continue fighting, there is no political solution unless Israel surrenders, unless offered a political solution. Lebanese sovereignty must be maintained.”  Bizarre.

♦️LEBANON - IDF airstrikes in Danish, Beirut this evening.  Over 10 attacks.

♦️LEBANON - IDF airstrikes in Baalbek, northern Lebanon - with significant reports of deaths.

♦️LEBANON - IDF destroys (again) the Jarmash crossing from Syria - Lebanon in northeast Lebanon.

♦️LEBANON - Meiss al-jabal Municipality in southern Lebanon: The IDF has rigged the hospital in Meiss al-Jabal with explosives for demolition, declaring it in use as a Hezbollah military site.

♦️IDF CHIEF - “we must continue formulating plans for ongoing combat in Lebanon, including expanding and deepening IDF operations in Lebanon. We will implement these plans as needed.”

▪️COMMENTARY ON X - “Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching a salvo of advanced missiles at the Tzrifin Israeli military base, near Ben Gurion Airport (hitting the airport).” - - So to be clear, you are pointing out Hezbollah intentionally fired at and hit a CIVILIAN airport in active operation - an obvious blatant war crime.   To be "proportional", are you ok with the IDF bombing the Rafik Hariri international airport in Beirut while planes are landing?

.. RELATED: Head of Beirut airport- Rumors of the airport being evacuated are fake news.

[goodnightbirdy]

Sticky Lungs - Chapter 2

apologies in advance, this chapter isn't nearly as poetic as the first, Meeks is going through it.

Chapter 1

"Meeks felt like he was placed right back in Welton but ten times worse. Instead of pudgy, old Mr McCalister shouting at you to slow down, there was a mountain of a man screaming at everyone to hurry it up. Instead of a glancing room check from Dr Hager, there was an intensive inspection of each corner of his bed, ensuring the sheet was flat and taught. Instead of Hellton Hash there was something much more sinister and grey that Meeks couldn't identify and honestly, didn't wish too."

TAGS: Steven Meeks, Meeks-Centric, Angst, Post-Canon, Vietnam War, other poets mentioned

disclaimer/minor spoiler for chapter 2 in Purple

In this fic Steven Meeks was drafted. I am aware that he was too old to be drafted in canon, if you'll notice in the first chapter i said ‘Men born between 1942 and 1950 were placed in the draft lottery’ these dates are incorrect. The oldest men ever drafted were born in 44 (25 years old)  HOWEVER, this is fanfiction and i reserve the right to do whatever the fuck i want so i changed the dates. Yeah, meeks is drafted at 27, who cares. 

In this fic Steven Meeks is placed in the infantry, he also has an engineering degree. These things coexist. Men who enlisted voluntarily got to choose their assignment, in MY fic Meeks did not enlist. So even with his engineering degree, he's gonna end up with the 82% of men drafted that ended up in the infantry.

Lastly, I don't really care about the realism of this fic. I'm here to emotionally destroy a ginger from the 1950s, not write the most accurate vietnam war fic ever. Don't question anything that closely, I beg.

TLDR; My fic doesn't fit with the real world timeline of the vietnam war, meeks was an engineer, now he's an infantryman, pls dont examine this fic for real world accuracy, i'll cry.

Chapter 2 - Basic

Once you land you immediately start basic training, your head is shaved, and your ass is shot full of vaccines. You're issued a uniform that feels like sandpaper and given a bunk number to report too immediately. 

Meeks felt like he was placed right back in Welton but ten times worse. Instead of pudgy, old Mr McCalister shouting at you to slow down, there was a mountain of a man screaming at everyone to hurry it up. Instead of a glancing room check from Dr Hager, there was an intensive inspection of each corner of his bed, ensuring the sheet was flat and taught. Instead of Hellton Hash there was something much more sinister and grey that Meeks couldn't identify and honestly, didn't wish too. 

The running was the worst of it. There were other elements of the physical training that were awful but the running was its own special form of torture. Running before breakfast, running after breakfast, running after the firing range, running before hand-to-hand, running before lunch, running after lunch, running before dinner, and running after. 

It wasn't as if he was out of shape. He had stayed fairly fit after his lifetime of soccer and rowing. He still ran, he worked out on occasion, only it felt as though it had a purpose in his life before The Letter. Now he ran to nowhere. He ran in circles, oblongs, and figure-eights. He was screamed at to run and run hard, all for the sake of running. Meeks suddenly understood why they shaved his head, because he would have surely ripped his hair out by now if they hadn't. 

It all felt useless, like learning Latin. Skills he needed to learn were being tossed at him with such speed that he was only half catching them with the tips of his fingers. They were kept on such a tight schedule that he barely had time to take a deep breath, let alone think at any particular length. It was driving him insane.

He was packed in with 120 other men between the ages of 17 and 28, some conscripted, some enlisted voluntarily. Why anyone would voluntarily choose this was lost on him. The attitudes towards the situation were varied to say the least. Quite a few loudly hated that they were here, if they had any other option they would have tried to get deferment, but most seemed to be deeply neutral on the situation, this was simply the way things went. The final camp was mostly made of men who volunteered for service, they were a loud and enthusiastic group. They seemed happy to serve their country or die trying, it wasn't a sentiment that Meeks could fully comprehend, though he was trying. 

There was a kid, George, barely 18, enlisted, and slept one bed over. He reminded Meeks of Charlie. Overzealous, easily excitable, loud. But he was different in the sense that he seemed unable to tone it back in inappropriate moments. He laughed when they crawled through mud, he grinned when handed a rifle, and he complained endlessly about the hard beds and awful food. 

Meeks apparently didn't have the same patience for him as he once did for Charlie. He dreamed of grabbing the kid and shaking him, screaming in his face “Do you understand why we’re here? Do you understand that you might die? Do you understand!?” 

Meeks was rapidly approaching a breaking point when the kid moaned for what must have been the millionth time about the hard cots they slept on. Something in him snapped. 

“Jesus. Do you ever quit?” Meeks sniped. He instantly regretted the words as the group of men around them quieted to hear. 

“Huh?” George stared at him, slack jawed. 

Meeks sighed (sticky lungs) “I said, do you ever quit? Complaining?” He raised a brow at the kid.

“I was just, you know, talking. Filling the silence.”

“Can you fill the silence with something else? Something that you haven't incessantly complained about for weeks? Please?” The words tumbled from his lips without the filter he once had, having lost it sometime in the last week Meeks supposed. It occurred to him that he would never have been that short with Charlie. Something in him was hardening, something he didn't appreciate. 

The kid just stared at him for a moment. “...sorry man.”

“Meeks,” the kid wasn't Charlie. The kid was George, and something about him annoyed Meeks to no end.

“What?” 

“Meeks. It's my name, not ‘man,’ Meeks.”

His tongue felt sharp, more cutting than he had ever been. He didn't know what was happening to the man he was before The Letter, maybe the sandpaper uniforms were wearing him away. He wanted to go home.

“Oh uh, sorry.. Meeks” 

Meeks didn't respond, only nodded and went back to his food that tasted like nothing. The conversation around them picked back up, someone began talking about their wife back home, and Meeks tuned it out. 

%%%%%

Meeks’ glasses were scratched.

He had always tried to be careful with his glasses since another boy crushed them on accident during a soccer game in middle school. He had taken the pieces of crushed glass and plastic to his father, who sighed and muttered about how much replacements would cost. He had been blind for some time and had to sit in the very front of class while he waited for the new pair. 

But now his glasses were scratched. 27 years old and he couldn't maintain a pair of glasses. He supposed it wasn't entirely his fault. He had been dragged through the mud, both metaphorically and literally, these past 8 weeks, but it was still annoying. The scratch was directly in the middle of the lens and impossible not to look at. It was like looking through a window with a crack in the corner, not really that big a deal, but it draws the eye regardless. 

He took them off and looked through them at the light in the dining hall. George stared at him as he did. Despite Meeks’ small snap at him a couple of weeks ago the kid had begun to cling to him like a shadow.

“What are you doing?” the kid asked.

“My glasses are scratched.” Meeks said simply, tilting the lenses so that George could peer through them. 

George squinted at the glasses, “if it bothers you, why do you still wear them?” the kid asked dumbly. 

“I can’t see George. I can't just not wear them.” Meeks made an effort not to refer to George as ‘kid’ out loud. He had thrown a fit over being called ‘man,’ the best he could do was call the kid  by his name. 

“Oh.” The kid did that a lot. ‘Huh’ and ‘oh’ fell from his lips like water. The more time went on, the less he reminded Meeks of Charlie. Charlie was smart as a whip, and quick with a comeback. Charlie rarely had so little to say that ‘oh’ tumbled from him. 

Silence grew between them as Meeks placed his glasses back on. The group next to them was playing cards and someone heaved a deep sigh as they stared at their presumably shit hand.

“Sticky lungs.” Meeks muttered to himself.

“Huh?” 

Frustration lanced through Meeks and he turned to George, “Sticky Lungs,” he dead panned.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It's why people sigh. Because the little air sacs in your lungs stick to themselves, people involuntarily take a deep breath and it forces them open again. It maintains proper lung function.” Meeks explained flatly. 

He had learned about sticky lungs in highschool and he had only ever told three people about it. Pitts, who he told endless fun facts too, his mother, in a moment of silence at the breakfast table, and Neil, who had once wondered aloud about how to tell the difference between a sigh of contentment and frustration. He didn't know why he explained it to the kid, he was probably just going to say ‘oh’ anyway.

“Oh.”

Meeks nearly scoffed at the predictability of the arguably dim boy. He was eighteen, hopefully he would grow up out of it. Hopefully he would grow up at all. 

%%%%%

Basic training ended and they were being separated based on aptitude for certain things. Meeks had a feeling, despite his education, he wouldn't be chosen for anything that required great precision due to his eyesight. He had a bachelors in engineering, but that didn't mean much to the army when you couldn't see 15 feet in front of you without a coke bottle of glass in front of you. 

They were lined up and their names were called with whatever your destiny was following.

“John Richards: Infantry. Michael Fisher: Artillery.” Steven was next. He honestly didn't know what he was hoping for, but before that he even had time to process that thought his name was being called.

“Steven Meeks: Infantry.”

Images of the front lines flashing in his mind. Moments of horror caught on film and broadcasted to the world. Meeks swallowed as he realized, they were no longer going to be moments of distant pain caught in a photograph a world away from him, it would be real. Tangible. Reality. 

He felt panic rising in him, his world dropping out beneath him. He hadn't felt such a sinking dread in his gut since Neil. George suddenly bumped his shoulder.

“Infantry Meeks! Maybe we’ll be stationed together.” The kid was almost giddy. It unnerved him. 

“Maybe,” Meeks replied numbly. He was trying hard not to outwardly panic. He wished he knew anyone here, for just a second he prayed to suddenly see one of the poets. He hoped he had missed them all these weeks and suddenly they would appear before him. It wouldn't be so miserable if he had someone to talk to. Someone he knew, someone who cared, someone who was possibly as scared as him. 

Meeks sighed, “Sticky lungs,” he muttered to himself.

[partisan-by-default]

“With this shuttering came the end of a vital lifeline for millions of people around the world. Children were turned away as they waited in line for tuberculosis vaccines. HIV-positive people suddenly lost access to the daily treatment they need to stay alive. Emergency food aid, already paid for by American taxpayers and shipped to ports around the world, sat undelivered and rotting while its intended recipients went without meals. For just one penny of every dollar in the Federal budget, USAID saved lives. Overnight, those lifelines were extinguished.

Many may ask why this work is important, aside from just being the nice thing to do. Why should we provide food to children in Sudan, when we are having trouble feeding our own children here at home? Why should we provide healthcare to people in other countries, when healthcare is so hard to acquire in the United States? In the end, why should we spend this money on others, when we could spend it on ourselves?

These are valid questions — and they are questions with answers.

First, national security. The safety and security of every single American relies not only on reactive defense, which comes from the Department of Defense; nor only on responsive diplomacy, which comes from the State Department. It relies, too, on proactive care, which until February of this year came primarily from USAID. For example, when we predict and respond to famines, we proactively prevent instability from spreading beyond those borders to our own shores. When we spray for malaria and respond to disease outbreaks like Ebola, we stop those diseases from becoming pandemics that threaten the lives of Americans, too. And when we help other countries build and maintain their democracies, we invest in our own safety: One of the first rules political science students learn is that democracies do not go to war with each other.

Second, when people think of USAID, they think of what it does around the world. But they rarely think of what it does here at home. The truth is that USAID’s development work directly supports the American economy. When active, USAID sourced 41 percent of its humanitarian food aid from American farmers, worth some $2 billion annually. It invested some $1 billion in American small businesses. In fact, the loss of USAID means that U.S. states will lose an estimated $3.34 billion in direct economic benefit. And since 11 of America’s top trade partners were once recipients of USAID, we can anticipate that we will lose billions in future trade revenue, too.

Lastly, the closure of USAID represents what has been described as an extinction-level event for an entire profession that specializes in addressing global economic and health challenges. An estimated 52,000 Americans have lost or will lose their jobs and will have to find employment in other fields — representing an irreplaceable loss for them, and for the world. Most of us were terminated without prior notice, without severance, and without basic access to our files to pull the materials needed to apply for other jobs, like writing samples. We find ourselves in the wholly unexpected position of applying to drive Ubers, bag groceries, or tend bars to make ends meet.

It is important to note that USAID always maintained a significant eye to fraud, waste, and abuse. It is one of the most heavily earmarked agencies in the government, meaning that Congress has to approve more than 90 percent of its funding for very specific projects — often years ahead of time. USAID reports to its own, separate Office of the Inspector General. And just last year, the Agency successfully passed several audits from multiple independent organizations. Given this, it can be confidently said that many of the claims of “wasteful programming” — from rumors that USAID “sent condoms to Gaza,” funded “transgender operas” in Colombia, or personally paid for Chelsea Clinton’s lavish lifestyle — are demonstrably incorrect. This kind of misinformation and, in some cases, disinformation, further threatens not only the Agency’s reputation but also the safety of its workers around the world.

So the closure of USAID — in just two short, unfathomable, and painful weeks — was shortsighted, both for national security and for the prosperity of our nation.”

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

Hey! Look! A great breakdown of that thing I'm always talking about being a big yet entirely-overlooked deal by 90% of medical professionals in regards to this particular virus!

SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, is not done with us. Over the past four years, it has shown a remarkable ability to adapt, with each new variant outmaneuvering our immune systems in unique ways. The recently published study on the XEC variant (November 22, 2024) provides fresh insights into how this virus is evolving. (1) Combining this with the broader history of immune evasion, we see a troubling pattern: the virus continues to find ways to evade the immune system and in many cases, persist, potentially leaving lasting impacts on our health even for those who experience only mild or asymptomatic infections.

What the Study Found: XEC’s Immune Escape Arsenal The latest study revealed that the XEC variant—an offspring of two previous variants, KS.1.1 and KP.3.3—has developed mechanisms that make it harder for our immune systems to neutralize it. Here’s how it works:

1. Glycosylation Mutations in the N-terminal Domain (NTD):

The XEC variant introduces new glycosylation sites, such as the T22N mutation, which act like a cloak, hiding key parts of the virus from antibodies.

These sugar molecules shield the receptor-binding domain (RBD), a crucial target for vaccines and natural immunity, making it harder for antibodies to bind and neutralize the virus.

2. Allosteric Effects:

Mutations in the NTD don’t just shield the virus—they also alter the behavior of the RBD through a process called allostery. These changes can make the RBD less accessible or alter how it interacts with human cells, further reducing the effectiveness of antibodies.

3. Potential Impact on Membrane Fusion:

The study hints that these mutations may also enhance how efficiently the virus fuses with human cells, potentially increasing its infectivity.

Immune Evasion: A Constant Tug-of-War The ability of SARS-CoV-2 to adapt is not new. Looking back at the history of immune evasion, we see a pattern:

The Early Days: Mutations like D614G made the virus more infectious.

Alpha and Beta Variants: N501Y and E484K mutations increased binding to human cells and evasion of neutralizing antibodies.

Omicron Era: A flurry of spike protein mutations allowed the virus to reinfect people with previous immunity and bypass vaccine-induced protection.

XEC is the next chapter in this story, combining these strategies with new tricks like glycosylation and allosteric modulation to stay ahead of human defenses.

Why This Matters: Beyond Infections Understanding immune evasion isn’t just about tracking infections—it’s about long-term health impacts. Here’s why this evolution is particularly concerning:

1. The Shadow of Long COVID:

Millions of people suffer from Long COVID, characterized by fatigue, brain fog, heart palpitations, and muscle pain. The virus’s ability to persist and evade the immune system might explain why symptoms linger for months or years in some individuals.

Chronic immune activation or hidden reservoirs of the virus could drive these long-term effects.

2. Asymptomatic but Chronic Damage:

Even in people without noticeable symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to cause subtle, potentially long-term damage to:

Vascular systems: Leading to inflammation and microclot formation.

Neurological function: Disrupting brain activity and potentially accelerating neurodegenerative conditions. Early onset dementia

Musculoskeletal health: Causing unexplained weakness or pain.

Cognitive performance: Contributing to memory issues and reduced mental clarity. Are you or someone you know having more trouble finding words to use or losing things more often?

3. Vaccines Alone Aren’t Enough:

While vaccines remain essential, their effectiveness is limited by the virus’s rapid evolution. Variants like XEC show how SARS-CoV-2 can sidestep even the most advanced immune defenses, highlighting the need for next-generation vaccines targeting broader parts of the virus. We have know this for a long time now so where are the broader targeting vaccines?

The Future of SARS-CoV-2 Evolution The virus has already demonstrated its ability to adapt to our immune responses in multiple ways, and there’s no reason to believe it will stop. Here are some possibilities for future adaptation:

Further Refinement of Glycosylation: Adding or modifying sugar molecules could make the virus even more difficult to detect.

Enhanced Membrane Fusion: Mutations that improve how the virus merges with human cells could increase its infectivity.

Host Adaptation: Over time, the virus could become better at hiding within human cells, evading both natural immunity and therapeutic interventions.

Increased Chronicity: The virus might evolve to persist at low levels in the body, leading to ongoing inflammation and long-term health consequences.

What We Can Do: Adapting to the Virus’s Adaptations The XEC variant and others like it remind us that SARS-CoV-2 is still a formidable opponent. Here’s what we can do:

1. Invest in Better Vaccines:

Universal or pan-coronavirus vaccines that target conserved regions of the virus are critical.

2. Improve Diagnostics:

Detecting chronic or asymptomatic infections early could help mitigate long-term health effects.

3. Focus on Treatment:

Antiviral drugs that target different parts of the virus, combined with treatments for inflammation and immune dysregulation, could help reduce the impact of Long COVID.

4. Stay Vigilant:

For individuals, maintaining basic preventive measures during high transmission periods can significantly reduce risks.

Conclusion: Learning from the Virus SARS-CoV-2 is teaching us a harsh lesson about evolution. Its ability to adapt and evade our defenses, from antibodies to T-cells, shows no sign of slowing down. Variants like XEC underscore the importance of continued research, innovation, and public health vigilance. By understanding the virus’s strategies and preparing for its next moves, we can better protect ourselves—not just from acute infections but from the long-term consequences.

Reference:

Enhanced immune evasion of SARS-CoV-2 variants KP.3.1.1 and XEC through N-terminal domain mutations (November 22, 2024)

www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2824%2900738-2/fulltext