#after coronavirus

[madamephantom]

Permabanned from r/coronavirus for mentioning a chronic condition related to Long Covid 🙄

[ocdhuacheng]

I’m sorry what

[sailoreuterpe]

I'm so tired of being sick. No one but me wears a mask at work, I literally have customers come in and fucking joke about being sick, this fucking country doesn't have any safety net for people who get sick (no paid time off, no universal healthcare). I hate it here.

[crimeronan]

i finally did it. after three years. i finally caught the rona.

[artemisiatridentata]

whenever I post about covid on my instagram stories I wonder what goes through the minds of everyone who watches them, all the people I know who no longer mask or take any precautions (and haven't since early 2022, at the latest). do they think I'm crazy? or do they know what I'm saying is true, but it's easier for them to ignore it and keep partying themselves into an early grave? did they think I'd have given up on this by now and gone back to ~normal~ myself? Are they surprised and annoyed that I keep on talking about the ongoing pandemic? much to think about

[queerforscience]

Today on "being a giant epidemiology nerd," I was trying to think of something related to sniffing to name my Sniffers, so I named them after flu subtypes.

PSA: if you're in the Northern hemisphere, get your flu shot soon! If you're in the US, you can get it along with your updated COVID booster. I am not sure about the COVID booster approvals in other countries, but it may be similar! If you're over 60 or pregnant, also talk to your doctor about the new RSV vaccines!

[shadowvalkyrie]

On the plus side, I got to cancel all my weekend plans guilt free and am now chilling with tea, chocolate and fanfic after a meditative morning of garden work.

The downside is that this is because I'm quarantining, seeing as my boss yesterday confirmed that she is indeed sick with Covid after spending all of Thursday sneezing and coughing in my direction instead of keeping her feverish ass in bed at home.

(Seriously, what is it with old people and their martyr complex. You are not doing anyone any favours! You should be in bed for your own health, and we can spare you just fine at the office. Not to mention that I'll MUCH rather spend a week doing twice the work than getting sick. And if you absolutely have to feel indispensable? WORK THE FUCK FROM HOME.)

So glad I got my booster shot despite everyone pretending this pandemic is over. 🙃

[kiiingsnake]

in this weird existential state where i am reblogging absolute bullshit in an attempt to cope with having the worst day of my life so far

[drev-the-procrastinator]

ohhhhhhhhhh so the flu sucked much more than usual because the flu was actually covid, i seeee

[iliveinprocrasti-nationn]

one of the things coming out of some covid studies is that covid could lead to a weakened immune system after infection and considering that there has not been one point all year where people around me haven’t been horrendously sick i think those studies could be completely right

[thebusylilbee]

oh btw I caught covid 6 weeks ago and it's only NOW that I've finally stopped coughing, like literally just this week

[jabronibaloney]

Many died directly from covid. Many had their addictions get worse, and died from that. Suicide definitely took a big chunk of us. Car wrecks have gone up as people's problems with alcohol and drugs have worsened. Long covid has killed many, or left them unable to work. Some were murdered at work for telling people to wear a mask. Homelessness is fucking skyrocketing, and it's hard to stay employed that way. Some have been deported. America still has the most people incarcerated, some are there. Some are immunocompromised and CAN'T go out amongst all the people who are fine with them dying. But don't worry, America, I'm sure they'll join the suicide category quickly enough. Maybe not as quickly as you'd like them to, though. (Even the left no longer cares about them, but will still emptily yammer on about solidarity, and the need for better health care, yadda, yadda, yadda) And then there's STILL the constant mass shootings.

Beyond those tragedies, some have retired. Some were able to make a living via sex work, or other forms of self employment. Some moved the hell out of America, because, holy shit, why wouldn't you?

But hey, "the pandemic is over", right?! No, we're just gonna keep letting the bodies pile up, and these problems keep getting worse because people can't stand the smell of their own breath inside a mask. Mouthwash exists! (And some still haven't figured out how masks properly work yet. Hint: the nostrils are connected to the lungs too, not just the mouth)

We're gonna keep letting all these things become more exacerbated because this is the stupidest & cruelest country in the galaxy.

[thoughtportal]

Opinion Here’s how to get free Paxlovid as many times as you need it

When the public health emergency around covid-19 ended, vaccines and treatments became commercial products, meaning companies could charge for them as they do other pharmaceuticals. Paxlovid, the highly effective antiviral pill that can prevent covid from becoming severe, now has a list price of nearly $1,400 for a five-day treatment course.

Thanks to an innovative agreement between the Biden administration and the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer, Americans can still access the medication free or at very low cost through a program called Paxcess. The problem is that too few people — including pharmacists — are aware of it.

I learned of Paxcess only after readers wrote that pharmacies were charging them hundreds of dollars — or even the full list price — to fill their Paxlovid prescription. This shouldn’t be happening. A representative from Pfizer, which runs the program, explained to me that patients on Medicare and Medicaid or who are uninsured should get free Paxlovid. They need to sign up by going to paxlovid.iassist.com or by calling 877-219-7225. “We wanted to make enrollment as easy and as quick as possible,” the representative said.

Indeed, the process is straightforward. I clicked through the web form myself, and there are only three sets of information required. Patients first enter their name, date of birth and address. They then input their prescriber’s name and address and select their insurance type.

All this should take less than five minutes and can be done at home or at the pharmacy. A physician or pharmacist can fill it out on behalf of the patient, too. Importantly, this form does not ask for medical history, proof of a positive coronavirus test, income verification, citizenship status or other potentially sensitive and time-consuming information.

But there is one key requirement people need to be aware of: Patients must have a prescription for Paxlovid to start the enrollment process. It is not possible to pre-enroll. (Though, in a sense, people on Medicare or Medicaid are already pre-enrolled.)

Once the questionnaire is complete, the website generates a voucher within seconds. People can print it or email it themselves, and then they can exchange it for a free course of Paxlovid at most pharmacies.

Pfizer’s representative tells me that more than 57,000 pharmacies are contracted to participate in this program, including major chain drugstores such as CVS and Walgreens and large retail chains such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco. For those unable to go in person, a mail-order option is available, too.

The program works a little differently for patients with commercial insurance. Some insurance plans already cover Paxlovid without a co-pay. Anyone who is told there will be a charge should sign up for Paxcess, which would further bring down their co-pay and might even cover the entire cost.

Several readers have attested that Paxcess’s process was fast and seamless. I was also glad to learn that there is basically no limit to the number of times someone could use it. A person who contracts the coronavirus three times in a year could access Paxlovid free or at low cost each time.

Unfortunately, readers informed me of one major glitch: Though the Paxcess voucher is honored when presented, some pharmacies are not offering the program proactively. As a result, many patients are still being charged high co-pays even if they could have gotten the medication at no cost.

This is incredibly frustrating. However, after interviewing multiple people involved in the process, including representatives of major pharmacy chains and Biden administration officials, I believe everyone is sincere in trying to make things right. As we saw in the early days of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, it’s hard to get a new program off the ground. Policies that look good on paper run into multiple barriers during implementation.

Those involved are actively identifying and addressing these problems. For instance, a Walgreens representative explained to me that in addition to educating pharmacists and pharmacy techs about the program, the company learned it also had to make system changes to account for a different workflow. Normally, when pharmacists process a prescription, they inform patients of the co-pay and dispense the medication. But with Paxlovid, the system needs to stop them if there is a co-pay, so they can prompt patients to sign up for Paxcess.

Here is where patients and consumers must take a proactive role. That might not feel fair; after all, if someone is ill, people expect that the system will work to help them. But that’s not our reality. While pharmacies work to fix their system glitches, patients need to be their own best advocates. That means signing up for Paxcess as soon as they receive a Paxlovid prescription and helping spread the word so that others can get the antiviral at little or no cost, too.

{source}

[asjjohnson]

I was numbly scrolling through job listings and happened across the kindest-sounding job page I've ever seen. Saying there was no requirements at all (besides being happy or something), that they'll walk you through everything and train you. And that they're happy to hire anyone, no matter how young or old, whether it's your first job or you want a little extra money on the side or you're retired and want something to do.

The feel of the wording was like, "Aww poor baby—here, have a blanket and a hot chocolate and I'll make everything better." While the job listings I usually see are like, "Working nights, weekends, and holidays are required. And if you don't know these five obscure things by heart and have eight years of experience, don't even bother applying."

And the place is close enough that I should be able to get there easily on rollerblades (if I can finally get use to the pair I bought awhile ago).

...But then I'd mentioned to my dad that I might apply for a job, and he reminded me that I hadn't wanted to be tied up during the day of the eclipse, and suggested I wait to see if it's still available after that.

...And then I checked my desk calendar and saw several other days I need to be free for scattered throughout the next two months.

...I'm beginning to think I'm just not cut out for working.