#asymptomatic / close contact i think

[kuiinncedes]

I saw your recent post while scrolling through a midterm exam tag. If it makes you feel better, I still wear a mask and pay attention to COVID info, transmission rates, etc. There are people, like you, who still care about COVID. To be quite honest with you, I appreciate people who still care. That caring helps protect others from getting COVID, especially people at high-risk. I hope your midterms go well. I am currently drowning in midterms, so I get how you feel.

If it's possible, I kindly recommend getting tested and informing your college to see what to do. If you do go to your midterm, it would probably be best to wear a mask to prevent others from getting sick. I hope your week gets better!!!

yes !! sorry this was in my ask box for a bit lol ty this very nice :))

i did end up going to the midterm masked and tested negative after when i actually had a chance to go get a rapid test lmao TT my week got a lot better after that midterm lmfao

i hope your midterms go well !!!

and anyone who's reading this in the depths of midterms you got thisssss

[postoctobrist]

Where should I be wearing masks? Frankly, putting them on feels insane and pointless now, and I’ve gotten pretty fucking close to believing that it IS, so I’ve tried to mitigate that by doing a bunch of weird rules lawyering around when and where I put it on

Oh man okay I’m going to get yelled at for this. So there’s this balance between minimising risk to yourself and others, and being able to live a live you enjoy and which doesn’t make you feel insane. The safest way to live is completely indoors away from everyone, but very few people like doing that unless they have to. We couldn’t stay locked down forever because it was an unsustainable change. Masks are very effective but people do not like wearing them or even seeing other people wearing them, really. Shit, I mean we can barely get people to wash their hands and that’s one of the most effective and least annoying public health interventions there is. So you can wear an N95 everywhere but I don’t think you’re going to succeed at normalising it, and people are going to stare at you etc.

Also, the risk side of the equation has changed (some people are very reluctant to acknowledge this!). Not for everyone, certainly, but covid is just endemic now, vaccinations have been very very effective, and we’re kind of back to playing the same dumb luck game we agree to play with every other transmissible illness. Is that great? Not really, but there’s only so much you can make people, including yourself, do. It also means that the consequences of transmission are, while still potentially very bad, materially not the same as the ‘freezer truck stacked full of dead bodies’ days of covid.

I think the most important situation to wear a mask in is if you know you’re ill or have just recently been ill. That does miss the bit where you’re most contagious, because you’re asymptomatic, but like I say, imperfect world. Anyway, if you have to go out and you’re coughing and sneezing all the time it’s worthwhile.

Also if you know you’re going to be in a situation where you know you’re going to be in close contact with more vulnerable people - hospital, care home - or it’s really crowded or has more recirculated air - subway, plane, etc.

And of course you should always wear one to a protest, to minimise covid transmission. Covid also hates it when you wear unremarkable clothing and cover any distinctive tattoos.

The main thing I want to get across is that it’s not the end of the world if you don’t wear a mask somewhere, whether you get sick or someone else gets sick or nobody does. One of the worst social phenomena to come out of the pandemic was this idea that blame is an effective public health tool. I simply don’t believe in morality at that scale and I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault that there happen to be weird microscopic copy machines floating around waiting to unthinkingly copy themselves all over the insides of someone’s lungs. It’s a good thing to wear a mask when you can, but it doesn’t make you a good person, or a bad one if you don’t.

You do have to keep washing your hands, though, I’m not giving up on that one.

[inbabylontheywept]

Want Better Things

“You thought that was a bioweapon?” 

The translator broke down for a second as the creature did a sort of broken exhale. Connotations were all that came through. Vague implications. Pity, the software flashed. Disgust. Anger.

A pause as it decided.  

Sadism. 

Valta was already backing away. The final decision didn’t change his behavior, it just made the hall feel far, far too short. 

“I didn’t order it deployed. I didn’t make it.” 

The thing was staring at him, and he couldn’t look away. The two eyes moved in such perfect tandem that he didn’t think it was conscious. It only had binocular vision because it only needed binocular vision. Always the predator, never the prey. 

And now it was moving in on him. 

“Oh, but what if you had? Then I could tell you all the things that were wrong with it.” 

One of its hands - a sprawling, five fingered  spindly thing - traced carelessly along the station's walls. 

“No incubation period. Symptoms arrive within 40 minutes of exposure. No time to spread undetected. Minimum should be one week. Embarrassingly low.” 

The pressure the thing was putting on the wall increased, the gentle glide turning into a buzzing scratch. Humans were strong, but not strong enough to cut through metal like this. The suit had to be powered and clawed. 

“Spread through contact. Limited waterborne. No airborne. Intended mechanism of infection is viral load being put on hands from scratching, and then passed into the environment. Pathetically inefficient.” 

The translator was working, but the thing was overeunounciating each word. The meaning was being passed along by a clean, helpful voice in his suit, even as the sound was being passed on through the environmental speakers. And the sound was dreadful - clicks of ceramized bone jarring against each other, wet muscles modulating air into something sharp and rasping. 

“Mechanism of death? Lysis overload. Could be dangerous if it was transmitted into the lungs, but since the initial load tends to be dermal all we wind up with-”

It took its helmet off. 

It took its helmet off. 

It took its helmet off it took its helmet off it took its helmet off in a biozone it - 

It looked a little pink, actually. A little scratchy. It lifted a delicate, taloned hand and rubbed its face against it for a moment before finishing. 

“-is a rash.”

Valta’s prey drive had glued him to the spot. It was too close. The stupid, stupid part of his brain that still thought he was grazing on Duranga hoped that if he stood still long enough, it might not notice him. 

The human paused a moment before continuing. 

“Do you know why they sent me? Alphonse Ericsen, PhD, MD, civilian doctor, here to speak with you?”

Valta’s snout twitched. The suit translated the gesture for him. 

“No.” 

“Because one of our grunts is a dumb fuck,” the human said simply. “And he spent two days fighting on your station with his helmet off. He got infected that way and brought back your stupid, itchy plague to our carrier ship, and now we’ve all spent the last 8 hours scratching ourselves raw. But the jokes on you, because when we were treating that guy you know what we found? That he was in the asymptomatic phase of a COVID infection. So if this-”

It gestured to its pink face with a snarl. 

“-is your idea of a bioweapon, then COVID is going to be your apocalypse. But if you work with me, and shut everything the fuck down for the next three or four months, I might be able to save most of you.” 

Valta unstuck at that. He’d spent weeks down here, worrying about nothing more than the next skirmish. Now he was looking at a genuine existential threat. 

“...What? Why would you help us? We wanted you to die. All of you. I wanted-”

The human cut him off with an exasperated wave of his hand. 

“You wanted something stupid. Doesn’t mean I have to join you. Best I can do to fix you is keep you alive and hope that you feel ashamed later. That, I genuinely look forward to. Now come on, you’re going to be the one explaining to all your friends what’s at stake here. My bedside manner is so bad that they limited my patients to virology slides and USMC marines. I think that’s actually one rung below the guys that just dissect cadavers.” 

Valta would’ve made an amused hum at that, but something already felt scratchy inside his throat. 

[bagelboys-withcreamcheese]

Just saw a theory from a doctor who played rdr2 who said it was much more likely Arthur got TB from Hosea and I think I need to sit down

They mentioned that Tuberculosis is usually contracted during prolonged close contact with another infected individual, and that it’s an illness that commonly affects people differently. Affected people could be completely asymptomatic or the symptoms could occur or progress once the affected person’s immune system is weakened. (ex. AIDS, another comorbid disease, or extreme stress [Arthur worsens significantly after guarma])

Thomas Downes DID have Tuberculosis and he did spit blood into Arthur’s face which is an obvious source of infection and could be THE source of infection. BUT Tuberculosis doesn’t seem to spread through one exposure unlike the common cold or COVID. Not only this, but Tuberculosis progresses very very slowly because “the bacterium that causes it divides very very slowly.” Its extremely unlikely for a healthy individual to die of Tuberculosis within a year of contraction (unless they have AIDS or are undergoing chemotherapy.)

Not only all this but blood isn’t an efficient way for tuberculosis to spread, instead it typically spreads through airborne particles/droplets.

In summary, Hosea’s illness could’ve been early stages of tuberculosis, and Arthur could’ve contracted it.

[artemis-pendragon]

Okay so I have this weird thing where I fully support the wearing of masks and community care and everything on a moral level but there’s this part of me that’s like, afraid of it? Like, in this hypothetical world where everyone did the right thing and masked all the time, would it then become taboo to see someone’s face? It’s not masking itself I hate but I do hate the idea of never smiling at someone again. I know this sounds stupid but its an existential dread I have. Also, if big gatherings and dining out is bad, how will we have fun? I love comeradery and the energy of other people and I don’t want to not have that in the future. Do you think there will ever be a permanent covid cure and even a permanent cold cure so we don’t have to do it anymore and everyone’s still safe? What about effective transparent masks? Will we ever see those? If there were transparent masks I probably wouldn’t be so scared…

This is a totally rational and normal fear in my opinion!! We're social creatures that heavily rely on body language for communication despite advanced linguistic ability, and the thought of not having access to half of a person's face while interacting is intimidating and sad for sure!

Masking, for me, is now something I do when in close-quarter spaces, large enclosed inside public spaces, especially with little to no ventilation, and when attending large and crowded outdoor events like concerts! When outside in smaller groups, dining out at restaurants or other smaller public places, I'm comfortable removing my mask to eat and see others' faces during conversation. This is partially because viral load (how much virus you are exposed to when initially infected) can have an effect on how sick you get. If you are only exposed briefly to a small amount of virus, it will take longer to spread and give your immune system longer to gear up and deal with it.

Outdoors, unless in a super crowded area, I'm comfortable going mask-less but just keep a mask with me in case someone vulnerable needs the extra protection or I unexpectedly need to enter a higher-risk area. I don't keep up the standard I did when COVID was an untreatable virus with no vaccine, because it has become more domesticated (lol can't think of a better term but I hope you know what I mean) and less overtly dangerous than the original wild strain. This is a very common phenomenon in spillover viral events; the original strain of COVID didn't mean to get into humans, and killed us when it actually would make more evolutionary sense for the virus to keep us alive both as a current spreader and future repeat host. Therefore, future strains that survived were more likely to be less deadly. That's part of why SARS was so easily suppressed compared to COVID! it was too deadly, and didn't spread from asymptomatic or pre-symtomatic people like COVID.

ANYWAY, all that is to say that COVID is still a major threat, but it has acclimatized to us more and likely will remain a common human disease for the forseeable future. We will continue our eternal arms race against viruses, coming up with better treatments until something new emerges. After all, there are likely descendant strains of the mega-deadly 1918 influenza still in circulation today, but they've lost their original zoonotic fangs and gotten used to living in and with us rather than wiping us out.

Which brings me to emergent zoonotic viruses. Another important reason for wearing masks is that, in the 100% likelihood of another viral spillover event (humans continue to displace animals we previously had very little contact with, bringing with them new viruses like Ebola, Marburg, SARS, COVID, MERS, Nipah, bird flu, and Hendra) that turns into an epidemic or pandemic in our global world, if everyone already has masks on-hand and are used to masking up, we'll already be one step ahead in the next viral arms race.

I love the idea of clear face masks, by the way!! I've also always loved the idea of cyberpunk-style digital masks that display expressions or play by play transcriptions of a speaker's words, which would double as an accessibility aid for HOH and Deaf people, as well as people with audio processing issues (like yours truly lol).

Lastly, the biggest reason we haven't cured the common cold is because the common cold is actually a wide range of different viruses! Rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, and coronaviruses (the classification, not specifically COVID, which is one of many) are responsible for "cold symptoms", and getting rid of all of them isn't something we can or should do! Allowing our immune systems the chance to stay active and healthy by fighting less severe viruses (unless they are severely compromised, such as in the case of HIV AIDS--another zoonotic disease from the 20th century!) allows them to stay strong and flexible in recognizing more dangerous strains. For example, someone who has been vaccinated for Mpox (2-10% fatality rate without treatment) has some immunity to Smallpox (up to 30% fatality rate without treatmeant), even though they aren't the same virus! In fact, the first vaccine was made by exposing people intentionally to Cowpox, which makes cows sick but not humans. They figured out that people on dairy farms were having waaaay fewer severe cases of Smallpox, and exposure to a less severe but related virus was the reason! We need less potent viruses to practice and keep our immune systems active and flexible when the next Big One comes along.

I know this turned into a fucking PhD dissertation and I'm sorry for not being more concise in my wording but virology is endlessly fascinating and I love talking about public health and epidemiology, especially concerning zoonotic and emerging viruses. It's fascinating as well as scary, and the more prepared we are, the better!

TLDR; not everyone needs to mask all the time, but there are increasing risks caused by expanding population and crowding, as well as global crowding, global warming, and habitat destruction, that more diseases will jump into humans. COVID isn't the first, and won't be the last. Keeping that thang (your mask) on your person and on your face, especially in really big crowded or indoor public spaces, is a great habit to stay in! We can keep our social desire to see faces intact, and occasionally sacrifice seeing a stranger's smile to keep another stranger alive.

Hope this wasn't annoyingly and frustratingly long Anon, and maybe some of you fucking nerds out there will enjoy reading this!

Love you all, and hope you stay healthy and safe! ❤️

[onceuponatimeinerebor]

The Cowboy - Part 1

Masterlist | Part 2

Pairing: The Ghoul/Cooper Howard x F!OC Word Count: 2.4k Tags: Slowburn, fluff, angst with a happy ending, naive protagonist, age gap (duh, he's like, 250?) Warnings: For now just dead people? It's Fallout man, it's gonna get gruesome...but mostly in a chill way.

Summary: Isolation. That was what Vault 28 was designed to study. Adults, children, and even babies were placed in rooms alone. They were told they were asymptomatic carriers of a deadly virus, placed in small rooms with no contact in order to protect the other residents of the vault. In reality, they were lab rats selected to study what effects extreme isolation had on one's mental and physical health. Eve Bennett was one of these test subjects. Having spent all her life alone, she finds herself in a place she could never have imagined when the door to her world was suddenly thrown open.

A/N: *walks in with a hat and trench coat, drops this and leaves* If you read one of my other fics I'M SO SORRY! I'VE BEEN INSPIRED BY A BEAUTIFUL MUSE AND THAT MUSE IS WALTON GOGGINS! Anyway, I posted this on AO3 but I think the sexyman/monstefucker communities here on Tumblr would appreciate it more. And I had to repost because tumblr is jank as hell. (:

Eve sat cross-legged on the small couch in her room. Her bare legs bounced as she watched intently at the scene unfolding on the television set before her.

Three men stood in a circle, hands resting on their holstered six shooters as the tension mounted. As they spoke she followed along, whispering the lines under her breath. And despite knowing exactly what would happen, she still waited in anticipation for the men to make their move. One of the outlaws started to draw, just before the sound of duel gunshots rang throughout the town. A cloud of dust swept past, and the two outlaws stood disarmed, the sheriff smiling triumphantly with his pistol in his hand.

Eve smiled, falling to the side and snuggling into a pillow as she watched for what may have been the thousandth time as the sheriff tipped his hat up with end of his gun. He gave his victory speech as the two outlaws were cuffed and taken away. She paused the holotape, rolling herself to the floor so she could get closer to the screen. She stared at the man on the screen--her only friend for as long as she could remember--and wondered as she often did if cowboys still existed. Were there cowboys and lawmen and outlaws out there in the wasteland? Or had the bombs destroyed them along with everything else?

Lost in her thoughts, she almost missed the unusual sound coming from behind her. It was a sound she had never heard before, and so turned her head slowly towards it as she crawled back onto the couch. She peaked over the back of the sofa, he eyes going wide at the sight of an open door.

The door was open. The door had never been open before.

She sat frozen, her heart racing as she waited. For what, she didn't know. A person maybe? Or perhaps some kind of announcement? Maybe it would just close again, no ceremony or any explanation for why it had ever opened in the first place.

But none of those things happened. In fact, nothing happened at all. Eve peaked her head out a little further, and saw a red light flashing outside the threshold of her door. She licked her lips, thinking about what she should do next.

She could just ignore it--just stay in her room like she was supposed to. If it was some sort of malfunction they would surely notice eventually and fix it, right? And if she just went wandering out she could run into someone. What if she got them sick? What if she started a plague? What if everyone in the vault died and it was her fault?

Then again, it had been some time and nothing had happened. Maybe something was wrong in the vault. Maybe they needed help. Thinking on it a bit longer, Eve finally made her decision. Chewing on her lip, she slowly stood, watching for any signs of movement by the door. She gingerly made her way towards the doorway, smoothing out her hospital gown as she approached. She stuck her head out, looking around the hallway outside her room for the first time in her life.

The red light illuminated the area seconds at a time, making it difficult to get a clear image.

There was no one outside--no one that she could see, anyway. Multiple doors lined the hallway, each looking just like the one she had just stepped out of. There was no way to see what was behind each one, with the rooms having no windows or video monitors. She slowly stepped out, one bare foot in front of the other. There were dark stains across the floor, which she tried to avoid as she made her way down the corridor to the elevator.

The elevator shook as it brought her up. She thought about what she would do if she saw someone. She thought about what she would say. What did people even say to each other? How did they know the right words if they didn't already know the whole conversation?

The door soon opened, and Eve stepped out to find more empty hallways. The red light had followed her upstairs, a constant blinking in the endless maze of empty corridors.

With no sign of anyone, and she began to wonder if they had all just left--or worse, if there had ever been other people there to begin with--when she rounded a corner and felt the breath catch in her lungs. In front of a shut door at the end of the hall lay bodies. There was a whole mound of them; their skeletal corpses climbing one on top of the other as even in death the scrambled to open the door before them.

Oh, so they were all dead then.

By the look of them, they had been dead for a long time. A stray thought past through her mind as she stared at the pile bodies. Her parents were likely there somewhere. They must have been, right? She moved her eyes across every skeletal face, wondering if maybe one would somehow reveal itself to her. Not that she would have been able to tell which ones they were even if their faces were in any shape to be recognized.

She wasn't sure, and she doubted she ever would be.

There must be something important behind that door--an explanation for what happened here at the very least. But she felt herself wanting to leave this place behind. It didn't matter at this point anyway did it? They would still be dead either way.

As she steped back, she felt something graze her bare thigh. A skeleton, curled up alone in the corner. A pile of bones in a faded blue jumpsuit. The number on its back read '28'. It looked as if they had just sat down and died, all alone. Eve moved to return to the elevator when she stopped, looking at the skeleton's fleshless wrist.

A pip-boy.

A thought shot through her then. She could leave--not just her room, but the vault. She could leave this place and see what was left of the world she loved so much from her holotapes. She gingerly reached down, being as gentle as possible as she removed the device from the skeleton before quickly retreating back to the elevator. She hugged the pip-boy close to her chest, all but sprinting when the doors opened until she found herself back in the safety of her room.

Now came the time to choose. Did she stay where she was? Nothing had changed about her situation really--she was still contagious. Her room seemed to still be fully functioning despite the door being open. The auto-dispenser would still give her food, and of course she always had access to clean water. She would have all her holotapes, her books, her bed, and what else did she really need? She had it all, just like she always had. And of course there was the idea of what might happen if she somehow spread her disease.

She also had to consider her medication. She had always been asymptomatic of the illness that got her locked inside her room for all this time. But she could develop symptoms at any time, and the suppressant she took every day was perhaps the only thing keeping her healthy--and even that wasn't a guarantee. If she didn't stay, she could get sick herself.

Then again, maybe there were people on the surface, and they had found a cure? And could she really live knowing what lay above her? She had always been alone, but she was alone with the knowledge that there were others around her even if she couldn't see them. Of course the others had clearly been dead for some time, but she hadn't known that before. That knowledge, and the wide-open door, made it hard to imagine staying. The door was a barrier, and it had been torn down.

But what would she find on the surface? Where would she go? Were there really people living up there? Could she really meet someone real?

She glanced over, and saw the image of the cowboy, his smiling face still frozen on the screen. The Sheriff was always brave--he wouldn't hesitate, even if it was dangerous.

Her room may have everything she needed to survive, but now she had the chance to actually live. How could she not take it?

She sighed, thinking about the undertaking ahead of her. One more last, calm moment, and then she got to work.

She ran around the vault, running back and forth between the housing units and her own room. She ransacked the homes, grabbing things she didn't already have. She found a backpack, packaged food, a canteen, a gun she had no idea how to use, and some clothes. The boots she found fit well enough, but the vault-tec suit wasn't the greatest fit. The bottoms fit alright, but she couldn't manage to zip up the top. Having to improvise, throwing on a white tank top over her bra and used the sleeves of the jumpsuit to tie around her waist. She braided her long blonde hair and used on of the two small scarves she had found to tie off the end, the other going around her neck.

Then went back to her room and grabbed a few of her favorite books, and opted to bring only her favorite holotape. She may not be able to watch it again, but it was a comfort to have with her all the same.

Content she had prepared as best as she was able, she placed the pip-boy on her wrist and headed for the elevator. Reaching the top floor, she used the pip-boy to unseal the door to the outside.

Light blinded her as she took her first few, shaky steps out. Her vision slowly began to adjust, and soon a sea of sand spread out before her. She took it all in, overwhelmed by the vastness of the space sprawling out before her. Taking in a deep breath of the hot air surrounding her, she put one foot in front of the other as she began walking away from the only life she had ever known.

Two steps in, and she went tumbling down the side of the mound of sand she had been standing on. Apparently, sand was a very unstable surface, and it was harder to walk in shoes than Eve had realized. How did cowboys make it look so easy?

Once she had stopped rolling, she sat up. She spit the sand from her mouth and dusted what she could from her scalp. She stood up, patting down her clothes before straightening.

Alright then, here we go.

The sun was beginning to set as the ghoul trudged his way though the wasteland. Fresh off a big bounty and a nice payday, he had already picked up another job and was out on the hunt once more. It was an easy job, just something to do to keep the caps coming in after the mess that last job had turned into.

And off she went, traversing the wasteland with no clear goal or destination in front of her. She could only hope that she would run into someone soon.

---

He moved through the sand with the ease of someone who had been walking the wasteland for years on end. He scanned his eyes across the dunes, looking for a decent spot to set up camp. His eyes stopped on the remains of some pre-war structure jutting out of the ground like a knife. It could have been anything at one point--he thought it had the vague shape of a truck stop roof--but now it was just a mess of gnarled metal. It seemed as good a spot as any to stop for the night, and made his way towards it.

As he got closer his eyes squinted to make out what he thought was a body laying in the shade of the structure. It could have been nothing--a pile of junk maybe--but the closer he got the more sure he was that it was a person. Maybe dead, maybe sleeping, or maybe waiting for someone to get up close so they could attack.

Whatever the case, he was hardly worried. If it was an ambush, he could handle it--even if they had friends hiding out somewhere in the wreckage.

He finally got close enough to make out the figure laying in the sand. It was a young woman, her face covered by a scarf. She laid flat on her back, a backpack under her head acted as a makeshift pillow. The blue jumpsuit was a clear sign that she was a vault dweller, though even without it where she had come from was obvious. No wastelander was so clean and unblemished--particularly the pretty ones.

Beauty didn't last long in a place like this.

He saw the slight rise and fall of her chest, so he knew she was alive at least. For how much longer though, wasn't too hard to guess. She was going to die out in the wasteland; whether quick and violent or slow and painful. One look at her and it was clear she was too soft to make it long, and he thought it would be a mercy just to take care of her quick. He pulled his gun from it's holstered, cocking it as he aimed at the woman sleeping soundly on the ground.

She stirred, her eyes fluttering up as she left her dreams behind. She began looking around as she lifted herself up onto her elbows, having nearly forgotten what had happened and where she was. She froze when she caught sight of the man, his gun fixed on her.

Her eyes went wide, and Cooper knew what would come next. Wastelanders may not like ghouls, but they were at least used to the sight them. Vaulties on the other hand, were not. Judging by how clean this girl still was, he was likely the first ghoul she had ever seen. That typically didn't go over well.

"A-are you..." her voice was hoarse as she spoke.

Here it comes, Cooper thought.

"Are you a cowboy?"

[wehelddarkness]

x

[kagaintheskywithdiamonds]

:/ 

[tranquilstudy]

march 6 | aaaaaand I’m officially a close contact of Covid again. Like, it’s only been two months since I got it last 💀 so I’m really hoping that I don’t get it or that it’s asymptomatic. This is me trying to figure out what I want to do for my research proposal! I was originally thinking that I wanted to do categorization of American sign languages, but now I may do something involving vocal performances. I dunno… now I’m just stressed about maybe having Covid again :( I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

tranquil’s 2022 challenge ❤️‍🩹

Day Nineteen: What do you hope for for the rest of 2022?

Ahaaa I knew there’s be a spelling error there somewhere! It wouldn’t be me if there wasn’t one. Honestly, that I feel more loved and that I’m happier by the end of the year, and have a more solid support system (or believe in my current support system more). I’ve been so down and out lately, and so sad, so I’m hoping that things just look up from here. I know that’s a sad response 😷

🎧 picture frames - rei brown

[stereopticons]

Monkeypox question: I am really worried about going to my gym, because I'm in small group personal training so we circuit train, and I can't be sure that I'll have time to wipe disinfectant on the barbells and let it sit long enough to actually do anything, but I also HAVE to keep going to my gym for my mental and physical health (and it's currently my only human interaction). I keep seeing conflicting things about how worried I should be and it's making me nuts!

Hey anon! This is a great question. Gyms can definitely be v gross (now that I’m thinking about it, I can’t remember ever seeing people wipe down the dumbbells but they absolutely should) but I also totally get that it’s important for your mental health!

The good news is that asymptomatic infection seems to be quite rare (I.e., nearly everyone infected will show symptoms) and so far, I wasn’t able to find any cases of asymptomatic transmission (I.e., someone being infected by an asymptotic person). So as long as no one in your training group is showing symptoms, your risk should be low.

Monkeypox is primarily spread though close skin-to-skin contact, though there does appear to be some risk of transmission through hard surfaces and droplets.

I think you can still keep going to the gym. If anyone in your training group shows up exhibiting symptoms, I would leave (or ideally, ask them to leave and isolate themselves but idk how comfortable you are with doing that). Wipe down the equipment as often as you can, but definitely wash/sanitize your hands thoroughly after you work out. Depending on how much time you have between circuits, you could carry hand sanitizer wipes or gel with you as you work out and use it then, too, to be extra cautious.

Also, I don’t know how old you are/if you were in the military, but if you received the smallpox vaccine, it does seem to show decent protection against Monkeypox.

I hope this helps!

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Blood Hungry: Part Four

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Word Count: ~2.6k

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill, fluff and angst

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there is any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated.

Feedback is gold, and it’s the only currency I take

“His name's Eddy Mays and he’s twenty-one-years-old,” Sheriff Halls says.

Eddy is sitting inside the cell looking dazed and wild. All you can feel is the insanity coming off of him and see the angry red energy pouring out of every pore. He’s not well, but you think you can get through to him if you really try. This kind of person needs to be handled with delicacy, and you’re the only one who can do that.

“Wait, Mays?” you ask.

“Do you know him?” Hotch asks.

“Yeah. I just can't believe a boy like Eddy would do something like this. He was the nicest kid you ever saw.”

“He's mentally ill, sheriff. A boy like Eddy could truly use an insanity plea in a court of law,” Spencer says.

“You know, the ironic thing about psychotic illness is generally they're less violent than the rest of the population. But by the nature of psychotic delusions, when they do get violent…” you trail off.

“We're never gonna get anywhere with him. Not like this. Look at the guy. You can't read him is rights. You can't even process him,” Derek points out.

“I better call his mother. It's a damn shame. His daddy died just a couple years ago. This is gonna fall awful hard on her,” Sheriff Halls sighs.

“What's the family like?” Hotch asks.

“His dad was a doctor and Mary Gwathmey Mays comes from one of the oldest families in Tennessee.”

“I'd like to meet her.”

“We already have,” you say and look at Elle who just nods.

“Good get her,” Hotch says and leaves the group.

“I can probably get through to him. He needs to be handed with care, and I’m the only one who can connect to his insanity,” you whisper to Derek.

“Tell Hotch that,” he whispers back.

You push yourself off the walls of the cell and head over to Hotch who situates himself in front of a computer that has a webcam. He’s going to call Penelope to see what kind of dirt she could dig up on Eddy and his family.

“Hey, Hotch, I think you should let me talk to this guy. I’m the only one who can see what’s going on inside his mind. I might be able to relate to him more.”

“Fine, you’re the lead with this one,” he nods and clicks on the invitation for the video chat sent by Penelope.

“Hey, Garcia. Talk to me,” Hotch says once her face pops up.

“So, I got a hold of Eddy's roommate in college who describes Eddy as having an overprotective mom,” she begins.

“How overprotective?” you wonder.

“She called him, like, three times a day. And get this, one time she went up to Boston to break him up with a girlfriend she didn't like.”

“Wow,” you and Hotch scoff.

“Yeah. It seems like Eddy's entire college experience was some sort of post-adolescent rebellion. He partied like an eighties clubber. He suffered a delusional break due to methamphetamine and rock cocaine consumption.”

“Wow, that is partying like an eighties clubber,” Hotch grins.

“That basically describes my older sister’s life to the T,” you shudder at the memory.

“Right. So then, uh, he was admitted to a mental health facility in Boston. He checked himself out a week ago and then found his way home.”

“What was his major?” you ask.

“Comparative religion.”

“Appropriate,” you comment.

“Thanks. Um, how is it having Gideon around?”

“Uh, you can have him back whenever you'd like,” she says.

She tries to hide her annoyance, but you know it’s there. Hotch only laughs and says his goodbyes before ending the video chat.

“If we’re going to get anything out of him, he’ll need to be medicated. I can tell you right now I won’t be able to get anything in his state of mind. His energy is spiking everywhere.”

“Then call a doctor. Get him sedated.”

“Yes, sir,” you nod and head off to call a doctor.

While you did that, JJ and Hotch talked with Eddy’s mother to see if they can get anything out of her before it’s time to talk with her son. You didn’t go with them because you wanted to observe Eddy for a while to get a feel of how you’re going to approach him. It’s weird to say, but the crazier they are, the more you connect with them. Not everyone can see it, but the crazy ones leave themselves wide open for people like you to come in and read them like an open book. The more lucid a person is, the more they have control over their conscious mind. They are able to control how closed off they seem to other people. “Crazy” people don’t get that choice, so it’s an open invitation to people like you.

In all your years of doing this, you have never met another person who could do the things you can do. Maybe… no, you can’t think about her in a time like this. In fact, you’ve locked everything that has to do with her inside a steel room. You refuse to think about her.

Mary Mays needs to stay at the station while you talk with her son, so she’s waiting in one of the comfortable waiting rooms. The doctor just gave Eddy everything he needs in order to answer some questions even though that’s not why she gave him the medicine in the first place.

She exits the holding cells and walks over to you and Hotch who are waiting for her.

“I've administered the haloperidol to Mr. Mays.”

“How long until it takes effect?” Hotch asks.

“It's coming on now with the full effect in about fifteen minutes or so. You have to realize that while the drug will make him appear to be asymptomatic it will not necessarily remove his delusional state.”

“Will it make him more lucid?” you wonder.

“Possibly. But let me make this clear. I gave him the shot because he needed to be medicated, not so you could agitate him by putting him through an interrogation. That boy needs to be hospitalized.”

“Well, a jury might agree with you, but right now he needs to answer some questions 'cause there's a little boy we need to find. Thank you,” Hotch nods and heads into the holding cells.

You, Hotch, and Spencer approach Eddy, and your boss gives you the okay to begin questioning him. Both agents will be lingering in the background just in case help is needed, but this one is all on you. Eddy is sitting in the corner with his knees to his chest and his fingernails in his mouth. The medicine did help, but not by much. You carefully take a seat on the bed and stare at the man who couldn’t look at you.

“Hi, Eddy,” you say gently. “Do you know where you are?”

He shakes his head and stares at the ceiling, but he answers correctly.

“Jail.”

“That's right. Do you know why?”

“I was very bad. Before, I was very bad. But I'm... I'm much better now, much... much better,” he stutters.

“Eddy, do you remember hurting anyone?” you ask, and all he could do is stare at you. You don’t know why it was at this question that he can look at you, but you know he won’t answer it. You decide to go in a different direction. “Where did you go to college, Eddy?”

“Mm, Boston,” he smiles.

“Did you like Boston?”

“Mm-mmm. No. I don't know,” he stutters and bites his nails some more.

“What was your favorite thing about Boston, Eddy?”

“Harvard time square, I had cappuccino,” he smiles at the memory.

You nod and look at Spencer, and he hands you the picture of Wally. You take it and show Eddy the picture of the happy young boy whose life depends solely on you.

“Eddy, do you remember Wally? Wally Brisbane?”

“I know the Brisbanes,” he lights up as if you gave him a present on Christmas morning.

“You took this little boy. I believe you don’t want to hurt him, but you have him somewhere.”

“No. No. I did not,” he begins to point angrily at the picture and scrunches up his face angrily, “I did not do that.”

“Eddy, I know you’re uncomfortable, okay? I wish I didn’t have to do this, but a little boy’s life depends on this. Look at your hands, Eddy. They’re cut up and you have bruises on your arms. Do you know why that is?”

“Yeah,” he whimpers painfully after looking at them.

“You killed three people, Eddy,” you sigh.

“You killed three people, Eddy,” he repeats while making eye contact with you. “You killed three people, Eddy.”

You need to get on with this because it’s going nowhere. You look at Spencer again and he hands Eddy pictures of the crime scene for each victim. Pictures you know will upset him, but it’s necessary.

“Paul Thompson. Annie Stuart. Lynette Giles,” Spencer says each of their names as he shows Eddy them.

With every picture Eddy sees, he grows more and more agitated. He clearly hates what he’s done, but it’s like his mind doesn’t want him to know he’s the one who did it. However, the sane part of him is trying to break through to tell him he’s in a lot of trouble. There are two sides fighting inside his mind, and it’s clear he doesn’t know which side to listen to.

“No! No! Stop it!” he yells at himself.

“I tried, but we're not going to get anything out of him. It’s up to his mother to help us find Wally,” you sigh and get up.

You and the other two agents leave the holding cell while Eddy yells at himself. It’s almost as if he has two personalities and both of them are coming out to respond to the other. All of this is taking place in his mind, and you kind of feel sorry for him. He wasn’t always like this, and you have a feeling his mother had something to do with it.

“We need him to tell us where that boy is,” Sheriff Hall insists when you and the two men exit the holding cell.

“Sheriff, we're not gonna get anything out of him until he gets this latest episode under control,” you shrug.

“Agent Y/L/N, it's getting cold and dark. If that Brisbane boy is anywhere outside, he won't stand a chance in hell.”

“I understand that, Sheriff, but putting too much strain on his mind will cause him to have a complete breakdown. I’m telling you right now, we will not get anything out of him because he believes he’s done nothing wrong in the first place. There are two battles going on inside his mind. The rational side and the insane one. The insane is clearly winning. His rational side came out when we showed him pictures of the victims, but it’s too small to overpower the other side.”

“How do you know this?”

Before you can answer him, Deputy Long screams at everyone to come back to Eddy. Her screams are so loud that everyone in the station hears, including his own mother. Everyone heads over to see what’s wrong because something clearly is. You waste no time rushing over to her. Eddy is trying to hang himself by the small barred widow above the toilet with the sheets that were on the bed.

His mother completely freaks out and tries to go to him, but Elle holds her back. You, Hotch, and Sheriff Hall rush inside the cell and try to help Eddy down. He’s choking and trying so hard to end his own life, but you’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen. He’s lucid enough to want to end his own life, and you know the rational side of his mind drove him to it.

Like you said, you feel so bad for him.

When you met Mary Mays, you know she was kind of sketchy to begin with, and apparently, the rest of the team thinks so as well. Hotch gave you the rundown of his interview with her earlier, and apparently, she lied to him before. She didn't even mention that her son was in a mental hospital in the first place, and when you called the hospital, they claimed that he called her to pick him up but she never came. Why would she lie about that? She’s definitely hiding something; you can feel her deceit radiating from her body.

“Why weren't you straight with us, Mrs. Mays?” Hotch asks in the safety of the waiting room.

“Straight with you?”

“You never told us your son was in a mental hospital.”

“I spoke with a doctor at a facility in Boston. He said Eddy was released a week ago and that he called you to pick him up, but that you never came,” you say.

“You asked me if I knew if he'd come home, and I didn't. I... I thought he was in Boston,” she lies again.

“There was also blood on the floor of your utility room. Do you have any explanation for that?” you cross your arms.

When Derek and Elle went to check out her house, they found blood underneath her fridge that she happened to forget to clean up. Plus, the place smelled like bleach. Weird, huh?

“Well, sometimes I cut my legs when I prune the roses.”

“You prune your roses in winter?” you ask as you take a step to her.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” she becomes hostile and stands up to get in your face. “When do you prune yours?”

“Mrs. Mays, I understand that you may want to do everything you can to protect your son, but that little boy may be dying right now,” Hotch intervenes as Spencer lightly pulls you away from her.

“I would like to help you, I really would. But right now, I've got to see about my son.”

“I think it's better if you stay here,” Spencer suggests.

Every agent leaves the room to let her cool off her own head, and you shrug yourself out of his grip. Eddy was taken to a hospital immediately when the Sheriff knew he wouldn't be of any help now that he tried to kill himself.

“She's definitely lying. I don't know exactly what she's lying about, but she's lying,” Hotch determines and looks at you.

“Don’t look at me. Her mind is so closed off, I can’t get a read on her. Whatever she’s hiding, she really doesn’t want anyone to find out.”

“You don't think she'd let that boy die to save her son, do you?” JJ asks.

“I don't know.”

“She drives a Cadillac, right?” you ask, suddenly getting an idea.

“Yeah, why?” Elle wonders.

“They got a GPS system in them.”

“So…?”

“So, let’s see where she’s been. Let me tell you, technology doesn’t lie,” you chuckle and head outside to her car.

Derek, Hotch, and Elle follow you to her car, and after Hotch demanded to see her keys. She thinks you’re searching her car when really, you’re going to figure out where Wally is. You unlock the driver’s door and slide inside, and Derek slides into the passenger seat while Elle and Hotch linger by the window. After you turn the car on, you look up her search history on her GPS.

“This thing has got every stop she's made and how long she spent there,” you scoff.

“You know, these things could cause more divorces than internet porn,” Derek jokes until he sees something very interesting. “Hey, look at that. That's interesting.”

“Apparently, she stopped at the same place on route three like six times. Wally’s there. I can feel it,” you nod.

“Then let's get Mary and take her to that spot. We can tell her that we're going to visit Eddy in the hospital.”

“I’m going. You’re going to want me to come,” you declare.

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[firespirited]

Two days ago there was a massive fire four hours away, the black cloud arrived in the late afternoon at which point lots of people on either side of the hills called in a fire 'on the other side maybe?'. By evening it had accumulated and began to sink, yesterday morning it was like a thick fog but hot and ashy. We couldn't see the buildings let alone the hills. Today it's cleared up. The fire was caused by train track sparks and a thousand firefighters have put it out for now.

In this town, all personal fireworks are banned, with all official fireworks taking place in late april (if the local forest and weather folks approve), bonfires and even barbecues are heavily regulated. It's kinda socially enforced too, the unsaid assumption that if you caused people to lose their houses or crops you'd be unwelcome at best.

As kids sis and I were terrified by an educational book about a firefly who burned down the forest (and mum's horror stories of horrible things that happen to kids who play with fire, fireworks or play to close to the stove) but I never lived outside the concrete jungles until 18 and am still mentally adapting to the difference. Indoor fire had always been a reality and outdoor fire a thing on tv, an abstraction in scout books.

People within range of the fires described apocalyptic scenes. Safe, hours away, the black cloud itself felt like Silent Hill coming down to rest, it had a dread and a weight to it, how it irritated the eyes and skin.

As I heard people walk out and cough then go back for their masks, I wished the pandemic looked and felt as tangible to everyone as the smoke cloud. I wished for Exodus plague looking boils and yellow vapours coming from people's breath. It's felt like that to me from the start. Been using smoke analogies to try and get through to friends and neighbours.

I spent yesterday down a rabbit hole reading about the diffence between SARS (SARS-CoV) and Covid (SARS-CoV2) and why one spread. The main difference is that SARS had few asymptomatic or low symptomatic carriers.

In three years, we haven't educated people about invisible contagion, the need for contact tracing, the concept of aerosolized illness or better airflow in public areas. Why not? Why such a massive failure to communicate vital concepts? There is money to be made in newly designed schools, venues, restaurants with excellent kitchen airflow, personal ppm detectors, semi outdoor activities... I don't understand why we stopped at singing happy birthday while washing your hands.

I feel the same way about AIDS, how have we as humans failed to truly grok asymptomatic infection after so much?

If there's one thing you can do for the people around you, it's educate them on invisible risks, (not to the point where they start thinking everything causes cancer of course) but just an understanding that 'everything counts in large amounts' and you can be very sick and not look sick, what we think of as sick is shaped by stories and those stories needed to change when HIV arrived on the scene and need to change again.

[redchestnut]

Close Contact

Written for Levihan Drabble Week (@levihan-drabbles)

Tropes (I know I had to pick one, but I think I picked two, sorry): Stranded together + Injured/hurt Levi & caring Hange.

TW: COVID-19 mentions. (But fluff and humor)

Words count: 1148

AO3: here

Close Contact

Ah, life is a bitch, huh? From the first day the damn virus hit their country, Levi had probably been the most responsible and cautious person in the entire world. His cleaning habits, already strict, had hardened even more. His college classes were online and he had a treadmill and sports equipment, so he never left his house except once a week when he did the shopping. And when that day of terror arrived, he prepared himself with two masks, protective glasses and gloves. At home he bathed, washed all his clothes, and sanitized the groceries twice. And then the whole house, just in case.

When the pandemic started and the university closed, Nanaba and Mike decided to return to their respective hometowns. Levi decided it was better to stay in the city than go back to his mother's house, where his irresponsible, skeptical and idiotic uncle also lived. But Hange, his other roommate, had just started an internship at one of the most important laboratories in the city, which was now taking part in the vaccine research. So he was forced to live with someone who left the house almost every day to work on the damn virus. And that's why he always thought that if he got infected, it would be her fault. But, hey, life is a bitch, after all.

"Yeah yeah, don't worry Moblit. I'll be fine. But don't forget to send me the data later, okay?" Levi heard her pacing out of his room. "Thanks, bye"

A soft knock on the door warned her entrance. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Same as before. Headache, some coughing," Levi replied from his bed.

"That's good. You're strong, I don't think the symptoms will get worse," she said as she sat down next to him.

"What about you?"

"I feel perfectly."

This morning they had received a call from the health service. The results of both tests had been positive. Since Levi didn't have a fever, he had only been told to rest. Hange turned out to be asymptomatic, however, both had to be quarantined.

"I'm sorry. For your research. I know you were excited to be a part of it."

"Oh don't worry, I'll keep working from here. And don't apologize, it wasn't your fault."

Of course it hadn't been.

Last Friday, when someone knocked on the door of the apartment, Levi believed it was some delivery man bringing the food that Hange had possibly ordered. Oh, what a mistake. As soon as he opened the door, Kenny walked in.

Without a mask.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he said in a panicky voice.

"Oh boy, is that the way you greet your uncle after not seeing him in months?" Levi was already rummaging through his supply box. "What are you looking for?"

"A damn mask."

"Easy, I have one here." Kenny pulled a dirty piece of cloth from his jacket. "Don't tell me that you are one of those who believes in this bullshit?"

Levi, shocked, didn't reply. Instead, he took the disinfectant spray that was within his reach and began spraying it directly at his uncle’s face. "What the fuck?" he complained as he tried to cover himself. Once the liquid was gone, Levi threw the empty can at his head, prompting another curse from Kenny.

After fifteen minutes of discussion, and Hange's educational and scientific intervention, Levi had managed to get rid of his uncle. But it was too late. Two days later his mother called him. Kenny had been having severe headaches. She convinced him to take the test and it came back positive. At least his mother, like Hange, was asymptomatic, and that idiot Kenny had had no further complications.

"I made some soup. I bet it will make you feel better," Hange said before leaving his room.

He sighed and tried to sit up better on the bed. His body ached as if he had run a marathon for hours and hours. He was a physiotherapy student and an amateur athlete, yet he had never felt his body this tired.

"Everything ok?" Asked Hange concerned, who had already returned from the kitchen with a tray with a steaming bowl in her hands.

"Yes, don't worry," he replied. Upon receiving the tray, their hands touched and Levi, against his will, turned red.

To make matters worse, Hange stared at him. "What's wrong?" Levi asked with a racing pulse as Hange cradled his cheek.

"You're hot," she said in a soft voice. Levi gulped. He wasn't going to lie. He had dreamed of the moment when Hange would tell him that she had feelings for him. But he never thought it would be this way.

"Um, thanks?"

"No, you're hot and your cheeks are flushed. Maybe you have a fever. I'll go get the thermometer."

Of course.

Maybe the virus also made you stupider.

Levi reacted quickly and grabbed her forearm before she could stand up. "No, it's nothing."

"Levi, it could be a fever. Better to be safe."

"It isn't, I promise you. Just stay." He saw the doubt in Hange's eyes, but she finally decided to relax. "Okay, just promise me you'll tell me if something's wrong."

"I promise" he said, taking a spoonful of soup to his mouth. "Delicious".

The afternoon passed quickly. After the soup they decided to start watching a show that Nanaba had recommended. The daylight had said goodbye an hour ago, and through the window it was possible to see the night and the hundreds of windows with the lights on from the buildings of the city. They almost looked like stars. Hange had laid down on the bed next to him to watch the TV more comfortably, and Levi's headache had finally subsided.

'I'm the Armored Titan and he's the Colossal Titan'

"What the fuck?"

"Wait- what!" Hange shouted next to him at the same time. "Rewind it. Rewind it" she said, taking his hand and shaking it.

"No, no, shhh" Levi said, putting his other hand on hers.

They were both silent. Hange's mouth was open and her gaze was fixed on the screen, but Levi wasn't paying much attention to the show anymore. Her hand felt too good in his.

Suddenly Hange relaxed and leaned back again. The ending music made him realize that the episode had already ended.

Levi stared at her. From the moment he moved into that apartment there had been something about her that intrigued him. However, Levi had no idea when the intrigue turned to nervousness and butterflies. Would he be able to open up and tell her what he felt?

Hange turned to look at him. "Another one?" She asked excitedly.

Levi nodded enthusiastically in response. She hadn't removed her hand from his yet.

Maybe, two weeks was enough time to take the courage.

And maybe, just maybe, life wasn't a bitch after all.

[kkoongie]

I think covid tests shouldn’t cost anything if you’ve come into close contact with a positive case. That being said, my co worker who I was sitting with 2 days ago called in for their shift today because they tested positive. This is the 7th co worker to do so and yet every day I wake up and continue to go in to work. I don’t want to spend 40$ on a test only to be told I’m negative but I also don’t want to be asymptomatic or spread it to my roommate etc. lol

[cocochannel00]

Do you have any details whether or not his tour is actually happening? I personally think it’s ridiculous that nothing has been said and it’s better it doesn’t go ahead. My reasoning is that this virus is 100% not going away anytime soon and just bc your vaccinated doesn’t mean you can’t get it and still suffer. Plus, the media attention it would bring if it was cancelled part way from would be horrific and it would be something that no team could bury and it would not come out it well.

This turned into a book that I don’t want to force people to read so if you interested in learning how tours get booked and my opinion on whether Haryr will tour this summer/fall or not is read below:

Ok I want to preface that for this ask specifically I have no insider/exact info to share. What I will say is that Harry is signed to CAA, a talent agency, like most artists are and they are the ones that handling all of the tour booking and stuff. Columbia has their own tour team but their work is more general of like giving the booking agency and conflicts/dates that work and working with them on what the best route/cities to hit would be.

Tours on average are planned at least 2 years in advanced (so like right now CAA is planning tours for artists for 2023-2024. Personally (and this is my opinion) I don’t think it will happen this year and if it does it will have to be majorly scaled back. How venues (at least in the US work) is that sports come first, everything else comes second. So all of these arenas and stadiums that are booked for his shows have the all the dates where there’s a specific sports game blocked out (NBA, NHL, March Madness, etc). This means that companies like ticketmaster/livenation that help talent agencies like CAA book tours rely on all of the left over days for their artists and when so many people want to tour/ so many tours got pushed back dates become tough (also the reason why so many tours are in the summer- because dates are more flexible since less sports are fighting for the arena and it gives more openings for other events). 

When COVID first happened most artists ad agents didn’t panic until later when it was almost too late (because everyone thought it was going to be 3 weeks and done) and now theres the add fear of if early 2022 will be safe which is why it has taken artists like the Weekend and Elton John so long to announce new tour dates. Consumers are hestiant to splurg on concert and festival tickets for shows because theres so much instability in the market (at least those with a budget). 

I can gaurantee that his team at Columbia and CAA have already made a decision either way (because if he needs to reschedule they needed to have looked into that months ago). I think right now what they’re doing is running the clock down to the very end to see if they can make a 2021 tour happen (which I doubt) because they’ve already sold out all the arenas and have the dates secured. Having to go back and change the dates, cancel dates or reschedule is a huge undertaking (not to mention expensive as heck for everyone). I don’t think he’ll make an offical were going on tour annoucement, I think if anything we may find out through someone working on it (i.e Helene if she can travel or a band member or the tour company). In an ideal world, if he is postponing or canceling the tour he’d need to give at least a 1 months notice (for euorpe he gave about 2) but there’s nothing stoping him from canceling the day before, although I doubt he’ll do that. 

I think the Delta variant that’s spreading now does come into play though.

Covid has made touring a huge liability not just for fans attending but also crew involved. Tour roadies travel together and spend  a lot of time together in close contact so there’s a risk of someone getting infected and spreading it (even if they all are vaccinated- they might just be asymptomatic but breakthrough cases happen). If that spread to any of the performers or enough of the crew had to quarantine that would force the tour to stop/cancel for at least 10 days and since his dates are so close together that would be a major loss. While most of adults are vaccinated, you do need to take into account that a lot of Harry’s fans are younger and he is touring in place (especially down south) that have low vaccination rates.

I think going forward with it would be a foolish decision on everyone that’s involved and I think he need to postpone at least until 2022 or just cancel and pursue a different way to close the Fine Line era (concert movie from the forum maybe?). Considering he hasn’t released any dates for Europe or Australia/New Zealand that were postponed earlier this year, it doesn’t look good. 

[aalt-ctrl-del]

The scientific community really needs to reclassify sars-covid-2. It is not a coronavirus, it is not an acute respiratory tract infection.

I’ve been trying to read up on viral classification, to really understand 

WHY THE FUCK THEY CLASSIFIED IT THIS WAY.

really digging in and doing family, genus comparisons among viruses is kind of hard, because whenever I look for the classify titles for sars-covid, it’s always health pages and articles, and sources for what to do if when you’re infected and how to survive it. Thank you.

And also the source site for how viruses are categorized just spits out “Yeh! Viruses are hard to classify because of all these factors”

no shit sherlock.

I gotta go look for my sources on this information, to really make you understand why this virus is so bad. It’s 10^xs worse than polio and hanta. For one, the virus we know already, doesn’t infect the lungs directly. Pulmonary infection is a side quest, and it is always the initial point of contact between viral cells where they can latch in and begin infection. But through studies of acute and mild infections, we know the virus more commonly bypasses the alveoli and goes straight into the endothelial or red blood cells of the receiving host carrier (source?).

It would make no absolute sense that the alveoli would go uninfected, but infect could be postponed if the immunity cells in the lungs react immediately to the viral presence. Because... the lungs are sort of important. But that would be equivalent of wrapping a severe laceration with bandages without addressing deeper tissue infection - the infection is beneath the epidermal, and you would oral antibiotics or surgery to remove the tissue infested by infection.

Essentially, the lung tissue can remove the viral cells if they are in the alveoli, but once the viral cells get into the circulatory tract. It’s there, and the plasma or red blood cells or white cells have to work on that. At the same time, Immunity cells would not recognize this virus, or would not have the immediate capacity to destroy it due to low concentration.

But I am getting away from my TedTalk. I explained why the virus is not respiratory, and why symptoms of respiratory syndrome do not always present. The alveoli in theory, have the capacity to stop an infection. If not for the infection bypassing, and getting into the vascular tract. Which is where the virus needs to be, to eat and multiply, so it can spread. The alveoli are useless to the virus, because it would limit the host carriers capacity to interact with other host carriers and infect them. A successful virus does not incapacitate or kill its host animal, not immediately, anyway.    

The tissue within the vascular system is the target for the covid virus’, its food source. This systemic infection in turn incapacitates the bodies capacity to conduct the oxygen and carob dioxide exchange, inducing the hypoxia that is so frequent in those who are asymptomatic. The vascular system is so extensive in the body that initial infection is IMPOSSIBLE to ascertain.

Which is why this is not a respiratory virus of any sort. Not close. This in itself it why the virus is so contagious, not because the cells are in the lungs themselves, but tissue (red bloods cells and plasma) contaminated by viral cells recirculates into the lungs, causing this uncontrolled infection and eventual SARS like symptoms. This is why we don’t see ‘patches’ of alveoli infected by SaRS, but a whole inflamed lung sack. 

IF THE VIRUS WAS ISOLATED TO THE LUNG TISSUE, WE WOULD ONLY SEE PATCHES OF INFECTED TISSUE. The virus can’t play leap frog and skip around in the lungs, or bounce, or whatever you think goes on in there. They call lungs a sack, but it is tissue dense. The virus infects the lungs, because it is already in the vascular system.

That is clear supporting evidence this is not respiratory at all. And absolutely certainty this virus needs reclassification. We wouldn’t need to worry about it so much if it was a respiratory isolated virus, but it is not targeting lung tissue. It is destroying the intravascular network of its host carrier. Very systematically. 

I keep saying, “Asymptomatic carriers don’t exist,” or “There is no such thing as a healthy carrier”. No. People who have contracted covid-19 are not immune or healthy or strong, the virus is infecting them. And in that time, the body might recognize the invader and cull it from the body - which even then the host carrier must take care to avoid reinfection because the damage done to the intravascular tract needs to repair - to prevent further or reinfection. Especially those who have had ‘MILD’ symptoms.

And this here is why people continue to die from the virus. Intravascular damage does not go away in a month. It requires months of care and therapy, even if you do not understand how much damage is done. Even if the trauma seems mild. REoccuring infection causes the mortality of those previously infected with covid - even if you can’t see or are aware of the damage. It is still there.

There is no arguing with these facts. I have just taken findings from articles submitted to the Medical Library, of what is happening to people, and why. The evidence is indisputable. This is what is happening, and I wish it wasn’t.

The doctors need to fix this. The virus needs classification for its appropriate impact and the tissue it primarily infects. I know all this information is very intense, it is hard to sift through and comprehend, but it is all there. You can access it and review ongoing clinical studies intent on mitigating the viruses impact on the body, without depleting current supplies. Our best method for combating the affects of the virus is preventive contamination and priming.