#clean the air

[covid-conscious-and-silly]

TIME-SENSITIVE COVID ACTION ITEM FOR YOU, YES, YOU

In case you missed it: there is a proposed mask ban in Nassau County, New York that will not only make it illegal for anyone to wear a mask but will also fine you not $50...not $100...but ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS if you are caught wearing one. Absolutely disgusting.

So, what can you do?? There is a lovely organization called COVID Advocacy NY that has a comprehensive list of actions you can take at the link below! To my knowledge, you don't have to be a Nassau County resident to send a written comment. The meeting is tomorrow (July 15th) at 1 PM EST, so flood the inbox now!

"But Mitchie, what am I supposed to say?" Great question! There are talking points listed on the website, and I would also be happy to DM you the email I wrote for you to send/tweak yourself. We take care of us. Let's do this for Nassau. Reblog for other people to see. Love you! 😷❤️

[i-amusemyself]

Doctors really do sincerely despise him.

[feminist-space]

"We’re dedicated to providing schools with the resources to stop the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases. If that effort also helps kids and teachers benefit from clean air, even better!

To request air purifiers for your school please complete this interest form. You can reach the Pediatric Partnerships Team at covid.schools@phila.gov with any additional questions. A member of our team will reach out to process your request. Product manuals for the two models the Health Department is providing, the MA-50 and the MA-112, can be found at https://medifyair.com/pages/product-manuals."

[playingplayer2]

X/Twitter link

[thegreatamericanfacebookstatus]

i think it's not just neurodivergence that's more common in people who mask. i think it's also about, if you make a mess, do you leave it? or do you clean it up, bc you know no one else is going to magically step in. there's no leprechaun. people who can accept responsibility wear respirators to protect themselves from covid. know better, do better praxis. magical thinking doesn’t work for infectious disease

[i-amusemyself]

Fun fact: asbestos was first documented to cause lung disease in the early 1900s and wasn't banned in the UK until the 1990s (and later in the US as OP says). So that's a lag of around 90 years.

Similarly papers linking smoking to lung cancer were first published around the 1930s or 40s (off the top of my head) yet doctors continued to promote is as GOOD for asthma decades later. The indoor smoking ban didn't happen in the UK until 2007. Another lag of 70+ years.

So yes, there's always been some very loud people pro- harming themselves when the science says we should Really Not Do That (using asbestos, smoking, driving without a seatbelt). But there's also often a very large, silent majority who wrongly assume that just because something isn't banned/restricted that it can't be doing them any harm. What they don't realise is public health historically lags behind by decades.

Now, if you will, consider that we don't currently routinely clean the air and are allowing a SARS virus (SARS-CoV-2) to spread uncontrolled throughout the population. There are over 400,000 research papers on the effects of infection, none of them reassuring. Yet doctors don't wear masks even around cancer patients and the average person now refers to it as a cold. Do you see a pattern here?

I hate when people say stuff like "oh if seatbelt laws or asbestos bans happened today, they would be controversial!"

Like. They were. There were a lot of people - influenced by multi-billion dollar campaigns - who were against it and thought it was sissy libturd shit.

Asbestos wasn't fully banned in the US until March of 2024

[gingamonster]

Thankfully the AQI has gone down from 100 to 88, but this canary isn't happy between the air and pollen.

[covid-conscious-and-silly]

i've been wanting to do more distro in my area, but i'm hesitant to do things because *looks at many unopened cans of worms* (maybe we'll get into that at a later time, but not now)

one thing i *have* been doing about every week or so has been walking around to a couple of little free libraries and leaving masks and tests (although i'm running low on the latter, and the federal stockpile just ended a couple of days ago; so cool 🙃)

i also bring masks and tests to my local library! i dropped off more adult masks and some resources (zines and fliers) a couple of days ago, and while the staff doesn't mask, i'm glad they're supportive. fingers crossed that my work will convince at least one person to do so

anyway, friendly reminder that you can just go out there and do stuff! i gave my project a title (it's a variant of Mask Bloc [insert town name here]), but you don't need one. it made me so happy when i went to the library and heard they were out of adult masks or when i go to a little free library and see that everything i've left is gone! i'll never know the direct impact, but at least someone has the resources they may not have had before. or maybe they truly didn't know how bad COVID still is. everything you do leads to more broken chains of transmission 💕

[sreegs]

hey it's me black mold. thanks for running your window air conditioner all summer. whatever you do, do not regularly clean the removable filter. that's not necessary

you should also never ever unplug the air conditioner and stick a flashlight in the vent that blows air to see if we're in there. it's very bad, that place should not be checked

and whatever you do, if you've already made the mistake of unplugging it, don't remove it from the window for cleaning if possible. and whether it's possible to remove the unit or not, don't carefully disassemble the front panel, document where the screws go and plastic bits go, and open up the vent more to be able to get into it easily

as black mold, i'm an expert on this. you should heed my warnings: now, if you've somehow made the mistake of doing all of the above, you should not use warm water and dish soap to CLEAN the inside of the vent thoroughly. DON'T ever use a bottle brush to get into the hard to reach places. and certainly don't rinse and dry the cleaned area before carefully putting it back together

there's nothing wrong with us, black mold. we don't cause or exacerbate breathing conditions like asthma or other illnesses. it's cool, we're cool

furthermore, if you're capable of removing the window unit, DONT take a hose with the same soapy water and wash the portion of the window unit that sits outside the window and is therefore weatherproofed.

whatever you do, don't allow the air conditioner to dry before plugging it back in and turning it on again

and if you have a central air conditioner, you will definitely never ever consult a manual or sources online to perform a similar cleaning procedure on the cooling unit outside.

lastly, if you're physically unable to do the things we (the black mold) warned you not to do above, you should never ever ask someone to help you or hire a service to do it.

[playingplayer2]

Just thinking about how if the world had kept masking, like seriously masking, from 2020-now how different everything would be. Like if you treated a deadly pandemic like a deadly pandemic, instead of downplaying it and gaslighting the people affected by it, if you didn't spread misinformation, if it being airborne wasn't hushed up from the fucking get-go. Just fucking everything.

I haven't hung out with people since late 2021. Basically all my friends stopped masking and started acting like I was being paranoid about a "minor cold." Like the actual fuck?

"when you feel safe going out again" LIKE BIRCH HOW TF AM I GONNA FEEL SAFE WHEN YOU'VE BEEN GOING AROUND UNMASKED to sports games and your job and family events and fucking weddings and restaurants and bars? HOW

How am I going to feel safe when you gaslight me in every conversation and fallout ignore me for literal days if I send information about covid and its effects? Literally how.

It causes people permanent, chronic heart, lung, brain, and other organ damage! It causes fertility issues! Chronic fatigue- I already HAVE chronic fatigue! It makes things like POTS and hEDS worse! A mild case now could mean a sudden stroke or heart attack in your near future!

Babies being born with glass lung, babies being born with covid- COVID fucking COLONIZES your body! It HIDES INSIDE YOU. And dear gods! The toxic work culture of work even when you're sick, go to school even when your sick!! Spread it far and wide to everyone WHEN YOU'RE SICK.

Politicize HEALTHCARE- it's been happening for for-fucking-ever so let's do it some more!

It's a FUCKING VIRUSSSSSS THAT CAN EVEN CHANGE HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS

It can make you become more violent, more impulsive, aggressive, fucking SUICIDAL.

Cognitive issues GALORE, including L I T E R A L L Y losing braincells!!! Literally!!!

So yeah. It's great. I'm fine. This is fine.

I'm not massively depressed or angry over this. I mean, I, and everyone else, have only lost the last 4-5 years. I turned 18 after the pandemic started. I'm now 22. And it's still ongoing! I definitely don't feel suicidal because it doesn't seem like it's gonna fucking end, not at all. It's fantastic even! I get to be scared that by wearing my mask out in public, I could get attacked. I've certainly been harassed over it enough times.

It's not like how the world has mishandled covid has led to the mishandling of majorly infectious diseases (*cough* Monkey pox *cough* H5N1 *cough*). No, of fucking course not.

It's not essentially LIKE AIDS- IT'S NOT LIKE CHINA WAS GONNA CALL IT SAIDS - AS IN: SARS-AIDS!!!! BEFORE THE FUCKING WHO SHUT THAT DOWN. NOOOOOOO

It's not like it was caused by lax bio & security measures in fucking Canada— because they didn't fucking vet they're employees and their BSL standards WERE FOR SHIT!!!!!!!!

It's not like everyone in my house is at a higher risk of getting it. It's not like we'd be totally screwed over if even one of us were even slightly less able-bodied. It's thin fucking line most days but I'm terrified of what would/could happen if I am unable to make meals and do laundry, I already have to spend most of my days sitting or laying down. I don't fucking know what I'd do if I couldn't do that. I don't know what my family would do.

My family is trying to get OUT of an unsafe household where extended family belittle and gaslight and get violent regularly because we need, need, NEED, for us and them to keep masking. Said extended family has literally threatened to kill us before! So it's great.

It's fantastic.

[a-queer-little-wombat]

These can also help with pollen if you have seasonal allergies and need to do open windows for temperature reasons.

Oh, yeah, and it helps clear the air of any COVID virus floating around, like it does.

Practical tip for those dealing with wildfire smoke now: you can make a very effective air filter for a reasonable amount of money using a box fan & one of those filters meant for your furnace.

Also, I've managed to pick up 2 of the box fans for very cheap/free from yard sales. Make sure you get a filter rated for wildfire smoke, I think this one cost about $20.

These make a huge difference in the indoor air quality.

[backtonormallife]

Look at the bottom left - it’s an air purifier. Not that it does a lot of good when you are within two meters of someone- but it’s a start.

[reasonsforhope]

The world has probably passed “peak air pollution”

Article

"Global emissions of local air pollutants have probably passed their peak.

The chart shows estimates of global emissions of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (which causes acid rain), nitrogen oxides, and black and organic carbon.

These pollutants are harmful to human health and can also damage ecosystems.

It looks like emissions have peaked for almost all of these pollutants. Global air pollution is now falling, and we can save many lives by accelerating this decline.

The exception is ammonia, which is mainly produced by agriculture. Its emissions are still rising.

These estimates come from the Community Emissions Data System (CEDS).

Air pollution has not peaked everywhere in the world — explore the data for your country."

-via Our World in Data, January 27, 2025

[covid-conscious-and-silly]

would like to add that the "medieval scourge" of our reality is still killing and disabling people. mask up to protect yourself from COVID and other illnesses! reach out to your local mask bloc if you need resources! 😷

the cultural staying power of dracula stems from the fact that it grapples with one of humanity's most enduring fears, having to spend time with a weird old guy who's just a terrible hang

[covid-conscious-and-silly]

hi, friends, i need your help! my friend jamie runs Celebrate 845, a crucial COVID conscious organization to the hudson valley area of new york, and they will have to move if they don't find a roommate by january 1st. they need a roommate who also takes COVID seriously, and they really don't want to move. their flier and an image ID are below this. please share this as much as possible (and reach out on instagram to @JamieSanin or email JamieSanin@gmail.com if you're interested and/or have leads!) 😷❤️

Image ID: Jamie, a white person wearing a 3M aura mask, sits against a tree. Text around them reads: "In Search Of: COVID safer roomie! Who am I: Jamie (she/they)! Activist, artist, lifelong Hudson Valley lover, mutual aid enthusiast. Looking for: a COVID-serious roommate to move into my wonderful rented home in Kingston, NY where I've lived for 3+ years. When: December 1st or January 1st. To me, COVID safety means: wearing an N95 in all indoor public spaces, testing regularly, avoiding non-essential indoor spaces, being super honest & communicative about habits & safety needs, etc! Interestee? DM @JamieSanin or email JamieSanin@gmail.com. End image ID.