#completely asymptomatic to this point

[capitalwildcat]

Kicking winter break off by getting fucking COVID.

Super cool.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

wait, what's the difference between hpv and hiv and aids? i thought hiv was just aids and hpv was like. another term for hiv please 😭

okay. before I do this. I do want to remind everyone that this kind of info is incredibly easy to seek for yourself, with the help of simple search times like "what is hpv" or "hiv wikipedia," and I do really encourage doing that! learning how to seek out information is an important skill!

but god I am going to do this anyway, here we go.

HPV is human papillomavirus, an extremely common viral infection that virtually every sexually active person will contract at some point in their life. there are nearly 200 stains of HPV, nearly all of which are harmless, but there are 2 that can (but don't always) cause genital warts and 13 that can (but don't always) cause cancers of the cervix, anus, vagina, vulva, penis, and throat. roughly 90% of cases of HPV clear up and go away on their own within two years of contraction without ever causing any health problems; the majority of people who have it will be asymptomatic the entire time and may never know they have it.

HIV is human immunodeficiency virus, a virus that attacks and drastically weakens the immune system when untreated. it is considered an STI but is not spread exclusively through sexual contact, as it can also be transmitted via unclean syringes shared between people as well as from parents to children via childbirth or breastfeeding. while HIV can be fatal, usually when it develops into AIDS, as I posted about earlier tonight proper medicine and management can allow people with HIV can live full, healthy lives and even completely negate their risk of transmitting HIV.

it's also important to discuss PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), which can be taken by people who do not have HIV to drastically reduce their risk of contracting it, and PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) which can be taken for 28 days starting up to 72 hours after potential exposure to HIV to greatly reduce the risk of the virus taking hold.

AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. AIDS develops when HIV is left untreated and progresses over years, when the immune system has been severely depleted. at this point people are very prone to what are known as "opportunistic" infections and cancers, further health complications that their immune system is unable to fight off as it ordinarily would. people with AIDS often deal with a state of constant fatigue, fever, chills, weakness, inflammation, and weight loss.

so, you know. slightly different things!

[covid-safer-hotties]

Old news, but something people should remember

Never let them tell you "We didn't know covid was so bad" or "It's mild for kids." We knew.

Also preserved on our archive

By John Anderer

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The news about coronavirus and children just got a lot worse. A troubling study by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reports a “high proportion” of children infected with SARS-CoV-2 show elevated levels of a biomarker tied to blood vessel damage. Making matters worse, this sign of cardiovascular damage is being seen in asymptomatic children as well as kids experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

Additionally, many examined children testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 are being diagnosed with thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA). TMA leads to clots in small blood vessels and has been linked to severe COVID symptoms among adult patients.

“We do not yet know the clinical implications of this elevated biomarker in children with COVID-19 and no symptoms or minimal symptoms,” says co-senior author David T. Teachey, MD, Director of Clinical Research at the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at CHOP, in a media release. “We should continue testing for and monitoring children with SARS-CoV-2 so that we can better understand how the virus affects them in both the short and long term.”

The complex connection between kids and COVID It’s fairly well established at this point that most children who contract coronavirus experience little to no symptoms. However, a small portion of young patients develop major symptoms or a post-viral inflammatory response to COVID-19 called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).

TMA in adults has a connection to more severe cases of COVID-19. Scientists believe the component of the immune system called “complement cascade” helps to mediate TMA in adults. The complement cascade is supposed to enhance and strengthen immune responses when a threat is present, but it can also backfire and lead to more inflammation. Up until now, the role of complement cascade during childhood TMA hadn’t been investigated.

To research the topic of “complement activation” in kids with SARS-CoV-2, researchers analyzed a group of 50 pediatric COVID-19 patients between April and July 2020. Among the group, 21 showed minimal to no symptoms, 11 experienced severe symptoms, and 18 developed MIS-C.

To search for complement activation and TMA among each patient, researchers used soluble C5b9 (sC5b9) as a biomarker. Scientists have used this substance for quite some time to assess the severity of TMA after stem cell procedures. In brief terms, the higher the level of sC5b9 in a transplant patient, the greater their mortality risk.

No symptoms doesn’t mean there’s no problem Study authors discovered elevated levels of C5b9 in both patients with severe COVID-19 and MIS-C. While this didn’t surprise researchers, they did get a shock from seeing high levels of C5b9 among even asymptomatic youngsters.

Some of the lab data regarding TMA had to be obtained after the fact. This meant researchers didn’t have a complete dataset to work with for all 50 studied patients. Among 22 patients researchers did have complete data for, 86 percent (19 children) were diagnosed with TMA. Every child had elevated levels of sC5b9, even those without TMA.

“Although most children with COVID-19 do not have severe disease, our study shows that there may be other effects of SARS-CoV-2 that are worthy of investigation,” Dr. Teachey concludes. “Future studies are needed to determine if hospitalized children with SARS-CoV-2 should be screened for TMA, if TMA-directed management is helpful, and if there are any short- or long-term clinical consequences of complement activation and endothelial damage in children with COVID-19 or MIS-C. The most important takeaway from this study is we have more to learn about SARS-CoV-2. We should not make guesses about the short and long-term impact of infection.”

The study is published in Blood Advances.

Study Link: ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article/4/23/6051/474421/Evidence-of-thrombotic-microangiopathy-in-children

[millidew]

random list of v3 opinions after experiencing all that again:

the death road of despair segment is the pre-trial highlight of ch1. so damn good. just a perfect microcosm of the game and kaede's flaws and conflicts

maki is funnier than i remember. but she’s at her funniest when she hits shuichi with a devastating insult, usually completely unprompted

ouma and maki parallels and foiling forever and ever. they HAAATE each other. but also it’d be cool to see them get along. the whole point is that they don’t see through the other and believe the other’s lies but still

maki saying she’ll work hard to make people trust her and her talent and that she wants to survive with everyone…ough…

ouma is so mad. he wishes that were him. also that moment where everyone ignores him and tries to comfort kaito after gonta's execution. he also wishes that were him but unfortunately he's been an asshole to everyone and no one likes him so

the only way i can enjoy saio/uma is one sided ouma->shuichi where shuichi is just not invested in the cop/robber dynamic ouma wants at all. it’s funnier this way + saimota inspires a visceral upset within him. he NEEDS to fumble both kaede and shuichi.

on that note i’ve been hcing ouma as bisexual for years partially out of spite

kaito’s obnoxious charm can’t be ignored. if you think you’ve successfully done it, it means it’s just entered an asymptomatic form. it'll hit you soon enough

ch2 pre-execution >>> KIRA BUCKLAND THE VOICE ACTRESS THAT YOU ARE. EVERYONE WONDERING IF THEY MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE BY VOTING FOR KIRUMI. KAITO GOING “IDC I WANT TO LIVE, OUR LIVES ARE IMPORTANT TOO!” KIRUMI INSULTING OUMA <3 EVERYONE CHEERING FOR KIRUMI TO RUN!!! TO LIVE!!!!!!!! GAHHHH SO COOL

kaito and himiko just blatantly lying through their teeth during their ftes. the liars who suppress their true problemsssss. also him shouting that he is NOT GIVING HER A PIGGY BACK RIDE!!! EVAR!!!!! is so funny

himiko I LOVE YOUUUUU. i love her getting overly familiar with people post-development and just accidentally completely overstepping boundaries by insulting kiibo and calling maki "maki roll." she's trying so hard you guys

KAITO IS SO FUCKING DRAMATIC. HE SHOULD’VE BEEN THE MALE LEAD IN A HIGH-SCHOOL THEATRE PRODUCTION AND ANNOYED EVERYONE IN THE CREW!!!! STOP BOTHERING MAKI SHE HAS A POWER DRILL

shuichi and maki doing sit ups and the camera slowly panning to show kaito laying there hands behind his head saying his usual bullshit is one of the funniest moments of the game

tenko and himiko agree that shuichi should transition into a woman. this is true.

I don’t accept tenko slander unless it’s specifically about her obsessiveness over himiko in ch1-2 in which case I can’t defend her

if kaito shaved he’d look 13. for this reason he is legally not allowed to do that.

tsumugi and the background of v3 are SO GOOD. ABSOLUTE PEAK. in execution there are lots of weak points but after thh, sdr2, udg, and the anime series, tell me a meta story about consumption, lies, and depression that ends with the cameos from entire main games’ previous casts doesn’t go hard

don’t deny that tsumugi loved her little ocs. do you not enjoy torturing your blorbos, putting them into situations, and giving them nice things just to take those away?? shipping them and dressing them up??? making silly aus (salmon mode, utdp, arguably dr:s)?

i just wish the writers utilized her more bc i love that so much. she should've wanted to get to get more involved with everyone (giddily see her ocs up close). she should've made even more thh/srdr2 references. players assume the writers are making for cheap nostalgia points, and they are, but it's true in-universe too...she should've been so overconfident that she'd get sloppy with the situational irony... tsumugi you little freak ily

she and rantaro were 100% s52's survivors and you can pry this from my cold dead hands. her dr fangirl self can be her pre-game personality

speaking of pre-game personalities, pre-game content is at best boring to me. how they write ouma is my litmus test. if he's not enough of a nuisance, just in a different way, then it's gotta go

maki is down for a training trio polycule, shuichi is in denial about everything and fears becoming an awkward third wheel, and kaito has been trying unsuccessfully to wink-wink nudge-nudge shuichi and maki into “realizing their feelings for each other” for ages

i still think maki should have short hair. initially I thought just shorter pigtails would be ok but I’m now in the firm camp of a pixie cut with one of her scrunchies on her wrist, with her orphanage-age flashback self maintaining the pigtails. she had to cut them off for practicality’s sake but one of her hidden desires is to be able to regrow it one day. another show of her loss of identity and past life, and how every aspect of her is controlled? such a simple desire at first glance but because hair is such a simple show of autonomy…even more tragic… maybe her doomed childhood friend yuri used to do her hair …hrm…

ultimates are public, influential figures. maki’s had to assassinate friends before (rip her yakuza friend that I didn’t know she had up until recently). maki went back to being an assassin in utdp after graduating. the hope’s peak class roster MIGHT just be a hit list

for someone who includes miu in her top 3 I haven’t talked about her at all huh. it’s been maki central up in here

miu is AWFUL but when her jokes hit, they hit good and hard just like she’d want them to. she’s completely insufferable and deserves to hit ouma (also insufferable) with 3000 hammers. kiibo too but he wouldn’t want to

look just because ouma said he was doing everything for a good reason, do NOT forget that at his core he is a little dipshit. he’s a JERK!!!

brief dip into maki time again. one of my favorite aus is that maki’s doomed childhood friend is actually miu. i'll expand on this in another post

once again: drv3 and rgu are shaking hands about exiting the narrative and the follies of playing hero. read my utenanthy!kaemugi post

v3 is FARRRR from a masterpiece, but it's a solid and fitting Ending to the main games, plus it's got an insane cast with infinite dynamics and a premise which i love to bits <33 and it was the game that got me into dr, so it'll always be special in my heart. also kaito momota luminary of the stars debuted in it which gives it 5/5 stars

[saintsenara]

For sure and fair play, HP was a long project! But yeah, JKR fiercely defending her inconsistencies almost forces us to fiercely point them. Out of spite. I do get that many issues were out of Harry’s radar and understanding, but JKR trying to convince the audience through interviews that the wizarding world doesn’t have the same prejudices as the muggle world just makes me conclude that she must be herself incredibly unaware of the privileges herself and people in her circle possess. Plus the whole HIV parallel that just sounds so misguided and sours the text to me. Yet here I am! Love your blog xx

the lycanthropy-as-aids metaphor is extraordinary in how tone-deaf it is and it pisses me off...

especially because it doesn't make sense at any point in the story. the complete transformation of how house elves think of their enslavement between chamber of secrets [in which dobby mentions whisper-networks of politically-engaged elves decrying their treatment at the hands of wizards] and goblet of fire is really fucking irritating, but it has some slight defence in the narrative shift that the series undergoes after prisoner of azkaban from children's boarding-school literature to something approaching folkloric epic.

[that is, chamber of secrets needs to wrap up with dobby being freed, the malfoys getting their - comparatively benign - comeuppance, and everything being well, because children's stories always end with that everything back to normal vibe, and so the fact that harry has just learned that the wizarding world has institutionalised chattel slavery and been remarkably unbothered by that fact can be shelved by the genre conventions. after prisoner of azkaban, the books end more ambiguously and are more interlinked, as they start moving towards their big conclusion in deathly hallows, and are also darker in tone. and yet she decided to use this shift in tone... to make elves love being enslaved...]

which is to say, perhaps the lycanthropy-as-aids metaphor could be justified as a standalone plot device within prisoner of azkaban - since the reader does hear lupin explain not only the shame and stigma wizarding society's poor understanding of his condition causes, but also how the state's callous discrimination against werewolves impacts his ability to access healthcare, education, and employment - which then doesn't work after the series' narrative shift, when jkr wanted to introduce characters like fenrir greyback...

except it doesn't work even then! because at the end of prisoner of azkaban lupin turns into a rampaging monster who has a desperate, primal urge to eat children - and reveals his condition to be legitimately dangerous to an extent which entirely justifies why parents would feel uneasy about him being employed in a school.

[and - especially - being employed without dumbledore appearing to put any safeguards in place to keep both lupin and his students safe.]

one part of the tragedy of the aids crisis is baseless social stigma at an individual level, absolutely, and lupin - who is a nice [ish] man who doesn't meet the stereotypes wizards appear to have of untransformed werewolves - suffers from this.

but another is the way this stigma drove a state-sanctioned looking-the-other-way and refusing to act while the bodies piled up - something there is no parallel for in the series' worldbuilding around werewolves, not least because it tends to have a positive view of states and their institutions [state corruption is always located in individuals - fudge, umbridge - rather than in the structures which enable them, which are seen as fundamentally sound, for example] which i would imagine most people who know even a cursory amount about the official response to the aids crisis are unlikely to share...

and another is that - since hiv has a very, very long asymptomatic period - it was spreading without anyone knowing it existed for years, if not decades, before it burst into the public consciousness with death on wholesale scale. and then it continued to spread in terror and confusion - for years, you couldn't know if you had it until you started getting sick, and then, when you could access tests [if you could access tests], you were told it was a death sentence, and you would be unable to pinpoint when and by whom you'd been infected, and you would be unable to know how many people you might have infected in turn.

nothing about the series' presentation of lycanthropy corresponds to this.

but, with this said, i think there are two parallels between the conditions which could be interesting in the hands of someone who approached them with care.

the first is to see lupin's role as the series' one "good werewolf" as a mirror to the fact that public opinion became considerably more sympathetic to those living with and dying of hiv/aids when it began to emerge that people [white! "respectable"! heterosexual!] had been infected via blood transfusions and treatments for haemophilia. queer men and intravenous drug users could be dismissed as having brought their infections upon themselves... but not someone [white! "respectable"! heterosexual!] who went into hospital for a routine operation and came out slowly dying.

lupin - the son of a prominent civil servant [with all the class status that entails], bitten as a child through no fault of his own, hogwarts educated, connected to establishment figures like dumbledore - makes a great poster child for a milquetoast "werewolves aren't all bad" campaign which manages not to offend the state's sensibilities by asking it to stop demonising pretty much every other werewolf in history...

the second is to think about the generational divide.

in countries where access to appropriate medication is widespread [and that there are many countries where this isn't the case shouldn't be forgotten], hiv is easily treatable, easily manageable, easily rendered untransmissable, and easily preventable. the quality of life - and the life expectancy - of hiv positive people is now broadly equal to that of their hiv negative peers. the number of aids-related deaths worldwide annually has more than halved since 2010 and, in 2024, it is possible to say that virtually nobody who is newly diagnosed with hiv will go on to develop aids.

this is - sincerely - one of the single greatest achievements in the history of medicine. and it's completely changed how we think and talk about hiv, what it means to be diagnosed with it, what it means to live with it, and what it means to know [and to love, and to fuck] someone who has it.

if we imagine that there are similar advances in the treatment of lycanthropy - with the wolfsbane potion, which seems pretty bare-bones, replaced with something which made the impact of the werewolf's transformation even less severe [or which prevented it altogether] - then being a werewolf in the 2020s would mean something very different than it did in the 1980s.

and if - say - lupin is right, and teddy inherits his condition, thinking about how enormously different his experience being a werewolf might be from his father's [even at a very basic level - not having to turn down invitations based on the moon cycle, for example], and how he would come to understand himself and understand lupin through this different experience, would be a genuinely fascinating premise for a fic.

but not if jkr was writing it.

[pisscreant]

I think another thing that is hard with writing Harry's alcohol use is that it's very likely that he has cirrhosis (??)

I'm not a doctor but I think that's irreparable liver failure. usually asymptomatic until its later terminal stage, called 'uncompensated cirrhosis'. almost always fatal in a matter of months/years unless someone gets a liver transplant.

I don't think Pain Threshold is wrong. a loved one of mine died like this. to me it seems like with Harry's symptoms a MONTH would be generous. with these signs Harry is ACTIVELY dying.

I struggle to ignore the fact that it's almost outright stated by the narrative. tho to be fair it's just aside dialogue by Kim and during the game you can go on drinking and not die

(also this dialogue is from early in the game and Kim gets better. but great show of priorities, Kim. thanks for that. also 'the organization would miss you' lol. lmao, even. /s)

there's also the matter of alcohol withdrawal. for a game written by addicts (correct me if I'm wrong) who faithfully represent the experience it's also puzzling that Harry seems to exhibit no symptoms of withdrawal. I will update with a source but at some point I remember the devs mentioning that a couple of them prefer the sobriety route. so it's weird that this isn't touched on

now I personally interpret the game as a semi-hopeful one and idk with the tone of the game it doesn't FEEL like Harry's going to canonically die like 2 weeks after the game ends. it could just be a handwave from the writing because this is a video game with video game mechanics and not a medical documentary but.

I personally headcanon that there's something entroponetic that's keeping Harry alive. (the city? pale exposure? a miracle? THE miracle? all of those and more?) that might explain the lack of withdrawal symptoms and. everything else

it might explain why he can CHANGE HIS BIOLOGY and no longer 'benefit' from alcohol or drugs just by completing a mind project (see the thoughts 'Wasteland of Reality' and 'Opioid Receptor Antagonist') also why he can reverse PHYSICAL DAMAGE by using a damn nasal spray and a blister pack of panadeine forte. why he can dance right after taking two bullet wounds.

aaand I forgot the point I was trying to make when I started writing this. just food for thought. I haven't seen anyone else mention this

[yanderes-galore]

Hi can you do an Infection AU Applejack from MLP?

Sure I can! Sorry for the long wait and the fact the parts are so out of order :')

Next - Rainbow Dash

Previous - Fluttershy

Yandere Virus! Applejack Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Clingy behavior, Yandere virus, Attempted kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Overprotective behavior, Dark themes, Attempted forced relationship.

Sweet Apple Acres was your next location.

By this point you had no idea what was going down.

Perhaps you had a vague idea... yet you were still in denial.

You had a feeling it had something to do with Twilight's spell.

You didn't feel any different... which is why you felt you'd be safe if you consulted Applejack.

You kept looking back to check if you were followed, luckily... you saw no other pony.

You breathe a sigh of relief although your anxiety never calms completely.

Banging your hoof on the barn door, Applejack emerges with confusion.

"Sugarcube...? What's wrong? Did you get in some sort of scuffle?"

You know she's referring to your wounds.

You brush it off for now, following Applejack into her home to tell her about what happened.

You explain your experiences with Twilight... how you were locked away as a prisoner after her "experiment".

You then explain the Fluttershy situation where you originally went to the pegasus for help only for her to act the same way a few days later.

Applejack listens carefully to you, just as bewildered as you.

Unbeknownst to you both... the curse was spreading and evolving much faster now.

Applejack allows you to stay in the barn while she attempts to contact help.

The barn is isolated from the rest of the house and the only pony who would have access to you would be Applejack.

Unfortunately for her.

It goes similar to the other Mane Six.

Applejack tries to find other ponies in town to contact the princess, if only they had Twilight and Spike is nowhere to be found....

Plus, it appears the rest of Ponyville are catching on to something weird going on.

There's been sightings of odd ponies in the woods and shadows... no doubt what remains of Twilight and Fluttershy.

Applejack cared about you before all this curse nonsense.

However... over time she begins to feel like she shouldn't be leaving you alone for so long.

Here she is roaming Ponyville... when you could be in danger!

Eventually the virus drives her back to you.

You begin to feel nervous as Applejack doesn't look like herself much anymore.

Your heart nearly stops when you realize she's beginning to turn into the rest.

By this point you can't deny it anymore.

All these cases have one thing in common.

It's you.

You're the asymptomatic Patient Zero.

You try to tell Applejack you should leave now.

You wish it never had to come to this...

Yet Applejack is insistent on you staying at the barn.

It's safe, isn't it?

When Applejack comes closer to nuzzle into you, you push her away.

You need to go...

Now.

Upon being pushed back, Applejack lunges at you.

You stumble, falling back as Applejack stalks closer like a monster.

"Oh, Sugarcube... I've seen what it's like out there. You're much better off with me."

You two fight with one another, you only managing to leave the barn once you block Applejack with a hay bale.

She's agile but it creates just enough time for you to run away.

Despite your limping, you run back towards the streets of Ponyville.

Only to feel fear when you see Rainbow Dash exiting Sugar Cube Corner and spotting you.

Oh Celestia... not her.

[themiscyradobermans]

Nadia's half birthday was on Monday August 26th. Since she turned 6 years old I've been doing echocardiograms every 6 months, instead of just once a year, so I took her in to work with me that day celebrating the fact she is 9.5 years old, knowing we would probably do her echo at the end of the day. It's always a little bit exciting and nerve wracking all at once. Well unfortunately after 5 years of testing normal over the course of 8 normal echocardiograms, she had her first abnormal result. Her status was changed to Abnormal: MMVD. Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease. A disease I by now know very well, as we see patients in Cardiology with it every single day. It's characterized by a progressive thickening of the Mitral Valve (the valve that connects the left ventricle to the left atrium) which leads it to stiffen and in turn causes it to close improperly, thereby starting to leak. It is the most common acquired (typically adult on-set though some rare juvenile or near juvenile cases exist) heart disease in dogs. It is most typically seen in small breed, geriatric dogs, but it can occur sporadically in large breed dogs too. In some breeds there is a very clear, genetic and hereditary component with very strong familial occurrences, such as in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (90% of them will be affected by age 10), Cocker Spaniels, Dachshunds, Yorkies, Pomeranians etc. In other breeds it almost seems to happen randomly, especially in large breeds where it often appears in an isolated individual. (I'll make a more detailed post on MMVD, separately). To be honest while Nadia is not the first doberman I've seen with MMVD, we even have a few patients with it, all completely unrelated and from different types of bloodlines, it's kind of surprising to see one with it, because in general with a Doberman we expect DCM. Which brings me to my next point: MMVD and DCM are completely distinct from one another even though they both affect the left side of the heart. Fortunately for Nadia, she is in the very early stages of the disease. She is classified as a B1 and what more she has no remodelling at all. Her heart is still completely normal in appearance, size and function. Her Left Atrium and her Left Ventricle are normal in size, and her heart is pumping blood to the rest of her body with normal strength and power. The only reason she is clearly diagnosed as abnormal ather than equivocal, is because she has a mild leak at the valve and the mild leak corresponds to a mild increase in size of her left ventricle when compared to her own previous echo (but when compared to reference values is considered still in normal range). The valve still has a normal shape, but it is clearly a bit thickened and she has a Grade I out of VI heart murmur. She does not qualify for medication, she does not need to be exercise restricted or have her diet changed. She is totally asymptomatic and may continue to work, train, play and do whatever we want to do. She would no longer be cleared for breeding but, at 9 and a half years old Ms Nadia has been spayed with no plans to visit a whelping box any time soon. She shows Zero signs of DCM on her echocardiogram and meets none of the criteria for the diagnosis of occult DCM on her echo. She had no arrhythmias during her echo. Her last holter was in May and was normal. This is critical to me and the most important desicive factor with relation to my breeding program. MMVD is a very slow progressing disease compared to DCM which is a very quickly progressing disease on average. As a general rule of thumb age of onset is also associated with speed of disease progression: i.e. the older a dog is at onset, typically the slower the disease progresses. Especially in medium large and large breed dogs the most typical presentation we will see is a dog that gets diagnosed in the mild stage ages 8-11 yrs and never really progresses out of the mild stage, usually passing of something else. I'm hoping this week be the case for Nadia, and she will have many healthy years ahead of her.

In great news, Nadia also had a follow up with her oncologist (she had mammary tumours removed in december when she was spayed, and one of them came back as cancer, the others were all benign) and she remains cancer free for now.

Pictures were taken yesterday when she accompanied me to meet my new family doctor.

[brown-little-robin]

Dimple continuation because I can't stop thinking about him as an asymptomatic zombie

When Ritsu gets dragged to a cult meeting by someone who thinks he's the second incarnation of Lord Ekubo, trailing a slightly unsettled but mostly docile zombie behind him, Dimple's "unique, divine" ability to calm zombies suddenly is called into question. especially because Ritsu is completely willing to explain to whoever will listen that zombies are actually just sick people and there's nothing special about getting along with one, so can they both leave now? which leads to something a little like the canon clash between Dimple and Mob, except—

this time it's a fight over Mob. between Dimple and Ritsu. To keep his followers in awe, Dimple is forced to try to "wake up" Mob's "soul".

And Dimple can't get Mob to react. Like. at all.

Mob has planted his feet and Is Not Going Along With This, Thanks. He can tell that the laughing guy and the rest of the people are making Ritsu scared, so he refuses to play along.

When Dimple tries to coax Mob into laughing—remember, most zombies instinctively chuckle a little when Dimple gives his infectious belly laugh—Mob actually growls. He's annoyed at this guy who drew Mob's attention and now won't quit trying to push Mob around. He doesn't want to laugh. He wants to go back to wandering around peacefully with his brother.

Ritsu, scared, puts his hand on Mob's shoulder, and Mob gives a snap of his teeth at Dimple and then goes watchfully silent.

Dimple senses that this is not a safe situation but he's in too far to stop. His followers are watching.

When Dimple announces that Mob is the most far-gone zombie he's ever seen and he'll need to use holy milk to wake up this poor thing's sleeping soul and make him laugh, Ritsu snaps. Dimple doesn't even get to pull his milk trick before Ritsu is screaming at him for patronizing zombies and trying to poison his brother. Dimple's followers are unsure who to side with. Dimple's authority is slipping away (bad news for your local half-turned zombie!!!!). Dimple announces to his followers that Mob actually doesn't have a soul, and that Ritsu is also this new kind of soulless zombie in the process of turning, and unfortunately, Dimple and his followers are going to have to kill both of them to keep humankind safe.

But when Dimple goes for Ritsu with a knife, Mob goes for his throat, and it's only Dimple's residual zombie strength and panicky speed that allows him to block Mob's mouth with his arm.

Dimple's followers scatter at that point. No one wants to be around this soulless zombie who even their brilliant Lord Dimple couldn't prevent from going on a rampage.

Dimple, with Mob's teeth closing in his arm, collapses to his knees and keens loudly, partly on purpose (loud human vocalizations are one of the few things that reliably get through to zombies, which is why Dimple uses laughter so much,) and partly out of pain. Mob pauses for a second, re-evaluating. Dimple makes a throaty throbbing sound, making Mob falter even more. He reaches for Mob's face to calm him the rest of the way down, and then Ritsu belatedly shouts "Nii-san!" and Mob bites the rest of the way through the meat of Dimple's arm.

Dimple wisely books it out of there, and the only reason Mob doesn't chase him down out of instinct is because Ritsu throws up and something in Mob's brain recognizes the vomiting sound as Bad. so he stops, looks at where Dimple went for a moment, then turns around and touches Ritsu's back gently with flesh still hanging out of his mouth.

(Dimple shows up the next day with a bandaged arm and a feverish light shining in his eyes. He's never met a zombie who's loyal before. He's never met one who could pause in the act of biting to think about what to do. He's fascinated by the emotional intelligence he senses in Mob, and maybe he sees a little of himself in the kids. "Us zombies zombie whisperers gotta stick together, right partner?" ...or something!)

[mcytscienceside]

what kind of infection are these guys facing? Is it a classic zombie virus or something else entirely? Is there anyone so far who is completely gone?

Love the art, by the way

Ty so much for the question!! :D Happy to see people interested in this au!! @gearstorm actually has written up a whole document describing the infection from Pix's pov! I'll put the first part here but if anyone wants more information surrounding infection levels and the strange glitch itself it will be under the read more! --- Glitch Infection Journal Section 2; The glitch By Pixlriffs

Entry #1 stages, symptoms and tracking

It would be good to keep written documentation of what we refer to by many names, but mostly the glitch infection. Because we don't know where it came from, or why, or even how it works beyond observation. 

This ‘infection’ is a glitch that gets into the very core of a player's being and changes their mental and emotional state, only affecting the physical appearance slightly in late stages. We initially thought that those without symptoms were glitch free but using my watcher powers, I've taught myself and Mumbo how to see the infectious code separate from the player code it infects. And now we know that we all have it, but early stages are asymptomatic, treatable but not curable yet, and thankfully not yet contagious. Unfortunately it is also imperceivable without looking directly at the player's code, which is why it's so important that I maintain constant watch of the others with my powers.

I have made a scale to refer to it with. Who had it first and how they got it to the point of being contagious is unknown as most of the server had it by the time we were aware of it. 

A scale of 1-10, here is what each number means.

0, no one but Hermes is completely clean of the virus. He was lucky enough to not go near anyone who was infected to the point of being contagious when this started and has been kept safe since.

1-2, the infection is treatable. It will never go down to 0 unless we find a cure, but it will only go up when around those at 4 or higher and go down with isolation from those whom are contagious. Though it seems other factors affect this. I have no definitive proof, but the current hypothesis towards it is your physical health has something to do with it. Supporting this, is I have been sitting at 2 for some time now without going down but I am also recovering from severe injuries. Meanwhile Joel is suffering in the mental health department but his levels go from 1.5 to 1 at the same rate as Oli who is better off then both of us. 

3-3.5, you have gone past the point of natural recovery. I have yet the chance to observe if 2.5 is too far but do not wish to test it. This is when you'd first notice something is wrong, Shelby having been able to tell without my Sight, but it is subtle according to her. Like a slight itch or pinching in your chest. Easily missable if you weren't paying attention for it. You are unlikely to experience changes to personality at this stage and are not contagious. But your infection will now increase no matter what you do. Proximity to those who are contagious affecting the speed of your own level of infection at this stage remains untested.

4-5, early stages of the infection taking noticeable effect. You are now contagious. Your sanity decreases quickly and significantly, personality changes leading to inability to express empathy and masochistic behavior, and slips of memory occur frequently. As well as violent urges but these seem slightly less common depending on will power. Not being aware you are infected greatly increases vulnerability to these urges.

6-7, Most infected at this stage are unable to recognize bonds and connections to other players, exceptions occurring when the connection was built during early stages of sanity lost in which case they seem to become dependent on each other willing to do anything to protect what little they now hold dear. Players act in cruel and violent ways they never would have done before they got infected, such as building deadly traps and attacking one another on sight. Screaming matches, psychological manipulation, and violent attempts to protect their perceived territory are common.

8-9, all previously mentioned behaviors become even worse. Conversation only occurs when the infected is trying to manipulate you or harm you emotionally or mentally. Depending on what behaviors they have developed as forms of violence, they are likely to try to capture you either for crossing territory, being perceived as a threat, or in worst cases simply for being seen. And will not hesitate to torture you how they see fit when they have you. Their memories seem to become selective at this point, falling to madness and only knowing lust for violence and torment.

10, the only one so far I've seen at 10 is Jimmy. But opposite to Joel's Lore powers, Jimmy is connected to the powers of Law. The order of the world. Truthfully I do not know the extent of his power, but what I do know is the server is sick. Joel tells me Jimmy is likely reflecting the world itself rather than being infected the same way the others are. Fortunately, the world itself does not seem to count as being near contagious stage infection. Unfortunately, Jimmy himself is still contagious. Learned the hard way when we lost Shelby. He acts the most cruel of all the infected server members. I hope that when we find a cure, he doesn't remember what he's done. I don't blame him for what happened and don't want to see him blame himself.

[asmrbrainrot]

Alveckulara Al’Terra: Stages of Infection 🪱🌡️

(TW for talk of parasites and gore)

Stage One: Entry (Not contagious)

-Dormant flatworm eggs reside in the saliva of the infected, if said saliva enters a sore or open wound (such as a bite) the microscopic eggs will hatch allowing the larvae to enter the bloodstream. Once there the larvae will travel intravenously to the brain. Depending on where the bite is this may take a few minutes or up to an hour meaning, if treated hastily, there is a possibility an amputation can be done to save the victim.

-The victim is fully lucid and will not show any symptoms at this time.

Stage Two: Incubation (Not contagious)

-Once the larvae have reached the brain they waste no time mating with other larvae from the bloodstream. After mating, the males quickly die off, leaving the females to burrow into the victims frontal lobe eating their way through to nourish themselves. This stage last for a few days or up to a week as the larvae needs time to grow.

-The victim now begins to experience a myriad of unpleasant, albeit easy to look over, symptoms most of them including changes in behavior such as irritability, impaired decision making skills, and lack of impulse control. Others include weakness in one side of the face or body, and weakened senses of taste and smell. (Though they are still conscious, they may not be lucid)

Stage Three: Attachment (Not contagious)

-Now that the female Alveckulara have reached the adolescent stage and have burrowed deep into the brain, they begin the process of attaching themselves to the amygdala.

-At this point, the body of the victim will respond to the threat of the parasite with encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and they will experience the following symptoms over a 24 hour period: fever, seizures, sensitivity to light and sound, loss of consciousness, muscle stiffness and movement disorders.

-Unfortunately, due to the malasythe induce genetic mutation, the parasite was built to withstand the temperature of an average human or halfblood fever. Species like dragons seem to be immune though, as their bodies can reach much higher temperatures, effectively killing the parasite. (Though they may be left with brain damage)

Stage Four: The Last Hurrah (Not Contagious)

-After 24 hours, the adolescent worms are attached to the amygdala forming a “Hive Mind” at the brain and growing rapidly around the muscles and nerves around the body. (Similar to a cordycep fungus if you’re familiar) With uninhibited brain access the worms prepare to enter adulthood by destroying the victims pain receptors, and increasing their appetite to feed the worms. In a rapid period of metamorphosis, the parasite will, in three to five days, slink itself over every muscle and nerve ending in the body.

-Surprisingly most victims feel exceptionally well at this stage, leading the victims themselves and others around them to believe they pulled through. For the first 24 hours they appear asymptomatic, but as the worms grow they become less lucid, and experience a sharp increase in appetite. Along with muscle stiffness as the parasites take over. Near the end of this stage the victim takes a rapid mental decline, becoming increasingly ravenous and unstable. At this point the will no longer be lucid and will lose the ability to speak, reason, or recognize the people around them.

-This stage is called the last hurrah as it is the last semblance of lucidity the victim has before succumbing to the Alveckulara.

Stage Five: Adulthood (Contagious)

-The final stage of life for the Alveckulara Al’Terra. Now in complete control of its host’s body the “Hive Mind” the adult worms have all the reproductive material they need to start reproducing. A thick, bloody froth begins to leak from the host’s mouth containing the eggs of the female worms. The parasites essentially puppeteer the body of the host, hunting down human, half-bloods and animals to incubate its spawn. This will continue until the necrosis caused by the parasites (explained below) is too extreme for the parasites to effectively sustain themselves, at which point they die.

-The parasites divert their energy only to “Necessary” bodily functions such as breathing. (Yeah, pretty much only breathing, walking around, and biting people.) This means after the third stage, the victims heart will stop beating.

-The victims body will gradually start to decay as the parasites puppet the lifeless corpse. They eyes usually rot out first as the parasite need only the host’s sense hearing and smell to find prey. Then the stomach becomes bloated as the organs inside decompose, eventually bursting in a reeking display of bile, blood and maggots, revealing the inner abdominal cavity. This shows others the elaborate network of black wriggling worms inside. The victim cannot talk, nor feel pain, though it does possess almost super human strength due to the parasite’s control. The last to go are skin and hair, before eventually the parasite is too weak and the sinews holding the body together collapse.

-Also, it should be noted that while the body does decay, it is much slower than the body of an uninhabited person as Alveckulara produce a hormone similar to formaldehyde. (This lengthens its lifecycle)

Wow…you actually read the whole thing? Here, have a cookie for your troubles! 🍪

Comment and/or reblog with your cookie if you read to the end!

[darkmaga-returns]

So here's the deal - remember when "experts" kept telling us what to do during COVID? Turns out they got pretty much everything wrong. Like, spectacularly wrong. We're talking 19 major things they completely screwed up, from how the virus spreads to whether masks actually work (spoiler alert: those cloth masks were basically fashion accessories).

Dr. Fauci is the patron saint of TERRIBLE COVID policies. He was wrong on SO MANY POINTS. It's time to set the record straight >>

Did he get anything right?

Origin of the disease—wrong

Transmission—wrong

Asymptomatic spread—wrong

PCR testing—wrong

Fatality rate—wrong

Lockdowns—wrong

Community triggers—wrong

Business closures—wrong

School closures—wrong

Quarantining the healthy—wrong

Impact on youth—wrong

Hospital overload—wrong

Plexiglass barriers—wrong

Social distancing—wrong

Outdoor spread—wrong

Masks—wrong

Variant impact—wrong

Natural immunity—wrong

Vaccine efficacy—wrong

Vaccine injury—wrong

Last year the Norfolk Group just dropped a bomb of a document laying out all these failures. And it's not just Monday morning quarterbacking - they've got the receipts. Real studies showing how natural immunity was actually legit (while Fauci pretended it didn't exist), data proving schools could've stayed open (looking at you, Sweden), and evidence that maybe, just maybe, locking healthy people in their homes wasn't the brilliant strategy they claimed.

Listen, I'm not here to say "I told you so" (okay, maybe a little), but we need to talk about this. Because if we don't learn from how badly our "experts" messed up, we're just asking for a repeat performance next time around. And honestly? I don't think any of us can handle another round of plexiglass theater and double masking.

Let's break down exactly how they got it wrong, and more importantly, why they kept doubling down even when the evidence said otherwise. Buckle up - this is gonna be a wild ride through the greatest public health face-plant in modern history.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Noah Lyles' collapse underscores our collective COVID denial - Published Aug 10, 2024

Read the full story at either link! (covidsafehotties archive is always free of pesky in-line ads!)

We keep pretending that the pandemic is done and over, but it keeps knocking us off our feet

The 2024 Olympic Games are serving up some less-than-subtle metaphors for how poorly we handle public health. Just after winning a bronze medal in the much-anticipated men's 200-meter race, U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles collapsed on the track in exhaustion — not just because he’d completed a brutal run in just 19.7 seconds, finishing third, but also because he was sick with COVID-19, a diagnosis that he’d concealed from others. He had been favored to take home gold, as he did in the 100-meter race a few days earlier.

But seeing an American Olympic star sprawled out and gasping on the track, and then taken away in a wheelchair, was more than a shocking image. It also represented the general “mission accomplished” attitude toward SARS-CoV-2: We think we’ve won against this virus and we haven’t.

COVID isn’t just spreading like wildfire through the Olympic Village in Paris — we are undergoing surges across the globe, with the World Health Organization tracking steep rises in infections in 84 countries. After more than four years fighting this thing, it is still knocking us out.

In some parts of the U.S., the amount of COVID is so high that experts are claiming this summer surge is on par with winter waves of the virus. But none of this should be unexpected at this point. This is no longer the “novel” coronavirus that once terrified people with its unpredictability. We know how it behaves, with surges in both summer and winter, and we know how to fight against it — yet our apparent strategy at the moment is to pretend it doesn’t exist at all, even when it swipes us off our feet.

It’s true that the pandemic is much different than it was in 2020. For one thing, in spite of this surge, deaths are relatively low, following trends since vaccines became available. In 2023, COVID dropped from the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. to the 10th, according to recent provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's not great, but it does indicate that widespread immunity (from vaccines, previous infections or both) is giving us some level of protection. Though let’s not forget that at least 1.2 million Americans have died to date from COVID. It’s nothing to sneeze at.

Deaths aren’t the only concerning metric, of course. Sometimes a COVID infection is asymptomatic, while at other times, the symptoms last for months or years or never fully go away. Patients call this long COVID and public health experts have described it as a mass disabling event. Lyles isn’t just lucky he won a bronze medal — he’ll be lucky if he doesn’t experience months of headaches, lung issues or extreme fatigue that never goes away.

Yet long COVID is rarely factored into discussions about this pandemic, even when kids get it. Instead, it’s treated as if infections are merely a mild cold at this point. Just shake it off, as Taylor Swift might say, while her summer tour dates become superspreading events.

Millions of patients can attest that COVID is anything but mild — and it's definitely not the flu. The SARS-CoV-2 virus can worm its way into nearly every part of our bodies, trashing our immune system and damaging our organs. We tend to think of the disease as a respiratory problem, given all the coughs and sniffles it produces, but it’s really more of a vascular disease, impacting any system that relies on blood vessels. That can include damage to the brain, which can manifest in symptoms like long-term cognitive impairment and Parkinson’s disease.

Yes, a virus that can literally cause brain damage is spreading at record levels and most people are acting like it’s just another wave. Just keep running.

But we’re not just paying the price with our bodies. The economy is also getting smacked by long COVID. A recent comprehensive review in the journal Nature Medicine found that the “cumulative global incidence of long COVID is around 400 million individuals, which is estimated to have an annual economic impact of approximately $1 trillion.” That's ignoring the long list of ways that long COVID wreaks havoc on the body, including, as the study notes, "viral persistence, immune dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, complement dysregulation, endothelial inflammation and microbiome dysbiosis."

[maddisandy]

September is Chiari Malformation Awareness Month!

Hi yes hello! Since many people probably aren't aware of it, I wanted to bring attention to something we ourselves have called chairi malformation at the start of its awareness month! Its recognized with a purple ribbon usually with a zipper on it (for the zipper scars of those who've had Chiari surgery)

What is Chiari Malformation?

Chiari (key-arr-ee) Malformation is a brain malformation in which the brain is too large, skull is too small, or some combination on the both, causing the cerebellar tonsils (and in some instances the brain stem) to slip through the skull and into the spinal chord.

Chiari is most typically a congenital effect. There are two main types (though they aren't the only ones). The most common of the two us Chiari 1, in which only the cerebellar tonsils are descended through the skull. The second most common, Chiari 2 (also known as Arnold-Chiari malformation) has more tissue herniation in the cerebellar tonsils and even the cerebellum, as well as brain stem herniation as well.

(See Below, the Cerebellar tonsils are marked in red while the brainstem is marked in green and yellow. This is considered a normal MRI)

Chiari malformation is likely to occur in 1 in 1,000 people, making it uncommon but not rare. The statistics are likely to be slightly higher than that for Chiari 1, as many people don't present symptomatically (and many incidents are only found in cases where the person was receiving radiological imaging for other instances such as head injury, so many people are unaware they had Chiari to begin with).

The only way to diagnose Chiari is through radiological imaging (many arguing upright MRI specifically is the only proper way to view the real level pf herniation). Herniation is measured down from the McRae line to the lowest point on the cerebellar tonsils. Depending on the accuracy of the machine (and which imaging tool is used) herniation can appear at different levels at different times. (See below, my first MRI looks markedly less in comparison to my second MRI, which features a roughly drawn on McRae line. In the second image I was noted to have a 7-8mm herniation.)

Symptoms

Chiari is marked by a number of symptoms and commorbidities, even moreso depending on the type you have. Symptoms can occur at any level of herniation. Some people with Chiari can have a 3mm descent and have debilitating symptoms, while some may have a 15 mm descent and be completely asymptomatic. The most common of these is occipital headaches & migraines, ranging from mild to severe, but many more are possible. These range from...

Balance Issues

Dizziness & Vertigo

Neck & Shoulder Pain

Difficulty Swallowing

Sore Throat

Sleep Apnea

Nausea & Vomitting

Tinnitus & Hearing Loss

Blurred Vision, Visual Snow, & Vision Loss

Muscle Weakness

Numbness or Pins & Needles (Caused by Nerve Damage)

Poor Motor Skills

Fatigue

Cognitive Difficulties (including but not limited to Brain Fog, Memory Problems, Confusion, & Difficulty Speaking)

Insomnia

Photophobia/Light Sensitivity

Syncope, Fainting, & Drop Attacks

Seizures

Dysautonomia

Since the cerebellar tonsils block the opening to the base of the skull, Chiari can halt the proper flow of CSF (Cerebral Spinal Fluid) between the brain and the spinal chord. Because of this, Syringomylia (cysts filled with CSF formed on the spine called Syrinxs) is considered common with Chiari. Other common disorders with Chiari are Scoliosis, EDS & Cervicocranial Instability, POTS, Tethered Spinal Chord Syndrome, Spina bifida, & Hydrocephalus.

So What's the Solution?

Well, the only known solution for Chiari as of right now is surgery. This surgery is called posterior fossa decompression-- in which a small portion of the base of the skull is removed from the Chiari patient to relieve pressure and give more room for the brain. The surgeon can then do for sone patients a duraplasty, in which the dura (or opening of the brain) is cut open and a patch of tissue is sewed into the incision to make the dura bigger and give even more room for the brain. Surgery can also be done as a preventative measure against syrinxes for those without them. In the case the patient also has a syrinx, more surgical procedure can be done to drain the cyst. In patients with EDS, special procedures must be made to avoid surgical complications and making things worse.

Surgery is not guaranteed to completely alleviate symptoms, but typically helps with some. However, due to large misunderstanding and disagreement on proper diagnostic traits of Chiari from doctors (most typically neurologists and neurosurgeons) many may be denied surgery for a number of years, and Chiari Diagnosis can take on an average of 4 years to officially receive.

Some go years experiencing symptoms and having "low lying cerebellar tonsils" (or similar language, such as incidental tonsillar ectopia) noted on their radiology reports without doctors officially recognizing it as Chiari. In this time many are misdiagnosed with other disorders such as chronic headaches, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and more before finally finding a doctor who will listen. Many will brush off the radiological findings as just a difference in your brain being formed at birth before admitting the symptoms can be due to Chiari. It can take years of your own patient advocacy before someone finally listens.

This is why awareness to it is so important, in hopes of reaching other people and doctors and forming a stronger understanding of the condition from information found by experts on it and those with Chiari themselves. With more awareness comes more accessibility to treatment and surgery so those who are symptomatic can hopefully find some relief. So this month send a little love & luck to those with Chiari!

[leverage-ot3]

What are your k drama recommendations??!? I need new ones

omg my time has come thank you anon for giving me the opportunity to ramble about shows

I ended up talking WAY too long so I'm putting everything after the first one under the cut

all of us are dead- show about high schoolers as a zombie apocalypse starts. very funny and relatable, literally they call the police and are like 'have you seen train to busan?' bffrrn. has a lot of social commentary and there are references to the sinking of mc sewol (a cruise that sunk where the captain deserted it and left a large amount of high schoolers to drown). commentary about how adults save themselves first/leave youth to fend for themselves. one of my comfort shows and although they didn't intend for more seasons, it was received so well that they have been renewed! I am also an ot4 truther and sometimes talk about them on my international shows sideblog: @nam-on-jo

sweet home- (disclaimer: I am not caught up and have not yet seen s2 which came out a little while ago) honestly I have no idea how to explain this so I'm gonna copy-paste the blurb: as humans turn into savage monsters, one troubled teenager and his neighbours fight to survive and to hold onto their humanity. basically people turn into monsters for [redacted] reasons and everyone in his large apartment building is stuck inside trying to fend for their lives.

my name- I'm just going to paste the blurbs going forward because it's easier: Following her father's murder, a revenge-driven woman puts her trust in a powerful crime boss -- and enters the force under his direction. bro some of these twists I expected but others caught me off guard. I love the main character and am a little gay for her but I think that's valid because she's a bamf. there was a plot point at the end of the second to last episode that I really didn't like and made me very upset. narratively I get why they did it but it made me sad so I'm still pissy. might get around to writing a fix-it fic one day when motivation strikes because my girl deserves better things.

the guest- a detective, a catholic priest, and a psychic join forces to fight crime caused by supernatural forces. not to say they are my ot3 but they kinda are. (other ppl interpret it is a lesbian and her two bi/gay bffs which I also accept but. ot3 tho). LOVED every twist and turn and how the three of them go from not trusting one another to being family. genuinely one of my favorites from all the kdramas I've watched over the years and I want to rewatch it again soon

happiness (tvn)- The residents of a high-rise apartment fight for their lives against a deadly infectious disease while Sae-bom and Yi-hyun try to find the person because of whom the virus spread. bro I adored this. some characters annoyed me (which means they were written effectively) but it has so much. fake dating/marriage (they wanted a better apartment lmao). annoyances to lovers. mean/rude woman soft for sunshine man. what you will do for the people you love. morals and humanity during a catastrophy. *smacks show* you can fit so much into this. no but seriously, I thought this was a really interesting take on the zombie virus! so some of the time you come off completely asymptomatic and 'normal', so people can get away with acting normal and hiding the disease around other people, so the paranoia and mystery is REALLY amped up. had me guessing a LOT. sae-bom and yi-hyun are both cops/detectives and you find out really early (ep 1/2?) that sae-bom is immune which gives a really interesting dynamic that leaves her (to yi-hyun's exasperation and heightened blood pressure levels) to be kinda reckless in the pursuit of truth and salvation. I'm rambling now because this is making me watch to rewatch but yeah as a zombie/dystopia/apocalypse lover this was a good watch. it's more story-focused than violence-heavy which was a cool and refreshing twist

alice in borderland- okay y'all I am aware people had mixed feelings about s2 but overall I did enjoy the series. 'Obsessed gamer Arisu suddenly finds himself in a strange, emptied-out version of Tokyo in which he and his friends must compete in dangerous games in order to survive.' what can I say, I love a dystopian-esque setting.

the silent sea- imma be real, I only watched it for loml bae doona from sense8. 'During a perilous 24-hour mission on the moon, space explorers try to retrieve samples from an abandoned research facility steeped in classified secrets.' basically earth is in severe crisis mode as they run out of water to drink. water has recently been found on the moon, and although there was a mysterious tragedy that happened previously to researchers looking for water in a base on the moon, they have reached a level of desperation where they have another mission to look for moon water. mystery, paranoia, a couple of good twists ensue. I thought it was pretty good even though I have some mixed feelings about the open ending.

semantic error- yes I am sliding a bl into this list. bitch you thought. of course my bl-loving self would mention this (I forgot about it until I looked up good kdramas to remind myself of stuff I have watched). 'A strict, rule-abiding computer science major must work together with an artist with a polar-opposite personality to his.' confident cool boy meets bitch boy. it's great.

and of course...

leverage con artists- I would be fired from running this blog if I didn't mention the beloved korean spinoff of leverage. 'The series follows the story of Lee Tae-joon, a former insurance investigator who forms a team of thieves and con artists to target the rich and wealthy. The team was also formed to avenge Tae-joon's son's death.' I've posted about it before so I won't go super into it but it's VERY camp, a good time, and the ot3 is alive and well. debatable more overt than their predecessor!

other mentionables:

I tried watching kingdom (again for bae doona) but couldn't really get into it. might try again later because it's critically acclaimed (I think) and has even gotten a spinoff series

my roommate really liked mr queen. I didn't really pay attention when we were in the same room and they were watching it but it's fruity

the island on amazon prime was good! interesting plot but not in my top 10 or anything. worth a watch if you're looking for a kdrama to watch in your spare time. features girlboss businesswoman being thrown into a world of the supernatural because [redacted]. supernatural black horse man keeps her safe while keeping a life-changing secret.

let's fight ghost was a thai show that I saw and loved that was adapted into a kdrama called bring it on ghost, but honestly I couldn't get through it because I liked the thai one better.

train to busan is technically a movie but it's iconic and well-known and I highly suggest watching it if you like zombie/apocalypse movies. disclaimer: kdramas do not have the slow 'walker' zombies. they are fucking fast and the stuff of my nightmares. would probably just jump off a bridge if this actually happened ngl

I did think that extraordinary attorney woo was cute. I never finished it and know that there are VERY valid criticisms about the perpetuation of media portraying people with autism in the stereotypical savant ways. however, I liked how the love interest accepted her for who she was, loved her because of who she was and made efforts to accommodate and learn how to comfort her in ways that would work for her

business proposal was pretty decent if you like lighthearted romance- I didn't finish it but would like to at some point

tale of the nine tailed was another one that my roommate and I started watching but never finished. it was alright! just lost interest

shows on my watchlist:

black knight (netflix)- 'In a dystopian future devastated by air pollution, the survival of humanity depends on a group of deliverymen known as the Black Knights who navigate the wastelands using unconventional means.'

copycat killer-

hellbound (netflix)-

shop for killers (hulu)- 'A nephew who lost his parents and grew up in the hands of an uncle who runs a shopping mall faces a new truth after his uncle's sudden death.'

the legend of the blue sea (viki + hulu)- 'A magistrate's plan to release mermaids into the ocean backfires when they're caught by fishermen.' (legit I just miss mermaid media)

gyeongseong creature (netflix)- 'In the city of Gyeongseong in 1945, a group of young people thinking only of their own survival encounter a monster born of human greed and ask themselves what humanity is.'

dark hole (viki)- 'A mysterious black fog from a petrochemical factory's sinkhole turns people into bizarre figures; people who are not infected try to survive in this middle of pandemonium.'

the cursed (multiple)- 'An enthusiastic social issues reporter, fighting against the evil hidden behind an IT conglomerate, meets a teen-age girl who is possessed by a spirit and has special abilities.'

blood (multiple)- 'Dr Park Ji Sang believes in the sanctity of human life, and struggles to treat terminally ill cancer patients and save lives while at the same time being a vampire.'

the ghost detective (viki)- 'In this horror thriller drama, a detective who catches ghosts tries to solve the case of his younger sibling's death with the help of his assistant.'

possessed (netflix)- 'A smart-mouthed detective and a reclusive psychic medium join together to get rid of the ghost of a murder who was executed 20 years ago.'

connect (hulu)- 'A man is kidnapped and one of his eyes removed by a gang of organ hunters; his eyes was transplanted into body of a serial killer; the unwilling donor now has terrible visions as he witnesses terrifying attacks on the residents of Seoul.'

and now just because so many of these only have het romances, I looked up k-dramas with lgbtq representation... (some of these recommendations were from articles from screenrant, movieweb, this subreddit, herzindagi (bl-focused), allkpop)

schoolgirl detectives (viki)- 'Five teenage girls join together to investigate mysterious incidents that occur at their school, as well as help classmate deal with bullying, depression and other crises.'

be melodramatic (netflix, viki)- 'Three 30-year-old best friends, Jinju, Eun-jung and Hanju each pursue different paths in both career and love. Despite life's difficulties, the three friends can always return home at the end of the day and support each other.'

lily fever (available w/subtitles on youtube)- 'The story revolves around the budding relationship between Kim Kyung Ju and Jang Se Rang who meet when Kyung Ju can't find her passport and has to go to her friend's house to try and find it.'

love alarm (netflix)- 'In a world in which an app alerts people if someone in the vicinity likes them, Kim Jojo experiences young love while coping with personal adversities.'

nevertheless (netflix)- 'The story of a romance between a man who is annoyed with relationships but likes to flirt and a woman who wants to date but does not believe in love.' (wlw side couple romance)

[pandemichub]

ID: Person with long brown hair in white cowl neck white knit sweater holding coffee cup with Greek style design. Video is captioned.

New crucial information from David Putrino of the Putrino Laboratory, and the Mount Sinai long covid clinic. Leading expert, and facility on the front of this disease.

Take aways:

Vaccination as of 2024, according to this information does not prevent long covid.

I'd like to include other sources state vaccines reduce long covid by percentages, though no higher than 68.7%. It is important to also factor the dwindling and low rates of vaccination as of 2024 (17%), and highly mutagenic, immune evasive and contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(23)00414-9

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-people-booster-percent-pop5, (completed primary series + updated bivalent booster)

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-variants-bar?time=earliest

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-023-00878-2 "Like most RNA viruses, coronaviruses evolve rapidly"

The point being, while it is encouraged to get vaccinated, vaccination alone is not sufficient to robustly protect individuals or the general population from infection or development of virus associated disease/long covid.

Literature and resources on the full inventory of mitigation methods, please read my pinned post or search for the December 2023 update.

Many long covid sufferers, especially now, have multiple vaccinations, are median age 38, had mild feeling or even asymptomatic infection and were not hospitalized.

Note: mild infection does not mean harmless, and segments and statements from Mount Sinai and Dr. David Putrino illustrate why.

Furthermore, while it is my personal opinion mild and asymptomatic infection is quite likely a sign of immune evasion, there is some other evidence and real world examples that may support my hypothesis. - Admin/mod

You can listen to the whole interview here: https://www.bayarealyme.org/blog/long-covid-what-we-have-learned-about-chronic-illness-from-the-front-lines/