#pandemic cw

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Instead of coal, Santa gave the bad kids COVID and the next super wave of the pandemic started. He had to go on the news and reveal himself to apologize as the good kids also got crazy sick.

[littleguymart]

(source)

[kiruliom]

not gonna lie I miss the 2020 alt phase more than anything. after being stuck inside for so long people got to focus on themselves, explore who they are, what they like, etc. and then they just threw it all away and called it 'ew cringe' the moment it became okay to go outside again. yet I compare their most recent selfies and the selfies from 2020-2021 and they looked so much more happier back then. do you understand :(

[charlotteanne17]

The longing I felt, like, deep in my soul...unparalleled.

I don’t know if we’ll ever honestly get that back. I think it’s one of those things that, like childhood innocence, once it’s been shattered it can never be made whole again.

remember when it was safe® to go outside and you could throw on a coat and grab your bag and take the bus downtown and wander around the street, maybe dipping into a few bookstores along the street, as the sky got dark and the air got that little bite of chilliness into it and you could flip through all the notebooks and paperbacks and touch things and have a conversation with the vendor and see their entire face and then go sit in a cafe and drink coffee and eat a bagel, bumping into people but not minding bc it wasn’t like they could give you a deadly virus, and then go home all happy and rosy-cheeked without a care in the world? yea, me neither.

[lastoneout]

Actually am still kinda pissed that my fiancé's psychatrist evaluated him for anxiety and said he didn't have it but then was like "in the future I'd like to see you make enough progress with your anxiety that you feel comfortable taking your mask(N95 not neurodivergent mask) off" and didn't seem to care when he explained that his fiancé(me) has several severe chronic illnesses and immune issues so we both do what we can to ensure I don't get sick with any illness, not just covid. Like does he have anxiety or not?? You can't have it both ways buddy!! And like it or not protecting a vulnerable person from getting sick is logical, YOU'RE the one being irrational here.

Like this is why I get pissed about mask(N95) stuff, people have legit fallen into some kind of thought-terminating cliché about covid and all other contagious diseases not being a problem anymore to the point that they think even sick people and their loved ones taking reasonable precautions to protect their health is a sign of anxiety and paranoia. I truly do not get it. Like it's one thing if you personally don't want to wear a mask(N95) but at least leave people who do alone, but legit acting like people like me are insane for doing something that makes perfect sense is turning me into the Joker. It doesn't even work to say "oh I have asthma and allergies and the air quality is bad today" or "I'm having an important surgery soon and need to make sure I don't get sick" like they think wearing a mask(N95) AT ALL in any circumstance for any reason means you've legit lost your mind.

I genuinely feel like the government suddenly started hiding all the national car crash statistics and insisted in tons of press conferences that crashing your car is actually perfectly fine and not a big deal at all and wearing a seatbelt isn't something healthy people need to worry about, so now everyone thinks it's silly to wear one and every time I do I have to deal with people implying or outright stating that I'm legitimately mentally ill and need an intervention.

[writtenbyariavargas]

Day 11

Fever - Carlisle

medical situation cw, medical situation tw, death mention cw, death mention tw, pandemic cw, pandemic tw

I could feel him slipping away, just a boy with no family left. Both of his parents were lost to the Spanish Influenza and he was dying of it as well. His fever was high, wasn’t breaking and even with my experience there wasn’t much else I could do for him. This boy’s life would end if I didn’t act. I remembered his mom’s dying wish. She begged for me to save her son. At first I didn’t know how I’d save him with how quickly the flu had spread and enveloped him. I watched his labored breathing, watched for signs that he would make it on his own and saw none.

There was only one option, something I hadn’t really considered before now. I was alone and having a companion would make this long life more bearable, but what about his soul? What about his life? Would he curse me just as I had cursed the vampire who turned me? Would he hate me for taking his human life away? The moments were slipping away too fast for me to consider this decision too much longer. He wasn’t going to make it through the night. He was at the point of death rattles, something I’d grown accustomed to hearing in all my time as a medical practitioner. I didn’t particularly like the rattles, didn’t like hearing people take their last breaths, but it came with the territory.

I placed my hand, the one that had started my change to this cold life on his cheek. His eyes opened and he looked up at me. I could see that even with how far the illness went, how high the fever was he didn’t want to die. At that moment I made my decision. I knew that how I had been created was something that worked. My creation was so different than other vampires I knew and the fact that I still had humanity I wondered if it was the catalyst as to why I was different. I decided to take him to my home, a secluded place to allow for the boy’s transformation to start without others being able to hear his screams.

When we were safe and hidden I bit him exactly where I had been and I waited. I watched over him for hours, for days until my venom completely took over, for his heart to stop beating. I saw as the illness was burned from his body and that he no longer looked and sounded like the flu would kill him.

[lightwoodsdaddario]

It's so frustrating living in a household where nobody masks but you. I've tried to reason with them but they're deluded it's 'not of as much concern as it used to be' meanwhile I get sensational comments such as 'why are you wearing a mask, you'll be the only person with it' and 'don't wear it (in a restaurant increasingly getting full), everyone is gonna look at you'.

Luckily for me I don't give a fuck what anybody says so I keep on wearing my mask and washing my hands. It sucks though that the chances of getting sick through my family members are high even though I do everything right but regardless, I continue to do what I do for me and for others.

So fuck anybody who tells you not to wear a mask.

[akindplace]

I feel like this shouldn’t be a hot take but maybe if you take into consideration what happened in the last three years it makes sense people are exhausted and grieving. Let’s not be so hard on ourselves for going through a pandemic, for going through loss, for going through economic recession and political instability, while being forced to go on as if nothing is happening. Let’s not fall into the mindset that we are weak because we are suffering, or that we deserve that suffering, because when you think about it, too much has been going on, and it’s normal to feel overwhelmed by this.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

One of my friends wasn't taking the pandemic seriously and was insisting that I had a glorified cold, all the while I laid at home dying. In the end I passed away, and they held a monologue at my funeral about how I faked my death and I was part of a worldwide conspiracy. People believed them and left.

This was really out of character for them.

[intothedysphoria]

There was a boy who lived on the other side of town.

Hawkins was a small town but it had a pretty explicit wealth divide. There were a solid wall of three streets where people had three, even four story houses and their own pools. Walk beyond that line and it looked pretty grim. Well, his parents said it did. Steve privately thought the people who lived in those houses looked much happier.

Except for one house. The Hargrove’s.

The dad was ex Marines and was a fucking piece of work. He’d go on ranting about anyone and everyone in the mall, clutching his wife’s hand in a vice. She was quiet and didn’t really seem to do much apart from occasionally pushing her daughter into getting more dresses. The kids were far more interesting.

A red headed thirteen year old girl who trudged around with a skateboard and him. He looked like a movie star but he was constantly limping, like he was injured. Supposedly, he’d taken Steve’s arbitrarily assigned crown but he didn’t even talk to anyone. He just scowled and sometimes Steve saw him crying.

It was all really sad and Steve was going to do something about it. He wasn’t sure what but he was at least going to try.

Steve tried to talk to him once after class. Hargrove looked him up and down then promptly spat on his shoes. The nice ones he’d just got for Christmas.

He talked funny too. It wasn’t just because he was from California, Steve had watched enough tv to pinpoint that accent. He talked rough and gutteral, with a harshness to his voice that suggested he’d been smoking from the age of 10.

Hop arrested him for minor drug charges on Christmas Day. The news spread fast in a town like Hawkins. Not because he’d been smoking weed but because they’d had to carry him out on a stretcher.

The hospital bed was his cell. Steve sent flowers because it felt like the right thing to do given the circumstances. Poppies.

They were still on Hargrove’s bedside table when he left. Medical fees had been paid off by the town. Mr Harrington had even snuck a 100 dollar bill into the pot.

One day Billy approached him. There was a vulnerability to him, shoulders hunched as he asked if there was anywhere he could stay for the night. Neil Hargrove had kicked him out.

Billy was enamoured by Steve’s record player and ran to his own collection to shove them under the needle. Apparently Joy Division was what he played to everyone before he introduced them to the heavy stuff. Steve would have almost preferred Metallica or WASP to Love Will Tear Us Apart. There was something so incredibly bleak about the lyrics and Steve wondered if that was how Billy saw the world.

Steve had leftover pierogies and latkes in the fridge but Billy politely said he preferred to make his own food. He then made a soup with scotch bonnet peppers in which looked delicious but Steve knew he wouldn’t be able to handle.

Billy took the bed. Steve took the couch. There was a pile of porn mags buried under the pile of stuff and Steve knew he should’ve just left it. He was just curious and toed a page open.

There was a photo which looked like it had been taken behind an alleyway, of a large, bearded man in denim with another man in a suit on his knees. That magazine was shoved back down to the bottom of the pile.

Billy was queer. Steve had seen videos from New York, Los Angeles, London recently, of gaunt men on hospital beds, clinging to the hands of kind faced women. The news had said that was what happened if you were queer. Agony. Death. But Billy seemed fit and healthy.

Billy wasn’t going to die of that disease. Of AIDS. Steve wouldn’t let him.

The next morning, Billy used the shower for too long, ate nothing but a single slice of toast and left by 6AM. Steve watched him go and wondered if he would come back.

Come back he did, promptly that same evening. Billy made a grilled cheese, which of course had ghost chilli in it, and watched MTV. They had a long conversation about nuclear disarmament which Steve only half followed, then they both went to bed.

Things went on like that for several weeks. Billy would put on a wide variety of records and sometimes they would dance. Sometimes Steve would just watch Billy shake his head so hard, it may as well have fallen off.

They started sharing one meal for a change. Stir fry, steak with mashed potatoes, something Billy proudly proclaimed as toad in the hole, which was just battered sausage. All things his grandfather had taught him to cook.

The sleeping situation also got more complicated.

Due to the length of time that Billy was staying over now, there didn’t feel like there was any point in Steve staying indefinitely on the couch.

So they shared a bed. Steve listened to Billy taking long, deep breaths each night and wondered if he was a queer too.

That question was answered on New Years Eve.

Steve had drunk quite a lot. Billy had probably drunk more. Soft Cell was playing on the radio and Steve was humming along to the tune, making popping sounds with his mouth to the synths.

The song changed to a new track from Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Billy grabbed his arms, spinning them both across the room. It was fun, then Steve felt like he was going to be sick so they had to stop.

Billy was lying down on the floor next to him, giggling with flushed cheeks, then declared he hadn’t had a midnight kiss yet.

He was obviously joking but something in Steve’s chest took it deadly serious because he was climbing into Billy’s chest. They were breathing in the same air.

Billy blinked twice, eyelashes glowing and Steve decided to stop caring.

The kiss didn’t set him alight. It didn’t kill him. It didn’t even eject him from the house. All it did was send a warm tingly feeling down his back and towards his groin. The feeling was indescribable.

Billy asked if they could do that again.

Steve said yes.

For @shieldofiron @robthegoodfellow @dragonflylady77 @oopsiedaisiesbaby @harringroveobsessed @bigdumbbambieyes @thatgirlwithasquid for being so cool I hope you like it (I am genuinely so ill right now I probably won’t remember that I wrote this in like two hours)

[queerplatonicpositivity]

Reblogging with updated/corrected information.

This issue is complex. The current situation isn't the greatest, and the bill has a complex effect on it. Many people have pointed out that even if you only have to see your telehealth provider in person once, it's still challenging or impossible for many people.

From what I can tell, without the changes, a lot of the easing up during the pandemic is slated to be undone, meaning some people are framing this bill as "better than what things would be like *without* this bill." Other people are pointing out that this bill is still not great. I think all of these perspectives are important. The current easing of restrictions on telehealth are important, and I don't want to see them go away, either.

This was reblogged on 4 March 2023.

The Biden administration on Friday proposed tighter limits on the online prescription of some medications, including the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug Adderall and highly addictive opioids such as oxycodone, a partial reversal of policy changes made during the coronavirus pandemic.

The new regulations, which would require health care providers to have at least one in-person visit with patients before prescribing or refilling certain drugs, would take effect after the public health emergency for Covid ends on May 11, the Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement.

The proposal will undergo a 30-day period of public comment, after which the D.E.A. will issue a final rule, the agency said.

Heads up: If you started testosterone (a schedule III controlled substance) via telehealth during the pandemic and you've never seen your provider in person, the Biden administration is probably going to fuck you over later this year.

Go to the link below for more info:

There is a link at the bottom you can follow to submit a comment on the proposal (but at this time the link doesn't appear to be working, for me at least).

[pjunicornart]

Vent (cw: covid talk, general depression)

I've been looking at my recent symptoms individually, but in reality, the bigger picture is... I probably have Long Covid. I have been suffering for the past month, and now I'm scared that if this is my diagnosis, I may end up disabled. I wanna go through my symptoms, because I realize Long Covid has like... a million. So this is how it's affecting me.

Extreme Tiredness I can't even get out of bed anymore without feeling out of breath. Walking? Nope. My legs are so weak. Even if I wanna walk to the fridge to refill my water bottle I feel so out of breath. I used to be able to help out around the house for my mom, but now I feel useless because I can't do anything without feeling like I ran a mile. Showering has become such a chore that I can only do it once a week, if that! I feel like I'll pass out if I don't sit down in the shower (I will admit sitting in the shower with the water running down you feels nice, but still...).

Heart I've noticed my heart beat has increased in speed. This scares me a lot because a rapid heart rate could mean I'm not getting proper blood flow. Or... it could lead to heart disease and failure.

Lungs I can't take deep breaths anymore. If I try, my lungs have a spasm and I cough. I also can't laugh, because my lungs spasm.

Coughing Up Mucus This symptom is usually worse at night. I have really bad coughing fits and I cough up mucus. Sometimes, the mucus triggers my gag reflex and I feel like I'm gonna puke. The only remedy that I have found is sitting like I'm in a hospital bed... but it's not comfortable.

Sleeping I haven't been able to sleep properly for weeks. Sometimes it's the coughing fits that keep me up all night, other times I just can't fall asleep. During the day, I'm so tired and all I wanna do is take a nap. But my body won't let me. Even if I do get enough sleep, I'm still so tired.

Menstrual Cycle I missed my period. I still experienced the symptoms when you're about to get your period (tender breasts, heat flashes, etc.), but my actual period never happened. Nobody wants to have a period, but it's still necessary to make sure you're healthy.

I had to stop taking my anti-depressants because it made these symptoms worse, and didn't help at all! I don't think my body will allow me to take any prescription meds now, because it has such a severe reaction. I'm so angry and frustrated because I already feel like a burden, and now this happens? Am I gonna be considered disabled? Will I ever have a normal life again? Can I still pursue my dreams? I'm gonna be blunt - I want my suffering to end, by any means necessary.

Covid is not just a flu or cold. It's a serious condition which can destroy your whole body. The more you have it, the more of a chance you have at developing Long Covid. We're still very much in a pandemic. Wear a mask, be safe. I'm only 22, I should be enjoying my life. But instead, I feel like my life is leading towards being homebound, or committed to a hospital. I'm scared.

[pinkpossibly]

Is it just me or did the pandemic just fuck everyone up?

[labelleizzy]

Oh uh, am spiraling a little bit over having been a bad friend to specific people during the pandemic. One needed me there physically (which, I couldn't leave the house I was so scared about the 'rona before we had a vaccine) and the other needed me there emotionally (and I was wound so tight I didn't have anything to spare.)

I just need to say it out loud: sometimes somebody will see you as a bad friend because you have, each of you have needs and those needs clash. I couldn't get myself out of my panic state to help Maria, and I didn't have enough left to help Pip.

I think I can just be sad about that now that I have said that out loud. But sad is better than spiraling, so I'll sit with that this afternoon.

[demonstars]

shooting for him online isn’t enough I need to pray a rosary for him

not ironically me. The guys and me at the church for dreamwastaken

[enbycrip]

With credit to Mendip Hospital Cemetery on Facebook.

CW: historical disableist language, death of a young disabled person

Agnes was one of the millions of victims of the “Spanish Flu” pandemic aged 22 in a care institution.

What honestly really strikes me from this is that, while the language used to describe her impairment would have changed these days, it’s not unlikely that nothing else would have.

She might be living in her own home, but it’s just as possible she would not, especially if she had no family involved to fight for her, and if she was, she might actually been more isolated than she really was; given how horribly underfunded the care sector is, so many young disabled people are increasingly either institutionalised in unsuitable places where they can’t get the choices they deserve to have in their lives, or dumped in their own homes with only an alarm system and a few visits throughout the day for food prep etc, and no chances to socialise, learn or pursue their outside interests.

At least Agnes clearly had a peer group and friends who cared about her, despite facing disableist abuse from the wider community. I hope her biting episodes were more about asserting herself than sensory overwhelm or worse.

And of course, these days she could too easily end up a victim of COVID in the way she really was of the Spanish Flu. The highest percentage of COVID deaths has and continues to be from women or people read as women living in institutions.

Her name was Agnes, and her life mattered.