#signs of rsv

[joseywritesng]

What parents need to know about RSV

What parents need to know about RSV

November 11, 2022 – A sick child from Northern California had to go to Portland, OR, to find an ICU bed. A child in Oregon flew to Nevada last week due to a shortage of hospital beds. The bad guy? respiratory sincytial virusor RSV. “These stories are not unique and happen across the country,” says Wendy Hasson, MD, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics and medical director of the…

[pandemicteacher]

Lunch was breakfast. This school had about half of the staff out sick. Wild.l

[h2shonotes]

The NYC Health Commissioner issued an advisory as NYC faces high levels of COVID-19, flu and RSV. New Yorkers are strongly urged to wear masks in public indoor settings and crowded outdoor settings.

For more info: on.nyc.gov/3ULqGDZ

[theresawritesstuff]

Pride and Prejudice mug today

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The People Confess Their Sins

1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth upon their heads. 2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day; for another fourth of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. 4 Upon the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kad′mi-el, Shebani′ah, Bunni, Sherebi′ah, Bani, and Chena′ni; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. 5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kad′miel, Bani, Hashabnei′ah, Sherebi′ah, Hodi′ah, Shebani′ah, and Pethahi′ah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise.”

6 And Ezra said: “Thou art the Lord, thou alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and thou preservest all of them; and the host of heaven worships thee. 7 Thou art the Lord, the God who didst choose Abram and bring him forth out of Ur of the Chalde′ans and give him the name Abraham; 8 and thou didst find his heart faithful before thee, and didst make with him the covenant to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Per′izzite, the Jeb′usite, and the Gir′gashite; and thou hast fulfilled thy promise, for thou art righteous.

9 “And thou didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and hear their cry at the Red Sea, 10 and didst perform signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for thou knewest that they acted insolently against our fathers; and thou didst get thee a name, as it is to this day. 11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land; and thou didst cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. 12 By a pillar of cloud thou didst lead them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. 13 Thou didst come down upon Mount Sinai, and speak with them from heaven and give them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 and thou didst make known to them thy holy sabbath and command them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses thy servant. 15 Thou didst give them bread from heaven for their hunger and bring forth water for them from the rock for their thirst, and thou didst tell them to go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey thy commandments; 17 they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders which thou didst perform among them; but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. But thou art a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and didst not forsake them. 18 Even when they had made for themselves a molten calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19 thou in thy great mercies didst not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud which led them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night which lighted for them the way by which they should go. 20 Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them, and didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. 21 Forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. 22 And thou didst give them kingdoms and peoples, and didst allot to them every corner; so they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 Thou didst multiply their descendants as the stars of heaven, and thou didst bring them into the land which thou hadst told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and thou didst subdue before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and didst give them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance; so they ate, and were filled and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.

26 “Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their back and killed thy prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to thee, and they committed great blasphemies. 27 Therefore thou didst give them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer; and in the time of their suffering they cried to thee and thou didst hear them from heaven; and according to thy great mercies thou didst give them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. 28 But after they had rest they did evil again before thee, and thou didst abandon them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; yet when they turned and cried to thee thou didst hear from heaven, and many times thou didst deliver them according to thy mercies. 29 And thou didst warn them in order to turn them back to thy law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey thy commandments, but sinned against thy ordinances, by the observance of which a man shall live, and turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30 Many years thou didst bear with them, and didst warn them by thy Spirit through thy prophets; yet they would not give ear. Therefore thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless in thy great mercies thou didst not make an end of them or forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

32 “Now therefore, our God, the great and mighty and terrible God, who keepest covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to thee that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. 33 Yet thou hast been just in all that has come upon us, for thou hast dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly; 34 our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept thy law or heeded thy commandments and thy warnings which thou didst give them. 35 They did not serve thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness which thou gavest them, and in the large and rich land which thou didst set before them; and they did not turn from their wicked works. 36 Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that thou gavest to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. 37 And its rich yield goes to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.”

Those Who Signed the Covenant

38 Because of all this we make a firm covenant and write it, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests set their seal to it. — Nehemiah 9 | Revised Standard Version (RSV) Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. Cross References: Genesis 11:31; Genesis 15:5-6; Genesis 18:25; Exodus 3:7; Exodus 3:20; Exodus 13:21-22; Exodus 16:23; Exodus 16:35; Exodus 18:8; Exodus 20:8; Exodus 32:4; Exodus 34:6-7; Exodus 40:36; Numbers 13:27; Numbers 21:21; Deuteronomy 1:26; Deuteronomy 4:31; Deuteronomy 28:33; Joshua 11:23; Judges 2:11; Judges 2:14; Judges 3:11; 1 Kings 8:15; 1 Kings 8:47; Nehemiah 8:7; Isaiah 63:7; Isaiah 63:11; Lamentations 5:5; Jeremiah 44:17; Matthew 3:6; Matthew 19:17; Matthew 27:66; John 6:31; Acts 4:24; Acts 13:18; 1 Corinthians 10:1; Revelation 11:3

[roytecharena]

RSV, Flu and Covid in kids-Signs and Symptoms

Do you know the early signs and symptoms of RSV, Flu and Covid in kids can resemble one another? Here, we are going to discuss the signs and symptoms of RSV, Flu and Covid in detail. 

Doctors are advising parents to be aware of the symptoms that indicate a serious illness as a number of respiratory viruses are spreading at unusually high levels in the U.S. and putting children in hospitals as the To read more

[thealexandriaarchives]

Heads up for anyone who hasn't gotten your flu and/or Covid shot yet!

Kroger sucks but I have to give them props, they're offering you grocery money to get vaccinated.

You can get up to $20 in grocery money from Kroger right now just for getting your Flu shot & Covid Booster.

Or $5 for just a flu shot! Or if you already got your Covid booster get the $20 by pairing it with another vaccine like RSV or Pneumonia or Hepatitis if you're vulnerable!

Must go to a Kroger owned pharmacy

Must not have federally funded health insurance like Medicaid or Medicaid

Get your flu shot

If you're doing both get your booster in the same visit to qualify

Tell the pharmacist you want your Money when you check out and give them your Kroger rewards card. (Mine is Fred Meyer's etc. Or sign up for one for free first.

This will cover the cost of your shot if you have no insurance, but be a bonus if you're insured!

Getting both at the same time will make you feel like crap (not that day, the next day) but WILL make your immune system better than just getting one at once and get it over with. Influenza and Covid will both also weaken your immune system if you get them, even mild cases, so you're more at risk to catch follow-up infections. Not just for your community, but for yourself - get immunized and have a couple slightly cruddy days instead of a couple awful weeks or worse!

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Mousey, I'm sure you've done the reaction of the vanilla and expanded spouses to the farmer's curse from Mr. Qi, but how about the rsv spouses? I'd be curious to see what they'd do about it ~~especially you know who *wink wink nudge nudge*~~ Also ngl I've been trying to come up with more silly ships with the vanilla and mod characters and having a blast in my mind. I've been throwing in Isaac, Jadu, Camilla, and Alesia there too for good measure because I think Isaac especially would suffer with certain characters 😂 istg it's like I'm a dog and he's my chewing toy

Hehee, I wouldn't mind hearing what other funny ships you have in mind 👀👀👀

Sorry for a long reply, it turned out WAY more than I had planned. Anyway, enjoy some headcanon, Lotus! And have a great day! 💕

RSV spouses react to the Qi fruit:

_________________________________________

Ian had been standing still for about two minutes now, keeping his eyes on the strange blue fruit that was ripening in the Farmer's seedbed. Because he could have sworn that the fruit winked at him.... with 'glasses'! And the handyman thought he'd seen it again. But at the third minute, Ian gave up and reckoned he was just wasting time. "I really don't understand anything about farming," Ian told Farmer, kissed them, and went to work.

Daia isn't the type to be surprised by strange magical fruits, flowers and berries. The Ridge Forest alone is filled with interesting plants with unusual properties. But this 'Qi' fruit... Hmph, even she hadn't seen anything like it. Being around this smirking blue fruit makes the ninja feel a tingling sensation on her skin - a sure sign that magic is involved. Oh, she can't wait to ask her dear Farmer to give her the fruit to examine, because she's so curious about it! She wondered if it would interest her Lady too...

"Wow... I knew you are a true professional at farming, hon, but to do something like this..." Honestly, Jeric was delighted at what his partner had grown and horrified at what his partner had grown. Because on the one hand - fruit with a face and sunglasses, that's awesome! And on the other hand.... why? He certainly wouldn't have imagined something like this on his own little farm in Ridgeside Village. And it's unlikely he had the knowledge to grow something like this. "....So, what does it taste like?"

Bryle was ashamed to admit it, but the first thing he did when he stepped onto the farmhouse porch was reflexively draw his service weapon and prepare to defend himself. Because the Governor's slightly sleepy bodyguard mistook the blue-faced crops in sunglasses for invaders or even dark spirits. Having already recovered from his shock and seeing the calm Farmer watering this very crop, Bryle felt that by asking what it was, he would get more questions than answers. So he was like: "Nope, not today" and went back to the farmhouse.

When some time ago Irene had only seen the sprouts with the not yet formed blue fruit, she was even intrigued to see what kind of 'unusual fruit' Farmer had planted and what the crop would taste like. Sweet, or maybe with sour notes? Only when she got the ripe fruit on the kitchen table, the Amethyne's personal chef was no longer so enthusiastic. This... fruits looks like a head and was looking at her. Irene's afraid to even touch the 'Qi' fruit, much less taste it. Her Madame would definitely not want such an.... exotic crop for dinner.

Sean decided it would be a hilarious to wreak havoc in the local social media groups with this fruit. So, with Farmer's permission, he took a picture of the ripened 'Qi fruit', posted the picture to social media without any description, and waited. An hour and a half in and Sean and Farmer were dying of laughter reading people's reactions, all sorts of conspiracy about the harvest and even memes (lol). He was also hoping someone would leave a comment about what the fruit was, because Farmer's explanation of "blue fruit from blue seeds from a blue man" wasn't a very clear answer.

"Alissa, my dear. What is this?" Alissa can't give a clear answer to her mother when she shows her the unusual fruit. It seems to Alissa that her dear spouse Farmer themself does not know the answer to this question. The girl was utterly perplexed, and neither her own knowledge of farming, nor a single book from the library about crops, helped her to find the answer. She hoped that Farmer had not used something harmful to grow this fruit...

"What's this abomination growing in your garden? Why is there foreign magic coming from that thing?" Jio is in full earnest preparing for a defensive pose with his katana, because that 'Qi' fruit looks like it's about to pounce on him and Farmer. Elf doesn't trust this crop, whatever it is in the first place. And when asked how Farmer grew this stuff in the first place, the answer struck Jio like lightning. "You... took strange seeds from a suspicious man and thought it would be a great idea to plant them?" Yeah, It's going to be a long conversation...

Not even strength and persuasion from Farmer will be enough to keep their spouse Maddie from her determination to get into the Water Research Facility & Laboratory with this strange fruit. Because the ginger girl has to find out what it is in the first place! After all, the lab assistant was also watching the process of the Qi fruit's growth, for she was curious about what Farmer was growing. And when the already ripe fruit showed its face with sunglasses, Maddie wants to show it to Aguar to see how to even classify it. Sigh, not Aguar, if he found out there was magic involved...

"Whoa... So creepy... It's like some kind of comic book villain." Phillip kept twisting and twisting the "Qi" fruit in his hands, looking at the "face" of the crop, and even tried to take off the "glasses". It didn't work, however, because it was like they were super glued on. Oh, well. And although the physical therapist is eager to find out what this miracle fruit tastes like, he still wants to take precautions and find some information about the Qi fruit, because maybe it's poisonous???

Blair nearly died laughing when she saw the face of the ripe blue fruit. "Yoba, what a bogeyman!" And how on earth did her partner Farmer manage to grow a fruit with a face like that? Oh, she wants to take a few if Farmer agrees. To taste it? No, the young fisherwoman had thought of a more fun use for this crop.... Such an ugly fruit would definitely be a good way to prank Keahi for the last prank, hee hee hee... Just a harmless joke, Blair promises!

...Anton thought at first that he hadn't fully woken up in the morning, and that he had just imagined a blue face on the kitchen table. Except that when the architect came back from the bathroom already fresh and invigorated from a cold shower, the face had not disappeared from the kitchen table. ...Ok, and then what? How should he even react? And should he even be reacting to this? Because Farmer is not perplexed by the strange fruit in any way, they treat it like a normal apple or banana. ...Alright, then. Anton silently hopes he doesn't get "sunglasses" from this fruit in his portion of salad.

Well done, Farmer, just great! Making Flor nearly faint because they decided to put some ripe Qi fruit on the dinner table before going to bed, without warning the red-haired spouse for doing so. The poor, sleepy girl wanted to drink a glass of water at midnight, but she ended up throwing it all on the floor and screaming, mistaking the fruit for human heads. Now Farmer is ashamed now... And rightly so - they shouldn't scare Flor like that!

Kiarra's face twisted at what she saw. "Honey, you didn't use any fertiliser or seeds from Joja, right? You didn't take anything from them?" Her first guess as to the origin of this strange fruit was immediately the much disliked greedy company with the blue logo. Joja always like to spoil pump vegetables and fruits with all sorts of harmful substances of unknown origin to make them bigger, and as a consequence - to sell them for more money. Even when Farmer explained to her that it wasn't Joja, the girl still remained sceptical. Because it's... not natural. Something is wrong.

Zayne thought that it would be at least tactless and rude of him to voice his first thought out loud when Farmer presented them with the 'fruit of their labours'. Especially since he loved his spouse and knew what a wonderful farmer they are, unrivalled in the entire Republic. But... What is it? The Amethyne family heir has seen some rather unusual and sometimes even strange delicacies on his own dinner table and on the tables of other noble families. But a fruit with a face... Someone, who apparently ordered Farmer to grow the fruit just so, has... a very specific flavour.

"Ew," was Ysabelle's only reaction, and to be honest - many would have agreed with her conclusion about the blue fruit with the snickering face and sunglasses. Even Farmer didn't argue with their partner's opinion about it. Really, ew (no offence, Mr. Qi). The girl simultaneously wants to ask what this fruit is and doesn't want to know anything about it, figuring it will be further questions than answers. People in the hotel have demanded stranger foods and delicacies, so the blue face fruit isn't too much of a shock to her. But still - ew.

"Hmm, why the face?" How does Farmer know, Paula? When they took the assignment from a, ahem, familiar person, they had no idea that the 'Qi fruit' would turn out to be exactly like this - a bit creepy, with a human face (but cool glasses!). The military medic wasn't too surprised by this weird crop (she'd seen much stranger food), and if the fruit wasn't poisonous and wasn't an allergy sufferer's worst nightmare, why not give it a try. "Heh, I wonder if anyone would dare to try this food on a dare"

"No, thank you, my soul. I'm good with an apple," June politely declined as Farmer, having harvested a ripe crop from the greenhouse, brought June a whole basket of different fruits and berries from all seasons to the farmhouse. His favourite apples, strawberries, oranges, pomegranate, a blue fruit with a face- Wait, what? Did he see that right? Yeah, the pianist's eyesight was not deceiving him. Later, he'll be asking Farmer questions about the blue weird fruit. In the meantime, he just wants to enjoy the apple.

When Faye thought of fresh fruit salad, she imagined cutting up a juicy and sweet mango, a ripe, with the sour notes pineapple, a delicious banana, and fill it up it with fresh orange juice. And at the sight of the Qi fruit, the waitress honestly lost her appetite. Is it... really a fruit? Why does it look so scary? It's also smiling... Oh, yuck! Farmer, that fruit winked at her! Brrr! No weird blue fruits on the dinning table, they're scary!

Shiro jumped up sharply, almost scalding hot, when he saw a field of a hundred blue smiling heads from the porch. Everywhere he turned his head, there they were: smiling, the light bouncing off their... Glasses? What the hell is that, anyway? "People want to buy fruit like that? With a scary face?" No, he's not going to try it, and the Farmer isn't advised to either. It doesn't look good, and it probably doesn't taste good anyway- No, Farmer, making this 'Qi' fruit into a smoothie isn't a good idea either... Just don't, please.

Corine never thought people could come up with something like this with crop. Well, she'd seen square watermelons, heart-shaped pears, and even star-shaped peaches on TV. But a melon-sized blue fruit that also had a human face..... Even she didn't expect that. Really, she doesn't understand why the Farmer glued it on. "Oh, I didn't glue the glasses on, dear, they grew with the fruit!" Sorry, the glasses did what?

"No offence, dear, but I'll probably pass." Oh, Farmer didn't grow this fruit for food, but for someone personally? Whew, what a relief... Um, Kenneth didn't mean to be rude or offend Farmer in any way, but the mere thought of that Qi fruit that very much resembled a head being cut with a knife made him cringe and disgusted. The inventor doesn't understand who needs fruit grown in this way, but he's not good at farming, so Kenneth will leave the matter to his spouse.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

Another perfect example of how masking to help prevent covid keeps us *all* safer from *all* airborne illness.

by Tamara Schneider

Lingering respiratory viruses set the stage for chronic lung disease, mouse study shows

Doctors have long known that children who become seriously ill with certain respiratory viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are at elevated risk of developing asthma later in life. What they haven’t known is why.

A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may have solved the mystery. The study, in mice, shows that respiratory viruses can hide out in immune cells in the lungs long after the initial symptoms of an infection have resolved, creating a persistently inflammatory environment that promotes the development of lung disease. Further, they showed that eliminating the infected cells reduces signs of chronic lung damage before they progress to a full-blown chronic respiratory illness.

The findings, published Oct. 2 in Nature Microbiology, point to a potential new approach to preventing asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other chronic lung diseases by eradicating the persistent respiratory viruses that fuel these conditions.

“Right now, children who have been hospitalized for a respiratory infection such as RSV are sent home once their symptoms resolve,” said senior author Carolina B. López, PhD, a professor of molecular microbiology and a BJC Investigator at WashU Medicine. “To reduce the risk that these children will go on to develop asthma, maybe in the future we will be able to check if all of the virus is truly gone from the lung, and eliminate all lingering virus, before we send them home.”

About 27 million people in the U.S. are living with asthma. Many factors influence a person’s likelihood of developing the chronic breathing illness, including living in a neighborhood with poor air quality, having exposure to cigarette smoke and being hospitalized for viral pneumonia or bronchitis while young. Some researchers — López included — suspected that the link between serious lung infection and subsequent asthma diagnosis was due to lingering virus in the lungs that causes ongoing damage, but a direct link between the ongoing presence of virus and chronic lung disease has not been previously shown.

López and first author Ítalo Araújo Castro, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in her lab, developed a unique system involving a natural mouse virus known as Sendai virus, and fluorescent markers of infection. Sendai is related to human parainfluenza virus, a common respiratory virus that, like RSV, has been linked to asthma in children. Sendai behaves in mice in very much the same way that human parainfluenza virus behaves in people, making it an excellent model of the kinds of infections that could lead to chronic lung disease.

Using the fluorescent trackers, the researchers could observe signs of the virus throughout infection. After about two weeks, the mice recovered, but viral RNA and protein were still detectable several weeks later in their lungs, hidden away in immune cells.

“Finding persistent virus in immune cells was unexpected,” López said. “I think that’s why it had been missed before. Everyone had been looking for viral products in the epithelial cells that line the surface of the respiratory system, because that’s where these viruses primarily replicate. But they were in the immune cells.”

Moreover, the presence of the virus changed the behavior of the infected immune cells, causing them to become more inflammatory than the uninfected immune cells. Persistent inflammation sets the stage for chronic lung disease to arise, the researchers said. Indeed, seven weeks after infection, the mice’s lungs exhibited inflammation of air sacs and blood vessels, abnormal development of lung cells and excess immune tissue — all signs of chronic inflammatory lung damage, even though the mice appeared outwardly to have recovered. Once the infected immune cells were eliminated, the signs of damage diminished.

“We use a perfectly matched virus-host pairing to prove that a common respiratory virus can be maintained in immunocompetent hosts for way longer than the acute phase of the infection, and that this viral persistence can result in chronic lung conditions,” Castro said. “Probably the long-term health effects we see in people who are supposed to be recovered from an acute infection are actually due to persistence of virus in their lungs.”

The findings point to new ways to think about preventing chronic lung diseases, the researchers said.

“Pretty much every single child gets infected with these viruses before the age of 3, and maybe 5% get serious enough disease that they could potentially develop persistent infection,” López said. “We’re not going to be able to prevent children from getting infected in the first place. But if we understand how these viruses persist and the effects that persistence has on the lungs, we may be able to reduce the risk of serious long-term problems.”

Study: Castro IA, Yang Y, Gnazzo V, Kim DH, Van Dyken SJ, López CB. Murine parainfluenza virus persists in lung innate immune cells sustaining chronic lung pathology. Nature Microbiology. Oct. 2, 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01805-8

www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01805-8 (PAYWALLED)

[gumjrop]

The Weather

Twenty-seven US states remain at High to Very High levels of SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater since February 28, 2024, with five states not reporting.

Wastewater levels are decreasing throughout the country except in the Midwest. The South is still experiencing extremely high transmission. As a reminder, the last two weeks, shown in gray, are provisional data. These values may change as additional wastewater sites report data.

Despite these ongoing high levels of transmission in most of the country, and in defiance of pleas from civil society to protect the most vulnerable among us, the CDC has once again decided to walk back already insufficient protections – this time in the form of isolation guidance. It announced on Friday at 1 pm that it will repeal the 5-day isolation period for COVID-19 and instead treat COVID-19 like it does other respiratory viruses like flu and RSV, linking isolation length with symptomatology and fever. This policy, of course, is not based on the best evidence–just vibes and a lack of care for those of us still dying (1000s weekly) and still becoming disabled by Long COVID. 

Last week, the CDC recommended that people 65 years and older should receive an updated booster. It did not approve a booster for other people in high-risk categories because they didn’t bother studying the benefits and risks in these groups.

Wins

OK. So it’s been a rough week. But you know what? We are all fighting back. We see you all making calls, creating and signing petitions, joining and expanding Mask Blocs, creating and distributing zines, and making your own air-cleaning systems. We see so many more masked, tested, and ventilated events than we used to! We are mobilizing collective power to keep each other safe and to transform this state. 

Next week, March 11, will mark the 5th anniversary of the declaration of the pandemic. We’re not where we should be, but this pandemic has radicalized a lot of us. Keep connecting. Keep finding your people. Keep going. We will win. 

Oh! And check out these Free COVID-19 and flu test vending machines in King County, Washington!

Variants

JN.1 is still the most dominant variant circulating in the United States and is projected to account for 92.3% of all circulating variants by March 2nd, 2024. Two JN.1 descendants, JN.1.13 and JN.1.18, are now the second and third most common circulating variants, projected to be at 3.3% and 1.8%, respectively.

To check for circulating variants within your community, you can find your HHS Region through the CDC Variant Tracker dashboard.

Long Covid

In an article published in Science, Drs Ziyad Al-Aly and Eric Topol reviewed the perplexing case of Long COVID. They discuss the lack of consensus and systematization when it comes to the classification of the disease, partly due to its different mechanisms and manifestations. For example, younger adult and female Long COVID patients are more likely to be afflicted by fatigue, dysautonomia, brain fog, and post-exertional malaise, while older patients are more likely to deal with cardiovascular and metabolic complications. They also discuss the current potential treatments for Long COVID, but express that since nonpharmaceutical interventions have been neglected, vaccines are the only available therapy. However, vaccines are unable to prevent Long COVID. Ultimately, they state that the only way to prevent Long COVID is by ending COVID transmission, such as by administering pan-variant neutralizing intranasal vaccines.

On March 15, 2024, the Long COVID March will be taking place in Washington D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial. The march is intended to mobilize Long COVID patients and allies to demand acknowledgment and policy changes from the government. You can read the march’s mission statement, which includes a list of objectives. 

Take Action

Join us in demanding the CDC reinstate the 5-day COVID isolation policy. Despite the guidelines having already been dropped, we must still fight for adequate protections from COVID to safeguard our communities from harm. Make your voices known by sending a letter to the White House and your elected officials through our Action Network. The People’s CDC will also be implementing other action items in the coming weeks, so look out for those!

Today is COVID Memorial Day, in which we remember the 1.2 million lives lost to COVID in the United States, and show solidarity with the millions living with COVID grief and Long COVID. Check out Marked by COVID to learn more or to participate in today’s virtual vigil.

Again, we must continue to contact our elected officials to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, and we must continue to wear and require the wearing of high-quality respirators such as N95s and KN95s at protests and within organizing spaces. 

[abbcdon]

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ— I watched him even then as he fell, his face undefeated, his eyes still proud.

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ“Above him were seraphs, each with six wings […] and they were calling to one another: ‘holy is the Lord; the whole earth is full of his glory’” ISAIAH 6:1-3

Era cheio de adoração e graça. Vivia para olhar além de si e encontrar a beleza do perfeito e adorá-la sem hesitação pela eternidade. E era bom quando mantinha seus olhos no trono e entoava louvores que ecoavam sobre as nuvens, mas mesmo que nunca piscasse ou arriscasse olhar para além da luz, jamais seria considerado importante. Jamais seria amado como era a criação. Era um espelho criado para refletir a luz mais brilhante, sempre incapaz de ver a si e ser aquecido.  

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ“You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. […] every precious stone adorned you… You were anointed as a guardian cherub, […] You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. […] Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor” EZEKIEL 28:12-17

Quando seus olhos encontraram a luz dele, sabia que estava condenado. Não havia outro mais glorioso ou mais importante, por isso quando se viu refletido no brilho dourado de suas asas, espantou-se. Viu-se amado ao refletir a grandeza dele. Soube naquele instante que aguardou por aquele momento desde o início do tempo e o seguiria por onde quer que fosse até a última gota de sua graça. 

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ“Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and then horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth” REVELATION, 12:3-4

Mesmo que não fosse grande ou poderoso, tinha voz, e com ela gritou os desejos dele e trouxe volume às reivindicações que fizera. Fez-se útil e lhe defendeu quando o condenaram sem que sequer lhe pedisse. Nunca parou para pensar que consequências suas ações teriam. Estava muito além do alcance da salvação e quando o lançaram do céu, pulou no abismo para alcançá-lo. Foi feito para adoração e era fiel à sua natureza, mas havia encontrado o divino longe do criador e não o abandonaria. Quando atingiu o abismo, sorriu à imensidão do reino justo de seu mestre e nem quando precisou arrancar os pedaços chamuscados de suas asas, se arrependeu.

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ"And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas, the satyr shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there shall Lilith alight, and find for herself a place of rest" ISAIAH 34:14, RSV

Ela tinha olhos pálidos e sua voz soava como uma canção de ninar. Não havia paraíso sem sua presença e o caído regojizou a sorte de ser algo para ela. Seu mestre tinha novas funções - toda a criação para sobrevoar e destruir - e nela depositou a confiança de supervisionar os seus. A voz que lhe uma vez fora útil pouco era necessária no abismo, então ela o ensinou a prestar atenção nos ruídos do silêncio e a apreciar grunhidos. Suas mãos, delicadas e pálidas, já não careciam de força e sangue; ela deixou que provasse seu valor para que os desejos de seu mestre fossem atendidos. Outrora fora nada. No poço, tornava-se tão grande quanto as sombras que ela lançava na escuridão. 

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ"They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon [...]" REVELATION 9:11 

Tinha um nome que significava mais para si que qualquer outra coisa e olhos que reluziam ouro como uma vez brilharam as asas de seu mestre. Já não importava aqueles que não o valorizavam, ou os que não acreditavam que poderia se tornar mais. Abaddon rastejou para fora do lamaçal do pecado marcado por tudo aquilo que havia feito em nome dele. Cada degrau era uma nova vitória que o levaria à admiração de seu mestre e quanto mais fundo chegava, mais acreditava que assim que ele olhasse para si, veria refletido em seus olhos a mesma grandeza que um dia o levou à perdição.

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ“Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction?" PSALM 88:11

[bked0n-lorazepam]

"RSV"

The cold atmosphere surrounding the two men dampened the mood plenty, and the harsh coughs of the patient in front of them made it worse.

House had taken a case of a seven year old girl who hadn’t been able to walk since she was three. Whenever pressure was put on her left leg she would get a shooting pain all the way up to her spine.

No doctor knew why, other than that it was immovable and that she would probably never use it again. She and her mom had come into the clinic due to a respiratory infection, and House found her background ‘interesting.’ 

After a plethora of examinations and not-so-legal operations, he and his team found a tumor in her calf and in the middle of her spinal cord. How all of her other doctors missed them baffled the man, truly.

But that was how he was now sitting next to the girl showing her magic tricks as Wilson discussed with her mom possible treatments. 

“We could remove them and the dead tissue that surrounds the tumors, but it’s a tough and long operation that doesn’t have the highest chance of working.” Wilson stated lowly to the crying woman.

“How high?” She choked out, wiping her eyes with a tissue.

“A good, twenty-percent chance.” He estimated and thought about the severity of the girl's illness. “Her respiratory infection also doesn’t help much in the process, but if we don’t take those tumors out now, they might not be able to come out at all.”

The mother looked over at her daughter and watched as House pulled out a card from behind her ear, and then she saw him flick the girl’s forehead when she said it was the wrong card. Her mother laughed slightly, and then looked back at Wilson.

“Where do I sign?” Wilson smiled at her words and nodded to the door, “I’ll show you the reception.”

=======

The woman came back to the room and hugged her daughter, kissing her forehead. “Are you ready to get better, sweetie?”

The girl nodded her head and grinned, a tear falling from her eye.

Wilson walked in and snorted at House, who had fallen asleep in the chair with cards spread out all over him. 

“House.” He called out to the man, repeating it louder again. House still didn’t wake up, and Wilson scoffed before looking at the girl and the woman. 

“It’s about to get a little loud.” He warned them before he stood in front of the girl and offered his hand out. She took it, and he used his other to take off a cord that connected her to her heart monitor. It beeped loudly, repetitively, and House jolted awake. 

“Huh?”

“Welcome back, we almost lost you there.” Wilson said sarcastically, and House rolled his eyes. Wilson looked back at the girl, and he and House both grimaced when she coughed on his face. 

“I am so sorry.” The girl said and covered her mouth as she finished coughing. 

Wilson smiled tightly at her and connected her back to the heart monitor, “It’s all right, it happens more than you think.”

=======

“Where’s Wilson?” House barged into Cuddy’s office, completely ignoring the man she was with.

“House!” She scolded him, gesturing to the other man. “I’m in a meeting with someone. Knock next time.” 

“Oh, really? In that shirt I thought you were trying to proposition him a little something-something, if you catch my drift.” He raised his eyebrows to punctuate his sentence and grinned.

Cuddy gritted her teeth, and excused herself from the other man before walking out of the office with House trailing behind her.

“Wilson is at home sick with RSV. I told him to leave when I saw him this morning with eyebags heavier than yours and when I heard him cough his lungs out in his office from outside his door.” 

House looked at her and hummed before taking off without a word. The woman groaned and turned around, stopping one of the assistants. “Clock Dr. House out of work, please.”

=========

House lifted his cane up to Wilson’s door and knocked to the tune of ‘Shave and a Haircut’. He didn’t get a response, so he jiggled the handle and opened the door when he noticed it was unlocked. 

“You know, I could kill and rob you right now.” He shouted out as he walked into Wilson’s living room. It was eerily quiet, and he didn’t like it. The man thudded his cane on the ground three times and heard a faint cough as three other knocks followed from Wilson’s bedroom wall.

House’s eyebrows furrowed and he went to see the sick oncologist, roughly opening the door and turning on the lights. “Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.”

Wilson groaned loudly and grabbed one of his pillows to cover his head with, coughing underneath it. He groaned even louder when House poked him with his cane, right before House jabbed it into his side.

“Ow! House!” Wilson uncovered his head and looked at the other man, holding up his hand to the light above them. He coughed a bit, and House let out a quick ‘yikes’ when he saw just how bad Wilson looked. 

The man in question had eyebags darker than his own hair, and his eyes were incredibly red and puffy. His lips were dry and cracked, and he had dried drool on his chin. His cheeks were red as well, and his hair was tousled like he just got thrown off a bull. 

“Jesus Christ.” House murmured, taking in the sight of his best friend. The said man had only grunted and thrown his face back into his pillow, coughing into it. 

“If you’re gonna gawk, at least turn the lights off.” His voice was muffled, but House understood it enough to flick the light switch and leave the room.

The man stood there for a second, staring at the door before going into the kitchen and grabbing Wilson’s keys from the glass bowl, and leaving to go to his own house.

=======

Wilson’s eyes opened when he heard his front door slam shut, and he inhaled deeply and sat up. He ran his hands through his tangled hair and carefully stood up, making his way to his bathroom. Washing his hands when he was finished with his business, he turned off the water and dried his hands while trying to sniff the air.

He couldn’t smell or breathe very well, but there was a slight smell of Thai food that caught his attention. He fixed his hair and left the bathroom, and wobbled to his kitchen, where he saw House sitting down on his sofa and eating noodles while watching ‘General Hospital.’

“Save any for me?” He croaked out and cleared his throat. 

“Fridge.” Was the only thing House said through a mouthful of noodles, and Wilson made his way to his fridge.

He pulled out a box of more noodles, and noticed the grocery bag on his counter. He reached out for it, and pulled out a bottle of Nyquill, Aspirin, Tylenol, allergy medications, and Motrin.

He opened the bottle of Tylenol and grabbed two, tossing them into his mouth and fitting his head under the sink to down them with the tap water. He grabbed the Thai noodles and sat down next to House, digging into his food. 

They both sat there in enjoyable silence until Wilson noticed all of the new pillows and blankets that sat on his reclinable sofa and spoke up.

“What’s all that for?” He mumbled through his noodles. 

“Doesn’t matter.” House said simply, pushing himself off the couch with his cane and taking his trash and bowl to the kitchen. Wilson stared at the cushions and shrugged, continuing to watch the TV. 

When he was finished, he got up and also took his bowl to the kitchen, and he coughed into his elbow as he placed his bowl in the sink. “Are you going to pay rent, at least?”

“Nope.” House popped the P and typed away on Wilson’s laptop, not bothering to look at the man. Wilson deadpanned at House until he decided to walk away and go back to his room, flopping onto his bed and falling asleep there.

The other man was searching for drug cocktails that he could inject his friend with to get him better, and he grinned devilishly when he found one that he had access to all of the drugs.

He leaned over slightly to see if Wilson’s door was open or not, and stood up and quickly made way to his bag when he saw it was closed. He pulled out what should have been a med-kit, and took out the drugs in it. He chose what he needed, and made sure all of the right ingredients were put into a syringe.

He slowly limped to Wilson’s room, opting out of using his cane so that he didn’t cause too much noise and wake him up. House opened his door carefully, and his nerves eased when he heard the loudest snore he’s ever heard in his life.

 He ticked his tongue and made his way to Wilson, pulling out a sanitisation packet from his pocket. He lifted the sleeping man’s shirt and carefully rubbed it onto his back, freezing when he stirred. Pulling out the other packet, he wiped down the needle slowly and injected Wilson with the cocktail quickly. 

He froze again, expecting Wilson to wake up and yell at him, but he didn’t. He was still fast asleep, and still snoring. House smiled in success and tossed the syringe into the trashcan by Wilson’s bed, and covered it up with crinkled tissues. He then left the room and closed the door, and went back into the kitchen where the laptop was. 

House re-skimmed over the article with the side effects and he stopped when he saw something slightly alarming.

“Patient may fall unconscious for any time ranging from 16 hours to 2 days. Watch closely and monitor all the time. Any illnesses that the patient may have when the cocktail is injected will dimishness.”

“Shit.”

=======

Wilson woke up after twenty-six hours with cotton mouth, a diaper on, and no idea where he was until he saw House sitting on a chair reading a magazine. 

“House?” He grumbled, lifting himself up to look at his clock. It was late, 1:24 in the morning to be exact. He looked back at House, and the man stood up and slapped the back of his hand onto Wilson’s forehead and held it there. 

“Feels fine.” The man said, and he grabbed his cane and left the confused Wilson to his own devices. 

Wilson didn’t know what happened, or what to do, so he chose to take a shower and freshen up. When he was done, he saw a glass of water on his bedside table and downed it immediately.

He sighed and stood there, unsure of what to do once again. That was until he noticed he felt much better than when he fell asleep.

He went to find House, and saw him in the kitchen again making what he assumed was an omelet. Staring into the back of House’s head, he felt that something was wrong.

He went to sleep with RSV and the worst headache and cough of his life, and now he felt like he could run a marathon.

“What did you do?” He questioned, and locked eyes with House when he turned around.

“What, no ‘thank you?’ No, ‘Oh my goodness, House. I feel so much better, thank you for your help and kindness?’” House mocked, tossing the omelet onto a plate and holding it out for Wilson.

Wilson felt iffy taking the food, but he still did and he sat down at the table as House served him a glass of orange juice. 

“It’s two in the morning-” “I don’t care, eat your food.”

“M’kay.” Wilson didn’t argue and he grabbed his fork and ate, huffing down all of it and drinking every drop in the glass. “So, what’d you do?”

“I drugged you with seven different drugs.” House told him, grabbing Wilson’s plate and putting it in the sink before filling his glass back up with more juice. Wilson sat there and stared at him in disbelief, no words could come out of his mouth. 

“Right.” Was the only word he could say, and he downed the drink in his glass. His mind was racing with many things he wanted to tell his friend.

He was in awe that he would put him so close to death, and that he would even think of doing such a thing that could one again, put him so close to death. It was insane of him to do, and he was flabbergasted. But what came out instead of yelling was, 

“You cared that much?” House turned on the water to the sink and grabbed a sponge and soap and started doing the dishes, ignoring Wilson’s question. 

That was the only answer Wilson needed, though, and he smiled at the back of House’s head. 

“I’m telling your team when I go into work.”

“No the hell you aren’t!”

“Oh, yes the hell I am!”

[rikaklassen]

CW: COVID-19

via @augieray@mastodon.social

Yes, I wish the general public takes COVID more seriously.

Coronavirus is not like the flu nor RSV and we've known about that since MERS and the first SARS. Also, massively disappointed with queer assimilationists since COVID is quite similar to HIV/AIDS and given how the government's eugenicist policies and their anti-LGBT campaigns wiped out many of the people who would have been elders in our communities today. Let's alone the deaf communities with the older generations of sign language folks becoming deaf and multi-disabled because of rubella, which is much more infectious than COVID.

I encourage you to read what Augie has to say since the screenshot is a snapshot of a five-parts thread.

Here is the spreadsheet where Augie took the time to read over 1 500 studies and summarized the findings of about 500 of them: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12VbMkvqUF9eSggJsdsFEjKs5x0ABxQJi5tvfzJIDd3U/

[shion-yu]

Day 19: “I didn’t mean to wake you up.” (alt)

996 words, Cliff and Elliot fluff with no TWs. @sicktember

Cliff had been coughing for days on end now. It was a wet, harsh cough that wracked his whole body and left him too exhausted to do anything else. Elliot brought him to the doctor, where he was diagnosed with RSV and told to stay in bed as much as possible. Usually, RSV wouldn’t cause a cough like this. But it was Cliff, and Cliff’s lungs already struggled on the best of days. Add in a virus and it was a recipe for disaster.

It started on Thursday night. They were walking Clover after dinner when Elliot first noticed Cliff struggling. His cough seemed a bit worse, more frequent than usual. Maybe it was just the cool fall air, Elliot thought, but then he noticed other things: Cliff was stumbling even with his crutches and his face looked pale, always a sure sign that he wasn’t feeling well. “Cliff? You okay?” Elliot asked.

“Fine,” Cliff said, coughing away. But on the elevator up to their apartment, Elliot could see the glazed look in his eyes that signaled an incoming fever. He wrapped his arm around Cliff and could feel him shaking a little. 

“Cold?” Elliot asked him.

“A little,” Cliff shivered. Elliot stayed close and ushered him into their apartment, where he unleashed Clover and then told Cliff to change into something comfy. Inside the warmer house, a blotchy flush had formed on Cliff’s cheeks. 

Elliot warmed up the hot water bottle and brought it to Cliff in their bedroom. “It’s not that bad,” Cliff said. “Thank you though.”

Elliot rested a hand on Cliff’s forehead anyways, humming in disapproval. “You’ve got a fever,” he said.

“Do I?” Cliff asked weakly. As if he didn’t know, Elliot thought. As if there was any way Cliff wasn’t feeling sick by now. But his boyfriend was so used to pushing through pain and discomfort every day, maybe he really didn’t know. 

That night, Cliff began coughing in earnest. He wasn’t able to sleep for more than a handful of hours without waking up struggling to breathe, so Elliot sat behind him and held him so he could sleep sitting up. He ran Cliff’s nebulizer, humidifier, and made sure Cliff’s oxygen was running at a higher flow than usual. By morning they were both exhausted, and that was when Elliot dragged Cliff to his doctor’s. 

Cliff got scripts for steroids and strong cough syrup, although he already had both at home. The doctor told Elliot to check Cliff’s oxygen periodically, and to go to the ER for anything sustained below 86%. Cliff’s baseline was lower than the average person’s, Elliot knew, but 86% still sounded so low to him. 

At home, Elliot was dutiful in making sure Cliff was taken care of. He checked vitals, kept Cliff as comfortable sitting up as possible, and administered meds on time. “Relax, El,” Cliff told him weakly. “I’m going to be fine.” But it was hard to believe him when he there was an audible wheeze to his breath, and they’d ended up in the emergency room so many times when it was “fine” before.

“You need to sleep,” Cliff told him on the evening of the second day of his illness. Elliot shook his head. How could he sleep when he was so afraid Cliff might stop breathing again? They’d hooked up the continuous O2 monitor by now, which would wake them both up with a shrill beeping sound if Cliff’s oxygen dropped below 89%. But Elliot felt better if he could see Cliff breathing for himself. After all, Cliff had yanked the sticker off of his finger in confusion to make the noise stop when his saturation had been critically low more than once before. At that point he’d usually start pulling his nasal cannula off too, and at worst, wandering. A hypoxic Cliff was a confused Cliff, and when Cliff was confused he had the tendency to get into trouble.

Elliot held out as long as he could, listening intently to Cliff’s labored but present breath sounds until the wee morning hours. He could hear birds chirping outside and the first rays of morning light were filtering through the blinds when he finally fell asleep, his head in Cliff lap.

He woke to a harsh cough. He blinked in confusion, realizing at some point he’d migrated to his side of the bed to lie down properly. Cliff was next to him, attempting to muffle his coughing into a pillow clutched to his chest. Elliot sat up and rubbed his back, still half asleep. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up,” Cliff choked out between wheezy breaths. 

“It’s fine,” Elliot said sleepily. “Here, sit up some more.” He dutifully slid behind Cliff once again, holding the thin and shaking frame of his husband in front of him. “Try and slow your breathing.”

Cliff was trying, but it was hard. Almost too hard, but eventually he managed to wait out the coughing spasm and slumped back against Elliot. “Sorry,” he panted. “You were sleeping so sweetly, too.”

“Was I?” Elliot asked, amused and affectionate as he ran a hand through Cliff’s sweaty hair and tucked Cliff’s bangs behind his ear. “Were you watching me?”

“Maybe,” Cliff said, a smile audible in his weak voice. “You need to sleep too, you know.”

“I know,” Elliot said. He hadn’t always known. He used to stay up worrying over Cliff for so many hours, even when they weren’t living together. But by now he’d realized he couldn’t be a good caretaker if he didn’t rest occasionally. It was a work in progress, and one with a lot of room for improvement, but at least he wasn’t chugging energy drinks to stay awake these days. 

Cliff shifted in his arms, his warm body feeling so light against Elliot. “Try and sleep some more. I’m okay now,” Cliff murmured. 

Elliot kissed the side of Cliff’s head. “If you say so.” He was asleep in seconds.

[sparky-tubgoat]

FDA Approves First-Ever RSV Vax Nearly 60 Years After Disastrous Experimental Shot | The Daily Wire

Well, sign me the hell up. The FDA wouldn't approve a vaccine that could harm us. Nope. No way. No how. Never.