#vaccine roll-out

[savage-rhi]

This certainly explains some recent shit...

[sweetdreamspootypie]

Plagueblogging / covid nursing 2023

[canichangemyblogname]

Went to vote yesterday, and I was about two booths away from a father and his very young daughter. She couldn't have been older than five, so she was getting a little squirrelly as she waited for her dad to vote. At one point, she was kinda poking around at things, namely, her dad's shoelaces. I then hear him say, very gently and very quietly, "Hold on. I'm almost done, sweetie. Gotta make sure I protect your books."

I smiled.

[spoopyyaoikingdom]

Did the tags

addendums: cult classic tv overlaps with early supernatural seasons somewhat, i am aware, just choose based on the cultural context in which you read your first fic.

for weeaboo crew i was thinking of examples like hetalia, black butler, soul eater, etc--popular anime absolutely included but the distinction is that people who were into dragon ball weren't necessarily going to anime club every week and making deviantart stamps about yaoi, but people into ouran high school host club ABSOLUTELY were.

homestuck is in its own category because homestuck changed fandom forever at a critical time which just happened to be when i was growing up in fandom. harry potter, lotr, star wars, and twilight are in their own categories because they were such multimedia juggernauts they had entire archives dedicated solely and only to their fic that spanned multiple franchise reboots (books -> movies -> extended universes). (i acknowledge star trek technically would fit under this but at the time culturally it had more overlap with other cult classic tv fandoms.)

honorable mentions that didn't make it to the list because i had to pick-and-choose with the 12 answer limit: the final fantasy franchise (axed because i am not familiar enough with the fic scene to know if it was as iconic of a gateway drug as, like, naruto or twilight or star wars fic), a general YA lit category (YA lit outside of twilight only went mainstream slightly after this time period), the MCU (i have a hate boner for the MCU), a broader "american superhero comics" category (this would be valid as an option but i don't have the space)

[sophsweet]

My Diary 2021 - week 4

It all starts with Sorry Sophie Scrambled – RAF_Luton on Twitter

[normcore-tertiary-character]

Hey. Uh. In the 9-1-1 universe it sounds like they had covid vaccines in like October/November 2020?

[toyourliking]

in excellent news a friend and his awful fucking girlfriend have broken up 🥳

she’s awful for many reasons (antivax, racist, all around bigot) but what really fucking got me was even several years into the relationship she could “never remember” if he’s indian or pakistani 😐

[jemisard]

Because even if it doesn't kill you, polio can leave you crippled for life and it is entirely preventable. Imagine what a life changing injury can do to you. Now imagine if you knew it could happen and knew you could prevent it and *didn't*.

why do you and others like vaccines so much?

not dying of preventable diseases is actually one of my favorite hobbies

[ms-demeanor]

If you're new to me yelling about this: my neighbors feed a feral cat colony but provide no other care to the colony like neuter/spay or vaccination. They free feed the cats, which attracts skunks, and they have (at the moment) about 20 cats in the colony, which attracts coyotes.

My dog has been skunked twice, she can't be outside in our yard unsupervised for even a minute because otherwise she'll try to eat cat shit because there's cat shit everywhere in my yard because the neighbors also haven't provided litterboxes or a sandbox for their ferals (their entire yard is paved) and if she has to go outside at night I need to clear the yard for coyotes before I let her out even in the small fenced area by our bedroom.

Also there are fleas fucking *everywhere* and even though my dog is on medication to prevent fleas I need to de-flea her twice a week in the summer; this is the case for every dog owner on the street.

The street I live on has a speed limit of 25mph but I hear cats getting hit frequently, so frequently that we have a resident group of crows who hang out and wait for them to become roadkill.

I have a collection of photos on my phone that show kittens with broken legs, kittens with missing eyes, kittens with horrible ear mite infections, and I have a dedicated shovel that I use for moving cat corpses that show up on my property. The cats that die on my property die from abscessed wounds from fights with other cats, respiratory infections, renal failure, and injuries from being hit by cars.

My spouse is immune compromised, and while toxoplasmosis is not a serious risk for most people, it IS a serious risk for people who are immune compromised (as are all the other infections that cats can potentially carry), which means that it's unsafe for me to grow vegetables in my yard for us to eat and it's unsafe for him to work in the yard.

I'd love to maybe open my windows at night and keep down the electricity costs of using the AC, but I can't because the entire side of my house that faces my neighbor's yard reeks of cat shit and piss year round.

Those are my next door neighbors.

Last week I was walking my dog as a neighbor around the corner was pulling out of her garage; she paused and rolled down her window and pointed at the cats on her lawn and said "Head's up, my cats are weirdly aggressive about small dogs and they just got let out so they're full of energy right now" and I nodded and crossed the street and didn't yell at my neighbor but *the temptation was there* because A) why are you letting your aggressive animals roam and B) Why are you letting your cats shit all over the neighborhood and C) Why are you exposing your owned cats to the risks of the large and territorial feral colony that is a literal stone's throw away from your house?

Anyway, and as always, Keep Your Fucking Cats Indoors.

[navree]

at the risk of sounding blasé (which i hate to do but it is a risk),

you did not "lose two years and counting" to covid, you lost a year, at most a year and a half. and that ended in 2021. which WAS two years ago

[ayeforscotland]

An absolutely phenomenal stat.

Public Health Scotland: No cervical cancer cases have been detected in women who have been fully vaccinated against HPV. The HPV jag was rolled out to girls aged 12-13 in Scotland in 2008.

[sutorus]

HEART SHAKER

PAIRING: gojo satoru x reader

WC: ~1k

WARNINGS: established relationship, suggestive language, flirting, attempts at humor. fluff, somehow.

A/N: super freaking unedited i just had to get this out bc i can’t believe it’s not smut LOL

“god, you’re squeezing me so hard, sweetheart.”

you look up through your eyelashes at your boyfriend, brows set low in a warning. he only smirks. 

you pump harder. 

“oh fuck, it’s so tight right now.”

you huff in annoyance, slapping both hands down on your legs. 

“can you stop? i lost count!”

satoru laughs at you, throwing his head back. 

you cringe at how loud his movements sound in your ears, the stethoscope you were using still pressed to his skin. 

you release the pressure on the cuff around his arm, sighing deeply. 

“once again, i’m going to ask you,” you enunciate the words slowly, your eyes aiming at his, right behind that blindfold. “why don’t you have shoko do this?”

you’re sure if it were her measuring his blood pressure she could get actual accurate results. 

satoru tilts his head, smiling sweetly. 

“and why would i do that?” he singsongs. “you’re the prettiest little doctor around.”

“resident,” you correct him. 

you wish so badly that he was due for a vaccine or something, just so you would have an excuse to stab him. 

of course, you weren't complaining. you’re incredibly lucky that shoko took you under her wing once you got a job at the school. you weren’t able to master reverse cursed technique at her level quite yet, but you were just as good of a regular doctor as she was. 

it didn’t matter how good you were though, because you weren’t a pediatrician or a saint, and it takes one of either to deal with gojo satoru as a patient. 

“why do we even bother with check ups?” he asks, leaning back on the exam table. “i am literally healing my body twenty-four-seven.”

you roll your eyes, grabbing the light test hammer. 

“what kind of question is that? sit up straight,” you shuffle on your chair, getting in between his too-spread legs. whore. 

satoru shrugs, kicking his dangling feet. “a valid one.”

you bring the hammer down hard on his knee to check his reflexes. naturally, it stops just shy of his leg. 

you don’t even have to look. you know he’s smirking again. 

“turn infinity off.”

“‘turn infinity off’? you’re so cute,” he replies. you try to hit him with the hammer again to no avail. “i need to teach you some combat skills, girl.”

“and i need to examine you,” you get up off your seat, facing him. satoru leans in with a grin. “behave.”

he won’t. 

“wanna play doctor?” 

you ignore his voice and the obvious glee in it, a retort dying on your tongue because you do actually have to carry out a check up, to the best of your abilities. 

grabbing your clipboard, you skim through his most recent health assessment records.

he complained about a migraine to shoko. 

it makes your heart seize for just a moment, to think of all the stress satoru puts himself through to have his technique active at all times. 

“how’s your head?” you ask him. 

“you tell me,” his foot grazes the back of your knee, coaxing you closer. “any complaints?”

a dissatisfied sound comes out of your mouth as you press your hands to his chest instinctively, forcing distance between you two. 

“satoru, please.”

“do you worry, baby?” he reaches out to tentatively hold the side of your face. “don’t worry about me.”

“it’s literally my job,” you trail off, head dropping. 

satoru lifts your chin up and presses his lips to yours for a second or two. 

“sorry, sorry,” he says before you can chastise him. “couldn’t help it. you look so cute all worked up.”

at this point you just twist your lips disapprovingly, putting the stethoscope earpieces back on. 

you press it to his chest and listen as he breathes in and out. 

“satoru,” you frown. “are you okay?”

“hmm?”

you look at him knowingly, a smirk of your own blooming on your face. 

“why is your heart beating so fast?”

at that, your awful, awful boyfriend finally has the decency to blush. 

“and you’re breathing so hard, too—“

“it’s hard, alright—“

“—we might have to schedule some follow up exams,” you click your pen to fill out the form, neglecting the way he leans into you. 

“anytime,” he huffs out, breath skirting on your face where you stand between his knees. “do i get a lollipop for being such a good boy?”

“no,” you reply, taking a step forward. “but you can have this.”

you plant a kiss on his lips, letting it linger for longer than it should as he holds your hips tightly.

he hums contentedly when you pull away.

“mm, smart and generous,” satoru noses your jawline. “how did i get so lucky?”

you fight the sudden shyness rising up at his words.

“the same way i got so unlucky,” you smile at his pout. “life’s just not fair.”

he coos.

“you sweettalk all your patients or am i special?”

despite your best efforts not to, you grin at that.

“the most special,” you say, interlocking your fingers. “now get back to work.”

satoru grumbles a complaint but hops off the table nonetheless.

“thanks a bunch for seeing me, doc,” he leans down to hover his face right above yours. you push him away with a fingertip to his forehead.

“no problem. now shoo.”

you walk up to your desk to hopefully do some actual work now that your most special patient is leaving.

“ah, but i was wondering—“

“yes?” you don’t bother looking up from your paperwork.

“if you could give me some anatomy lessons sometime—“

“out!”

he slips out the door before you can turn around to see it.

you take a deep breath.

you love satoru to death, but you’re beginning to understand why shoko picked up smoking as a stress reliever.

[queenie-ofthe-void]

Cough Syrup

written for @steddiemicrofic August

prompt: plug || wc: 437 || rating: M || cws: sick fic, reference to child neglect, references to sex

~~~

"Baby," Eddie sighs, "just plug your nose. I promise it'll go down easier." Steve keeps his mouth sealed and shakes his head as he leans further back into the pillows propping him up against the headboard. Eddie’s very carefully holding the spoon in front of Steve’s face, syrupy red liquid on the verge of overflowing onto their comforter.

“You say that every time,” Steve complains. He moves his head to the side as Eddie makes his move and misses. “But it smells, and it’s gross, and it felt thick and disgusting in my mouth yesterday, and I’ll be fine without it.” 

Steve watches as another thread of Eddie’s patience unravels. After three days wasting away of fever and bone-wrenching aches, he’s surprised Eddie hasn’t just dropped him off on the hospital curb in a cardboard box, sign affixed to the side reading ‘Oversized baby for adoption. May need extra care. Fully vaccinated’.

“Steven James Harrington.” Full government name– with his correct middle name– means he’s in deep trouble. “You’ve inhaled nasty, probably radioactive, floating Upside-Down ash. You’ve accidentally swallowed demobat blood. You’ve drank shitty beer out of a communal bong, had your tongue down every girl’s throat in Hawkins, and inside my asshole–”

“Oh my god Eds, don’t say it like that.”

“–yet for some reason, you refuse a tiny bit of cough syrup to help you sleep.”

Steve rolls his eyes and sighs. In his attempts at being dramatic, he breaks into another coughing fit that has him reaching for the water glass on the nightstand next to all of his used tissues.

“I’ve been sick before and I’ve never needed drugs.”

“Never needed it,” Eddie leads, grabbing his hand, “or have your parents never offered it before?”

The question hits like a punch to the gut. He’d never thought about it that way. How his parents told him he’d get better soon, that he just needed some soup and crackers. If he focuses on being sick, it’ll just make him worse. How if he ate healthier he wouldn’t get sick in the first place.

“Stevie,” Eddie says gently, running his fingertips across Steve’s sweaty, overheated forehead. The fondness floods over him like a tidal wave, washing away all thoughts of his parents’ lack of love and care, something that's always so obvious from Eddie.

“The medicine will help you sleep. And if you sleep better,” Eddie says, and Steve can already see the trap forming, “then I’ll sleep better.”

Eddie smirks as Steve swallows around the spoon, nose plugged. They know Steve would do anything to help Eddie, even if it means helping himself too.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

Half of Americans (49%) believe they'll never get COVID again, according to new polling from the Ipsos Consumer Tracker

Why we asked about COVID expectations: COVID cases are continuing a summer surge as “back-to-school” also becomes “back-to-COVID” season. New vaccines are starting to roll out.

What we found: This question is one we’ve asked for years now about how people think about their risk of getting COVID. And even as it surges around us those who think they will never again get COVID is now at the highest levels we’ve seen: about half (49%) of Americans. That leaves the other half shifting between those who say they expect to get it “despite trying to stay as safe as possible” and with the more fatalistic “I have gone about my life as normally as I could.” Many fewer (20% now compared to 31% at this time in 2023) say they are trying to stay as safe as possible as safety measures have mostly disappeared in all spheres. And yes, politics come into play here. Equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats don’t expect to get COVID again, but Democrats were twice as likely to say they are trying to stay safe. For the record, between 600 and 900 deaths per week recently are due to COVID, which currently accounts for about 2.5% of all deaths, according to the CDC. Car crashes, for reference, kill about 850 per week. (Nadi's NOTE: This is an incorrect statistic, as the 33% of hospitals reporting [making any current count a severe undercount] lists over 1,200 people dying last week from covid, up from over 1,100 the week before and over 1,000 the week before that. It has not been below four hundred deaths per week since March 2020.)

[corroded-hellfire]

I can 100% imagine that while reader put headphones in her tummy when she was pregnant with Eliza or the new pregnancy, she would make the baby listen to Billy Joel and when she's distracted or if she fell sleep, Eddie would change it to any of his favorite metal bands 😂

I love this idea so much! It’s very them, lol. I set this while reader is pregnant with Eliza 🩷

Words: 1.3k

[As You Wish masterlist]

It’s became a running joke between you and your husband by your third trimester. The first time it happened, you had still been in the first initial throes of pregnancy, the exhaustion wreaking havoc on your system every day. It wasn’t uncommon for Eddie to come home and see you curled up on the couch, fast asleep. Sometimes you’d be in bed or even soaking in the bath, but the couch seemed to become your late afternoon snooze location. 

One day when Eddie came home and saw you bundled up beneath your favorite purple blanket, he smiled and headed towards the kitchen. But he froze halfway through the living room. What was that sound?

Eddie turned, eyes searching high and low for whatever could be creating the low murmuring sound that filled his ears. He took a few steps closer to the couch and realized it was coming from you. 

Carefully, as not to disturb you, Eddie lifted the blanket and let out a small chuckle when he saw the headphones planted securely on your tummy. They were connected to your portable CD player, and as Eddie crouched down to be on the same level as your stomach, he tried to peek into the little window to see if he could tell what CD was inside. No luck, though.

Instead, Eddie moved as slowly and silently as possible to pull the headphones off your barely-there bump. He held them up to his ears to hear what you’re playing for your baby.

Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana, goodbye

“Oh, my sweet baby,” Eddie whispered. “What is she making you listen to? No, no. I will not let your mother subject you to Billy Joel. Wait right here. Well—you don’t have a choice, really.”

Eddie gently set down the headphones and pushed himself up from his crouched position. He took a few steps over to the stereo tucked in the corner of the room and rifled through his collection of CDs.

“Ah. Here we go.”

He plucked one and came back over to you, leaned down again, and quickly and quietly switched out your CD for a Metallica one. It took a moment to load, but then he pressed play and held the headphones up so he could hear.

So close, no matter how far

Couldn't be much more from the heart

Forever trusting who we are

And nothing else matters

“Much better.”

Eddie smiled to himself as he slipped the headphones back on your tummy and headed upstairs to get cleaned up.

Not even ten minutes later, you walked into your bedroom just as your husband was coming out of the adjoining bathroom. 

“Hey, baby,” he greeted. Then he saw the unimpressed look on your face. “What?”

“Why did I fall asleep to the smooth voice of Billy Joel, only to wake up to the depressing Nothing Else Matters?”

“Hey, when I came home, We Didn’t Start the Fire was playing. Not exactly the most cheerful song.”

“Keep your mitts off my headphones. Or it’s war, baby.”

And it became war. 

Sometimes you would grab your CD player and headphones right before Eddie came home, just for him to find you subjecting your child to your music. The only time he wouldn’t take the bait was if he was exhausted from work. Which meant, most times he had the energy to grab a metal CD and replace it with whatever pop one you had in.

Occasionally, this led to physical struggles, which involved a lot of laughing and rolling around on the floor with one another. The first few times that Ryan and Luke heard you squealing from the roughhousing, they’d come in to check on you. After the fourth time, they knew the sound meant another music battle was going on. 

When you got your energy back in the second trimester, it became harder for Eddie to switch out the music because you weren’t randomly falling asleep as much. Which meant he needed a new plan of attack. Sometimes after you’d fall asleep in your bed at night, Eddie would tiptoe over to grab your portable CD player and headphones, pop a Metallica disc in, then put the headphones on your belly. If you didn’t roll over and knock them off or yank the cord, you’d most likely wake up in the morning after the CD finished.

It leads you to now, where you’re sitting on your bed on a Saturday afternoon, the windows open and letting in the warm summer breeze and the pleasant birdsongs. Eddie has his head in your lap, one hand on your pronounced bump. 

“Was that another kick?” he asks.

“Yeah,” you say with a wince. 

The baby was now reaching the point where she’d be awake all night, moving around and not allowing you to get any sleep. It was getting uncomfortable, and you were hoping having Eddie here, rubbing your stomach would lull her to sleep. No dice so far.

“Here, can you hand me my headphones?” you ask, nodding towards your nightstand. “Maybe music will help.”

“And what music, may I ask, are you intending to play for our little sweet pea?” Eddie raises his eyebrows at you.

“I’ve had luck with Piano Man before,” you tell him.

“Don’t you think we should try—”

“No,” you cut him off. “Metal music makes her rowdy.”

“That’s my girl.” Eddie grins.

“Be a proud papa later. Right now, help your wife get some rest.”

“Wait…” Eddie hops off the bed and disappears out the bedroom door. He comes back a minute later brandishing a CD case.

“Have you tried this?” he asks.

You hold your hand out and bring the case closer once your husband hands it to you.

“The Phantom of the Opera? Huh. No, I haven’t. There are some good songs that could be used as lullabies in here.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Eddie says as he crawls back on the bed with you. “Here, I’ll set it up for you.”

You watch as Eddie opens the case and pops the CD into the player, a fond smile on your face the whole time.

“So, we’ll call this a truce right now?” you ask.

“I suppose so,” Eddie says, handing you the headphone. “Guess you and I have to be a team against this hyper baby girl.”

“Right. When she pops out, we can try to sway her with our music,” you add.

“Deal.” 

Eddie holds out his hand and you shake it with a chuckle.

You situate the headphones on your stomach just as Eddie presses play.

Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation

Darkness stirs and wakes imagination

Silently the senses abandon their defenses

Your husband curls up next to you and slowly rubs his hand up and down your belly. It only takes a few minutes before the movement in your womb slows down. You breathe a sigh of relief and rest your head against Eddie’s. 

“Better?” he whispers.

“Mhmm,” you hum, letting your tired eyes fall shut. 

A soft song is whispered near your ear and it takes you a moment to realize it’s Eddie singing Piano Man.

“Thought this song was a no?” you ask, voice already halfway fallen into sleep.

“Yeah, for the baby,” Eddie says. “But it’s too late for you. Your taste is solidified. So, I might as well give in.”

Eddie’s teasing tone makes you chuckle. He presses a kiss to the side of your head before picking up the tune again. 

Sing us a song. You're the piano man

Sing us a song tonight

Well, we're all in the mood for a melody

And you've got us feeling alright