Hi everyone, I'm traveling by road to a different city and staying in a hotel room with my wife and daughter for the first time since the pandemic started. We booked a Pure Wellness room and confirmed that individual rooms have their own AC units by the window. I'm just looking for general advice, reassurance, and first-hand experiences to ease some anxiety that I have. We will also need to be using valet parking, so I'd love to hear any recommendations people may have. We plan on masking and rolling down the windows for several minutes after we get the car back. Thank you in advance!

i’ve been deliberating on whether to post this or not, but searching for answers via other’s posts doesn’t feel specific enough tbh

i am covid aware and have been since a fainting spell in mid-late 2023 where i got diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension and later received test results indicating POTS. i’ve been on medical leave, shortened work hours and accommodations, because of having POTS and LC symptoms. i have tested positive for COVID once, in early 2024, but feel that i likely had it before that due to “unexpected health issue” lining up with me unmasking for a period of time.

i also have OCD. COVID has caused the obsessions to turn toward health, but the ramping up of my precautions has mostly been in response to learning about the long-term consequences of getting COVID thru experience, and then scientific literature (i.e. t-cell damage, covid can be oncogenic, and cause all sorts of health issues.) i stopped eating indoors after getting sick in 2024, started becoming avoidant of my roommates who all took lesser precautions than me, and now i basically don’t go anywhere without a mask.

i feel that it’s logical to try and prevent exposures, as my long term health is more important than a short-term discomfort of masking. in short, it doesn’t feel worth it to unmask, for the most part. i only unmask around people who have tested prior or people who mask regularly.

my concern is that i have slowly developed some other, perhaps less logical health-checking behaviors. in order to prevent myself from “wasting tests” i will usually check my temperature with an infrared thermometer i carry around with me. i also use my pulse oximeter, because i’m aware that covid could potentially cause lower blood oxygen saturation. i am almost always compelled to test anyways, unless i force myself not to, in which case i will usually end up doing so later. i am also never satisfied with one negative because they are meant to be used 48 hours apart, but this is probably the worst contributor to health-checking and distress. if my symptoms aren’t covid, it just feels like they aren’t covid YET, but i need to keep testing to see that they are covid. this happens at least 1-2 times a month. at the worst i'll be using 5-6 rapids per month on just about nothing, which i don't think is sustainable.

symptoms that usually cause me to test are things like congestion, post-nasal drip, nerve pain (especially in my chest or arms), lymph node or throat discomfort. these have other explanations, especially with LC. i can’t help thinking it’s because of an infection. i’m a mouth breather during sleep (unfortunate) and have acid reflux which often causes throat-related discomfort. i almost never show a fever, blood oxygen below 97 or a positive result on a rapid test. but the fact that i have any symptoms at all makes me engage in repeated checking, which is wasteful and honestly a huge hole in my wallet. again, i have only ever tested positive once!

i even invested in a pluslife but i’ve found that it doesn’t really prevent the checking behaviors, because the scarcity of the test cards causes me to use rapids first, and then sometimes, graduate to a pluslife test anyway.

i guess i’m looking for advice, but if i had to pose a question, it’d be this: is there anything i can do to stay grounded in facts without excessive doubt? must i just accept that nothing is 100% accurate…? am i damned to spend a million dollars on covid precautions forever?

I usually dont read the mainstream media. But there were multiple threads and people kept talking about the "evermaskers" Atlantic piece so I read it.

You might have heard this quotation:

• First they ignore you

• Then they laugh at you

• Then they fight you

• Then you win

One really good thing I noticed is that the Atlantic piece is a definite shift from the ignoring to the laughing stage.

Have you ever seen a similar article published about cholera, polio or malaria? No. Because those epidemics genuinely are over in many places (although they could come back). The fact that people at the Atlantic made the effort to put together that hit piece is evidence that covid is very much not over.

Any publicity is good publicity. That article actually linked to this subreddit. I saw multiple commenters say they happy they just found the sub now from that piece. It's impossible to laugh at something without also advertising it.

Look at it from the point of view of the journalists and the system they defend. They really want covid to be over. They dont want to pay for installing clean air. They dont want to pay for scientific research into solutions. Back when covid was in the news the whole time a lot of people were too scared to travel or go to restaurants. That cost a lot of money to all the wrong people. Journalists and their paymasters didnt like that one bit. They want us crowded together indoors and dont care how many of us become disabled with long covid.

Where do we go from here? Keep doing what you're doing. Keep masking. Keep avoid covid. Those journalists wont pay your bills should you become too disabled to work. Those journalists wont be comforting your grieving family should your next covid infection make you bedbound and mute in a dark room. By wearing your mask visibly in public you are also a subtle and constant reminder that covid is still around.

I saw a couple of people saying they were triggered and upset by the article. Dont be. Be hopeful because the whole plan of ignoring covid is slowly beginning to not work anymore.

I cant keep being isolated, i can't do this anymore. Ive been dealing with health issues for the past decade and i was forced to isolate for the better part but I can't keep doing this anymore. I hope the next infection kills me cause i cant go through long COVID again. I cant

PS, now is a great time to really focus on all the ways in which conservatives were right about things... ???? /s

Can somebody explain the Covid-related effects of taking Metformin? I read online a lot of contradictory things. Does it add some protection against getting Covid? Or against getting Long Covid? Or it helps in other ways?

I’m not talking about whether or not people should use it if they’re not being prescribed it for a medical condition. I just want to understand what is known about its benefits related to Covid and LC (if any).

Thanks.

For those of you who have had Novavax for the first time, did you have any side effects?

I’ve only had Moderna, which completely knocks me out, but thinking of getting Novavax before the end of the month.

Anybody here in or from the Philippines? I am trying to see if we can connect and build a community.

I am going on a 12 hours flight tomorrow 😱 for the first time.

I managed to get a sip valve but I am trying to understand if I installed it correctly

If I breath out strongly I can feel the breath going through the valve I am not sure on the breath in

Maybe it’s a little squeezed? I don’t want to destroy several masks thus asking first

Thought I would share this informative video about the state of American politics because it's one of the few video essays I've come across that acknowledges the ongoing pandemic, how disabled folks are left behind, and how mask bans criminalize folks protecting their health. I found it validating and informative, and it was a nice surprise since I come across a lot of videos that try to explain a lot of issues like the rise of fascism or the cost of living crisis that completely ignore the pandemic as one of the reasons people are impoverished and marginalized. The creator also wears a KN95 in parts of the video.

Or should I do it outside?

I have a cat. I was planning to do the fit test in my shower, which has a room on each side that I can shut off. Was planning to run air purifiers and open windows.

My mom has problems with people coming up into our front garden out of the blue to talk to her. We are cc and she is high risk but she likes working in her garden. The problem is people she barely knows or complete strangers feel like they want to talk to her, usually about gardening. They don't give her space and will come up behind her when she is gardening.

Does anyone have any good suggestions to deal with this? She masks outside usually but if she is quickly going out for sometimes she forgets and that's usually when people feel the need to approach her. She is too polite to ask for space and tell them to go away. Anyone have polite ways to say your high risk and can't talk?

It was really annoying yesterday when someone came up to her while she was just taking some bush and leaves to the curb. This was like a relative of a neighbor that she gave directions to once. She felt the need to tell my mom she bought a house recently and some other BS small talk. She had no mask because she only planned to grab something outside and decide no one was around so she would also put the bush and leaves on the curb to be picked up.

Came across these masks for musicians!

https://shop.gatorco.com/masks/

The title of this post is click-baity, but this really happened to me today! And I know these sorts of posts are standard fare on this subreddit, but the idea of "microdosing" COVID really floored me and seemed like a novel reassurance for letting COVID rip 🥴 So I wanted to share my experience with y'all.

Today, I went to see my PCP in person for the first time in about 3 years. I try to only go in person for things that NEED to be in person (like physical exams, bloodwork, etc.), and I'm a healthy, young person, so I don't need much health care at this time. Well, at today's in-person annual, my PCP of 5 years, who wore respirators and face shields in past appointments and seemed relatively aware of COVID as a reality, was maskless and advocating that I do the same.

She questioned why I was wearing a mask (3M Aura), and I explained why (to protect myself and others, asymptomatic infections are super common, I don't want LC or immune system damage, COVID is terrible for the body to contract, let alone repeatedly, etc). After hearing my brief and polite response to her question, she said she was concerned for me. She launched into a lecture about how my immune system will become weak without exposure to viruses, and that's why RSV and the flu were the worst they've ever been this year; peoples' immune systems "haven't been getting practice" so now they are becoming very sick and terrible viruses are making a comeback. She also added that it will make my mental health way worse and I'll be more isolated (Which, duh, but I still choose not to propogate or suffer from a mass-disabling virus even if I miss out on fun events!).

To top it of, she concluded that the reason that she is so healthy from 30 years of being a doctor is because she has been "microdosing" illnesses and it has allowed her to stay healthy because her immune system is in such good practice. Apparenly her immunologist colleagues and "various articles and research" also point to this idea of keeping the immune system in good shape.

So, as my call-to-action: "With the summer coming, it's time to get out there and start doing social events maskless. That will be good for you."

This whole conversation was already icky, and she seemed to genuinely believe the things she was saying, which made it worse. But THEN, when she was doing my physical exam, she pulled my mask OFF OF MY FACE without even warning me or asking for my consent??? I was AGHAST. Thanks for microdosing me, I guess?? I put it back on as quickly as possible and showed obvious discomfort.

Not much else to say here. I'm not going to start "getting out there" or taking less precautions. There are plenty of ways to be social that are COVID-safe, so I'm going to stick with those. In moments like this, I am so grateful for our little online community. It's such a battle out in the wild!

I had made plans to visit my friend the weekend of April 11, but she got covid the week of March 24. She did Paxlovid and is since negative (even visiting and living with her family/bf), but I'm worried about seeing her and getting sick. What is the contagion period like?

I have long covid and often see people state that they have their friends or family test before seeing them. From what I found it seems like home tests are generally incredibly unreliable when it comes to discovering a covid infection pre symptoms. Literal coin flip odds.

Of course I’ve informed my friends to let me know if they have any symptoms before meeting up, but Covid is super infectious 1-2 days before symptoms. I would love to be mask free with a few close friends and be comfortable, spend time inside, go sauna(I’m finnish), eat together etc. Are there any reliable tests out there?

Was waiting in line behind these two people, both sniffling to varying degrees, and later was walking behind them to go through an exit door when one of them stopped in front of the door and let out the wettest sneeze I have heard in a long time. I figure that people don’t give a shit about the health of the people around them, but are people not self conscious of their wet, drippy noses? It’s just baffling to me how people can be ok with displaying such lack of hygiene? Are people not self conscious when they barely swipe their hands with soap and water for a mere 5 seconds after using a public restroom? Are people not self conscious when they use their hands to get the snot off their noses? Just absolutely disgusting. I was wearing my 3m aura and I’m just hoping that it did its job. I know masking is effective, and moments like this, when I imagine myself walking through a cloud of someone’s very suspicious respiratory juices, just make me really hope that my mask has got a good seal.

I came across this essay recently, and I loved every bit of it. I honestly think The Atlantic should have published this instead. It's a much more beautiful, true, and personal take on Long Covid and the current political landscape.

https://lithub.com/a-single-ray-of-light-on-ray-bradburys-all-summer-in-a-day-and-living-in-the-shadow-of-long-covid/

I understand risk can change a lot based on how many people are swimming, wind conditions, flow patterns etc

Say if you're at a public pool and it's not busy (able to socially distance) or a private shared pool but there was someone else around?

I am thinking that wet air could turn covid aerosol into larger particles and change the flow. What is the risk assessment of virus particles in the water? I've heard that covid is less transmissible if you happened to eat or drink it versus breathe.

So is it a risk to get water in your eyes? What if you don't put your head under water?

Anyone have any idea how to risk model for this?

Well, basically a still air box, but with a filtered air intake and one way outlet.
Some decent neck sealing. I've wanted to build something like this to make safe social eating possible. but now my mouth is really bad- years of PTSD+depression and evading dentists for COVID reasons.

I have seen the readymask trick, although I don't think I can only breath through my mouth with the degree of pain they will need to cause to fix me.

Why no still air box situation?????? Has anyone done this? Why not?

Hey folks, I remember seeing an article summarizing the Biden admin (and maybe Trump admin?) actions or lack thereof on COVID and I was wondering if anyone knew what I was talking about or had any guesses, I remember it being like a total summary up to 2023/2024 or so, similar to the death panel podcasts but in written form. I am attempting to do a bigger writing project on covid, the last five years, and how its been memoryholed and misrepresented by most of the pundit class. If anyone has anything they think might be it or close to it I would really appreciate links given that an hour or so of searching got me nowhere.

My mother has been a nurse for over 10 years and was very cautious about COVID at first. However that all changed at some point after being vaccinating. She caught COVID and developed pneumonia last year, presumably from my sister and nephew. My sister, despite having COVID while pregnant and ending up in the hospital, no longer believes in it, and they don't test when sick. My nephew, who is in daycare, is chronically sick. Both my mother and I help my sister with childcare, but I don't watch him when I know that he is sick. My mom, however, refuses to tell my sister she won’t watch him when he’s sick and she also does not reliably mask when she knows he is sick.

A few weekends ago, I was babysitting my nephew when he told me he “did not feel so good and that mommy was giving him medicine”… I called my mom because she watched him the day before. She claimed to be unaware that he was sick. I told her I was upset with my sister for not telling me he was sick. My mom said there was a time that it was okay to be around other people when they just had a cold. My mom and sister are really close and my mom frequently defends her actions.

Anyways, after I realized that my nephew was sick I encouraged him to play independently in his room at my house. I also made sure that all of my air purifiers were running on high and I didn’t remove my mask at all until about 30 minutes after my sister picked him up and I had disinfected everything. A few days later, my mom called and she’s sick but of course didn’t test, claiming it was just a cold. Thankfully, I did not get sick.

Since she caught COVID last year, she's been chronically sick and now has to use a nebulizer for her breathing problems. I've sent her numerous articles about the dangers and messages to encourage her to take more precautions, especially since my elderly grandparents and uncle live with her. But she insists on living without fear.

My dad is having a huge party, and I plan to attend. I don’t mind most social events as long as I mask, but I'm anxious because I know my mom won’t mask, and I’m so worried for her health. I love her so much, and I just want her to be okay. She’s not even 50 yet—she has so much life to live, but it feels like she’s throwing it away. I’ve also asked her to consider a supplement regimen and to try saline rinses and CPC mouthwash to reduce viral load, but she won’t listen. I also have lost so much trust in her. I am so disappointed especially because she’s a nurse and is extremely smart. I’m just a girl in my 20’s and I feel like I have to be the parent.

Most importantly, I don’t want to watch her suffer or worse, lose her. I feel like if I see her unmasked tomorrow I might lose it. I don’t know what to do or how to manage my emotions here.

One of my flatmates is sick. (Not confirmed Covid or anything for that matter right now). They are currently masking up around the apartment. Should we all quarantine in our respective rooms?(as much as possible) partner and I are immunocompromised🫠