A Concerned Scientist @BE@qoto.org

@carlos @augieray

Oh I agree. Overall there's far more good than bad there. I just think he keeps blowing sunshine up people's asses every few months and it's detrimental to the cause of getting people to keep taking it seriously.

@augieray

For all the great work he's done, I've unfollowed him in frustration with this multiple times. Hope and optimism isn't winning here.

@DataDrivenMD

My older son had a single "friend" that he loved more than anything when he was little, too. When he was just a baby and it was clear that was the one toy he'd never let go of, I found one just like it on eBay(it was not mass produced) and purchased it. Same thing as you, we had it stashed in the back of the bedroom closet. I never had a great plan on how I'd pull off a switch...the bath plan was on my list, though! It would have never passed as the same one as it was without some story. I'm glad I never had to find out.

Thankfully we never needed it and when he was 10 I gave it to him and told him I'd kept a backup for most of his life. He thought it was adorable and now the two "friends" live together in harmony in his bedroom.

The things we do as parents...

@nicolewolverton @Rustymarble

I'm afraid we're just seeing the leading indicators still at this point. A lot of the potential damage is going to take longer to show up. Endothelial damage leading to organ damage, etc. isn't necessarily easy to see in the relatively short timeframe of the pandemic so far(yes, it feels like it's been forever).

For example, I've seen multiple people who look at T cells for a living who have been warning for years now that there's a high potential for cancer rates to shoot up if T cells are unable to kill cancerous cells. This has the potential to be disastrous later while being highly unlikely to be seen "just" 3 years in.

Add in a sprinkle of never-ending reinfections and go ahead and use your imagination from there.

@dabertime

It is. Wish it weren't.

@DiverDoc

Not a commentary on you @DiverDoc, but we should just stop talking about COVID case numbers. They simply aren't being tracked anymore at any reasonable number to be worthy of discussion.

@ZeroCovidColin

I feel this so much and I'm sincerely sorry you're in this position.

I spent all of the past week debating whether continuing to read every scientific paper and address the science of COVID, not just for myself but for others, was still a worthy pursuit. I wrote a post about it and deleted it multiple times, but, to keep a long story short(ish) out of all of the advocacy I've done with schools, hospitals and businesses the biggest success I had was convincing a friend who has risen to a very high position in a large company to institute a strict COVID protocol. It included WFH protocols, in person masking and testing, and testing for people traveling for work. Last week he called me and said that HR had convinced him that being a "COVID cautious" company was a severe detriment to their personnel and they were unable to hire necessary positions because "no one wants that." They're dropping the whole policy under the cover of the end of the emergency declaration.

It left me with endless hours of work for....nothing. There's nothing left of it at this point. There were short term gains with the schools, and whatnot, but that's all since removed. I have no lasting, tangible evidence that anyone who wasn't already convinced of COVID's impact has listened to anything I've said and done anything about it left today.

Anyway, I can't keep anything short, which you probably know by now. That's my long winded commiseration and I wish you nothing but luck with your own life. Remember, you and your family are who you need to take care of.

@guan

Am I the only one whose blood pressure rises when you see Prasad and Gandhi? UCSF will forever be misinformation central for COVID.

@fritzcokid @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world @StillIRise1963

In that anything could happen, sure. Biden already empaneled a Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court and they decided there was "profound disagreement" amongst them and the public on the topic.

Nothing happened then. Nothing happened after Dobbs. I don't know what would be the driving force today, especially since it would be up to Congress which is no longer controlled by Democrats.

@Jedi_Jill @MarkRuffalo

I think that's really just because 330 have been tested. The map they link to states:

"No matter the country or continent, if species are tested for PFAS contamination, these harmful chemicals show up – where you look for PFAS, you’ll find it."

https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/pfas_in_wildlife/map/

I'd be frankly surprised to find any species without any PFA contamination on the planet at this point. I can't find reference to one.

@philip_cardella@historians.social

Yeah, this one was a real frog in the boiling pot. Just up it a level at a time for a few years until suddenly no one can cover the governor unless he approves it.

@philip_cardella@historians.social

I'm afraid this was the inevitable evolution of not allowing certain reporters to cover the governor's events going all the way back to early 2020, shortly after he was elected, without any real pushback. So then they started banning everyone but Fox News from his events, and that worked, too.

They figure if they can get away with that, why not try to up it another level?

@kate

Back injuries are the worst! You don't realize how debilitating it is until you're there. So glad you have someone to help you out :)

@hosjon00

Unfortunately behind a paywall, but it's a topic I've been wondering about.

While I watch less sports than I used to, my small social circle is still largely of the sports watching variety. I've heard them muse casually a few times that sports seem far more unpredictable over the last couple of years. I often wonder, one, if that's correct, and if so how much of it has to do with COVID. You'd think that a fairly small health change would be amplified in that setting.

This is, of course, separate from cases like Jonathan Toews which are obvious and out there.

@CassandraZeroCovid @augieray @mloxton

Not to get terribly off the beaten path here, but, I have real mixed feelings about the era of politics we're entering. Simply being the "not fascist" party allows you do pretty much anything(as I think we see with COVID) and all pushback is greeted with "Calling us out only brings the country closer to fascism. You can't do that!"

In essence, it allows one party to do anything short of fascism without repercussion. We'll see how it plays out.

@caragraph @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world @StillIRise1963

If anyone reads my posts and conflates me with MAGA it'll make for some pretty interesting conversation. I simply don't take it as seriously as you do, but your objections are noted :)

@caragraph @StillIRise1963 @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world

I do understand, I actually have a political science degree, I just don't go to the struggle of correcting the auto-correct in casual conversation.

@fritzcokid @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world @StillIRise1963

Yes, I was all for that when Biden suggested he'd look at it. Sadly, he didn't go that route, so today's reality is that the Supreme Court is what it is.

@caragraph @StillIRise1963 @doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world

You're not wrong, but my autocorrect will only capitalize Democrat, or change Democratic to it if I capitalize it!

@doctorjaymarie@mastodon.world @mloxton @StillIRise1963

Yes, and it's not just that race, but that's fairly indicative. There's zero state-wide offices that aren't controlled by Republicans at this point.