I have the worst #OCD about #COVID.
I wonder if this happened to others before me. I keep thinking I test positive on lateral flow tests when seeing an extremely faint line, only when looking from certain angles from up close with a flash. Looking online ofc it says a faint line means positive.

But, I just noticed that when doing the same to an empty test, before I put any sample in at all - I can still see those lines around both the C and T.

So lost rn. Doctors??

@skaly

The faint line you see is the chemical placed there that reacts. You should be able to see it regardless.

what they mean by a faint line is positive they mean if the line is colored pink but light, not if you can see the discoloration at all.

You look good here.

By the way I have had COVID at least 7 confirmed times. It is a serious disease, and be mindful of course. But I wouldnt let it stress you too much. Not the end of the world if you get it.

@freemo

Thank you I appreciate that. I had it 4 times, I'm not stressed so much about getting sick, I'm stressed about infecting anyone else :/

I got Covid back in November 2019, before it was news. Land-lady and family had just got back from Beijing, and unwittingly infected the whole household. I was laid out for 3 months, the 1st of which was excruciating. I didn't need public health officials to force me to stay home, because that was just common sense. I didn't want my elderly friends or those with children to suffer for my desire to have a social life.

But with a bit of garlic, plenty of water, and rest, I got over it completely. Got Covid again a few times in the next year or two because of housemates being front-line workers, but thanks to having a functional immune system, the next bouts were successively more mild. Now, I can safely say Covid is completely a non-issue.

What's more troublesome and injurious is the violent public hysteria which continues to persist, in large part thanks to people who refuse to understand that "science" does not trump "ethics", and that big-pharma is demonstrably more interested in protecting their profit margin than they are in protecting public health. They spent over a decade developing that technology which was shown to be next useless, but had to create conditions to recoup their investment. Hence the plandemic. To say nothing of the military bioweapons angle. At this point (arguably from day one) the most dangerous thing about Covid is the NPC useful idiots who continue to shill this mRNA snake oil on behalf of big-pharma corporations and their bought and paid for gov't cronies.

@toiletpaper

There was no doubt an element of harmful hysteria. But to try to claim it as some evil conspiracy theory to sell some new tech of vaccines is a pretty absurd claim as well, just as bad if not worse than the hysteria.

@skaly

@freemo @skaly @freemo @toiletpaper @skaly
The true conspiracy was in the response, not in the virus itself.

@realcaseyrollins

Less of a conspiracy and more people just acting a fool... But yea, there were plenty of pretty dodgy actions in the response because everyones paranoia was cranked up to 11 with the fear mongering as is usually the case, doubly so when someone becomes political.

So yea, agreed to some extent there.

@skaly @toiletpaper

@freemo Well IDK. The caution made sense at first, it was something new and we didn't know what it was. The vaxxmaxxers and alarmists who persisted after that initial period despite the mortality data were generally after power, money, or both. Most went along with what they said because they did not want to be scorned or fired. I wouldn't necessarily view anyone involved with this types of behaviors as "fools".

@realcaseyrollins

> The vaxxmaxxers and alarmists who persisted after that initial period despite the mortality data...

LOL, dont tell me you you bought into that conspiracy theory nonsense about the vaccines being dangerous and there being meaningful "mortality data"? Please tell me I am just misreading what you said...

@freemo @freemo
I'm a bit surprised that that was your takeaway from my response, that wasn't even the point of my reply. It sounds like you're trying to change the subject here for some reason.

@realcaseyrollins

Orn it just means i have nothing of interest or note to say about your main point.

I wasnt aware the subject was fixed and had to be maintained at the cost of all other conversation. That seems like a rather strange way to operate, I usually prefer conversations to evolve naturally and discuss the points of interest, particularly if the point of your statement has nothing worth pointing out in its own right.

@realcaseyrollins

A donkey raped me on my way to the pinnacle to watch the sunset. Once I got there it was a beautiful deep red sunset....

So we cant point out the donkey raping you because the point of the statement was to mention the sunset? We have to force ourselves to remark on the less interesting sunset that doesnt seem to have much value discussing rather than the donkey raping you, which may be of actual interest to me?

@freemo Haha fair enough

With the vaxx stuff, I’m kinda fuzzy on it. I don’t know if there have been a lot of large-scale studies on connections between the #mRNA #COVID19 vaccines and myocarditis, blood clots, etc., but from what I can tell, there are some undisclosed risks of dangerous blood clots for healthy people who get the vaccines. I don’t know what level that risk is, which is why I don’t call them dangerous (I call them “experimental”, as launching #mRNA vaccines of this scale is unheard of and unprecedented).

@realcaseyrollins

Undisclosed? How so? Those risks are all perfectly disclosed, well identified, real, and known. They are extremely rare, but real, and the people who are at highest risk are no longer given the vaccine and other vaccines are preferred. All handled exactly how it should have been, nothing undisclosed about it. They literally changed the administration protocols just to be even more safe than they needed to be.

@freemo I didn’t know that studies had come out quantifying all the risks (there might be a study about #myocarditis I forget), but then again it’s been a year or two since I’ve studied any #COVID19 data seriously. It doesn’t really matter much anymore since the virus has mutated into something far weaker at this point.

What is the quantified risk of blood clots from #mRNA vaccines?

@realcaseyrollins

There have been studies on the risks you mentioned for years now. It was studies done by the scientific community and the changes in protocol made that is how we know about it at all. Do you think the conspiracy theorists figured it out and scientists went "oh we should study this thing the flat earthers all keep saying about our vaccines"... lol... nah, the scientists found it on their own, announced it, did studies, changed protocols, all on a very very low risk event out of an abundance of caution.. then the conspiracy theoriests took it and went "seeeeeeeeeee its not safe after all!".

@freemo What is the rate of risk? Where are the studies?

These studies existing for years is news to me.

@realcaseyrollins

It varies depending on vaccine, but fir mRNA COVID-19 vaccine here is a more recent study with fairly accurate numbers.

The mycarditis and bloodclots first showed up in studies much earlier however.

> The incidence is reported to be around 1 per 100,000 to 250,000 vaccine recipients,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10400017/

@realcaseyrollins

As for it existing for years... Pfizer for example announced the first risks in this regard April 2021, so about 3 years since they **announced** it. Of course you have to do studies first, so studies suggesting the risk were already availible sometimes before that, months to years.

So yea we can safely say this stuff has been public for 3-4+ years now in studies and even admitted and published by Pfizer directly for at least 3 years.