snapdragon

[tern @1goodtern]

Today people will catch covid not knowing that in three or six or nine month's time they will develop heart disease or diabetes or organ dysfunction as a result.

Public Health has failed us.

Long Covid reveals itself in many ways, but all of them start with Covid.

[Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran]

According to a new study, up to 75% of adults have concealed an infectious disease from others in order not to miss work, travel, or social events. Unacceptable behavior. https://t.co/nQbr4AyjgH

[senpai @Senpaisaysbye]

I genuinely don’t understand how we are supposed to casually process that a glacier literally collapsed in Nepal, erasing 19 bridges and killing over 600 people, because the planet is too hot. And instead of stopping it, billionaires are building more data centres. It is completely psychotic.

[Dr. Sean Mullen @drseanmullen]

We need a health-tech revolution in America.

And we need a revival of public health led by competent, compassionate people who can explain this stuff clearly enough that the public actually gives a damn.

(Not me. I’m going to say fuck a few times.)

Because what, exactly, are we not understanding?

Salmonella → fecal/environmental contamination → food → people get sick.

So why the fuck would we REDUCE food-safety inspections?

Lower standards?

Cut personnel?

This is not complicated.

And where is the technology?

Why aren’t warehouses and food-processing facilities filled with modern engineering controls...UV germicidal systems where appropriate, better filtration, water purification, automated sanitation monitoring, contamination sensors?

A worker should be able to wipe his ass, forget to wash his hands, and STILL not trigger a multistate outbreak.

That is what systems engineering is FOR.

Produce should be grown, processed, washed, transported and sold through layers of protection using CLEAN WATER and verified sanitation.

Where are the rapid scanners and biosensors that can flag contaminated products before they’re shipped to millions of people?

Where is the real-time surveillance?

Where is the redundancy?

We somehow understand that industrial agriculture requires environmental controls, ventilation, filtration, monitoring and biosecurity.

…and then act like protecting HUMAN BEINGS with the same seriousness is some radical proposition.

Same problem with the air.

How the hell, in 2026, do people still not understand Long COVID?

How do hospitals..places filled with sick and immunocompromised people.....not universally treat clean air as basic infection control?

Better ventilation.
Better filtration.
Germicidal UV where appropriate.
Respirators when airborne pathogens are circulating.
This isn't futuristic technology.
WE ALREADY HAVE IT.
That’s the maddening part.

We are pouring unimaginable amounts of money into generative AI, longevity hacks and supplements while failing to deploy technologies that have existed for YEARS or DECADES and can prevent disease right now.

Clean food.
Clean water.
Clean air.

This should be the infrastructure of civilization.

Protect the people growing and processing our food.

Protect healthcare workers and patients.
Protect bus drivers, train operators and other workers exposed to thousands of people.
Protect our schools.

Protect our children.

Because those children are the people we’re expecting to run this country—and eventually take care of us—after we’re old.

We do not have a technology problem.

We have a priorities problem.

Everything is fucking backwards.

Get your heads out of your asses and demand a government that protects the three things every human being needs every single day:

OUR FOOD.
OUR WATER.
OUR AIR.

[Rep. Dr. Jasmine Clark @jasmineforga]

When babies in a daycare come in contact with measles, they are particularly vulnerable because children cannot be fully vaccinated until age 4 or 5. This is why RFK, Jr.’s anti-vax rhetoric is so dangerous! This is why we need science voices in Congress.

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

“I came without a speech, because I’m hungry.

“I’m hungry for justice, hungry for authentic charity, hungry for a Church that truly knows how to open the doors, welcome, receive everyone, where there is love for all and where no one is an enemy.”

— Pope Leo XIV at lunch with 200 migrants, refugees, and homeless persons.

[frsh @FrshWaters]

it’s the End of Summer if you see me onna poster church onna move ⛪️ 🏃🏾 💨

DRB show tmr
grab a tix bring yo homie see yall tmr https://t.co/gasZrldy8Q

[Yo, Mel!!! 🪻 @YoMelToo]

@thestustustudio 😊

[ᴘᴏᴛᴀᴛᴜᴍ @pot8um]

did a data center write this

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

They left everyone feeling happier

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

I remember when they said it was good for kids to get COVlD because it is mild in kids and would accelerate "herd immunity." They lied.

[Keith @keetmuise]

Just remember, if you’re paying attention to the reality of Covid, aside from the added stress of being cautious, keeping an eye out for illness, avoiding certain social situations, and general adjustment of your daily life, you’re also dealing with a great deal of grief.

If you’re paying attention, you’re processing a lot of loss, because things have changed, and for many, watching this amount of illness and decline is hard to handle.

In the mess of it all, it’s easy to forget that you’re digesting a great deal of loss, anxiety, and pain, so give yourself a break, and remember you’re doing the best you can.

[Colleen Bartlett @CBartlett1963]

@1goodtern

[SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) @COVID19_disease]

🚨 BREAKING: COVID IS SURGING ACROSS THE U.S. 🇺🇸

Cases are rising or likely rising in 47 states with no state currently estimated to be seeing a decline.

Schools are already canceling classes as infections spread.

[Dr. Sean Mullen @drseanmullen]

“Long COVID isn’t new” sounds enlightened, but it can be deeply harmful when it becomes an excuse to collapse every post-infectious illness into one vague category.

Yes, post-viral disease existed before COVID. And those patients were neglected too. That’s part of the lesson.

But Long COVID is also a disease arising from a specific virus, with specific biology, an enormous global infection burden, repeated reinfections, and potentially distinctive vascular, immune, neurologic, metabolic, and organ-level consequences.

When we insist that it’s “nothing new,” we make it easier for science, medicine, government, and policy to file it away as something we already understand.

We don’t.

And that framing makes it easier to other the people who become sick: those are just the unlucky post-viral people; that’s not really about the virus, and it’s not about the rest of us.

That is exactly the kind of thinking that allowed post-infectious disease to be neglected for decades.

The lesson from other post-infectious illnesses shouldn’t be “Long COVID isn’t new.”

It should be:

We have been getting post-infectious disease wrong for a very long time. Long COVID is our opportunity…and obligation… to finally stop doing that.

[BirdieBittern @BirdieBittern]

"Scientists Find Signs of Artery Damage in Nearly 8 in 10 Young Adults"

No mention of course, of the vascular damaging effects of the virus they're being infected with 1-2 times every year

for the rest of their lives

https://t.co/tlf9w3Yq9E

[Miranda Larsen @AcaOtaku]

@1goodtern All of this, plus… measles infection can wipe out immune memory. I feel like this should be a daily PSA.

[#MOST @jeandeauxmusic]

studying the ancient texts, as the prophecy sleeps

https://t.co/yAF2IyYmlX

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

I don’t want technology to “evolve” another bloody inch. I hate that everything demands an app or QR code. I hate supermarket self-checkouts that scold you for “unexpected items” as if you have committed a hate crime with a packet of biscuits. I hate ringing a company and suddenly you’re trapped in a doom loop of an endless conversation with a robot before being left on hold long enough to waste an entire afternoon. I hate how local bank branches are closing and customer service is no longer communication with a bank manager but with an AI bot. I hate websites that force you to prove you’re human by enforcing a dystopian farce quiz to spot 3 sets of traffic lights in a fog of pixelated misery. I hate digital app passwords, verification codes and subscriptions. I hate how town centre car parks often no longer accept cash payments and the only way to park is by registering to another bloody app. I hate receiving unsolicited phone calls from an AI automated robot. And I really hate how the whole digital circus excludes half of the country’s pensioners simply because they never signed up to live inside a smartphone.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Rant over.

[tern @1goodtern]

I sat down for a distanced coffee with two colleagues last week and... well, just read this:

First off they started talking about all of the new health problems they and everyone else were having. I just listened at that point.

Then they moved on to how people are angrier, slower to understand, have more emotional problems, and less impulse control, and how this is reflected right the way across society from households to parliaments.

I barely said a thing until they used the magic phrase 'since the pandemic'.

So I said, "Yes. So many of those health problems you've mentioned are made more likely by covid infections. So of course there's going to be an increase in them, because everyone keeps catching Covid. And of course there's going to be repercussions for mental health and wellbeing and cognitive function, because Covid infections make all those problems more likely too. There is study after study after study that demonstrates this."

And the reply?
Wait for it.

"If those studies are right, wouldn't we be seeing an effect right the way across society?"

And actually I was so gobsmacked by that that I had no idea what to say in reply straight away, because they had literally been describing the effect right the way across society and wondering what could have caused it.

But then I told them about the measured increased sickness absence in kids, nhs staff, civil servants. I told them about the increase in disability payment approvals. I told them about the increase in expected mortality rates in age groups with lower vaccination rates. I told them about the increases in multiple secondary infections.

And they said...

"But you can't prove that was all caused by covid."

And I said it's not all caused by covid infections, but Covid infections make all those things worse.

And they reluctantly agreed to that, but they're still not willing to consider changing the way they live to make any difference.