Long Covid

I wrote about the symptoms of Long Covid here: https://blanketfort.blog/thebird/ive-heard-folks-talking-about-xbb-1-5-kraken-variant-especially-with-some

What I notice the most about Long Covid for me is: * very bad fatigue, * joint pain, * brain fog (it's not as bad if I'm actually remembering to take my Testosterone on time), * intermittent numbness, * abdominal pain, * GI issues that keep morphing into all sorts of weird stuff, * migraines/headaches that hit once a week, * Exacerbates my current autoimmune illness that effects my right side and my ADHD * Eczema (developed that. ugh) * Asthma (got that from Covid too, didn't have it before) * Vision problems that worsened considerably (blurriness, double vision, needing prisms and binocular added to my glasses) * Unable to regulate my temperature well

There might be more but it's hard for me to keep track of what is LongCovid and what was my autoimmune illness I had prior. I didn't keep a very good log of symptoms prior to the pandemic, so my data on my prior illness is scanty at best. So comparing the too is difficult.

Since I'm trained in physics, I tend to prefer a larger data set of both illnesses to do a proper comparison, but without the data (and unable to go back in time), I can only estimate based on my journal entries from the before-times.

So for today and the future, I'm focusing on addressing the Long Covid and trying to find doctors willing to treat it and learn about new developments with me, but that's sadly rare. Especially since a lot of doctors have embraced eugenics by refusing to mask, and thus being vectors of spreading disease to their patients. That puts me at high risk of being infected and getting even sicker.

I don't want to be even sicker. If I get more sick, I won't be able to write anymore, and if I can't write, then that's like a living death for me.

I survive on writing.

Considering how utterly isolated I am due to my illnesses and my country going the route of eugenics by trying to force individuals into doing pandemic relief but at the same time doing mass abandonment by not supplying data or resources for us to even do risk assessments or learn how to do them.

How do I do a risk assessment then?

  1. I look up the data for Covid in my region. (My state is an asshole because they stopped reporting all Covid data to the CDC, so I can't even check transmission rates now. The only data I have left is the wastewater reporting on how much Covid particles are in our wastewater, which is a good indicator of surges but not the best for how quickly the variants are being transmitted.)
  2. I check if the place I need to go will have any Covid precautions such as masking, air filtration devices, a good flow of air — outdoors is best but if inside air filtration and open windows and fans help, and testing.
  3. I clean my masks to prepare them for the outing.
  4. I make sure I fit my mask on appropriately so there are no chance for leakage.
  5. I avoid eating and drinking or any activity where I must take off my mask. This can expose me.
  6. I limit my time in any indoors place to avoid exposure. So for an event that takes a very long time, I may forgo it entirely, especially if they fail to have enough pandemic mitigations.

It sucks to have to go through this and determine whether it is safe for me to go out at all, but it's the only way I can avoid getting ill again and making my health even worse. It's about survival for me.

And it's why USA's abandonment of us is so lethal. A lot of people can't do risk assessments because they never learned how or they're being fed misinformation about how bad the pandemic is currently. So then people act as if the pandemic is over, and when they get ill, they are shocked.

There's been a huge increase in Long Covid patients, in the millions now, but our healthcare system is not prepared. Many nurses, doctors, technicians, etc are being so swamped that some burn out and have to leave their jobs for their own sanity and health, which means less people available to provide care for the millions being mass disabled right now.

Our healthcare system is collapsing, and the current government is letting it happen. That's a form of eugenics, especially as it is marginalized populations being hardest hit due to the lack of resources available to us.

Eugenics is all about culling certain populations, and when a disease impacts certain populations more than others, the government has in the past and currently is doing today engaged in mass abandonment and withdrawal of resources and aid. They did this with syphilis, with AIDS, with Spanish Flu, with the horrifying experiments done to Black people – them being purposing infected for the government to study effects such as the Tuskagee experiments, and other diseases. Often aid isn't offered until the disease impacts the white cisgender men populations as much as us marginalized populations.

I think a lot of people don't fully understand what eugenics is or how it is practices, and that's a discussion that needs to happen.

We can't stop something if we don't first name what it is, discuss what is means, and then generate ideas on a more just and equitable and healthier alternative.

Our lives depend on stopping the current mass abandonment and eugenics policies our country is currently doing. We really need to band together collectively to care for each other and fight against that oppression.

We matter. Our lives matter. We deserve life and care. We're worth fighting for. Remember that.

Written by Aidan Z. (Aaidanbird@disabled.social or TheBird@ni.hil.ist)