Is anyone else here reeling emotionally from the need to continue to mask and avoid crowds because you have a medically fragile family member? We’re just about at our wits’ end having to forgo SO many opportunities to gather. NOBODY even thinks of “testing in” any more, and we can’t even ask. Yet we continue to hear of friends coming down with Covid - some cases mild, some more serious. How do you cope?
Everywhere I go in CT there are many people still wearing masks. Especially at medical centers where the workers have mandatory masking. In 2 weeks I am going to a play where all have to wear masks. It doesn’t bother me to wear one. Now RSV is going around and it is awful. My son’s family is sick with it and they are miserable
It’s great that many ppl are still willing to mask where you live - tho it’s quite impossible to share a meal while wearing one.
Where we live, performances, public transportation, and other public places don’t require or even suggest mask wearing. A vanishingly smal number of people still do.
Just the cost of wearing N95 masks over the last 3+ years is getting burdensome.
Looking forward for all your articles gives myself a confident approach to what is really happening that I cannot find elsewhere so keep writing & Thx Joel
Excellent talk. I'm worried, deeply so, about climate change-driven migration of pathogens, not all of them viral, northward. The seas steady slow warming is increasing the microbial population that the sea mammals are getting infected by and there are absolutely nightmarish fungals that are making zoonotic transfers to humans and sea mammals. We need surveillance here.
Not to mention Covid is still as mutagenic as ever and we'll probably see at least two more major mutations from that quarter. Don't throw away your masks yet.
I commend you for your leadership in advocating for robust public health policies and monitoring systems, as well as for your leadership in educating the public on respiratory diseases and status. Re newest Covid vaxes & low uptake rate. At least in our area [N. VA suburbs of DC], there's a damn frustrating reason why uptake is very low: it's very difficult to find any place that has the vaccines in stock. The few places that do have them tend to be hospitals where to get a vax you are exposed to dozens & dozens of ppl NOT wearing any 'masks' & who are there bcuz they're ILL & infectious! We both are immune compromised & Covid exposure will be life-threatening. So we still self-isolate continually, only going out in public for necessary medical appointments when we wear N95s. That's also frustrating as HELL: following stupid, irresponsible CDC guidance, most medical providers in our area stopped requiring even their staff to wear any type 'mask'. We invoke the Americans With Disabilities Act with our med providers BEFORE we go to an appointment--& ask them to: (1) wear N95s for our visit, (2) allow us to avoid waiting in crowded waiting rooms with few if any patients wearing any 'mask', (3) do paperwork & payments remotely to minimize time spent in offices where the indoor air is full of flu, RSV, Covid airborne viruses. Most of our providers are responsive & accommodate us without problems. But some of our med providers are irritated that we ask for these necessary, reasonable protective measures. Anyone following the latest Covid research understands the serious potential for long term adverse health effects for many people. It's tragic that CDC & public health agencies have written off the tens of millions of us who are in the highest risk category for life-threatening Covid or other respiratory viruses.
Although I have had all my covid boosters, and flu and RSV vax I got a nasty respiratory virus a few weeks ago. Mostly continual coughing. And I know others who have gotten this as well. It lasts 2 weeks with another week or so of sporadic coughing and sneezing and runny nose. Ugh.
I thought. I subscribed to the sputjeast regional newsletter. Haven't seen any posts. Would you resend the link that would allow mw to subscribe? Thank you, virginia dawnswir
Is anyone else here reeling emotionally from the need to continue to mask and avoid crowds because you have a medically fragile family member? We’re just about at our wits’ end having to forgo SO many opportunities to gather. NOBODY even thinks of “testing in” any more, and we can’t even ask. Yet we continue to hear of friends coming down with Covid - some cases mild, some more serious. How do you cope?
Everywhere I go in CT there are many people still wearing masks. Especially at medical centers where the workers have mandatory masking. In 2 weeks I am going to a play where all have to wear masks. It doesn’t bother me to wear one. Now RSV is going around and it is awful. My son’s family is sick with it and they are miserable
We all have been vaccinated vs RSV.
It’s great that many ppl are still willing to mask where you live - tho it’s quite impossible to share a meal while wearing one.
Where we live, performances, public transportation, and other public places don’t require or even suggest mask wearing. A vanishingly smal number of people still do.
Just the cost of wearing N95 masks over the last 3+ years is getting burdensome.
The emotional costs of Covid are incalculable.
Hey, better a mask than being sick, or passing it on to someone who is immunocompromised. I am always shocked at the selfishness of americans.
Looking forward for all your articles gives myself a confident approach to what is really happening that I cannot find elsewhere so keep writing & Thx Joel
Excellent talk. I'm worried, deeply so, about climate change-driven migration of pathogens, not all of them viral, northward. The seas steady slow warming is increasing the microbial population that the sea mammals are getting infected by and there are absolutely nightmarish fungals that are making zoonotic transfers to humans and sea mammals. We need surveillance here.
Not to mention Covid is still as mutagenic as ever and we'll probably see at least two more major mutations from that quarter. Don't throw away your masks yet.
I commend you for your leadership in advocating for robust public health policies and monitoring systems, as well as for your leadership in educating the public on respiratory diseases and status. Re newest Covid vaxes & low uptake rate. At least in our area [N. VA suburbs of DC], there's a damn frustrating reason why uptake is very low: it's very difficult to find any place that has the vaccines in stock. The few places that do have them tend to be hospitals where to get a vax you are exposed to dozens & dozens of ppl NOT wearing any 'masks' & who are there bcuz they're ILL & infectious! We both are immune compromised & Covid exposure will be life-threatening. So we still self-isolate continually, only going out in public for necessary medical appointments when we wear N95s. That's also frustrating as HELL: following stupid, irresponsible CDC guidance, most medical providers in our area stopped requiring even their staff to wear any type 'mask'. We invoke the Americans With Disabilities Act with our med providers BEFORE we go to an appointment--& ask them to: (1) wear N95s for our visit, (2) allow us to avoid waiting in crowded waiting rooms with few if any patients wearing any 'mask', (3) do paperwork & payments remotely to minimize time spent in offices where the indoor air is full of flu, RSV, Covid airborne viruses. Most of our providers are responsive & accommodate us without problems. But some of our med providers are irritated that we ask for these necessary, reasonable protective measures. Anyone following the latest Covid research understands the serious potential for long term adverse health effects for many people. It's tragic that CDC & public health agencies have written off the tens of millions of us who are in the highest risk category for life-threatening Covid or other respiratory viruses.
Although I have had all my covid boosters, and flu and RSV vax I got a nasty respiratory virus a few weeks ago. Mostly continual coughing. And I know others who have gotten this as well. It lasts 2 weeks with another week or so of sporadic coughing and sneezing and runny nose. Ugh.
I thought. I subscribed to the sputjeast regional newsletter. Haven't seen any posts. Would you resend the link that would allow mw to subscribe? Thank you, virginia dawnswir
I emailed you back 👍