It’s amazing to get so far in our scientific advances, only to have it tossed aside by misinformation. A Daily Mail article explained the conclusion of a study that, “They confirmed that the shots made by Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca are linked to significantly higher risk of five medical conditions – including
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: Infection Control Measures Work
A Lancet study found that there’s little Covid transmission in schools WHEN infection control measures were in place. Since we stopped all mitigation efforts, hospitalizations for Covid in Ontario have increased year-round. We don’t need lockdowns for Covid, but we do still need N95s until we can clean the air.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Climate Misery and Hope
Despair limits future actions, but knowledge is power. We must know and act in order to stave off despair. A depressing thread followed by an uplifting video today: Writer Matthew Todd wrote, “Sooner or later we’re going to have to face the reality that conservatism and capitalism are killing us. It’s not
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Still Not a Cold
Some find the term “airborne AIDS” offensive, but we can’t deny the similarities. After writing here every day since August 1st, I actually got distracted enough trying to barrel through my (likely) final tedious course. So this is a save-worthy thread entirely from HIV+ Long Covid advocate Daniel Brittain Dugger:
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Climate Projections and Anticipatory Grief
Media aren’t free to report on it honestly, and politicians won’t act on it. How can we possibly remain optimistic? Matthew Todd wrote about the possibility that the Gulf Stream could collapse in the next few years based on an study in Science Advances: “The day has come when the Daily
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Motivating Annoyance of Willful Ignorance
I’ve been thinking about my old students today as I read the news. I taught about the Israeli occupation in Palestine for a good 20 years, under the media bias and propaganda curriculum section of my course. I had been reading about genocidal types of activity since my professor told
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Your Brain on Covid
Long Covid is causing brain injuries, getting into bone marrow, and many hospitals still don’t use N95s. A study in the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience last week compared the neuropsychiatric symptoms of 51 people with Covid-19 15 months post acute infection to 74 non-Covid controls. They found differences
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Normal and Nihilism
We like to think we’ve returned to normal, but Covid and climate change will become more and more of a challenge to ignore. Biorisk consultant Conor Browne responded to a post about “this universally adopted phenomenon of people never mentioning the Covid word is really mind-blowing,” with this comment: “And
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What Makes It Worth the Risk?
We’re burning the candle from both ends. Is the light worth it? We take lots of risks in life. On a grand scale, everything we do involves some risk, especially in our world so polluted with plastics. Just eating and drinking has more risk. So we run the numbers in
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Multifaceted Long Covid is Like the Lernaean Hydra
A huge complication of Covid is that it affects so many different parts of the body. We can’t kill it, but we can prevent it from getting in. On Wednesday, the journal Pediatrics put out an overview of Long Covid in kids, aka PASC (Post-acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2). Here’s the gist
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Mask Up for Measles!!
The WHO put out this reminder about measles, which is hitting Europe and the UK hard and starting to be seen more in Canada too: I re-did it to bring more attention to the pandemic we’re currently swimming in: And a few people commented things along the lines of measles
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: It’s a Virus that’s Here to Stay
Why don’t we notice all the people getting sick or being disable or dying from Covid? A couple years ago, I wrote about being harassed for wearing a mask on my bike by some dude in his truck, and a couple people mentioned that they couldn’t believe that happened because
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Dr. Duncan’s Interview on Long Covid
Dr. Rae Duncan, a consultant cardiologist, explained concerns with Long Covid: The interview is just 13 minutes, but here’s the gist of it below, just a little cleaned up and without the interviewer’s questions. “It’s interesting that there appears to be a slight disconnect between the boots-on-the-ground public perception of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Something is Very Broken
There’s a resignation and disillusionment hitting some Covid-cautious, with some pulling away from larger society, feeling gaslit by it all: “Other than my job, I have zero desire to interact in public anymore. It’s not just the risk of another potentially devastating infection; it’s how the curtain has been pulled
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Seize the Moment!
Until we redefine prosperity, consumption will continue to drive us down a destructive path (from Joe Tegerdine). People are going to fly to vacation spots to sit in the sun to get a tan, a bit annoyed when all the smoke blocks the sun and they have to move hotels
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: It’s Covid-Conscious Community Awareness Day!!
“Until the rest of the world gets a clue, you’re not alone – I’m here for you.” CCCAD maskcots We’re halfway through winter, on a caledar at least, but likely not nearly halfway through this pandemic. Guiness Pig suggested that every Groundhog Day should be a day set aside for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Hot Model
Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think! Sabine Hossenfelder, physicist and science communicator, posted this 20 minute video: “I wasn’t worried about climate change. Now I am.” She describes the “hot model” that people originally questioned because it seemed so impossible that we’d go beyond 5°C this century, but now
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The New Impaired Driving Issue
We’re having a rash of car accidents near me. On a few posts, a left turn on a red in front of a school bus and a collision with a building, I referred to that recent Lancet study as possibly pointing to the cause: “19.4% of people who’ve had Covid and
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Yalom’s Gift
I recently binge-watched all of Group, a show inspired by a novel by Irvin Yalom, The Schopenhauer Cure. So I revisited Yalom’s non-fiction to see how closely the series aligns to his actual practices. The Gift of Therapy is a fascinating read from 2017 in which Yalom dives openly into his
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: N95s Reduce the Risk
There are more studies coming out that show that N95s and fresh air help in schools, and we’re still not going to act on them! A pre-print just came out yesterday that studied university classrooms and the way students interacted, and concluded, “Due to high-population density, frequent close contact, possible poor
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