Right now, a deadly virus is in the air.

September 22, 2023 10:01 AM

Don’t breathe it in. (one minute, youtube)
posted by aniola (20 comments total)

I’m still sad that public health agencies didn’t blanket TV and Youtube and such with ads like this, starting back in 2020 or 2021 (whenever high-quality respirators were no longer in shortage). And other ads with popular celebrities demonstrating how to properly fit and wear a respirator.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:11 AM on September 22, 2023 [14 favorites]

I assume the John Snow Project is named after the 19th C UK physician who fought cholera, and not the guy who wears a fur rug as a cape and notably knows nothing.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:11 AM on September 22, 2023 [15 favorites]

unsuprisingly comments turned off.
posted by lalochezia at 11:33 AM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

the one who knows nothing is Jon Snow (I doubt he knows anything about masks)
posted by supermedusa at 12:30 PM on September 22, 2023

I’m still sad that public health agencies didn’t blanket TV and Youtube and such with ads like this, starting back in 2020 or 2021 (whenever high-quality respirators were no longer in shortage). And other ads with popular celebrities demonstrating how to properly fit and wear a respirator.

I'm sad (and mad) about this too! But I'm mostly smad about the fact that WHO didn't even acknowledge that aerosols were a significant transmission vector until mid 2021 and weren't really giving suitable guidance about an airborne virus until that December, and the CDC was like 6 months behind them! This 2022 ad could have maybe come out a couple months earlier, but certainly wouldn't have in 2020. There were a good number of ads about washing your hands and stuff.
posted by aubilenon at 12:38 PM on September 22, 2023 [10 favorites]

My kid brought COVID home from school over a week ago. Up until then, none of us had gotten it - which I attributed to the fact that we vaccinated, boosted, and masked (and didn't stop masking) and are fortunate enough to work at home, although one of us has to occasionally travel for work. Also, maybe a little luck.

But we are also not very social. And still don't eat inside at restaurants. We've basically given up on many types of activities, just because the years of this have trained us out of them.

The past days have made me feel so hopeless. That no matter what we've sacrificed socially and otherwise, the time we could have spent with relatives and friends that we'll never get back - because of the poisoned media/political landscape, we have an illness so many have died from, and that can do actual damage to some people's hearts, brains, and energy level, and it is never going to go away.

I looked at the other videos on this channel - this one made me cry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rz_TgIBzpM
posted by 41swans at 1:04 PM on September 22, 2023 [17 favorites]

If it makes you feel any better, it is cumulative, so it's still better to get it less often. There's still all those people you're not giving it to.
posted by aniola at 1:10 PM on September 22, 2023 [23 favorites]

And there is this public service advertisement from South Australia from well before COVID, advising people to get their flu shot by showing them how gross sneeze spray is.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 1:28 PM on September 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

I talk on the phone with family and friends. I talk about covid because they haven't been masking. Things like: You can get covid and not have any acute symptoms. Do you know the acute form of HIV is a mild cold? You can share covid without knowing you're sick. Vaccines are good but not sufficient. Etc. My family and friends think they are proactive. They're following CDC guidance. They're doing what their doctor says to. They are trusting their health authorities.

Within the past month, it came up that one person I talk to still thought covid spread like sneezes (droplets). He hadn't got the memo that covid spreads like cigarette smoke (aerosol). He even mentioned those photos where it shows you all the spray from a sneeze! I mention this to someone else on the phone who, it turns out, also hadn't got the memo.

Covid is airborne. Covid spreads like cigarette smoke. Covid is in the air even when there's nobody in the room. This is what N95/equivalent or better masks are for.

This video would have been great in 2020, in 2021, we finally got it in 2022, we still need it in 2023, and we're going to keep needing to spread the word.
posted by aniola at 2:09 PM on September 22, 2023 [16 favorites]

Thanks for posting, aniola. It's a great video, and the information on their website is also very informative in the midst of all the gaslighting by the media/public "health" authorities.
posted by mydonkeybenjamin at 9:45 PM on September 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

A 10% cumulative risk IS NOT LOW PROBABILITY. And part of the problem with messaging is not talking about what it means to become disabled. And it’s a a lot worse now - I used to be able to see a specialist the same week or month. Now it’s an upwards of six month wait. Even a 1% risk is not considered rare in medicine.

We are 100% not going to get out of this by serial infection, unless the plan is just completely breaking society. My nurse friend told me this last week that no one returns to work (as a nurse) after their fifth infection. They’re either physically unable or they change jobs to something less demanding. We are breaking society with a strategy of serial infections and not giving people tools to effectively mitigate risk.
posted by Bottlecap at 11:53 PM on September 22, 2023 [10 favorites]

Mod note: One deleted. Sorry, but we aren't going to have a masking vs anti-masking knock-down drag-out here. If you personally don't want to mask, go ahead and carry on in your personal life as you wish, but probably skip this thread and the impulse to advise others not to mask. Also, please don't make official seeming statements about the virus, or comments about acceptable fatalities / long-term debilitation (usually among groups that are "not-me," in view of the commenter). Seriously, everyone — Covid threads generally suck; let's try to not suck as much this time?
posted by taz (staff) at 12:05 AM on September 23, 2023 [20 favorites]

I’m still sad that public health agencies didn’t blanket TV and Youtube and such with ads like this-- mbrubeck

Heck, initially CDC was telling people not to wear masks. The U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams even tweeted: “Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS!”

The hidden truth was that there was a shortage of masks and they didn't want people to buy up masks needed by medical professionals, but their message was that masks aren't needed. (And when there were finally enough masks they wondered why they were having trouble convincing people to use them).
posted by eye of newt at 12:22 AM on September 23, 2023 [11 favorites]

Let's talk just about masks for a moment. It's flu season. I've had the flu and colds a lot. I've got asthma, and have had pneumonia 3 times (it really sucks). The year we actually spent doing the minimum against covid, I didn't get the flu or a cold (or covid btw). Masks work. It's once again flu season and one of my student employees stayed out a couple of days with an undiagnosed illness, but needed the money and came in to work. The moment he started coughing (heavily) I made everyone put on masks. He says it's not covid. I don't care. Whatever it is, I don't want it or for anyone else to get it. Go ahead, be lazy, don't mask up. But don't give me shit, I will have my student come to your house and lick all of your stuff.
posted by evilDoug at 10:32 AM on September 23, 2023 [13 favorites]

yeah evilDoug is right on this. I don't want the flu, or even a damn cold. being even mildly sick sucks. I still mask way more than the average around me, yet I can feel myself begining to relax my standards a bit. but not now as we head into "cold n flu season"!

I will get my covid booster and flu shot in a few weeks when they are available at Kaiser. and keep masking, as I hope those around my old, skinny, cancer-riddled father will do.
posted by supermedusa at 10:54 AM on September 23, 2023 [7 favorites]

I am still masking, and getting boosters, including standard non-Covid stuff like tetanus and the seasonal flu, especially as I start moving into old age.

Covid is not done with us yet, not even close.
posted by Pouteria at 7:17 PM on September 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

I am still masking and getting vaccines and ... how did the thing I saw on the internet recently go? Something like

- swimming at beaches with life guards
- buying food that has been packaged to food safety standards
- living in a building that has been retrofitted with straps so it won't shake off its foundation during an earthquake
- using UL-rated appliances, reflectors on my bicycle* and lights at night*, and condoms for sex
- etc.


* I use seat belts and air bags 0% of the time and you (dear reader) should consider trying a car-free experience, too!
posted by aniola at 7:44 PM on September 23, 2023 [6 favorites]

Oh, 41swans, I'm with you. Our child also caught it during the first week back at school. We haven't eaten indoors since March 2020, we mask everywhere, we've limited activities with family and friends, and we're staring down another isolating winter of worry and frustration. I'm constantly trying to inform people who tell me they wash their hands, they "stay home when they're sick," "you have to calculate risk," and yet no one will answer me when I ask how many times they think a four-year-old can expect to get this infection without complications. I'm just so tired of being made to feel like the irrational one when I'm desperately trying to get my child to adulthood without debilitating injury or worse.
posted by Il etait une fois at 4:01 PM on September 24, 2023 [7 favorites]

we have an illness so many have died from, and that can do actual damage to some people's hearts, brains, and energy level, and it is never going to go away.
I feel you. We caught it two weeks ago and I'm just now feeling close to normal (but not betting that I'll feel as good at the end of the work day by any means). It pisses me off to no end that my catastrophically poor state governance basically guaranteed that we'd get it eventually no matter how scrupulous we were. However, on the bright side, we did avoid it this whole time. For two years we did Christmas on the porch with my aged mother snuggled cozily in blankets with the radiant heater on the porch swing opening her presents. She didn't get it then and she didn't get it this round because we knew to isolate. We had years of vaccines and boosters before we caught it, so we didn't get deathly ill, didn't end up in the hospital, didn't take it to work and pass it around. And I saved about $15,000 by not going to comicbook movies and trivia night and constantly eating lunch and dinner out and taking airplanes all over the globe. I've seen two movies in the theater since 2020: Singin' in the Rain and Barbie. More than delighted for those to be the last two movies I see. I made it to Venice in The Before Times and contributed my share of effluent to its demise; I figure I've had more than I deserve already, so Paris I will reserve for the afterlife, should there be one. Or maybe I can figure out how to Thunberg it somehow.
posted by Don Pepino at 6:27 AM on September 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

How to Start a Mask Bloc Soft Launch Version
posted by aniola at 10:04 PM on September 28, 2023