Canuck in BC

@PacoOnPause I’ve seen the same amongst people I know. 30C is the new 40C for many.

COVID made me intolerant to heat at the same time that the bill for climate change is coming due.

@PacoOnPause Bang on. Unfortunately, “decision-based evidence-making” is the driving force for most individuals and organizations. And so, for anyone who is actually paying attention, it’s impossible to explain why things are the way are from a rational perspective.

It's not that people can't understand. It's that if they do, then it's incompatible with how they want to live their life. So they are stuck hoping that it's not true and that this won't affect them.

@keetmuise Appalling.

So in Germany, to combat the rise in sick leave, the one that they refuse to attribute to Covid and Long Covid, they are making it harder on sick people by requiring them to have a doctors note on the first day of being sick, instead of calling in sick. This is absurd for many reasons but the most obvious and practical one is that Doctors offices will not be able to handle the influx of patients who now require a note. Aside from the inability of healthcare to manage this increase, the next most obvious issue that people should have with this ridiculous policy change is that it now creates extra steps for the sick person who needs rest etc. This is foolish, and it is a cheap shot at the people of Germany who should have been protected by public health and yet another example of government passing the blame for the rise in general illness onto the people instead of their own failings and the virus that is causing the problems. Will other governments follow Germany's misguided lead? #Covid #germany #Summer #LongCovid #Mask

@mumwhocares @brownecfm @SleepyJim0 …Or they really don’t want to become immune compromised.

@brownecfm @SleepyJim0 I think any sensible person should realise that anyone wearing a mask in 2026 is probably immunocompromised or avoiding infections for other similarly reasons.

1. As I'm sure many of you are aware, there have been a couple of thoroughly unpleasant posts on this platform recently featuring covertly taken photographs of people wearing masks. Words like 'triggering' and 'enemy' have been used. To be crystal clear here:

@Bun_E_Kirwin @mumwhocares @brownecfm @SleepyJim0 Bingo

@mumwhocares @brownecfm @SleepyJim0 How about just being someone who enjoys not being sick?

@ukhadds Would love to see investment in anti-viral medication R&D—clearly a field that the private sector generally doesn’t see the ROI for. Also acknowledgement of and treatments for delayed sequelae of infections.

@canuckbcinbc I think there are also solutions beyond filtration and ventilation that can be explored. I get your concern, often pots of money like this attract a lot of, let’s say, ambitious projects.

When this was announced, I was excited. Over the past couple of years, public funding for the mitigation of airborne disease transmission has gone down dramatically from the peak during the early days of Covid. I get it. That said, it makes it harder to build on our successes.

@DrFiliatrault @DavosSafety It’s all about counting numbers, not assessing results.

What BC politicians do best esp. those responsible for healthcare. “We’ve recruited so many physicians, RNs”, not mentioning how many left the province or retired. “We’ve spent millions of $ on healthcare”, not mentioning what that bought us, how care was improved. #bcpoli

@ukhadds @1goodtern I wonder what the history books will say about this bizarre period. Unfortunately, there’s a grain of truth to what the crazies are ranting about. Fauci went around regulatory roadblocks to fund dangerous research and shut down inquiries potentially linking SARS-2 to WIV.

@1goodtern At what can he sue them for this level of slander?

😮 The level of crazy on display in the Trump administration is off the charts.

@Biff234523 Bang on. There’s a happy medium. You can still live your life, but must rethink what activities are worth the risk. Layered protections essential. Some standard precautions (quality N95s) should be normalized. But CO2 monitors are VERY useful to inform precautions.

Maybe these end up being more philosophies than “misconceptions”, but I think the misconceptions build up to the larger philosophies, so I would say the big overarching ones are generally: 1. The belief that you can’t live a completely normal life while being CC. We already have all of the tools that should allow most people to partake in most activities that they’d like without being particularly stressed about acquiring an infection. We don’t need to wait for a magic bullet like a completely sterilizing vaccine or a daily preventative pill…and those things aren’t coming, anyway, so I have bad news for the people who aren’t very willing to fully adapt to the post-2020 reality. 2. On the complete opposite end of that spectrum, the belief you can attend any sort of event you want, be in any situation, and all you need is a mask to keep you safe. To achieve #1 on this list, folks should prioritize stacking mitigations that are always actively working in the background to lower viral load. So, along with a well-fitting, high quality respirator, that means: Routine Novavax/Nuvaxovid, nasal sprays and oral products, and support of the innate immune system through diet & supplementation. Hopefully soon this list will also include Xocova/Ensitrelvir and Invivyd’s 2311 monoclonal antibody, even though neither of them are a silver bullet. 3. That it’s wise to spend money on expensive diagnostics (eg. Testing and CO2 monitors) and rely on wastewater data. The issue is that none of those things actively work to keep you safe and they can create a false sense of security. CO2 monitors and wastewater are just a data point, and testing isn’t always accurate. Instead, folks would be better off just assuming that SARS2 is always present and that you’re going to come into contact with it eventually, which is why the focus on the interventions in #2 is so important, All 3 of those have the more specific misconceptions in them, like “Nuvaxovid and mRNA provide equivalent protection”, “nasal sprays don’t work and are not beneficial”, etc

Something I’ve learned throughout the past few years, as it’s become much more evident, is that the COVID conscious community is less of a science-based community and more just a community of people who *want* to avoid getting sick. Not necessarily that everyone actually knows how, because that *does* involve science, but just that they want to. It was sort of hammered home in ~2020-2022, from a lot of different angles, that we were “following the science!”, and I always sort of took that to heart, because that’s what I was always trying to do personally in a very literal sense. But for many people, at best, “the science” seems to have meant listening to a few mainstream experts, or, more commonly, maybe just trying to convince themselves that they’re somehow different from right-wingers and the sort of fallacies and propaganda that they tend to fall victim to. But it definitely did not involve much actual science…how is it 2026 and we still have most members of the community who have never read the most basic information about how the immune system works, how rapid tests work, how vaccines work, what protections work against respiratory viruses, etc.? Nobody can know everything, but I think there’s been plenty of time to start learning, and miraculously, it just seems like it somehow gets worse every year. I like being able to help people by sharing that information…it’s one of the main reasons why I’m on Twitter and Reddit. It never bothers me when someone, on a personal level, isn’t aware of something. But the lack of understanding, at times, is just so ubiquitous that it prevents us from having broader strategy discussions because there’s not even a base level of scientific understanding, which is the part that gets to me, and makes me wonder how the heck we got to this point

@1goodtern @SimonePands1111 Never understood how so many people can maintain these two beliefs simultaneously. A lethal bioweapon that’s also a nothing-burger 🤷‍♂️

Weird how they think that Fauci created the virus to kill people but they are happy to keep on catching it over and over again because it's just a cold.

@ukhadds This space is ripe for grifters promoting costly interventions where there is lots of opportunity for profit with dubious societal benefit. I question any initiative that doesn’t firstly promote low tech broad defenses—improved IAQ ventilation and filtration standards.

This funding space has been largely filled by non-profits, which has helped a lot. Over the past 24 hours, I’ve seen a lot of concerns being raised over this program. It’s my view that if they fund good research, this is a good thing, regardless. What are people worried about?

@ukhadds This reaffirms the need for IPAC and epidemiologists to clearly explain how viruses get out of their hosts, how they are carried through the environment to another target, and how they get into their target.

Is #Ebolaisairborne? What does that even mean? What are the consequences if it is? What if it isn’t? This question was discussed on here recently. I thought I’d walk through why concrete assertions one way or the other are problematic. x.com/ukhadds/status…

@mattwridley The scientists who are fighting to prevent a real investigation are probably right. Revealing the truth that GOF virology is more dangerous than nuclear weapons would cause a massive public backlash against science in general. But a reckoning is still needed.

Refusing to investigate honestly has done far more damage to science’s reputation than finding out what happened and acting to ensure it cannot happen again.

It is imperative that those of us who support and defend biotechnology confront the strong possibility that a foolish and risky virology experiment was undertaken in Wuhan in 2019 with disastrous consequences for the world.

@CovidSolidarit1 @kananaskinyeti Long COVID sucks. For those yet to be struck down, there are three options: 1. YOLO til your luck runs out, 2. Maximum isolation, 3. Get the tools to make informed risk-based decisions and protect yourself while trying to live your best life under sub-optimal circumstances.

Do I go to the restaurant? NO Do I go to the pub? NO Do I go to concerts? NO Do I go to the gym? NO Do I go swimming? NO Do I meet people for coffee? NO Do I go to yoga? NO Do I go on holiday? NO Do I fly abroad? NO Do I attend meetings? NO Do I go to festivals? NO

@Karl_Lauterbach Ummm, isn’t anyone connecting the dots? Viral infections, including COVID and influenza, are known to lead to the development of future heart disease. So the vaccinations are protecting against the consequences of COVID….INCLUDING heart disease.

COVID Impfung hat auch in neuer Studie gezeigt, dass sie nicht nur vor Folgen von COVID schützt, sondern auch vor Herzkrankheiten. Ähnliches weiß man von Grippeimpfung. Für ältere Menschen hat das große Bedeutung. Wenn sie ungeimpft erkranken kommt kein Schwurbler zur Hilfe

@CovidSolidarit1 You can only care for so long about others when they don’t care about their own health. You have to prioritize your own mental well-being.

Is it bad that I am now getting close to the stage where I don't care if people lose their health after repeat Covid infections?

@LazarusLong13 @drseanmullen The urgency of normal is a real psychological driver.

@drseanmullen chance of destroying your life. Even if the WHO said your head has a 1 in 20 chance of exploding? I think we would see the same ratio of maskers. I think it boils down to people being very, very, VETY bad at risk calculations. Which is optimism if you look at it in another

Indoor Air 2026 conference in Singapore… How many maskers do you see? I highlighted 5 for you, and a yawner, who could be bored or could be tired from the CO2 levels. The ignorance is staggering. Even our beloved experts are now unmasking, accepting awards, etc… Disgusted.

@drseanmullen @maskedmamaB I’d like to see CO2 levels in the room before snapping to judgement on the masking piece. If they’re taking IAQ really seriously, and confirming efficacy, then masking should be hardly needed—as should be the expectation now in public spaces. (But sadly I doubt IAQ is good!)

@matthewshaw1111 Infectious diseases can’t just be evaluated in terms of acute death. There are many long-term health impacts that need to be factored into decision making around infection prevention.

There were only ~400 measles deaths per year in the US prior to vaccination, and measles mortality had been dropping dramatically in the preceding decades. In a counterfactual world where no measles vaccine was developed, would new treatments and other advances have decreases the number of measles deaths even further? Did the single-minded focus on vaccination discourage research into treatments?