US in COVID surge; People's CDC; Discord community
Quick status update:
We are currently in a COVID surge; it’s even more important than usual to keep you and people around you from catching COVID.
I post to this newsletter too infrequently to keep you up-to-date; consider subscribing to People’s CDC’s mailing list and read their regularly-published COVID Weather Reports. Also check out their updated Safer In Person Gatherings Guide.
Do not expect public health officials or the media to keep you informed about COVID.
If you are interested in an online Discord chat community for frequent COVID information and discussion and COVID-conscious support, send me an email and I can provide more information privately: kaminski@istori.com. (I am not the community organizer, it’s other folks, but it seems like a good community.)
As you’ll remember:
The COVID state of emergency expired, but the pandemic has not ended.
US government / US CDC COVID status went from red to green back in February because they changed the threshold numbers, not because COVID went away.
Vaccination is still important, and you should get vaccines as they become available to you. While current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines work to mostly prevent serious outcomes, they do not keep you from being infected with COVID, with attendant risks to your health and the health of people you may pass it on to.
COVID is bad for you in ways colds and flu are not, and likely will cause long-term problems, perhaps problems that the healthcare system won’t be able to treat easily. You need to take responsibility for your long-term health, because the government and healthcare system may not. You should avoid catching COVID.
COVID is airborne; work to have cleaner indoor air with:
HEPA filters
Corsi-Rosenthal boxes
and especially, wear properly fitted NIOSH-certified N95/KN95/KF94 respirator masks.
Find and help one other in supporting healthy choices and in avoiding COVID. Something like the Discord chat community mentioned above may help support you if you cannot find support from the people around you.
Stay safe, stay healthy!
Pete