And I want to be able to climb a mountain, drink alcohol, taste pizza, and live past age 70. All of those things can go out the window with a severe case of COVID-19, and potentially even with an asymptomatic case, due to the long-term effects of scarring on multiple organs, and unknown long-term neurological effects.
I know humans always prioritize short-term goals over long-term. But personally, I am fine with wearing a mask or staying in for a year, to ensure my health for the next 70 years.
I also wear condoms when having sex with strangers. Crazy, I know, but somehow getting a lifelong disease just doesn't seem worth the momentary pleasure.
All you have to do is listen to the stories of young people who are now on a breathing machine for life. If that doesn't scare the fucking bejesus out of you, I don't know what will.
All respiratory viruses can have long term effects. I’ve had super annoying colds that refused to go away for like 6 months. Covid is no different.
So many people are so absolutely petrified over covid. It’s like they suddenly woke up and realized that respiratory viruses can suck and people die of horrible illness. None of this is unique to covid.
It’s life. There are no guarantees. What we are doing now is not living. Vaccines were it. Time to return to actual normal.
Covid-19 is literally a neurological disease. It causes the body to attack itself, like an autoimmune disease, which is what is leading to the incredibly high number of severe cases leading to death. And all of the long-term, quality-of-life-impacting side-effects that have nothing to do with respiratory viruses.
This has been reported for over a year.
> It’s life. There are no guarantees.
There's no guarantee you will get AIDS Or HepC if you have unprotected sex. Time to throw away the rubbers, we can't stop living life now can we?
Oh, wait. You can still fuck with rubbers. I guess you don't have to choose between not fucking or getting AIDS.
Just like you don't have to choose between being a hermit and making out with a dozen strangers at a bar. These things called "masks" are there to reduce risk without forcing us to stop living life.
If we covered the flu the same way we cover covid, people would be saying the same things…
> These things called "masks" are there to reduce risk without forcing us to stop living life.
Sorry I’m fully vaccinated. I’m not wearing a mask ever again. Masks are not normal. In fact they are quite the opposite.
Vaccines were supposed to be the end. Not some kind of dystopia where everybody wears masks and treats each other like disease vectors… forever. Because some people are frightened.
First, it's not forever. Over time, when we know more about the virus and it changes more, there will probably be less-severe variants where we can mostly rely on vaccination.
Second, there are plenty of ways you can mitigate the need for masks and social distancing with people that you know. Just like you don't need to use condoms with a monogamous partner that you trust, you don't need to wear masks around vaccinated people that use masks and social distance around people they don't know.
Third, you're not sorry. You're going to get people killed and continue to hurt the economy (and people who depend on it) because you can't stand to put a piece of cloth on your face for 5 minutes, stand back a bit from someone, or eat outside. You're freaking out and being childish because you personally don't care about the consequences, while ignoring the consequences for everyone else. It's the same as people who refused to wear condoms during the AIDS crisis because "they're not normal".
> Over time, when we know more about the virus and it changes more, there will probably be less-severe variants where we can mostly rely on vaccination.
With all due respect, this is a crazy take. Calling me childish and telling me that I’m “freaking out” is bullying and textbook gaslighting.
Covid is not novel at this point. It’s been a thing since very early 2020. What more are we possibly gonna know about it? It’s a respiratory virus. Not unlike many of its kind.
We have a vaccine for it. Anybody who is at risk can walk in and get it free.
I’m fully vaccinated. There is absolutely no reason for me to wear a mask. I’ve done my part. My obligations to society are over. I now can return to actual normal, no matter what people convince themselves of.
Pushing this dystopian “new normal” crap is, quite frankly, insane. There will be no new normal. People pushing for it need to be rigorously called out for the insanity they are preaching. Party is over.
> It’s a respiratory virus. Not unlike many of its kind.
It's very much unlike others of its kind. And it is novel. It is literally called a "novel coronavirus". Just to give you an idea how deadly and different this virus is:
- An outbreak of Ebola from 2014 to 2016 killed 11,310 people in West Africa.
- In 2009, the H1N1 pandemic killed approximately 12,469 people in the US.
- In 2014, during the MERS-CoV pandemic, 2 people in the US tested positive.
- As of today, COVID-19 has killed 661,000 people in the US.
COVID-19 is 53 times more deadly than the last major coronavirus pandemic in the US. Fifty. Three. Times.
> We have a vaccine for it.
We have a vaccine developed for the first variant of it, alpha. The vaccine was not developed against the delta variant. There is a drastic difference in its effectiveness against delta. Hence why there are now new mask mandates - for vaccinated people - where delta is rampaging. Are you telling me you didn't know this at all?
> I’ve done my part. My obligations to society are over.
Actually, no, society literally requires you by law to continue to wear masks in places where Delta is surging. But whatever; you want to kill people, you're gonna kill people.
I get it. You're petrified. But life will get better, and it does indeed change. "Normal" does shift. People didn't used to wear condoms, now they do (except for you). People didn't used to brush their teeth, now they do (except for you). People didn't used to wash their hands, now they do (except for you). You apparently live in 1750, where medical science and overall culture hasn't changed for hundreds of years, where everything is totally normal and will never ever ever ever Ever EVER change. Because everyone else is just insane, and you're normal.
I know humans always prioritize short-term goals over long-term. But personally, I am fine with wearing a mask or staying in for a year, to ensure my health for the next 70 years.
I also wear condoms when having sex with strangers. Crazy, I know, but somehow getting a lifelong disease just doesn't seem worth the momentary pleasure.
All you have to do is listen to the stories of young people who are now on a breathing machine for life. If that doesn't scare the fucking bejesus out of you, I don't know what will.