361 Comments
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Has the format of the wonkette suddenly changed?

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Covid is still around. Every Covid infection comes with the very real risk of Long Covid. I contracted Covid in June 2020. I am back to maybe 40% on a good day now. After 3+ years, I am still so exhausted by taking a shower, I have to rest for 20 minutes after. I could walk 2-3 miles a day, now I can barely walk 1/4 mile at a time. I never know how much energy I have in a day because it fluctuates so much. So one day I might have 20 minutes in me but the next have 4 hours. Also, my body no longer warns me if I’m overdoing it. It just stops. Sometimes those stops stretch days at a time where I am capable of very little other than sleep. It fucking sucks.

If you are medically able, please get boosted. I was Caregiver, able bodied and physically healthy, and only 45 when I was fully and permanently disabled by Covid. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Not even Greg Abbott.

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Gimme gimme gimme. Gimme all the shots.

I avoided it for two years then caught it last January when I went out to a crowded bar on New Year's Eve and watched Ohio State miss a field goal at the stroke of midnight to send the Georgia Bulldogs to the second straight national championship game.

Do I wish I hadn't caught it? Of course, it sucked. Two years of diligence down the drain. Do I regret being there and getting to kiss my husband at the stroke of midnight as my childhood sportsball team pulled off a midnight miracle with an assist from a back kicker in Ohio State?

Okay maybe yeah a little, we could have smooched at home.

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Cures for stupid are like the holy grail for medicine, but also the pink unicorn of it, as in it probably doesn't exist.

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The Church of the Invisible Pink Unicorn is based on a mixture of reason and faith. We know that the Unicorn is invisible by reason, because we can't see her. We know that she is pink by faith.

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I believe Darwin had a cure for stupid that seemed to work quite well....

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It's simple. People feel powerful and important when they reject something. They're just following their instinct and genetic destiny. Praise be to Darwin.

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I believe that's "genetic density"

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"Finally, people in Florida should completely ignore that state’s surgeon general, antivax quack Joseph Ladapo, who last weekend advised residents not to get the new vaccine."

My "resonance of truth" tells me that Florida's Ladapo is just as much of a bought-and-paid-for political hack as he is a phony who-fakes-medical-data quack.

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Godspeed Floridians! Go get your vax! (If ignoring banana republicans be the music accompanying their eventual political defeat, play on...)

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Since it's approximately on-topic, let me put in a pitch for a great medical blog, "Respectful Insolence" by a fellow with the nom-de-blog "Orac". In what he terms the worst-kept secret on the internet, he is David Gorski, M.D., a researcher and clinician at Wayne State in Detroit. He writes long, long, posts battling all kinds of medical quackery, with antivax lunacy pretty much at the top of the list

Orac is a bona fide researcher with a deep understanding of medical statistics, human biology, and the many ways in which people can fool themselves. He's opinionated AF, but he's right.

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I have to thank Orac and the smart commenters over there. My offspring was dx'd with autism and the vaccine court was holding hearings about the same time so I was looking to understand what was true and helpful. That summer was a huge learning curve for me since I had no science training as I followed the court. Learning about PCR assays, the proof and a feather needed in the vaccine court, thimersol and MMR, Brian Deer and his reporting on Wakefield - it was eye opening. I could have easily fallen to the other side since I was emotionally thinking and reacting to the dx. He does good things for people and I appreciate his determination.

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That's wonderful to hear. Good for you.

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But there may be a connection between autism and vaccines after all.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/autism-and-vaccines

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As someone who is trying to help update some specimen processing software for a lab that does a crap ton of testing and vaccine research..... yeah this tracks. I feel bad, I'm about to wreck one lab director's whole routine, but the process she developed is making five times as much work for everyone else and they are miserable.

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I was pretty sure I was the only one to spell theatre that way.

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Killing off your voters is a ...bold strategy

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I'm leaving today for 3 weeks in the UK. I had really wanted this to be available before I left but I should have specified that it should be available more than 3 hours before I leave for the airport. oops

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I just want to know when I should make an appointment with my local Safeway pharmacy.

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But what's the deal with the Novavax jab? I thought it was supposed to be better? Does it look like it will be approved soon and if so how does that figure in?

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I don't know about better. It's not mRNA-based, which makes some people more comfortable. This Ars Technica article mentions it in the last graf. The CDC will review it tomorrow, but FDA asked Novavax for more info. My guess is they're not far behind Pfizer and Moderna.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/09/updated-covid-boosters-get-green-light-from-fda-ahead-of-cdc-review/

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Sep 12, 2023·edited Sep 12, 2023

I wish I could get this new vaccine, along with the new flu shot, last week.

Right now I'm coming down with something. It's probably a cold; I remember way back in the Before Times when we would get colds.

But it sucks to have a mild sore throat, stopped-up head, minor headache; general slow and wooly feeling; and have a bunch of stuff that has to get done regardless.

Ope, since I'm doing work that's theatre-adjacent, I need to get it done irregardless.

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the thing with epistemological bubbles is that their shells are self-reinforcing. once you're in and let confirmation bias take over, the bubble provides comfort even if it kills you.

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I always, much to the annoyance of friends and family, spell it theatre. I also use colour and flavour. I am truly annoying and pretentious.

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