CDC COVlD map in new color scheme

After 2+ years of requesting the CDC to stop using their misleading "all shades of blue" COVlD map, they have switched to using an ethical and sensible color scheme.

This is a tremendous public health good that will save lives.

Almost all people will be infected with at least one type of HPV during their lives. HPV vaccines can prevent over 90% of cancers caused by HPV. You have the power to protect your kids from cancers caused by HPV. Talk to your doctor about HPV vaccination beginning at age 9.

HPV infections are extremely common, but HPV vaccines can prevent over 90% of cancers caused by HPV. This Adolescent Immunization Action Week, talk to your child's doctor about protecting them from cancer by getting them vaccinated against HPV. Learn more: www.healthychildren.org/English/safe...

New COVID-19 variant. Same protection. Wear masks. High-quality masks like N95 and KN95s (these are also called respirators) offer the most protection. Use the best available to you! Keep clean air. COVID-19 infects others most commonly when it is breathed in through the air. Keeping clean, well-ventilated air with open windows and air purifiers lowers the amount of virus in the air and reduces your chances of getting sick! Get vaccinated. Even when new variants develop, vaccines can help protect you from serious illness and death from COVID-19!

As you continue hearing about the new COVID-19 variant (the “cicada” variant) in the news, remember the protection remains the same! Wear the best mask available to you, keep indoor air clean, & stay up to date on vaccines to protect yourself & others from infection & serious illness from COVID-19!

To me, mechanisms are huge. People think of Covid based on categories like “respiratory.” The fact that Covid targets blood vessels & immune cells all over the body is just not understood, and that flu and other viruses just don’t do this in the same way. That underlying insight unlocks the rest imo

Up to 60% of health care workers may have long COVID 4 years after infection

CIDRAP: “Up to 60% of health care workers may have long COVID 4 years after infection”

www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/60-...

A strategy I am recommending to people who don’t want to mask all the time is always in healthcare facilities and public transportation, AND if you see someone in a mask, put yours on. The first helps protect spaces high risk people may have no choice but to go, the second shows them support.

It’s #LongCOVIDAwarenessWeek, but Long COVID will still be around once it’s over. Visit our website and follow along to learn how to recognize the signs: doh.wa.gov/long-covid

Things we want people to know. 6 years after the start* of the COVID-19 pandemic. *The day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. This was not the date of the first case.

It’s not just a cold. We wish it were just a cold. We would not keep talking about it if so. Since 2020, doctors, scientists, and millions of people who have had COVID-19 have learned that it can cause permanent damage to multiple organ systems within your body, leave you disabled and unable to do the things you love, and significantly harm your quality of life. A cold cannot disable or kill you the way COVID-19 can.

We know a lot more about prevention than we did back then. We all remember when we thought maybe we’d be ok as long as we were 6 feet away from sick people; that masks worked one way but not the other; and more. But just like with all new viruses and scientific study, we learned more as there was more time to study and observe, and we now know that wearing masks and keeping cleaner air are key to protecting ourselves and others. Now that we know better, we can (and should) better protect ourselves and others.

We understand the frustration about vaccines, but they are still extremely important. We all remember when vaccines were first made available, and it would’ve been great if that was the end of the pandemic. It wasn’t. And a lot of people have gotten frustrated and have given up on vaccination. It’s true, the virus that causes COVID-19 changes (which is why, like the annual flu shot, we need to get updated COVID-19 vaccines each year), and the vaccines we have now will not eliminate COVID-19 on their own. But they are still very effective at preventing serious illness and death, so even though they are not the one quick solution to the pandemic we all wish they were, they are still extremely important, and we should all stay up to date.

This week marked the anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve summarized our thoughts a bit below, but tl;dr: Unfortunately, COVID-19 is still with us, & although we may be tired of hearing about it, it’s extremely important to continue to take steps to protect ourselves & others.

We are all very tired of it (or at least I am), but pretending it’s gone is not going to help anyone stay healthy. Lots of us are tired of hearing about it (and honestly, we’re tired of talking about it), but we keep talking about it because we know how devastating it can be, we’ve met people whose lives are forever changed for the worse because of getting COVID-19, and lots of people who are now living with Long COVID say they wish they had known how bad it could be. So we’ll probably keep talking about it, because we want you to be healthy and happy, and even if you are tired of it (that’s fair), we hope you take some steps to protect yourself and others so you can all live long, healthy lives.

In other words, we’re know you’re tired of hearing about COVID-19. We’re tired of hearing about it too. But ignoring it does not help it to go away, so please continue to take protect your health.

Why do progressives and justice advocates seem to not care about COVID? It’s still important to warn people about the dangers of COVID and make schools and workplaces safe, Andrew Wilkin says.

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"Creating #LongCOVID awareness might seem like an uphill battle, but research shows time is on the side of health justice advocates. It takes around 17 years for health findings to become mainstream practice":

@teachrprecarity.bsky.social

www.thespec.com/opinion/cont...

I'm a high school teacher who always has open windows and doors, 1 or 2 air purifiers running and I always mask. Your posts help me stay motivated to keep doing what's right! Thanks for what you do!

Bottom line from the last 6 years of COVID research : If you’ve got blood vessels, you’d be wise to avoid additional infections.

Now is a great time to normalize wearing a respirator. Might feel awkward at first, but every person who does makes it easier for others to follow. Be a leader. 😷

Outside of this direct problem - it further prevents our ability to do 2x yearly updates to the Covid vaccines, which is strongly needed. One for the winter wave, one for the summer wave. You know, an appropriate utilization of the mRNA platform.

Indirectly, this may even reduce flu vaccinations.

Personally not a fan of this combination Taco Bell and Pizza Hut model.

Irrespective of efficacy - tying the variant selection of the flu with the Covid variant selection, to me seems like we will have an abysmally matched covid vaccine to circulating variants with a March selection for the winter

Six years in, mental health care providers are still uninformed on Long COVID. And it’s making the crisis worse. - The Sick Times Six years into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many people living with Long COVID still aren’t getting the mental health support they need.

Today @thesicktimes.org: Elizabeth Yuko examines why people with Long COVID struggle to get appropriate mental health care. One big issue, she found, is that professional associations haven't offered guidance on the disease. thesicktimes.org/2026/02/24/s...

Part 2 - more logistic details for DC Masked Rave Thu 2/26 9pm-2am:

Tickets:
shotgun.live/events/dmv-m...

ELEMENTAL Masked Rave (Thu 2/26 @ Transmission DC, 9pm-2am)

shotgun.live/events/dmv-m...

Part 1

3 days away from our masked 😷 rave in DC, make sure to get your ticket or let friends in the DMV area know

shotgun.live/events/dmv-m...

I'm almost 80 and I wear an N95 in public indoor spaces. I'm shunned by people regardless of their politics. I've sadly learned to trust no one (even people I know) to isolate when they're unwell. Covid is still here. Almost no one cares if they transmit disease and the elderly die.

I am a physician who will be wearing an N95 in all clinical encounters for the rest of my life because I don’t want to commit the harm of passing on a respiratory pathogen to a patient. This seems like a minimum duty, like handwashing, but I am unfortunately in a vanishingly small minority.

I’m going to say again, infecting your allies with a potentially debilitating and deadly illness is extremely foolish behavior in any kind of movement. You’re doing work for the other guys.

Solving Long COVID: How Decades of HIV Research Paved the Way Discover how UCSF is leading the charge in Long COVID research, uncovering key findings that advance our understanding of the condition. UCSF researchers have adapted innovative tools and methodologie...

“HIV taught us how chronic viral infections can affect the body long after initial illness, and how important it is to involve patients in that research,” said @michaelpelusomd.bsky.social. “Applying those lessons to #LongCovid has helped us accelerate discovery” www.ucsf.edu/news/2026/01...

I’ve had to fill out the same questionnaire twice a year since 2017 to get my six-month continuous birth control prescription filled. Sometime since July they’ve added POTS to the common patient diagnoses checklist. #LongCOVID

New research finds that COVID viruses continue to be dangerous after they’re destroyed by your immune system. Some spike proteins survive, turning into shrapnel, continuing to target our immune cells.

And if you'd like some, a lovely designer we know created them so we could drop ship 1000 to Minneapolis and the other designs are free for you to download, print at home, or have bulk printed!

drive.proton.me/urls/TKVTS18...

Use of Rapid Antigen Tests during the Omicron Wave - Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table The emergence of the now provincially and globally dominant SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant demands a reassessment of the diagnostic performance of rapid antigen tests. Rapid antigen tests are less sensiti...

How sensitive are rapid tests for covid?

For the omicron variant: 37.1%

That's a significant drop from 81% sensitivity during delta.

covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief...

#CovidIsntOver #MedSky #IDSky

screenshot of text from Adam Serwer in The Atlantic: "The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they're the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive - because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about "Western civilization," while armed brutes try to tear it down by force."

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Another person I know caught Covid in the hospital.

They said they would have masked had they known it was a risk

They didn’t know because everyone is pretending things are “back to normal”

Meanwhile hospital acquired Covid disables & kills

Respirators & clean air save lives

Yes, but the post is about why it’s playing so badly