Long and Short Covid won't be gone anytime soon and Republicans want you to catch it and die from it.

Turn your head and cough... BUT!
Don't cover your mouth that's Woke!

"Most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so." - Bertrand Russell

Covid cases are on the rise again and a new variant BA.2.86, nicknamed "Pirola", is also in the offing.  For now, officials say they remain well-equipped to deal with the strain if it continues to spread. Early assessments suggest current treatments and tests, as well as upcoming vaccines to be rolled out next month, will not be rendered useless by BA.2.86. So, that's good.

Nonetheless, I've taken to wearing a mask again at work as I await the new booster availability.  As the school year starts so do the interactions with grimy little snot-nosed (literally) children.  But, more than that I wear a mask (the black KN-95) during roll call and in the report writing rooms due to their tiny size.

This exposes me to the anger and brow-beating of the Officers present who try to shame me into not wearing a mask around them.  Now, I am used to years of being the subject of my reactionary co-workers ire because of my beliefs on a whole host of topics but this selective germ theory surprises even this jaded cynical Gen-Xer.  But, also it's obvious my visible mask wearing makes them uncomfortable with the possibility their belief masks don't work is wrong and they are exposing themselves to a hazard purely through anti-virtue signaling (vice signaling).

I often ask them why they wash their hands after dealing with perps or why they don't aggressively inhale second-hand smoke from the few Officers who still smoke.

Some ask me if I've caught Covid and to this point I've managed to be a Novid but, after Labor Day holiday, I told them I don't know up whose butt you've been sticking you nose, one responded are you aware of the Oxford Mask Study which "proved" masks don't work.

After some googling ("doing his own research") he couldn't locate "the study" in question but, asked me if I would accept CNN or Factcheck.org.  I told him no those aren't the quote-unquote The Oxford Study.  At which point he got a quizzical look upon his face.

Eventually I found out what he was talking about which is this---> A Cochrane Review Meta-Analysis.

This is fundamentally how the rightwing anti-vaxx and covid disinformation efforts work.  People don't read anything past the Breaking News headline.  This was jumped upon by the worst of the covid denialists who will never, ever admit they were wrong.  And actually gain more prominence, prestige, and influence by doubling and tripling down on denying the stark reality.

The lead author of the Cochrane review, Tom Jefferson, seemed to endorse this interpretation when he said in an interview, later quoted by conservative columnist Bret Stephens in a widely viewed opinion piece for the New York Times, “There is just no evidence that they” — referring to masks — “make any difference.”

Perhaps even worse, in a. grim irony, despite the rampant rightwing lies about what the meta-analysis says, the Cochrane review does in fact point to a reduction,

Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong who has studied masks, said he thought the review was very similar to other systematic reviews on the topic. But he found the authors’ conclusion that wearing masks in the community “probably makes little or no difference” to be problematic.   

He noted that the confidence intervals for the meta-analysis for unconfirmed and lab-confirmed influenza and COVID-19 “go down as low as 0.84 and 0.72,” and said that “these effects (16% reduction and 28% reduction, respectively) would not be considered little or no difference.” 

Last year, President Biden issued a Memorandum: Addressing the Long-Term Effects of COVID-19.  Long Covid effects on are varied but, present the at least the following serious complications; brain fog, shortness of breath, and fatigue.

The National Institutes of Health launched and is opening enrollment for phase 2 clinical trials that will evaluate at least four potential treatments for long COVID, with additional clinical trials to test at least seven more treatments expected in the coming months. Treatments will include drugs, biologics, medical devices and other therapies. The trials are designed to evaluate multiple treatments simultaneously to identify more swiftly those that are effective. RECOVER is a large, nationwide research program designed to understand, treat and prevent long COVID, which is marked by long-term symptoms following infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. 

Much of the trouble is conservatives decided long ago to stop believing the "Eggheads" and became Skeptics.  Now... rightwing skepticism isn't common sense but, the ability to deny the reality before their eyes and believe every piece of Agitprop told to them by rightwing influencers and perfidious Republican politicians.  Even their infallible God-King Trump can not break them of this as every time Trump has claimed credit for the vaccine, he's faced pushback amongst the denialists and the rightwing influencers who declare no one died from Covid but with it and actually the Vaccine has killed millions.

Yes, Republicans want you and your
loved ones to die of/from/with Covid

But, lest you think I'm exaggerating the disingenuous Republicans response to Covid and stone-cold decision to let Americans die, I give you Arkansas Governor Sarah Suckabee Sanders and the ridiculous Surgeon General of Florida Joseph Ladapo telling people not to get a booster.