If you're not afraid of COVID, you should be.

COVID weakens your immune system in a way that's comparable to HIV and hepatitis C.

SARS-CoV-2 infection weakens immune-cell response to vaccination

This has already been public knowledge, but now that the National Institute of Health is addressing it as a media advisory despite the ongoing, highly transparent campaign to delude people into thinking the pandemic is over, everyone should be fucking scared. It is reasonable, healthy even, to be scared of COVID right now. I need you to be afraid of COVID. I am begging everyone who reads this to be fearful of COVID, to avoid infection like your life depends on it, because it does.

1. Everyone that can mask needs to be masking with a N95 or better with proper fit. 

• A surgical mask doesn't cut it anymore.
  
• Cloth doesn't cut it anymore.
  
• N95s don't cut it in areas with poor air quality and compressed crowds, like on planes.
  
• Do not take your mask off in public, not even for a moment, not even outdoors (if the crowd density is high). One breath is all it takes. Viral particles linger in the air for hours, especially in poorly ventilated areas. Don't take your chances.
  

If you can, you are better off in ANY case wearing a respirator THAT DOES NOT HAVE A VALVE. This one is ~$30 off Amazon, and I can vouch for its efficacy. It is comfortable. Respirators are attention-grabbing, and because this model doesn't have an exhaust valve, condensation fills up the mask. Personally, I would rather deal with the inconvenience of being stared at and having a slightly wet face than permanent neurological damage. I understand that I can afford to do this, though, and not everyone can. Use N95s otherwise.

2. Rapid tests aren't reliable anymore. Unfortunately, the more accurate alternative, PCR tests, are far more expensive and more difficult to get a hold of. And sometimes PCRs aren't right, either. Do your research, contact your insurance provider if you have one, and be vigilant about testing as best you can. If you feel sick even with a negative result, do everything you can to STAY HOME. It's not worth it. Nothing is worth it. Listen to the people who have ever had it, who are still struggling: it's not worth it.

3. Keep your air clean. Air is like a toilet. The more people use it, the dirtier it gets. Ventilate. Open windows when you can. Use air purifiers. This model has treated me very well. Others are available for less. Make sure that their filters can capture viral particles.

4. If you've already had COVID, you need to be on the lookout for microclots. There is no such thing as a "mild" case regardless of what you feel. Your veins are not innervated. You cannot feel clots or damage to your veins. You cannot anticipate a clot unless you know what to look for. This is why people of every age and health status are "suddenly" dropping dead from heart attacks, weeks, months, a year after their initial infection that they "recovered" from. Avoid reinfection. Every infection after your first means more damage to every organ in the body.

5. If you've never had COVID or aren't sure if you've ever had COVID, act as if you are asymptomatic to protect others. Pretend you're contagious, even if you're certain you're not. This keeps everyone safe.

6. Limit outings as much as possible. It's inconvenient, it's isolating, it's tough, it's expensive. I would know: I hardly leave my house. I have been in near-total isolation for a year. But not everyone can afford to hole up like I can. People need medical care and basic supplies. Nobody should have to risk their lives during annual check-ups or grocery runs.

The immunocompromised are being left to die. They are being denied the ability to live their lives because people are content to continue poisoning the air and sicken themselves and others. We will never be free of this virus if we do not STOP TRANSMISSION. And we cannot STOP TRANSMISSION of any disease if people insist on partying, eating at restaurants, seeing movies in theaters, clubbing, hell, even gathering en masse in the name of God without at the very least taking precautions through masking and testing.

Medical centers aren't safe anymore. Doctors, nurses, phlebotomists aren't masking. I got my booster shot from a nurse who was wearing nothing but a surgical mask.

• People are visiting overstuffed ERs and hospital wards and dying of diseases circulating within the facility days later, or dying in the waiting room because they can't get service.
  
• People living with long COVID are getting reinfected when going to the doctor.
  
• Disabled people (in the case linked, a toddler) who need in-home caretakers are being murdered by the negligence of their own nurses.
  
• COVID is strangling the lives of children and youth.
  
• Children are now dying more of COVID than influenza and pneumonia.

People are losing their goddamn teeth.

More US lives needlessly lost from COVID than from ANY war SINCE THE EMPIRE'S INCEPTION.

Is that enough for you?

I ask that question with love. A profound love for others and the desperate desire to ensure that everyone is free to live their lives. That freedom will never be within our reach again so long as people continue to lie, because we sure as hell do not have that freedom now. Anybody who is "moving on" by refusing to vaccinate, mask, and distance is killing themselves and murdering others. The reckoning might be unseen now...but it will not be forever. I don't recommend waiting until it's you or someone you love.

I want to have children someday. But I refuse to bring a child into a world marred by pestilence, into a world in which the air itself can no longer be safely breathed. I want to ensure that world exists someday. So help me out. Please.