Plague Poems – The Two-Hundred-and-Ninety-Fourth Week If you are wondering what to do, now that the march is over, remember: there is more to protecting each other than just carrying a sign, so if you are wondering what to do next: wear a mask, yes, w…

People keep telling me
that we
are post-pandeimc,
but the hoarse voices
with which they say this
keeps telling me
that we
are still in the pandemic.

*

A compendium of the 294th week of plague poems…

librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/p...

Thanks to Violet Affleck for speaking out on behalf of children and young people.

I know, my friends,
that in this moment
we have other things
to worry about
than this ongoing pandemic,
and yet, my friends,
that in this moment
we have other things
to worry about
does not mean that we
need not worry about
this ongoing pandemic.

The teacher told me
her school’s principal
asked her if she
was going to keep masking,
so I asked her
what she said in response
and with a laugh she said
that she told him
“of course I am,
you always tell us
we need to set a good example.”

My niece informed me
that her generation feels
it’s so embarrassing
to contract Covid in 2025,
so I asked her
if members of her generation
feel it’s worth wearing a mask,
and my younger cousin informed me
that unfortunately
many in her generation
also find masks embarrassing.

Hand-washing is not effective at preventing the spread of an airborne disease, be it measles or covid. Thank you to Dr. Susan Kuo for emphasizing this!

Shouldn't be worth sharing (as the safety of vaccines has been clear for ages) but sharing for those that are still skeptical...

A note to future historians:
if you are wondering
why we let things get so bad,
(why we let things get even worse)
please understand
it’s not that we didn’t know
what was happening
(or what we could do)
it’s that ultimately
too many of us
just did not want
to be inconvenienced.

Yes. It seems much harder for folks to change themselves than for them to talk about all they change they will make...

If 4.9 million kids with asthma is a national health priority, what does it mean when 5.8 million have Long Covid?

Why is the #1 chronic condition in children being ignored?

A fantastic thread! We cannot let this be forgotten. Our children deserve better.

'Long covid is now the number 1 chronic illness in children...' surpassing asthma.
Heartbreaking.

The headline asked
“Why are so many children
getting long Covid?”
and though we know
that the answer
to this question
is that the pandemic
never ended,
meaning many children
are still catching Covid,
we keep asking this question
hoping for a different answer.

If you or a family member are dealing with long covid & are connected to a BC k-12 school (student or staff), I want to hear about your experience. With your permission I will share your story anonymously.
Message me on the BC School Covid Tracker Facebook Page!

Pediatric Long Covid - Practical Guide for Families and Education Stakeholders Pediatric Long Covid: Practical Guide for Families and Education Stakeholders. Discover symptoms, the impact on children, and practical advice to support them in daily life.

"PEDIATRIC LONG COVID. Practical Guide for Families and Education Stakeholders."
⭐️ Link here:
bcschoolcovidtracker.knack.com/bc-school-co...

A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles BY VIOLET AFFLECK I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room. She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised…

"We can 'follow the science' even when it scares us, instead of insisting that 'we have to live our lives' until those lives go up in flames."

Brilliant essay by Violet Affleck on the intersections between the climate crisis & Covid crisis 👌🏼

yaleglobalhealthreview.com/2025/05/18/a...

This article is always worth a share! 'Decision-based evidence-making'.

"Measles, like SARS-CoV-2, spreads through tiny infectious particles called aerosols that linger in the air that we breathe... In a classroom with poor ventilation & air filtration, one infectious student can infect up to 90% of their susceptible classmates."

ANSWERED: Is COVID-19 Harmful to Children? A Compilation of Peer-Reviewed Medical Research

"ANSWERED: Is COVID-19 Harmful to Children? A Compilation of Peer-Reviewed Medical Research."
⭐️ Link to other relevant articles:
bcschoolcovidtracker.knack.com/bc-school-co...

Yes, and if only most people would do more than just SAY, 'think of the children'.

The professor tells me
in past semesters
her mask wearing
inspired a few students
to mask too,
but this semester
she has masked alone,
but when I ask
if she has wanted to stop,
she says: “no
it’s good for students to see
someone doing the right thing
when everyone else given up.”

The Nation That Trump Could Never Break Canada didn’t just resist, they reminded the rest of us how to endure

“…this morning, from a war zone half a world away, I was reading about your election. And for the first time in days, I exhaled.

A small, almost invisible breath. Relief.

And then came gratitude…

You didn’t just choose kindness or experience…

You chose not to flirt with fascism.”

From Ukraine.

Agreed. The kids are NOT okay. No covid infection is 'harmless' or 'immune system strengthening'.

Heartbreaking. Thoughts are with those families affected.

...and nothing about masks. Surprise, surprise. 😡
Totally shameful.

Shameful guidance, but not unexpected...

The Kids Are Not Alright: Reinfections' Lingering Shadows - Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy They told us it was mild in children. A sniffle, a cough, a few days at home, and then back to normal. We clung to that narrative, a flimsy shield against the raging storm of a novel virus. But the wh...

"Now, the science is catching up to the lived reality, painting a stark picture of the long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in our children and adolescents – and the terrifying implications of repeated exposure."
⭐️ Link here:
bcschoolcovidtracker.knack.com/bc-school-co...

What makes a good public health leader? Canada is searching for a new Chief Public Health Officer. Leadership matters, especially in a crisis.

"In 2020, despite mounting evidence and an open letter from 239 scientists urging recognition of airborne transmission, Dr. Henry called the controversy a 'tempest in a teapot.'"
⭐️ Link to other relevant articles here:
bcschoolcovidtracker.knack.com/bc-school-co...

"Covid is not a cold. With a cold, you don't usually see any long-term effects, you don't see any changes in the blood vessels, you don't usually see an autoimmune disease developing, you also don't usually see neurological inflammation - these are all things that we see with long Covid. Therefore, one should not assume that Covid infection is just a common cold. It can affect brain tissue and the vascular system, and we still lack an effective treatment." Karl Lauterbach Minister of Health, Germany 4th December 2023

66 We need to be very firm with our messaging there is no such thing as a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection, there is no such thing as a SARS-CoV-2 infection that does not have prolonged consequences. Until we can fully understand the long term effects of Covid and who is susceptible and who is not, the only thing we can do to protect ourselves, our families, our immune systems in the long term is to avoid infection. 99 Dr. David Putrino, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation of Mt Sinai Health System

66 Even mild COVID infections seem to affect the way that your natural killer cells attack infections. It seems to affect the way that our T-cells attack infections and protect us from infections. So, I think one of the notions that we actually need to challenge is that for the longest time we've told people that if you get an illness and you recover, it just makes you stronger. What we're seeing over and over again is that's not the case with COVID. 99 Dr. David Putrino, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation of Mt Sinai Health System

1. Covid is worse than flu: Covid remains a much more serious threat to human health than the flu 2. COVID is more multisystemic, flu is more respiratory 3. Both covid and flu cause more health loss in the long-term than what is evident around the time of the infection Trivializing these illnesses as inconsequential ignores the large burden of health loss that occurs in the post-acute phase World-renowned COVID-19 researcher Dr Ziyad Al-Aly December 2023 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(23)00684-9/fulltext

People who ask why we mask don’t know the truth.