Wilson (Sunny D)

Video essay: How does Long COVID affect queer and trans communities? - The Sick Times Taipei is a drag queen in dramatic vampy makeup and a platinum blonde bob hairstyle. She wears a glitter burgundy dress with a bright red fur lined jacket over the top. She summarizes the unique ways ...

Check out this @thesicktimes.bsky.social video essay from the incredible drag artist Taipei, about how #LongCOVID affects the queer and trans community.

thesicktimes.org/2025/07/17/v...

I’m hearing a lot of despair and “what’s the point”-ing.

Here’s the point:

ONE less person kidnapped by ICE.

ONE more child vaccinated.

ONE grant reinstated.

ONE more PEPFAR treatment.

ONE more meal to a hungry kid.

ONE more person covered by Medicaid.

One life is ALWAYS worth resistance.

I’m fully vaccinated but I still mask in public indoor spaces.

Because COVID sucks. For me and everyone around me.

A person sits cross-legged on a city sidewalk, huddled in a winter coat. They hold a cardboard sign that reads: “COVID sucks, hard and lonely times, thank you.” There is a white bucket sitting in front of them, reading: “Anything helps, thank you, God bless.” The text on top of the image reads, “The Sick Times. Long COVID is increasing housing insecurity, but support programs fail to help. By John Loeppky.”

Housing insecurity is understudied both for Long COVID and disability communities more broadly, despite a sizable increase in the number of disabled people since the start of the pandemic. Research also shows that unhoused people experience a higher rate of disability than the rate in the general population. The issue is cyclical: on top of disability contributing to housing insecurity, living with a precarious housing situation puts you at additional risk for COVID-19 complications and developing Long COVID.

Research is starting to reflect what advocates have pointed to for years: a connection between Long COVID and housing insecurity. bit.ly/44bsmO0

a lot of things are happening, & a lot of folks are looking for something actionable to do—if you cannot do anything else, let wearing a respirator in your daily life be the tide-shifting behavior you seek. normalizing using this mitigation tool matters. seriously, watch👇🏻
www.tiktok.com/t/ZTjso3yCs/

Stay safe and sane 🫂

I am always interested in your opinion when it comes to this stuff. Looking forward to hearing what comes from whatever they decide to do. Thanks for doing the work 🫶😷

Interesting anecdote:

I’m part of the control group for the Johns Hopkins Long Covid Survey (still Novid) and we got new questions this time — they’re asking about EDS and collagen/flexibility markers, and post-exertional malaise.

It’s almost like research if finally catching up to observation!

I’ve seen the ICE agents. They’re wearing gaiters, not face masks.

Please make this distinction!

It probably seems like semantics, but it’s important to draw a delineation between a public health tool and face concealment (via means that do nothing for public health).

time to get even more serious about protecting yourself—there is no safety net; don’t let facilities give you any more excuses about keeping you safe—if there’s no fed setting rules, checking in then they must follow their oath to do no harm: anything less than that is moral dereliction of duty.

This policy at a National establishment became public, but you’re kidding yourself if you don’t think others aren’t suffering at the hands of similar, less visible retaliation for masking.

If you are not wearing a mask in, at the very least, public indoor spaces YOU are contributing to that harm.

We do what we can🔥💪😷💅🔥 You're really pulling a lot of weight for us though, recently 👏

"When will you stop blaming COVID for everything?"

Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to stop in my lifetime... You've let it rip, everyone's getting infected over and over, and it makes everything worse.

But hey, enjoy your brunch!

Boycotts and strikes are very effective

I've been using the term "virus mitigation" or "virus mitigator." We mitigate 💪😎😷

N95 Masks Will Save Your Life. Wear Them. - by Jessica

“The biggest thing it misses: It’s not just Covid anymore, not by a long shot. With measles, tuberculosis, and flu now in the mix, we have no end to good reasons for protecting our health. And guess what? Measles mutates faster than Covid…”

AXIOS He told Axios the U.S. typically doesn't require medical clearance for a driver's license, but that a questionnaire at the time of a renewal about whether a person had long COVID would be appropriate. • The complicating factor is there's no "cure" for the condition, and that society is dependent on driving, he said.

Imagining a world where the thing that makes people take covid seriously again is that they may lose their legal ability to drive.

www.axios.com/2025/04/24/d...

In & Out Burger was the first fast food chain to force employees to get a doctors note to be able to mask.

Panda Express followed & now we’re hearing that Starbucks may enact a similar rule.

If you stopped masking, you made this easier. We need visibility. We need to normalize masks.

Just spoke with my CDC sources. They were in tears.

Budgets cut. RFJK has ordered them not to publicize bird flu symptoms in exposed workers. Not to test them. Not to speak.

They know people are getting sick. And they’re being forced to stay silent.

This is not just a cover-up. It's cruelty.

The masking and anticovid movement has formed from people with an awareness that our governments sacrificed public health for profit. Not everyone is there yet (including some people who should be).

Keep pushing the idea the “end of the pandemic” was sociologically constructed…

Look on my works, ye mighty, and jump in puddle

According to the feng shui guy, it's because his bed was positioned with his feet aimed at his open door, allowing strangers to come tickle his feet when he sleeps. Bad feng shui.

If anything I’m so frustrated by what the internet has become because it was so fundamental to my ability to discover who I am and the values I hold. We need to protect that part of the internet, which still exists but has been ruthlessly censored and targeted so that fascism can thrive on it

It was the Dunning of tymes. It was the Kruger of tymes.

The pandemic never ended you just stopped feeling bad about putting others at risk and didn’t want disruption to your status quo.

what folks fail to see is biden’s role; his choice to pursue austerity, to ignore covids ongoing challenges, is the crumbling foundation into which RFK swung an axe. imagine if he’d followed thru (see promises⬇️), if harris did more than barely nod to SARS2s harms campaigning…things could be better.

It's Pick-Me energy to try to cling to your youth and be ashamed of aging.

Them: ugh you make everything about masks and COVID

Me: have you stopped letting your apathy kill and disable vulnerable people yet?

Yeah, I get it. I used to be fun. I used to be able to do things. Then society cut me out and gaslit me about it. I’d love to be able to come back.

Peter Marks, a top vaccine official at FDA, has resigned after threats to resign or be fired.

Marks stood up "Operation Warp Speed" during COVID to expedite delivery of safe vaccines.

This is a huge loss to the field. How many more heroes will we lose as science continues to be eroded?

The CDC has officially been compromised. Not by the hardworking and brilliant scientists there, but by the infection that is known as RFK Jr. In suppressing an expert report on the current measles outbreak showing the importance of MMR vaccination, we can no longer trust their communications.