I Stopped Masking Last October Because I Saw My Community Stop Masking. I Also Figured I Was At Low Risk

I stopped masking last October because I saw my community stop masking. I also figured I was at low risk because I had a flexible WFH job and rarely left the house anyway. Besides, I reasoned, I was fully vaccinated and had already survived three years of the pandemic without catching it.

I caught COVID anyway, probably on a routine trip to the pharmacy.

It was the only time I had left the house in several weeks because I had gotten used to getting most of my goods delivered. I had a few pre-existing conditions and was already struggling with my mental health, so some COVID-era developments made life a lot easier for me.

I have long COVID now. I get breathless when I take the kitchen trash out to the curb. I get fatigued and faint while standing for too long in a line in a public location or even while cooking or washing dishes at home. My cognition has taken a sharp decline. I am constantly fatigued and weak, yet I can't sleep without sedative medication.

I'm uninsured, so I can't afford (or can barely afford) the things that would help me, like cognitive rehab, physical therapy, or a walker.

This is my life for the foreseeable future -- possibly forever.

Don't be like me if you can help it.

Wear a mask.

People like to pretend I will "get better" so they do not have to think about the deadly lie they are living. Abandoning disabled and high-risk people to preventable death is eugenics.

To clarify, this is NOT just an American issue -- think of the "pan" in pandemic.

The MSKCC Library

The People's CDC (weekly weather reports on COVID in the U.S.)

Image IDs available in Alt Text and written out below:

Image ID begins. A black and white cartoon comic titled Pandemic Year 4. This is panel 1. A boy with short hair — Joey, the author of the comic — is holding a Christmas wreath and handing it to his boyfriend, a boy with long hair and a beard, who is standing in a window while decorating. The text reads: This year, my boyfriend and I got fresh pine wreaths from the farmer’s market — our fist big Christmas decorations together!

Panel 2. A hand holds pine needles. Cartoon stink clouds radiate off of the pine needles. The text reads: I break pine needles between my fingers and it smells hideous. Pain shoots through my head.

Panel 3. Joey stands in front of a table on which there are various foods. He looks disgusted and is covering his nose and mouth with his hands. The text reads: This is how I have lived since my February 2020 COVID infection. COVID caused brain and nerve damage, making everything smell and taste like rot. The condition is called parosmia, and it has no cure. Eating is a nightmare.

Panel 4. Joey’s boyfriend, a taller boy with long hair and a beard, puts his hand on Joey’s shoulder. They are shown from behind and are both wearing backpacks and winter coats. The text reads: Last week, my boyfriend walked me home from work midday after I had a near-fainting episode. I wear a heart monitor full-time. Doctors say I’m “too young”.

Panel 5. Joey is shown from behind, sitting sadly and gazing out a window. The text reads: I’ve literally been isolated from the rest of the world for four years. One COVID infection destroyed my life, and I can’t risk another. How can I get you to understand? After becoming disabled by COVID at 19 years old, I have been completely shut off from the outside world.

Panel 6. Joey stands in between two maskless and anonymous figures. Joey looks uncomfortable and is crossing his arms and gazing at them. He is wearing a respirator mask and goggles. The figure on the right is holding a bag labeled “food Joey can’t eat”. The text reads: “Friends” and family who have seen the depth of my suffering for four years have stopped masking and can’t be bothered to care. Family Christmas meant that I had to reiterate daily that I would not and physically could not eat at restaurants.

Panel 7. A drawing of an open laptop, next to which lays an N95 mask. On the laptop, a headline from the Washington Post is displayed. The headline reads: Covid kills nearly 10,000 in a month as holidays fuel spread, WHO says. The comic text reads: This winter has been the 2nd highest peak of the pandemic, with at least 10,000 Americans dying of COVID in December. Playing pretend at “normalcy” is profoundly violent and deadly. Under the comic frame, a citation reads: The Washington Post, January 11, 2024. This is an undercount, as there is no more COVID tracking in the U.S.

Panel 8. A drawing of Joey gesturing at an educational chalk board with a pointer. He is wearing a respirator mask, goggles, and a sweater vest. The text reads: COVID is a virus that causes long-term damage to your organs and nervous system. It’s also a Biosafety Level 3 pathogen, like tuberculosis, meaning that is can be lethal upon inhalation and requires special and serious PPE in Laboratories. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has a digital library of research on COVID impacts. https://libguides.mskcc.org/CovidImpacts/Home

Panel 9. An anonymous figure behind an oration desk is trying to cover a pile of bones behind them. On the pile of bones is a flag that says: Just keep buying and working! The text reads: You are being led to enact violence on your community members by a government who is sacrificing you on the altar of capital. You should be terrified.

Panel 10. A drawing of Joey’s head from the side. he is wearing a respirator mask. The text reads: There is no neutrality in a mass-death and mass-disabling pandemic. Wear a mask or forever be complicit. The comic is dated February 3, 2024. Image ID ends.

public service message that thinking "Maybe speaking up about Palestine is too controversial/political for me to do" or "maybe mentioning good aspects about Palestinians while they're suffering so much is not okay" is exactly the kind of mindset zionists want you to have and have been hard at work for years for people to develope. thank you.

Having some issues getting it to post, but here 'tis!

Seven Days (4852 words) by WritAsAFiddle Chapters: 1/7 Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Angela (The Magnus Archives), Extremely Minor OC Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mutilation, Dehumanization, Objectification, Tooth Trauma, Human Captivity, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Vomiting, Malnutrition, Hurt Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Caretaking, Starvation, Torture, Whump, Not Beta Read, Not Britpicked, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist Whump, queerplatonic jonmartin, Sick Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Touch-Averse Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Touch-Starved Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Trans Martin Blackwood, but blink and you’ll miss it, alternating pov, Attempted self harm, Bathing / Washing, Blood, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, Injury, not exactly disabled character but strongly disability coded, wound care Summary: I'm writing gratuitous whump because I wanted "The Magic Shop" by WhyNotFly to contain more content. Read their fic for this to make sense. The Archivist is a millennia-old magic being who is also having a bad time. Martin is a 22-year-old office worker who is doing his best.

I got obsessed with "The Magic Shop" and I'm working on a fic inspired by it! Could I ask a couple of questions about the last chapter? First, did you have something in mind that Jon/Kit whispers in Angela's ear? Second, does the line "He... turned back into the room, rushing back up to Martin’s side and pushing the book into the center of HIS chest" mean Jon's or Martin's chest? PS, congratulations on making the fic stream!

Oh my gosh I’m so glad you liked it!!! And ahhh the fic stream 😂 I was overjoyed to hear them read not one but TWO of my story fragments, and yet my soul will never recover from hearing Jonny and Alex spend five full minutes calling me horny over and over again

Assigned as the horniest in the fandom by the fuckin writers. I’ll never live it down 😂

But yes! Your questions! I did not have an official idea in mind of what Jon whispered into Angela’s ear. That last chapter and final scene especially underwent a lot of heavy edits because I was having a hard time making whatever Jon did to Angela have the impact I wanted. In the end, the decision to have him whisper in her ear inaudibly was a lil bit of a work around. Came out cool and badass without me needing to figure out what that would look like 😅 BUT what I generally imagine him saying and what I was TRYING to make work in the scene is something like:

“The world may deserve magic, but you deserve *nothing*.”

Second question is easier to answer! The intention was he pushes it into Martin’s chest, like a child demanding a bedtime story 💕

I hope this helps!!! I’m SO excited that you’re inspired enough by the story to write something. I love this universe and I had some tentative plans to write spin-offs myself but I never figured out what story I’d want to tell, so I’m so so glad that someone else will help it live on.

Please link it to the original story and send it to me on here so I can read it when it’s done!!!

#he is such a feral black cat#who gets himself into Situations but covers up the fear with assholyness#hissing

How do you leave this in the tags?

obsessed with hurt/comfort fics where martin attempts to comfort jon like how someone would try and coax a spooked cat down from a tree

USER FLOWERS UNDERGROUND IN THE FIRST EPISODE. DAISY LITERALLY GOT STUCK IN THE BURIED. OH MY GOD.