Corona Vaccine - Tumblr Posts
Anyone else totally desensitized to the delta variant with a side of futility or is it just me. Im wearing my mask and stuff but the scale of the horror of it is just lost on me now
Her name is Katalin Karikó. Hungarian. Daughter of a butcher. Her thesis work became the basis of the mRNA vaccine technology. Read the article here.
On seat belts and choice
One of the great virtues of being old is that you remember things other people only read about. Like the moon landing. Folks, it was awesome. Sorry if you missed it.
Another is seat belts. I am so old I remember not just when using seat belts wasn’t mandatory, but when seat belts were OPTIONS one had to order when buying a car. As in, cars didn’t come with seat belts when you bought them. You had to pay extra for them.
And folks, when the federal government mandated seat belts as standard in cars, you’d have thought the American democratic experiment was collapsing around you. (Not USE of seat belts, mind, just their physical presence in the vehicle.) Car manufacturers resisted adding seat belts because they didn’t want to add “unnecessary” costs to their cars. (They did the same thing with airbags and anti-lock brakes, by the way.) Some people insisted that it was their choice whether to buy a seat belt or not; it certainly wasn’t the government’s business making them buy anything as ridiculous as a seat belt. And – get this – some people screamed that SEAT BELTS MADE CARS MORE DANGEROUS! See, seat belts might make it harder to escape a car after an accident if you needed to. I mean, what if you ran into a lake? Or the car was on fire? Of course, while both these things can happen, they are rare, and indeed in general one is much safer contained and protected by a car in an accident than out loose amongst the metal bits smashing together … but that was not the point. It MIGHT be a problem. So SEAT BELTS MUST BE UNSAFE!
All of which is to say: today’s vaccine deniers are nothing new. People have always enjoyed believing they know more than the people who know what they’re talking about do, especially if they find a rare case that challenges the generally smarter way to do things. People also like to scream that they and they alone know a truth that is being “hidden” from “real” people by smarty pants people. The major difference today is the endless proliferation of social media platforms that amplify some speech far beyond any reason the broadcast it.
Alas.
The scariest art of the Corona virus is how many of the early symptoms match with things like the common cold. My family decided to have a party for my little sisters birthday. We made sure to not invite anyone who even made contact with anyone who showed symptoms in the past two weeks. Now me and my little sister have something. What's even worse is that I have a new baby sister, and I'm scared out of my mind. What if I have something? I cross checked all of my symptoms with the common cold thinking "Oh it couldn't be that bad" but something kept nagging me. I only have a few symptoms, all of which could be a cold or the virus. I do know two people who have had the virus, but they tested negative months ago and haven't been sick since. I'm panicing in silence and the only glimmer of hope I have is that I'm sneezing and not coughing.
So, India is dying.
Look, I know a good number of you are from the US and things aren't amazing there either, but my country is literally on the brink of collapse. So I'd love it if we could talk about that for a minute.
If you can't do anything else, please just read and reblog.
A second COVID wave has taken out the healthcare system. There are no more hospital beds. There's an oxygen shortage. There's a critical vaccine shortage. The Central Government has thrown its hands up and is passing the baton to the State Governments to do what they can.
There are over 16 million covid cases. A record 330,000 new cases reported yesterday - comparable to the US at its peak. 187,000 dead as of today.
There is no plan.
Mass cremations are taking place. The cremation grounds are running day and night and they are short on wood. People are watching their loved ones die while waiting for a hospital bed, and then they're unable to give them the proper burial rights.
Hospitals are overwhelmed. Patients are being confined, two to a bed. They're the lucky ones.
We are on the verge of people dying in the streets.
This is the second-most populous country in the world. The largest democracy. A country that encapsulates over 15,000 years of recorded human history and has endured everything from famine to invasion to colonisation.
We might be at the end. This might be the thing that does us in.
People are dying.
People are dying.
People are dying and there is no plan.
More good news? Variants are popping up. A double mutation strain has shown up. It is resistant to current vaccines. This will not go away. This is the devastation they warned of when the anti-maskers were out protesting the minor inconvenience of covering their face in public.
My country is on the verge of an emergency state. Our government has failed us. This is as dire a situation as it ever could be.
Look. I don't do much with my life. I write fics, some of you have read them and that's pretty much it. I spend my days with my head in the clouds because that's where I like to be.
But two days ago, my grandmother tested positive, had to be taken to hospital and the ambulance caught fire.
She barely made it to the urgent care she needs.
So, here I am, using whatever meager platform I have to cobble this request together. Because I have to do something.
If you can, donate.
Or spread the word.
Help. Please.