Links: The Covid pandemic is not over

[sonia]

A collection of Covid links for those of us who know the pandemic isn't over amidst the ever-increasing pressure to pretend it is. How to be more inclusive. Some possible good news about a more long-lasting vaccine.

Biobot Analytics, Alameda County. You can check if your county is on the list, or look at the nationwide Covid levels in wastewater.

Broken Sociality: Isolation in the Pseudo-Return to “Pre-Pandemic Normal.”" by Nate Holdren.

Pandemic life remains terribly lonely. It’s recently become differently so. Elements of pre-pandemic normal social life have returned, but not for us those of us who aren’t going along with the so-called “back to normal.” I want a name for this painful situation. Lacking a better one, I’ve started calling it broken sociality.

Practicing Inclusion in the Time of COVID. A set of colorful slides with clear how-tos on how to be more inclusive.

Practicing inclusion during COVID-19 means acknowledging the health and safety needs of all people, then taking steps to communicate and provide safe(r) and more accessible options for gathering. This includes not only working to understand the reasons spaces may be inaccessible to individuals with varying needs, but also committing to following community-centered practices to improve safety for all. Creating inclusive gatherings rooted in disability solidarity makes our movements and communities more powerful.

The above two links via cosmolinguist on heard_community.

Listening to Long Covid’s Lessons and Teachers—Today and Tomorrow by s.e. smith. "We will adapt. We will find new nesting places. But there will be no return to “before.” Not for the flock."

FWD/Forward: Feminists with Disabilities for a way forward. Blog archive from 2009-2011. I went looking for it for a friend, so I'm posting it here so I can find it again.

Why long COVID could be a ticking time bomb for public health by Philip Finkelstein.

Dr. Smeyne elaborated on the seriousness of these findings, telling Salon, "Our studies in mice predict a 30-50% increase in Parkinson's risk for those moderately to severely infected with the Alpha variant. While on an individual basis this only changes a person's risk from 2% to 3% for developing Parkinson's, over the whole of the population we would expect to see millions more develop Parkinon's disease than would have if not for their COVID infection."

Novel Rutgers vaccine may provide more durable protection against SARS-CoV-2 by Emily Henderson, B.Sc. "Animal studies indicate that a new COVID-19 vaccine developed at Rutgers may provide more durable protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants than existing vaccines."

https://www.covidresilience.org/community-voices via adrian_turtle in comments.

Comments

[sonia]

Thanks for the additional link, I added it to the post. I haven't had time to explore it thoroughly.

I'm sorry for your struggles, and the conflict you feel between safety and generosity and inclusivity.

I am not strongly observant nor deeply trained in Judaism. At the same time my understanding is that one of the core precepts of Judaism is that people's safety takes priority over any rules of kashrut, so I give the side-eye to people who can't attend zoom services on the basis of strict Sabbath observance.

Conflicting access needs is a harder problem. My guess is that with a wider lens, more resources, and placing a higher priority on access for everyone, this isn't impossible to solve - taking turns serving different needs or something like that. Sadly we're in a world of artificially limited resources and low priority for accessibility, so this remains a huge barrier.