The Cold, Long Winter to Come

Winter time sucks as far as sickness goes.  You have colds, flu... the horror known as norovirus which has pretty much controlled my life forever.  (Thanks, emetophobia).  But the last couple of winters have been especially nasty.  Last year it was the "Tripledemic":  flu, strep and COVID (or flu/RSV/COVID in some areas).  Ignorant folk blamed "masking" for the increase in illness, though that was definitely not the case.  COVID simply out-performed these other bugs temporarily due to its insane infectiousness.  In many states we didn't wear masks or isolate long enough to have any effect. 

This year we're facing something much worse:  flu, COVID, (increasingly virulent) RSV, whooping cough(!), typical colds, strep, chickenpox and norovirus plus another old friend:  tuberculosis.  That's right friends, not only has pertussis made a dangerous comeback, our old pal consumption, aka TB is currently experiencing renewed popularity in the U.S.  In fact this is the largest documented outbreak in American history. 

Think about that for a moment.  All those years when TB killed masses of people from antiquity through the Middle Ages up until the mid-20th Century when real treatments and preventative methods came about and THIS is the biggest outbreak on record!  There is a vaccine for TB but it's not routinely offered in the U.S. for some stupid reason.  Not that it would be received any differently than all the other miraculous vaccines by our paranoid, science-allergic population, but at least those of us who wanted it could opt to get it.  

TB outbreak news report

None of this is surprising if you've been paying attention.  We're right on track to live out what scientists have termed The Pandemicene Era, a time when climate change, overpopulation, habitat destruction and other things like airplane travel will ensure a near-constant state of human disease due to infectious illness.  But how would climate change cause disease in humans? 

As the planet heats, ice caps melt, sea levels rise & weather patterns become more erratic, the planet will become less habitable overall leading to an increase in things like mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, parasites & other disease-carrying nasties.  And that's only ONE of the ways it can happen.  (See graphic below).  Scientists have predicted many paths by which human disease transmission may be altered/increased by climate change, but they're just that:  predictions.  Even their best educated guesses cannot foresee all the possible horrors to come.  

Some ways in which climate change increases disease transmission.

This is already happening in Florida, where aerial spraying in the winter is occurring to control the mosquito population in an attempt to stop Dengue Fever, a disease that was previously only a problem in tropical climates like S. Africa.  The disease was once eradicated in the U.S. but like malaria & others is making a comeback.  In coming decades, people will be forced to choose between two evils like pesticide exposure and disease-carrying insects, or medications with horrific side effects and certain death.  At least 2 of the meds prescribed to treat TB are known to cause depression in a high number of patients (see graphic below).  While we gasp at the old ads that read "No flies on me thanks to DDT," we're entering a period where we won't have the luxury of avoiding these types of chemical exposures anymore because we abused our health & good fortune to the point it's either 'use them chemicals' or 'die of insect-borne disease'. 

That's ironically one of the biggest downsides of vaccines and other effective public health measures:  they make society forget about the diseases they prevent, then society gets cocky & starts deciding it has no need for said preventative measures--that it knows more than public health experts, that herd immunity is somebody else's problem, etc.  And we end up right back where we started:  where a routine infection can end your life due to treatment-resistant bacteria and with new and deadly (or old and preventable) viruses (re)-emerging with a vengeance due to vaccine avoidance.

Some tuberculosis meds can cause or worsen depression, which often co-occurs with TB.

And COVID is not a virus to be underestimated.  So many of my own friends and family members have either died, had heart attacks, strokes or developed bizarre and disabling diseases since 2019 when the disease first came about that there's absolutely no denying its impact on the world around us.  My own health has gone straight into the shitter, with the only once-healthy parts of my body (skin, hair) becoming brittle, lifeless, falling out and breaking off/breaking out in weird rashes ever since this shit started.  And for me it started in SUMMER 2019, so I'm still of the opinion that COVID did not begin in Wuhan in the winter but in America in the summer. Just like the CCP claimed.  Read here for more on that.

Ft. Detrick lab mentioned in S. African article on COVID origins

But our government will never admit it.  We're currently tracking an outbreak of "Chinese" HMPV pneumonia in the midst of a ban of the "Chinese" app TikTok & battling a fentanyl overdose epidemic fueled by "Chinese" fentanyl, acting as if these people are our mortal enemy.  Never mind that they make probably 85-90% of all our goods, food, medications, textiles and other products.  Yes, let's insult them some more while supplying deadly weapons & billions we don't have to Israel, most hated state on the planet that has never given us a single goddamned thing.  It was just revealed that the Pentagon engaged in a disinformation campaign against the Chinese vaccine Sinovac at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020 on Twitter, discouraging Filipinos from taking the shot, which was slightly less effective than Pfizer/Moderna's in the end but not dangerous like they claimed. 

This proves two things:  one, that our government has zero interest in facts and truth even when the stakes are incredibly high, and two:  they will stop at nothing to paint these people--the Chinese--in a negative light when they feel threatened.  It also goes to show that you should trust little of what you see on social media because no matter which country is behind the disinformation, a lot of it is just that:  bullshit scare tactics meant to keep you living in fear, sometimes at the cost of your own life.  While you SHOULD be afraid of deadly viruses, bacteria & diseases like cancer/heart disease/diabetes, you should be grateful for the innovations that come along to prevent and treat them (no matter which country they come from).  Not paranoid and skeptical... grateful.  The only issue with our medicine is the cost.   



An Unnecessary Evil

Don't be an agent of chaos.

Even in the Pandemicene, there is no excuse for some of these illnesses to be spreading right now.  There are vaccines for chickenpox, pertussis (whooping cough), influenza, COVID & RSV.  While you can still get the flu or COVID after being vaccinated, both shots greatly reduce the severity and duration of symptoms, which makes it far less likely you'll die or end up hospitalized.  Both of these must be administered annually to be effective as each virus mutates so rapidly.  A recent meta-analysis of millions of COVID shot recipients in the UK showed a massive reduction in heart attacks and strokes shortly after vaccination, with rates of (less deadly) myocarditis and pericarditis increasing slightly in certain demographics. There are flu shots for people both under and over 65 so choose the one that's right for you. 

It's not uncommon for adults to break rib bones or vomit blood when battling pertussis (hence the name "whooping cough"), which can drag on for weeks.  Babies and the elderly--both of whom have weak or non-existent immune function--are at especially great risk from this illness and should be both vaccinated and kept away from known sources of infection.  Adults should get a Tdap booster shot every 10 years according to the CDC, while babies must receive the full series of DTaP as infants to develop initial immunity as the virus is often deadly in babies.

RSV, a once-benign cold-like illness, is becoming more dangerous for reasons that aren't well understood, which means that the very young and very old are at risk of dying from it as with so many other viruses.  There are 3 RSV shots on the market for people 60 and over (Abrysvo, Arexvy & mResvia), one for pregnant women (apparently unnamed) and one for infants (Nirsevimab). This is a single-dose shot for adults while babies will be protected only for 2 RSV seasons, but ask your doctor for specifics as additional doses may not be needed once the child is old enough to fight infection.   

And chickenpox is more than just an inconvenience, it can leave the skin permanently pock-marked (or "pox-marked") and is dangerous when it occurs in adults or immunocompromised kids, but shingles is the bigger threat.  Everyone who's had chickenpox is at risk for shingles, which can cause eye damage if it decides to attack the eye as well as pneumonia, encephalitis (brain inflammation) and occasionally death.

And don't forget about other preventative measures such as ventilation and masking in indoor areas.  Crowded places and those likely to contain sick people such as a city bus, the waiting room of a doctor's office or hospital & large holiday parties are all great places to break out the N95 or well-fitting paper mask.  Other universal precautions like hand-washing and cleaning surfaces with bleach may help prevent norovirus and other fecal-oral diseases but are less effective with airborne ones like the respiratory ailments mentioned in this article.   

Autoimmune diseases triggered by viral infection

If your kid happens to get 2 or more of these illnesses at the same time, they could get VERY sick.  Ditto grandma or grandpa.  As someone who knows what it's like to come down with a routine respiratory illness and never come back UP again, I'll forever harp on the importance of prevention & common sense protective measures.  Autoimmune diseases like narcolepsy, Type I diabetes, CFS/ME & multiple sclerosis often begin with viral infections, which is a great fucking reason to limit your exposure to them. 

The excuse of "living life to the fullest/not living in fear" goes out the window when you consider the risk-benefit ratio of things like hand-washing, mask-wearing & vaccination.  Nobody's asking you to "live in fear," we're begging you to accept material reality & take reasonable measures to protect yourself & others at appropriate times.  Not year-round, just like 1-2 months per year. If everyone did that, our nation would not be plagued by illness, have to shut down schools/cancel ball games, have our hospitals overrun with sick people, close businesses & lose countless hours of productivity due to preventable unwellness every single winter.  More importantly, it would SAVE LIVES.  Living this way actually doesn't allow you to "live life to the fullest" if you stop and think about it. 

I've begun stocking up on necessities in advance of the Avian flu pandemic that I know is coming because that's gonna be an endgame scenario.  With science-denying Trump in power, it will be 10x worse than it needs to be too.  (For those unfamiliar, Avian aka "bird flu" was responsible for the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 that killed over 50 million people worldwide).  This virus kills in an upside down bell curve, taking out 20-50 year olds while sparing the very young and very old.  I've never been happier to be living tf ALONE in my life.  🏠 🧍🏻‍♀🚫 🦠 

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