Using wastewater data- the only data that measures the amount of circulating COVID-19 in an era of inaccessible tests and discouraged reporting- infectious disease modeler J.P. Weiland estimates that the US has yet again crossed the million-infections-per-day mark as of August 9, with about 1 in 33 Americans currently infected with COVID-19.

. . .

I’ve written before about how, in November 2021, nearly a year after the debut of the vaccines, Fauci publicly declared that US COVID cases would need to fall “well below 10,000 a day” for us to get a “degree of normality,” and allow us to return to pre-pandemic life. In the nearly three years since, the US has never had a single day with under 10,000 new COVID cases per day; in fact, we have never had a single day with under 100,000 new COVID cases per day.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
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    4111 months ago

    Hahahaha fuck everything. I’m flying today and i’ve seen, like, maybe a dozen people with any kind of mask.

    • nothx [he/him]
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      10 months ago

      I’ve decided I’m not flying anymore if I can avoid it, last time I flew was 2022 for a wedding and the experience was terrible enough to completely turn me off to that form of travel.

      Not even taking into account that my wife and I were the only masked people, the whole hearding cattle experience makes me want to be a hobbit.

    • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]
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      2611 months ago

      I flew recently and also just saw like maybe a handful of people masked.

      It’s really worrisome with the plagues and the failing planes. Wish you a safe trip!

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
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      3411 months ago

      This one I truly can’t comprehend. Even if we somehow made covid disappear tomorrow there’s no way in hell I’m rawdogging airplane air ever again.

      Even ignoring COVID, I just don’t want to be sick on my vacation? I feel like that’s obvious? I don’t want a cold, I don’t want the flu, I really don’t want covid.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
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        1311 months ago

        Right? I haven’t had any kind of infectious disease - cold, flu, rsv, whatever, nothing, since 2019! It’s awesome. Yeah, i wear a mask and that sucks, but i also don’t get sick ever!

        We should have been doing this all along. Like, it was right there the whole time!

        • Ildsaye [they/them]
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          310 months ago

          And it protects your lungs from wildfire smoke, and it makes it harder for the authorities to identify you, plus you look like a ninja

        • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
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          1411 months ago

          I got stuck in Fort Lauderdale airport in 2020 when Covid became a thing. This was pre-masking when the government was saying they didn’t work. Most germ infested place I have ever been, got Covid on the way back home

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
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            1911 months ago

            Lol i forgot the CDC just flat out lied and justified it with some bullshit about conserving masks for healthcare or some shit. I made a whole slew of cloth masks that never worked. I mean, they “worked”, but not enough to matter.

            • fox [comrade/them]
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              510 months ago

              Cloth masks were never going to stop you getting sick, they were to stop you from spreading virus too far from your body. But that only works to slow spread if people even bother to wear them

              • AernaLingus [any]
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                510 months ago

                And even as shitty as they are on an individual basis, they actually really helped when we had near universal masking at the beginning of the pandemic which significantly reduced the amount of virus in the air! The more people who are masking, the less perfect any individual’s masking has to be. Amazing what we can accomplish when we all work together to protect each other’s health!

                But of course, we live in “personal risk assessment” hellworld, so you’d better have an N95 or better and make sure it fits perfectly or you’ll get got thanks to everyone else blasting their aerosols into every cubic inch of the environment.

    • Rojo27 [he/him]
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      11 months ago

      Yep. When I ride on public transit I’ll see maybe a handful of people wearing masks… Shit’s fucked.

      • Wertheimer [any]OP
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        1911 months ago

        My pharmacy’s pick-up line is on top of the aisle with all the cold medication. I’ll be one of the only masked people in there, while obviously symptomatic unmasked bozos squeeze in between folk to look for Dayquil, which is often out of stock.