#and we all three get weekly covid tests through work

[gumjrop]

The Weather (according to Wastewater)

SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater are being reported by Biobot again as they file an appeal with the CDC. For now, we will use the map below from WastewaterSCAN, another source for wastewater surveillance. One quarter of the nation’s wastewater testing sites remain shut down while the appeal is being processed, creating an overall gap in data reliability that we could continue to experience for several months to come. We anticipate releasing another COVID map depicting transmission levels developed by the People’s CDC in the coming weeks. According to WastewaterSCAN, nationally, COVID wastewater levels are at medium while the Northeast, Midwest, and the South are high since their last update from October 31, 2023. Across the US, COVID wastewater levels are at 239.7 Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) Normalized on October 31, 2023, down from a peak of 430.5 PMMoV Normalized on August 28, 2023, but slightly up from 201.8 PMMoV Normalized on October 18, 2023. PMMoV normalization differs from how Biobot normalizes data, so the raw numbers are not directly comparable with Biobot’s.

Wins

On October 27-29, #namingthelost hosted a memorial at St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery in NYC in order to name, honor, and mourn the individuals that we have lost and continue to lose due to COVID and COVID-related complications. On their homepage, #namingthelost states “We know it didn’t have to be this way, that our country’s leaders made choices that risked our lives. We know we can choose a different way forward that is about caring for all of us.”

Hospitalizations and Deaths

New weekly hospitalizations associated with COVID have stopped dropping, staying at a constant of over 15,000 hospitalizations for the past three weeks including the week of October 28, 2023. According to the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker, there have been another 4,000 reported deaths from COVID in the past month of October. We mourn these 4,000 individuals as this is not “normal.” A reminder that the lives and livelihoods of everyone in our entire society continue to remain at stake. Do not lower your standards as many in society, especially those in the business sector, normalize this ongoing atrocity as they demand for a return to on-site work even though most people prefer the option of remote work. Continue to demand layers of protection such as high-quality masking, ventilation, filtration, and testing, in all settings to prevent ongoing COVID infections, hospitalizations, Long COVID, and death.

Vaccines and Treatment

Do not wait to get an updated COVID vaccine for those 6 months and older! Multiple options are available including Pfizer, Moderna, or Novavax. Access continues to be challenging especially for those with certain health insurance plans or who are uninsured. Lack of interest and access difficulties have likely all contributed to a low uptake of only 3.5% of Americans receiving the most recent and updated COVID vaccine. The Bridge Access program ensures no-cost access and you can find a location as determined by the federal government, but be sure to call ahead and ask to ensure local participation. Similarly, federal funding for COVID treatment options, such as Paxlovid and Lagevrio, have transitioned from the federal government to health insurance plans on November 1, 2023. Individuals with Medicare or Medicaid will have access through the end of 2024 and those uninsured will have access at least through the end of 2028 via the federal government, but limited information has been provided. Test to Treat locations continue to provide no-cost access to those without insurance while Pfizer’s Patient Assistance Program can also provide no-cost access to Paxlovid (Nirmatrelvir–Ritonavir). If your health insurance plan does not cover COVID treatments such as Paxlovid, you can participate in the Co-Pay Savings Programs offered by Pfizer, which drops the cost out-of-pocket down to 140 dollars.

Long COVID

The scientific understanding of Long COVID continues to grow with a recent study demonstrating that viral persistence may potentially affect some individuals resulting in Long COVID. However, another study that compared Long COVID outcomes among patients who received Paxlovid at the Veterans Health System did not observe lower rates of Long COVID after treatment. A guaranteed treatment for Long COVID remains to be determined while the primary approach in avoiding this is to employ layers of protection such as consistently using a high quality mask or respirator in order to lower the risk, ultimately preventing a COVID infection.

Take Action

HICPAC, the federal committee that advises the CDC and DHHS on infection control practices in healthcare, met on November 2-3 and voted on draft documents, which continue to fail to protect patients and healthcare workers from COVID infections. We provided a nationwide virtual space to protest the CDC HIPCAC meeting on Thursday, November 2nd. Multiple members of the People’s CDC were recognized to provide public comments to members of HICPAC during the meeting. We also submitted the following official statement this week as our comment. We provide instructions and asked you to also submit a comment to them using our recommendations in response to their terrible decision via email to [email protected] by 11:59 pm on Monday, November 6th to include in their meeting minutes (date has passed). The next steps of their process will include the publication of draft documents in the Federal Register, which can be reviewed and commented on by the general public. Lastly, local groups are a primary opportunity to impact your community. Get involved locally and join a local group.

#op #covid #long covid #covid isn't over #covid 19 #covid-19 #coronavirus #pcdc #people's cdc #pandemic #covid news #covid19 #public health #covid pandemic #medical #medical news #img #described in alt text

[babs-zone]

a covid conscious road trip diary

los angeles to portland and back, no viruses allowed | april 2023

by babs ✨

hi yes good to be back n writing here on tumblr dot com, and what better place to start than with a little joy? in this series (a companion guide to my tiktok vlogs) i'm going to share how my partner and i traveled from LA to PDX and back without contracting the novel coronavirus.

click here for the full playlist on tiktok. click here for the above video.

⏤

who this is for:

people still using mitigation against SARS-CoV-2 looking for ways to get out and have a lil adventure without throwing caution to the winds

people who stopped using mitigation and are tired of getting sick

people who stopped using mitigation and want to start again

anyone else that finds it interesting ;)))

who this is not for:

people who don't think SARS-CoV-2 is a big deal and don't care to have an open conversation about why that is

people who want to police others behavior— i understand that we may not always see eye to eye, make exactly the same choices, etc, but there is a way to have those conversations while still acknowledging the reality that i have never knowingly been infected with SARS-CoV-2; while there's no accounting for luck, there's got to be something to what i'm doing

on that note, let's talk about my covid reality so we have a baseline knowledge of where i'm coming from:

29 / have fairly stable lupus and sjogrens syndrome / white (ashkenazi background is the lineage to carry the autoimmune diseases with 3 known cases in my fam) / (F) on medical charts but she/they to y'all tytyty / queer

my most *acutely* debilitating recurrent symptom is head and facial pain, which can be (though isn't always) triggered by mask wearing. i experienced this pain prior to the pandemic, but as time has gone on, i've had multiple episodes of pain directly connected to the pressure of a mask on my nose/sinus area (kind of in the same place as the malar rash), that extends into my eyes, up/over/around my skull, and into the clothes-hanger area of my bag, which can then in turn irritate my ribs (though not always, chronically ill people know how these things can cascade). this pain leaves me with intense sensory sensitivity (so in the dark, quiet, unable to do a lot of things), and can also include vomiting. for this reason, i try to spend as much time outside as possible.

10a-6p day job in communications where i work in person ~twice weekly at minimum (gotta Make Content and photos), as well as freelance photography, so my work is hybrid. in 2021 when i returned to work after i got vaccinated, i was still working the same food service job i'd been at since 2016. i ultimately quit that job in september of 2021 when i wasn't able to take enough time off to safely travel to photograph a wedding i'd committed to (driving takes way longer than flying), but had that not happened, i could've easily continued in that position despite the risk, as i'd structured my freelancing around that service job.

polyamorous and live with 2/3 of my partners (one works hybrid, one in service so all in-person), but we all have our own bedroom (even if we sleep in each others sometimes)

our household is in a pod with our other partners' household, which is three people in two bedrooms, all of whom work from home

my entire pod masks indoors outside of our homes unless the environment is intentionally controlled (prior testing, planning, etc); this has been a basic rule of thumb that has not changed the entire pandemic

a few of us, myself included, have access to tests through our jobs, so my household ~usually~ gets two PCRs and two RATs per week

both households have at least one HEPA filter (though all the filters need changing ngl)

both households have one aranet4 CO2 monitors, which is passed around based on need

we've had two covid positives in the pod: separate incidents, both in 2022, where both individuals were successfully isolated before further spread. blessedly, no longcovid symptoms from either of them.

so going into this trip, we brought

a good plan based on the swiss cheese model (above)

lots of different kinds of masks, as switching up the way pressure hits on my face can mean longer time able to mask

a bunch of covid tests

that's it

we considered taking one of the HEPA filters, but, as mentioned, they need changing and we just didn't have time to do so

likewise, didn't bring the CO2 monitors so others could use

ok, i think that's good background, now on to the fun!

⏤

day 1 - LA to silicon valley

after packing up the car, our first stop was coffee at the palm in burbank (which has online ordering and a walk up window), then we drove drove drove.

next stop was for lunch in bakersfield at vida vegan eatery, which has outdoor seating, but it was covered on three sides with plastic. we could've asked the folks working to lift the plastic, or we could've just taken the chance and eaten outside there regardless, as we would've been the only ones out there, but we chose to eat in the car, because this was a driving day anyhow.

drove drove drove some more thru gilroy, the garlic capital of california, where we masked up to stop at a lil farm stand.

made it to silicon valley, where we stayed at the sunnyvale ramada. we looked at a lot of chain options in the area, and chose this one not because it necessarily had the best reviews, but because it clearly had rooms that opened to the outside as well as the AC unit visible on the window, so the room takes in fresh air.

when we arrive at hotels, we mask up while do the requisite once-over (check for bed bugs, etc). we turn the ventilation up real high, open any windows, and prop the door open. masks stay on til we get all the bags in, when we usually settle in.

on this night, we threw on some nicer clothes and took a rapid test (negiii) before heading out to grab my cousin for dinner. they mask regularly, and also rapid tested negative before we headed over. even so, we keep masks on and windows down when we share the car with anyone outside the pod.

ended up on a nice pedestrian street in mountain view for dinner outdoors at yugen ramen and it was so quiet; we truly had the place to ourselves. finally, topped off the night with a quick pop into the patisserie down the street, maison alyzée. it was close to closing, so mostly empty outside of the unmasked proprietor, but, to be frank, we went into this trip assuming we'd be the only ones masked anywhere.

alright that's all for day one, eleven more to go!

#roadtripdiaries #disabledjoy #wlwcouple #westcoastroadtrip #pdx #portlandoregon #covidconscious #covidcapable #livingwithcovid #covid19 #road trip #covid mitigation #mitigation matters #living with covid #swiss cheese #swiss cheese model

[fenrislorsrai]

Backstage at event organizing

Our host for weekly Open Mic has Covid. This is the first week so it was basically worst possible week for it. (he feels okay but tested positive after a work trip, so staying quarantined)

I’m subbing in along with my partner in crime. With our power combined, we make one functional host!  

E. has never run a soundboard but used to do lighting for large stage shows so its very similar. She’s got our host on speed dial in case we have a more complex sound issue. It’s not a huge space so just a small board to run.

We’ll see if we can get the manage to stream audio to the Pride discord or not. The sound quality from a phone might be too low and we’re not quite sure about how to set up a direct input right now. That might be a job for when S. returns. We’ll give it a good try though!

I got all the paperwork duties of converting host’s general list of announcements for E. to read into actual cue cards with stage direction. Most of the directions just being point at staff. You want to sign up for X other event? point at that person! 

I also got the clipboard and job of making sure everyone has a title card in front of them with name and info so when we’re staring at photos from the event later there’s a NAME at the bottom of the photo instead of going “we saw 20 people, who dis???”

My fancy spreadsheet also has places for all their contact info so when we post pictures and video later we can link to their instagram and bandcamp and all that stuff. I have a write on one but can actually enter it in sheet on my phone at event.

I also get to set up our badge system where folks get colored cards to flip through and display.

everybody gets a set of three.  Which works both for covid protocals so people with higher risk profiles can request distance and also for anyone that’s got mental health or sensory issues. want to enjoy the music but have some sensory issues so you need less input, stick it on red. are you shy and have trouble initiating conversations but love to talk? stick it on green!

(and then my homework is disinfecting everything after)

We might be stuck as host again next week depending on when S. gets done quarantining. and both of us get to test afterward as well. We’ve got good ventilation and masked up, but gotta do all the parts to contain spread. It’s like stacking swiss cheese. each portion has some potential risks, stack ‘em all together, you can cover the holes in one method with protection from a second. 

Event info:

#connecticut #queer events #open mic #danbury #event organizing

[goodboygustav]

Time for online venting! It’s a long read

I’m feeling completely stuck with my work situation & financial situation as of late & I’m so far past the point of burn out that I have meltdowns in my car before heading in.

I’ve worked for FedEx for a year and a half now as a package handler. It’s a third shift job, so I’m usually starting my shift at 2 am and leaving at 9:30 am. It pays $16/hr but during holidays we usually get a $3 raise during, so it’s not bad but it’s also not good enough. For a time we had $100 weekly bonuses for showing up all days we’re supposed to work due to coworkers not showing up en masse, plus our insanely high turnover rate. But they got rid of that because they don’t like paying us living wages

Most jobs in my area don’t even meet $15/hr, that’s one of the biggest reasons I’m still there. At my facility, I’m one of the best package handlers & each manager speaks of me highly (because I made the mistake of showing my potential so now they’re abusing it). Like, I’m faster than most package handlers and can load a truck better than most since I was trained on doing bulk trucks. Normal trucks are in the 100 range when it comes to packages, bulk trucks range from 200-300. I’ve been at the same loading spot for the entire time I’ve worked there. I work on the heaviest line, we have the most routes. So I’m usually loading 900-1000 packages a day while others load 400-600. The last two months, we’ve had such a massive turnover rate (by 400%) that I’ve been having to load 6 trucks at a time daily to the point of physical & mental exhaustion. And there’s no breaks here, you just work until we’re done. I got to the point where I was screaming, throwing shit, punching & kicking packages in the truck. It’s bringing out such an ugly side of me that’s eating away at me

They eventually moved me to the straight trucks, just these trailers that’s nothing but business routes. The managers kept saying it’s a lot more chill and should help with my mental health but HOO BOY that was a fuckin lie. All three trucks I work out get slammed all at once. And while I get to turn off the belts whenever I want, it’s still incredibly stressful taking hours to catch up and by the time I’m done catching up, the next wave hits and I’m too exhausted to keep going. Plus Mondays & Fridays are the busiest days and the managers just expect me to be ok with getting my ass handed to me all by myself. I’m always leaving work angry, tired & depressed. Plus working third shift is killing me, I can’t stand not being awake the same time as everyone else.

I don’t want to keep this up, I’m tired of doing more than everyone else & I wish I never showed how good I am at my job. I have my vacation coming up next week, but I still have 5 work days left to get through. I just want to put in my 2 weeks or better yet, just quit and burn the bridge. But the jobs in my area are just retail & food service and that shit isn’t good for a guy with autism, plus they don’t pay much. Starbucks in hiring since I DO want to get in the barista business. But I want to do local coffee shops and most don’t offer training. I mean, I could work for Starbucks for a couple months to get the experience then work for local but man, I hate how busy Starbucks can get. Though I can walk to Starbucks due to my fiancée and I have to drive her. So we gotta get her to retake her drivers test since it went expired during Covid and get her a car of her own so I’m not limited to everything in my immediate area or have her figure out her commuting

But I also feel like I can’t quit due to financial situations right now. In August I’ll have to fly out to my sister-in-laws wedding so I’ll be unavailable for a few days, plus plane tickets can get expensive with inflation right now. Plus for August I gotta pay my rent (which got raised), my bills, my car loan, & I gotta pay the deposit for my wedding photographer. A lot of money spending. Fun. And in November is my own wedding, which I’ll take a week off and have to spend money on a few more things. And I’m pretty sure I won’t have enough PTO culminated to cover it, I’m using all my current PTO on my vacation next week. So I feel like I have to stay, I can’t go unemployed for too long and have my fiancée do everything

I feel stuck. And I’m too tired to do anything on my days off. I’m tired of being so angry all the time. I’ve never felt so low mentally but I fear this is just my life now. I know I can quit but I don’t want to be impulsive. I’m too much of a people pleaser.

#don’t reblog #commenting is fine #don’t be a dick #typing all of this is strange bc I feel like I’m missing some info #and I’m worried it doesn’t sound as bad as it does

[seymour-butz-stuff]

Mike Answers All Your Vaccine Fears

1. “I don’t trust this vaccine. Its development was rushed and it didn’t go through the proper trials and testing. I’m not against medicine. I trust aspirin because it’s been around for over a hundred years. This vaccine hasn’t even existed for a year.” THE TRUTH: Work on this vaccine began back in 2003 during the SARS virus outbreak. Scientists knew even before, in the 1980s, that coronaviruses were going to happen more often. So they got to work on inventing what would become a vaccine known as mRNA. This vaccine has been in development for at least 18 years! THIS IS NOT A NEW THING. When Covid-19 appeared in December of 2019, the scientists were ready and standing by with the vaccine elements. They knew something like this was coming. All they needed was the genetic structure of this particular virus. A brave Chinese doctor constructed its sequencing in his lab and, without the permission of his government, he then shared it with the world. It was all our coronavirus scientists needed to begin the trials of the vaccine they’d been working on for EIGHTEEN YEARS. Those trials began immediately and ran for nearly all of 2020. Because of the ways modern medicine and science have improved in this new century (did you know in the Covid vaccine you’re getting, there is NO speck of the Covid virus in it!) we were already equipped to bring Covid-19 to a halt. Except for one thing science couldn’t predict…

2. “I, and millions like me, do NOT trust the government.” THE TRUTH: Ugh. On this one, you are right. You should NEVER trust this government, that government, any government. One of my favorite quotes from the legendary investigative reporter I. F. Stone is, “All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.” If you are Native American, you don’t need me or anyone else to tell you that. If you are African American — my God, again, the list of lies and deception and cruelty is endless. White people need to be taught in school about the Tuskegee experiments, about James Sims, the lauded “father of modern gynecology,” who performed brutal experimental surgeries without anesthesia on enslaved African women in the 1800s.

And on and on. White people, do not think less of any Black person (or any person of color) who is skeptical of this vaccine. They have a 400-year history of knowing that the last person they should automatically trust is Whitey. Dr. Whitey. Scientist Whitey. Whitey in a Lab Coat. Officer Whitey. CEO Whitey. Nightly News Anchor Whitey. President Whitey. In his Whitey House. 

It is painful now to see how our racist legacy has manifested itself during this pandemic: Covid-19 has killed 102,000 Black Americans — 20% more than the rate at which white people die. The white supremacists must be loving this. I join with my fellow citizens who are Black in fighting this virus that seeks to kill them first. 

3. “I don’t trust the pharmaceutical companies nor do I trust the entire for-profit health care industry. I’m not taking something they tell me to take.”

THE TRUTH: I trust them less than you do. I made a film about these bastards (“Sicko”). Greed runs in their veins. Because our political and corporate leaders have constructed a society that has enabled two-thirds of us to live an unhealthy life, their brethren, the devils in the health care industry, have made trillions from our illness, our disabilities, our infirmities. They need us sick so that we spend money on ways to stay alive. They DON’T want us cured because where’s the profit in that?

Yet in the case of Covid, they really don’t want so, so many of us so dead. Dead men and women don’t need a plethora of costly prescriptions. Dead men and women don’t shop at Walmart and they don’t order from Amazon. Other than the overpriced casket, there is not much profit that comes from death. In the case of the pandemic, they need the citizenry alive to do the backbreaking work for slave wages — and then spend every dime of those wages so all that loot makes it back into the pockets of the one-percent. There are now nearly 700,000 dead Americans who aren’t spending anything! Corporate America needs this disease to go away. Yes, the stock market has set records, and yes, the real estate market is bananas. But the rich have learned this is only good in the short term. They need Covid to stop killing us so they can be the ones to get back to killing us — but killing us their way — slowly — very, very, very slowly. Like 70 years slowly. Squeeze every last bit of work out of us before the arthritis sets in and our only contribution to making them wealthier is our weekly purchases of adult diapers and canned pineapple.

The way to beat the rich and stop their scam is not for us to refuse the shot and die before our time. We need to live long enough so that we can imagine their proverbial heads on the spikes that line the wall at the city’s limits. Take the shot. Both of them. Live to see the day. 

4. “Trump’s inaction caused the spread of this disease — and then he tried to rush these vaccines through in order to help himself win the election. This is the ‘Trump Vaccine’ — I don’t want it in MY body!”

THE TRUTH: The top ten states with the highest rates of Covid death are all the ultra-red Trump states. That’s not how you win elections — by killing off your own voters. But he did it. Actually, the number of votes he barely lost Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin by - together, 44,000 - he helped kill more than that in those three states combined (52,000 deaths). No, the “Trump Vaccine“  was never his. Just like he didn’t “own the tallest building in NYC after 9/11,” nor was he ever “a billionaire.“ Get this vaccine, invented in part by a brilliant, persistent woman, Katalin Kariko, a scientist who was ignored for 20 years — she created this for us. Not Trump.

5. “So many people have died from the vaccine!” TRUTH: No, they haven’t. To spread this lie is to be an accessory to murder. That’s not you. Right? 

6. “My religion won’t let me take the vaccine.” THE TRUTH: Yes it will. God — all gods — not only approve of the Covid vaccine, He is the one who made it! Remember your lessons: GOD CREATED EVERYTHING! That’s why it says “Creator” on his CV. Take God’s gift into your upper arm and praise Jesus. Because, if you walk around unvaccinated, you will kill people. And that carries with it an eternal sentence of hellfire and damnation. C’mon! Stop hiding behind “religion.” NOT A SINGLE RELIGION, NOT A SINGLE DENOMINATION IN THE WORLD SAYS THIS VACCINE IS A SIN! Get your shots so we can party in heaven on earth! 

7. “I have a medical/health condition that my doctor says I shouldn’t get the vaccine.”

THE TRUTH: No, you don’t. We now know there is no medical condition that prevents you from getting the vaccine. Stop with the “I’ve got a note from my doctor” bullshit. Get the damn vaccine — or you risk the chance of REALLY needing a doctor. Calm down. Relax. We love you. I’ll take you to Walgreens myself and hold your hand for those three seconds. Let’s live. Let’s not kill. Let’s be part of a world we are now going to fix and save.

Together.

If everyone is vaccinated, this virus is toast. If we don’t get everyone vaccinated, this much I’ve learned:

#covid #coronavirus #vaccine #vaccines #anti vax #anti-vax #antivaxx #antivax #anti mask #anti-mask #antimask #vaccination #vaccinations #pandemic #plandemic #covid-19

[fatehbaz]

Speaking of biological surveillance and disproportionate harms of pandemic quarantine policies faced by those in abject poverty: I think that access to small storage spaces is a very important and often overlooked utility for those in destitution trying to sustain their life. I have a locker, a sort of small storage space, that I rent out from a local low-income and homeless resource shelter/space. These kinds of small under-the-radar storage spaces, at least in my experience and anecdotally according to the people I’ve talked to, are critical for low-income or homeless people who might have bad credit, no active checking account, no credit card, no other place to store nonperishable groceries, or no way to pay a larger storage space business. I have overheard so many conversations, of other destitute/homeless people terrified that they will lose access to these storage spaces due to inability to pay a weekly rent fee. And now, daily submission to local healthcare staff and/or city officials, for monitoring of temperature/respiratory illness, is a requirement for these people to access the only material possessions that they have left in this life. You might say: “Well, sure, it’s important that, if many different people store their possessions in a single facility, it’s important to safeguard everyone’s health by monitoring everyone using the facility to ensure that the virus isn’t transmitted.” It’s more complicated than that.

----

They/we can store winter gear, books, bags. The storage can act as a sort of cache. Your hidden nook. Your life-line. You could stop by once a day in the afternoon to retrieve documents, grab a different pair of shoes, take off your coat as the day gradually warms.

One aspect of destitution, which highlights how things always seemed rigged against you, to promote your failure, is how people without a kitchen or pantry are repeatedly forced to spend excessive amounts of money on “eating out,” always dependent on restaurants, always forced to pay for an overpriced pastry. So that you end up spending far more on food than you would if you had a refrigerator, or a kitchen where you could make bulk amounts of carbohydrate-heavy rice or pasta.

The pandemic quarantines and lockdowns mean that low-income/homeless people can no longer seek refuge in or use the WiFi at locations like libraries, coffee shops, universities, etc.

Informally, many of these places actually provide access to food and cooking supplies that are essential for nutrition and saving cash. A coffee shop or university food court might have a microwave, so that, instead of paying $5 for a single pastry to account for an entire day’s worth of food, you can make noodles/ramen. Sites like these, aside from the microwave, might also have a hot water dispenser, so that people without a kitchen can make tea or coffee for free. (Sometimes, when you can’t afford adequate food, you might spend a few days relying entirely on the energy from caffeine. Is this healthy, as a long-term strategy? Probably not, but access to some kind of uplift, a boost, like caffeine, can make a big difference when you need to file paperwork, visit the DMV, go to a job interview, make an important phone call, or acquire enough energy for a long walking commute across town.)

The small storage space can be your only relief, the only place where you can stockpile your rice, noodles, peanut butter, bulk amounts of tea, you medication. If it’s mid-summer and you want to go swimming, or hiking, or even go over to a friend’s house, you can’t have a backpack with you all the time. After all, you can’t walk around, all day, every day of the year, carrying a giant backpack full of all of your food. Backpacks make you a visible target of c0ps, store managers, and landowners trying to accost you and keep you out of their neighborhood. You can’t carry a 100-pound backpack around in mid-summer, every day.

But you need to eat. You can’t abandon your laptop. So where can you store your food, where can you store your life?

This inaccessibility of daytime places to shelter or lounge also disrupts homeless peoples’ already-fragile social circle, the social network of support, that provides both material assistance and mental/emotional health. (Homeless shelters already harbor people coping with a disproportionate rate of psychoses, schizophrenia, etc. And for autistic people, or others who are able to maintain their morale through consistent routines, the disruption of routine during quarantine is dramatic.)

------

So, these small storage spaces are important.

Across my region, anyone accessing their storage space is required to submit, every day, to on-site healthcare staff from a nearby clinic. Your temperature is taken. You must answer questions about where you hang out, what you do in your spare time, who your friends are. You are required to wear badges, every day. The badges are signed and dated; they confirm that you’ve submitted to biological testing in the past 24 hours.

These inspections don’t account for anyone with covid who might be asymptomatic. These inspections can’t differentiate between the cold, influenza, and covid. One staff member of the facility told me, off the record, that it’s just a performance. Theater. To “make it look like we’re doing something” in the eyes of local nonprofits or apathetic county administrators who don’t necessarily care about “keeping people healthy” and are more concerned with “making it look like we’re taking measures to keep people healthy in the eyes of any wealthy or influential local observers who might briefly glance in this direction at the poor and homeless.” Just going through the motions. So that, maybe a year from now, if it turns out that many homeless people die, the county administrators might look back and absolve themselves: “Well, we took measures. We monitored their temperatures. We tried. Too bad.” Meanwhile, none of the people using this storage facility have access to food.

Miss one health inspection, and your storage space is lost. All of your possessions are put in the dumpster. Getting “back on your feet” is hard enough under “normal” inhumane conditions. But losing all of your food and possessions during pandemic and lockdowns is truly lethal.

A few years ago, while waiting on a big paycheck from seasonal work, I was forced to eat at a local shelter. Three times a day. The city promoted it thus: “Three nutritious meals a day!” After 4 weeks of eating there -- multiple times a day, apparently big meals, too -- I collapsed in public one day. I immediately went to see my doctor the same day. She called the hospital, called a cab, and then pulled her own cash out of her pocket to pay the taxi driver to take me to the ER. I was admitted to the hospital for a week due to “malnutrition.”

Since many poor and homeless have high rates of pre-existing pneumonia, staph infection, and diabetes, among other conditions, they certainly are more vulnerable to covid and resulting death, and it would be good to intercept an infection early. But dumping peoples’ possessions, penalizing homeless people during pandemic as part of self-absolving theater without actually feeding or housing them?

[danideservedbetter]

Alright so, here’s how things are gonna work.

First off, welcome to this side blog. Since it won’t be jolly fun fandom content and will be a little more personal I decided to separate my health and writing journey from my fandom stuff, although all my fandom content will still be linked on my main blog here.

(I write Izuocha/bnha content which isn’t super popular so if you’re not here for that then yeah, I don’t blame you. But if you are I have a link to our discord and community content pinned so def check it out if you’re interested.)

Secondly, you guys will hear details about stuff relating to my health like what kinds of things affect my disorder based on the tests some doctors are ordering, how I’m trying to improve my diet and activity, and routines and goals I’m attempting for myself. I am underweight, and that’s something I’m going to be talking a bit about, so if that’s triggering following this blog might not be the best thing for you. Details under the cut.

So, what kind of disorder do I have and why did I decide to make a health journey blog? My disorder is called idiopathic hypersomnia. Basically what that means is that when my disorder is acting up (based on factors like stress especially or my generalized anxiety rearing its ugly head) I have the capacity to sleep. And sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep. My longest recorded uninterrupted “sleep-attack” was 26 hours long and ever since I caught Covid in January, my body had been slowly growing weaker to the point I was starting to develop atrophy. I’ve had this ten years and my neurologist suspects inactive cells from mononucleosis I caught at 14 was the cause, because other IH patients have linked their sleeping problems to a case of mono or have had it at some point in their lives.

This disease stole many years and many things I’ve looked forward to from me. I lost friends and experiences and failed so many college classes I had to drop out.

I’ve decided I’m taking them back.

It’s not going to be easy. Just as it took ten years to convince myself that my tiredness was something I chose to give into, it took several extra years and many fights with my family to convince them that I had a real actual neurological disorder and that I need help sometimes. My parents and grandmother finally understand that I have to finish college and find a very special boss willing to work around my erratic progress on projects, but the outsiders they married are not as convinced. My grandmother’s husband kicked me out of their house because he wants to be the center of attention and doesn’t like that some days I’m so weak that I needed my grandmother’s help, and my father’s wife thinks I’m a lazy and ungrateful leech who “gets anxiety just being around” me. Both told my father I’ll never be happy so why even bother with me, but my dad is actually striving to understand his own recently-diagnosed PTSD so while we still butt heads he’s understanding that I have to take things day by day because every tiny circumstance affects my disorder.

Now, why did I decide to air all this out? Well, being open about my disorder and how it affects me has helped at least two people that I know of find out that the tiredness they experience isn’t the typical “American work force exhaustion” they were trained to believe is normal. So if I can help even one more, I’ll gladly talk about what this entails and how I deal with it day to day. Another reason is that I’m also one of those big advocates who believes talking candidly about mental health destigmatizes it and sharing ideas can help us grow as people and maybe make it a little easier to deal with.

So now that you know a little bit about me and my disorder, here are my big goals for the next three months provided my university takes pity on me and actually lets me go back.

First up: create routines to train my body to get used to living a full day fully awake. This includes waking up at the same time and going to sleep at the same time. It means getting dressed and going out and doing things, even little things— which I’ll get to in a sec.

Second: I write. I have a novel in limbo and I write fanfics. Writing is a big part of who I am and I’ve written one thing this year, which for a whole six-month stretch is upsetting and disappointing. Today is my reset. In the next 569 days I want to to finish the six stories I have in limbo (except the larger one) and finally reach my goal of posting 200k words in a single year. I wont be hard on myself if I can’t accomplish this because honestly finishing anything in the chaos of my life is going to be a miracle but. There ya go.

Third: go back to freakin college. I don’t care what it takes. Sit down with every official, every lawyer, and every professor it takes to get me back enrolled in classes in the fall.

Fourth: I have several smaller things I have to do, short term goals, stuff like that. I’m gonna create a to do list each day of small tasks I want to get done and while some of these things will be part of my daily routine I am throwing in like one or two things a day that just need to be done. My writing goal will change daily and I’ll keep y’all updated on that with every post I make.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Dani! That’s so much!! Well, a few months ago I remembered hey!! I basically have a computer in my hand, why make it hard on myself. So I downloaded certain apps to help me out. This isn’t me saying “hey go subscribe to these apps because I said so” it’s just that through a lot of trial and error I’ve come to find that these certain apps work for me and I’ve yet to come across one that has the functionality of everything I need.

Tiimo — so this is an app I found developed by people with autism for people with autism to help them develop good habits and routines. It has preset daily schedules (things like morning routines or nightly routines or work routines) and an internal alarm to let you know when to move on to the next task. I myself have extremely low-level aspergers (to the point where my doctor won’t give me an official diagnosis because I didn’t want people think that *it’s* the reason I have issues with school), so moving from task to task can be difficult sometimes and I also deal with getting distracted. This widget also appears on my home screen so I know what I have to do at a glance. You can program in weekly and daily tasks to fully customize your schedule, which is fantastic for someone like me who wants to for example rotate chores. This is hopefully going to help me get my body in the habit of adjusting to routines and transitioning from one task to another, as well as getting important things done responsibly.

Promptly Journals — I’ve been told for a while that journaling is helpful mentally to kind of recenter yourself, so a bit ago I downloaded several journal apps to add to my morning routine. Now some will prefer more creatively free journals, but I prefer this one that gives me small prompts I can do in a short amount of time that just allows me to get my thoughts down. I can even add pictures at the bottom that go with the theme! I’m scared I’ll run out of prompts eventually lol but until then this app works very well for my needs.

Stretchingexercise — Now idk if it’s from lack of sleep from my disorder, the position I sleep in when I do sleep, all the physical labor I’ve had to do in the past couple weeks, my medicine, or w h a t but I suffer from body aches like no one would believe. I know stretching is supposed to help with that, so I downloaded this app to help me do non-demanding physical activity that wakes me up in the mornings and helps relieve pain so I don’t keep having to take pain relievers. This one has different plans for things like muscle tension, back pain, warm ups— and it also gives you rudimentary weight updates (I’m underweight lololol so we’re looking to fix that) or plan updates. It’s worked really well for me so far and gives you animations and descriptions of the workouts (some taken from yoga) as well as timed breaks and a narrated guide. It’s been pretty helpful in temporary relief and if nothing else gets my blood flowing in the mornings.

Widgetsmith Step counter — in addition to the stretching thing one thing my doctor and I discussed that helps with the sedentary lifestyle is simply walking. I’ve needed so bad to relieve my stamina and reverse the atrophy, and walks have been stellar for that. Now I live in the New Orleans area so humidity and heat force me to go at the crack of Dawn, but honestly my weenie dachshund Charlie really enjoys our time out so he goes with me! The CDC recommends 10,000 steps a day which seems like a lot and it is if you don’t get out much. But this gives me an excuse to get dressed and do the hygienic thing and help Charlie be healthy too, as well as give me time for brainstorming because we walk in a truly beautiful area. I’m sure everyone installed widgetsmith with the last iOS update (Apple users anyway) and while at first the step counter was just interesting I’ve since come to rely on it! We do our 5000 in the morning, which of course is half, and I find that other things I do throughout the day typically drive the counter higher. Anything leftover can easily be accomplished by an evening walk in our neighborhood. Now the caveat is that I have to remote have my phone in my pocket because I don’t own a watch or anything fancy lol, but honestly I need to keep it on me anyway so that serves as a good reminder.

Todoist — this one is my FAVORITE. Ever since I’ve decided that I have trouble keeping track of things I need to do and small stuff I need to keep in mind and appointments, etc, I decided to find a list app. This is the one I found that absolutely helps me for everything from my list of room supplies I need to buy, to my reading list, to general tasks I have coming up I need to complete. And its widget functionality keeps it right on my Home Screen! More organized individuals can just use tiimo, but I’m definitely not one of those individuals so this app is sorely needed and appreciated.

And of course, I know building habits the first few weeks is HARD. So for days my body doesn’t respond to my alarms, I have a checklist of the key things I have to do to keep my life as functional as possible.

So that’s that on that. I’m going to try to keep writing updates and my daily goals in a post in the morning, and reblog what I accomplished in the evening. It’s gonna be tough. But I’m thinking if I can start small I’ll be able to build my stamina enough to return to college and be successful when I do. I hope that anyone watching this journey draws some kind of meaning or inspiration from it. And you guys can even follow along if y’all want! Especially for writers or people trying to get healthier. I can’t promise what works for me will work for you (and honestly I expect things to change especially if I get accepted into college again) but hey, I figure it’s worth a shot.

I hope you guys enjoy watching this journey, if nothing else I hope it’s entertaining. And maybe it’ll be successful. I do know that I’m just gonna try for it, and hope it works out.

First daily update to follow

Xoxo

Dani

#idiopathic hypersomnia #health and wellness #writing challenge

[idratherdreamofjune]

Someone requested I share about the experience of fighting a COVID outbreak in my workplace (a nursing home). This happened last Oct/Nov and is already sort of a blur in my head (partly because I worked the night shift for it). At the time I suspected the details would fade, so I started jotting down bullet-pointed moments in my journal. Having been forced to experience history, I want to share my own little corner of it. So here are [most of] the minimally-edited odds and ends collected over seven weeks on “the Unit”:

It started as four rooms behind a duct-taped & zippered plastic curtain at the end of a hall - “a slide projector and a bed sheet” as I told my family cheerily over the phone.

“The old way” refers to how we did things yesterday, and tomorrow there will be another new change

Getting tired of requesting supplies from outside and never receiving them; considering rephrasing as demands

Damp-dusting with Virex; we are our own housekeeping staff for the first three weeks (when we have time, which is increasingly hard to spare)

Constantly bumping face shields with the CNA as we roll a patient together

Pillows and then blankets are scarce as deliveries from laundry outside are delayed, so when a patient was sent out I reappropriated the clean-enough blankets for their roommate

Patterns begin to emerge even in week one - when a patient takes a turn for the worse it happens suddenly and drastically

Catching the local news on a TV and realizing that one of the new deaths in the county was ours

-------

Week Two cemented the unspoken understanding that no matter how much of a disaster you walk into at shift change, the proper response is always “It’s fine, don’t worry about it!”

Expanded to two full halls

Scavenging with the CNA in the wasteland of the “airlock” outside the unit; three rooms had been cleaned out but in the fourth we struck gold: two and a half packages of chux!

Getting rattled when the phone rings at 2 am because it’s probably word of another patient about to be delivered, disoriented and upset, through the zipper door.

“We have -” *pause* “- twenty to thirty patients!”

Every night I loose another layer of skin inside sweaty gloves

We all agree that, between stress and the sweaty PPE, working on the COVID unit is the perfect way to lose the “Quarantine fifteen”.

The oldest nurse on the unit - who volunteered on day two of the outbreak because most of the positive patients were hers - goes home with a fever and ends up in the ICU

--------------------

Late in week three we expand again to three halls, peaking at 56 patients

As staff cases spike the rules are adjusted to allow work on the COVID unit as soon as you’re asymptomatic

Rumors trickle in: outside they’re so understaffed that the Executive Director is working the floor as a CNA

The first three recovered patients were sent back through the airlock but we were all too tired and busy to take more than passing notice

Working on election night was an experience, I had to tell a patient who woke up at 6 am that, no, we still don’t have an official president, so sorry

Limited IV pole availability leads to creative solutions like the classic “stick a thumbtack in the wall” and the new favorite “just use one of the curtain hooks”

Limited IV fluid is a bigger problem

In report from day shift: “This was the first day we all cried within the same 15 minutes.”

--------------

Weeks four and five run together

Word ran through the unit that a housekeeper had just walked in, and we welcomed her with great excitement

EMTs trying to refuse to take our patients to the crowded hospital - I was never trained what to do when emergency services stay outside and try to change the family’s mind

CNA in full PPE with a huge red biohazard bag over one shoulder: “I’m the COVID Santa!”

Remdesivir is now the doctors’ drug of choice, but no one can pronounce it for at least a week

One night the county coroner has to come twice. She puts a mask on the bodies before double-bagging “since the drive is a little bumpy”

Twice-weekly testing results no longer deliver lines of positive patients to our door as most now have it or have had it

The day after the unit shrinks back to two halls I am interrupted by a nurse I haven’t seen on the unit before, looking for a patient who moved off the unit days ago... “When did you start on the COVID unit?” is met with a moment of concerned silence; she did not at all intend to be on the COVID unit!

-------

For the last two weeks of operations we have little more than a handful of patients, then just one

As the unit begins to be, somehow, overstaffed, a “first shall be last” policy is implemented and the more recent volunteers are returned to the outside to work with recovered patients

“Today has been like the Twilight Zone” - report from day shift about Thanksgiving on the unit with one patient and new admissions coming in outside

Night shifts by myself with the patient - I never thought I’d be so bored at work, much less on the unit

I may actually miss waking up to sunsets, which I’ve found to be calming

#COVID nurse #covid experience #plague nurse #I mean thank God it wasn't really yersinia pestis or - even worse - ebola #COVID gothic #;P #mine #in roughly chronological order #wow there is a lot of this....

[toshootforthestars]

From the report by Ben Guarino and Laurie McGinley, posted 18 Aug 2021:

The trio of reports, published Wednesday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC’s scientific digest, also reinforce the idea that vaccines alone will be unable to lift the nation out of the pandemic.

Masks and other precautions should be part of “a layered approach centered on vaccination,” wrote researchers from the New York State Department of Health and the University at Albany School of Public Health in their study of vaccine effectiveness across New York state.

All three reports measure vaccine effectiveness, which compares the rates of infection or hospitalization among vaccinated people with the rates among people who had not been vaccinated.

20% of new infections and 15% of hospitalizations from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, were among vaccinated people.

Until now, evaluations of vaccine effectiveness amid delta largely relied on observations from outside the United States. A recent New England Journal of Medicine study concluded the Pfizer vaccine was 88% effective against infections that caused symptoms in England.  Others, such as a study in Israel, found larger declines in protection against infection. One U.S. report that has not yet gone through peer review, collecting data from Mayo Clinic Health System facilities in five states, found a drop in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s effectiveness against delta infections to 42%. The other mRNA vaccine, made by Moderna, was 76% effective.

The new study from New York is the first to assess vaccine protection against coronavirus infection across the entirety of a U.S. state amid delta. The study authors found a modest drop in effectiveness: It descended from 92% in May to 80% in late July.

The second of the three studies found effectiveness against infection declined for nursing home residents after delta emerged. It dropped from 75% in March through May to 53% in June and July. Vaccination for visitors and staff is crucial, the study authors wrote, and “additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine might be considered for nursing home and long-term care facility residents.”

The third report, an analysis of patients at 21 hospitals in 18 states, found sustained protection against hospitalization. Effectiveness was steady at 86%, even in the midsummer months when delta outcompeted other variants of concern. For adults who do not have compromised immune systems, that effectiveness stood at 90%.

Many factors influence vaccine effectiveness and the changes the scientists observed in New York cannot be attributed to delta with certitude, they noted. If vaccinated people behave in riskier ways, such as not wearing masks in crowded areas, that may influence vaccine effectiveness. So might waning immune protections, or, because this is a relative measure, if unvaccinated people acquire immunity through infection, vaccine effectiveness will appear to decline.

To conduct their study, the researchers in New York linked multiple health reporting systems across the state. These included immunization registries, the statewide collection of coronavirus laboratory test results and the system that surveys New York’s inpatient facilities daily. Those databases allowed the study authors to connect vaccine status to every new case and hospitalization reported to the state from May 3 to July 25.

“The New York state data gives us a nice look at how we can link data together when you have comprehensive reporting across a number of systems,” said Robert A. Bednarczyk, an epidemiologist at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, who has worked with the study authors in the past but was not involved with this research.  By the end of the study period, 66% of New Yorkers 18 and older were vaccinated. Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization remained constant, above 90%. And of the more than 48,000 new infections from late spring into summer, 9,675 were in vaccinated people, or about 1 in 5 cases.  But Bednarczyk said breakthrough cases such as these do not mean the vaccines are failing. “The vaccine is doing what it’s supposed to do. It’s priming our immune system,” he said.

Immunized people may still get infected, because the vaccines aren’t perfect. But it is possible immune fighters will sweep the virus out the door much more quickly in a vaccinated person, Bednarczyk said, citing a not-yet-peer-reviewed paper from researchers in Singapore. In that report, vaccinated patients more swiftly defeated an infection compared with those who weren’t.

Though the results in New York may not easily translate to other communities. Maria Sundaram, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said it is difficult to make comparisons partly because this is an examination of an entire state, not a model that accounts for uncertainties in a population sample.  The change in vaccine effectiveness over time “to about 10% lower, I would take with a grain of salt,” Sundaram said, because there may be uncertainty from mismatches between databases or reporting lags.

Studies such as these show that, as valuable as coronavirus vaccines are, they have limits.

“As we’re releasing the brakes on these other non-pharmaceutical interventions” — [meaning masks and other precautions] — “we may see more cases,” Sundaram said. “Vaccines are very, very helpful but they’re not the end-all, be-all of covid-19 prevention.”

The booster shots that will become available in September are designed to be given eight months after people have received their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

(X) (X)

#delta variant #booster shot #third covid wave #third covid shot #coronavirus #news #science #the washington post #social distancing #please wear a mask #covid vaccine #post-truth society #anti science #america 2021

[gdwessel]

IWGP World Heavyweight Title Vacated, Ospreay Neck Injury; Card For Road to Wrestle Grand Slam Nagoya Show 5/22/2021; Collision In Korea Dark Side Of The Ring Tonight; Ren Narita’s Missing AEW Dark Match; Updates On Japan in State Of Emergency

The IWGP World Heavyweight Championship is now vacant. Will Ospreay suffered a neck injury in his match v. Shingo Takagi on 5/4/2021, and is returning to the UK for treatment and rehab. As nobody knows what his timeline for returning is, it's been decided to vacate the title. I'm not usually one to speak of curses and omens, but this IWGP World Heavyweight title has been cursed so far. Between the hoopla of unification, the damp reaction to the reveal of the title, Kota Ibushi dropping it on his first defense, and now Ospreay having to vacate after only one defense, the life of this title belt has not exactly been covered in glory. NJPW doesn't have a plan as of right now to determine what's next for it.

In the meantime, the card for Saturday's Road to Wrestle Grand Slam show in Nagoya has been released. The three Tokyo Korakuen Hall shows from 5/24 - 5/26/2021 have not been as yet. Saturday's show is not streaming, which is probably a good thing, because this is a nothing card for a tour show that probably shouldn't even be happening at this point. Once again, NJPW has not revealed who has tested positive for COVID-19 (a related note on that below) but you can make reasonable guesses when you see who are, and are not, on this card.

Road to Wrestle Grand Slam - 5/22/2021, Aichi Nagoya Congress Center Event Hall

YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. Yota Tsuji

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato v. Chase Owens & Gedo [Bullet Club]

Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] v. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables]

Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma v. Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire]

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi v. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

These are all random tag matches to fill a house show card, with only one actual storyline, Kota Ibushi v. Jeff Cobb. Maybe two if you count Tanahashi v. Shingo, but that kinda went on the shelf for Tana v. Jay and Ospreay v. Shingo. Unless you want to count the continuing grief between Goto and Naito that's gone on for years off and on. Not much hope for the Korakuen shows, when they announce those cards, and really, New Japan Pro Wrestling 2021 is a trash fire.

So here's a weird thing: this past Tuesday afternoon, wrestler Royce Isaacs tweeted out, along with the official AEW looking graphic you see above, that he would be wrestling Ren Narita on that night's edition of AEW Dark (one of AEW's weekly YouTube undercard shows). This would have been fairly reasonable as Ren Narita was with Yuji Nagata at last week's Dynamite, this is a pre-taped show in a cycle of tapings (last night's Dynamite was a pre-tape as well), and the potential was there for both Nagata and/or Narita to have wrestled for either of these shows whilst they were in Jacksonville. It turns out, before Dark was released on YouTube, Isaacs deleted the tweet, and that match (as well as Kal Jak v. Danny Limelight, the latter of whom is an NJPW Strong staple) was not part of the episode. It's possible it got cut and will be used on either Dark or Dark Elevation next week. Or not at all. AEW tape a lot of content for their YouTube shows, so I'd be surprised if it didn't show up in some form eventually.

Some programming notes for tonight (assuming I get this posted in time!):

FinJuice defend the Impact World Tag Team titles tonight against Ace Austin & Madman Fulton tonight on Impact's TV show. That's on AXS TV at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT.

Vice's Dark Side Of The Ring documentary series features Collision In Korea, the joint-promoted show between NJPW and WCW across two nights in April 1995 in Pyongyang, North Korea. The episode features testimonials from the likes of Antonio Inoki, Eric Bischoff and Scott Norton. That one's on Vice at 9pm EDT / 8pm CDT. If you don't have Vice (I don't), the episode will get posted to YouTube, either through "sources" or on Vice's official channel soon. I may or may not be working on a special project surrounding this event too.

Meanwhile, the situation in Japan regarding the state of emergency is getting critical. A news report yesterday revealed a whopping 83% of respondents are against the Olympics being held in July. Mass protests are continuing, as I reported on Monday. In addition, 6000 doctors and physicians in Japan have signed a letter to the government asking them to halt the Olympics. One thing the pandemic has been very good at is shining a light on discontent with government, and the inequalities, and inequities, in modern capitalist society. This is Japan's turn, as we head back to an era of protests that were more associated with the 60s and 70s in Japan. Right now, the government is looking to expand this even more, as far as Okinawa.

Closer to home, Dragon Gate did confirm that Ben-K tested positive for COVID-19, and has been pulled from the rest of the King Of Gate 2021 tournament. Naruki Doi wrestled Ben-K on 5/14/2021, and has not shown symptoms nor has tested positive as yet, but has been pulled from the tournament as well. No word about Dragon Dia, who was also pulled from the Fukuoka shows this past weekend. DG ran in Chiba last night, and will be doing three dates in Sapporo starting tomorrow.

Sumo is being rocked by yet another breach of COVID-19 protocol scandal, this time with popular ozeki Asanoyama having been caught, and lying to the Sumo Association about, going to a hostess bar during basho time, when rikishi are in lockdown. Asanoyama has been suspended with immediate effect, and will be considered kadoban for next basho; however, he will also be suspended for the next three bashos (in July, September and November), so he will definitely be losing his ranking, possibly down to the fringes of the top (makuuchi) tier in the sport by the time he is allowed to return to competition. Two other, lower-ranking rikishi from the makuuchi division have already been ensnared in their own scandals: Abi was caught last summer, was not only suspended, but denied retirement, and is currently in the third tier of sumo, the makushita division. Maegashira-ranked Ryuden is also currently suspended, and may fall to the second (juryo) or third tiers before he returns as well. I am not sure why it is so hard to Not Go Out when under strict orders from your stablemaster to do so. I've spent most of the last year and three months not going anywhere except to work and the store, maybe going to a park every weekend or so, getting curbside takeout, etc. It's infuriating, honestly. The biggest global health crisis in decades, and the biggest stumbling block to stamping it out is people's selfishness.

#NJPW #new japan pro wrestling #IWGP World Heavyweight Championship #Will Ospreay #road to wrestle grand slam #njwgs #ren narita #AEW #royce isaacs #dark side of the ring #collision in korea #wcw #juice robinson #david finlay jr. #david finlay #impact wrestling #COVID-19 #Tokyo Olympics #Dragon Gate #sumo

[lokiondisneyplus]

As film and TV sets reopen at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, home to big-screen juggernauts like "Avengers: Endgame," the biggest job is keeping the coronavirus off the Georgia studio's lot.

The several hundred producers, set designers, painters and carpenters working to get productions ready undergo tests for Covid-19 weekly, and sometimes more often. An app tracks workers' symptoms between tests, and a badge system prevents anyone without a negative test result from opening doors on the lot.

The regime of testing will cost more than $1.5 million a month once cameras are rolling and several thousand workers are on set, said the studio's chief executive, Frank Patterson, noting that is what is needed to stay in business.

Pinewood Atlanta is trying to solve a riddle facing a host of businesses, schools and universities headed into this fall: How much Covid-19 testing is needed to ensure people can stay safe and keep organizations functioning amid a pandemic. At many companies, tests for active infections or antibodies are becoming a condition of returning to the workplace, along with symptom checks and stepped-up cleaning practices, medical consultants say.

Mr. Patterson steeped himself in research on testing, viral transmission and air quality when the pandemic halted film shoots in mid-March. With streaming services and Hollywood studios relying on him to produce new content, he aimed to restart his company's shooting as soon as possible and become what he calls "one of the most secure and safest studios in the world."

That security doesn't come cheap. These days, around 200 workers each day get a nasal-swab Covid-19 test, costing Pinewood Atlanta about $200 each. When cameras are rolling later this year, 3,000 to 6,000 workers will be on set daily, compounding costs.

"We have to pay a premium just to get back to work. It's painful, but it's not stopping anyone," Mr. Patterson said.

Pinewood Atlanta has been involved in some of the world's highest-grossing franchises, such as "Avengers: Endgame," as well as content for streaming services. The production company believes testing expenses will eventually qualify for the state's film-production tax credits. A spokeswoman for Georgia's revenue department said it plans to put out guidance on allowed expenses soon.

Employers who want results quickly must hunt for labs that can guarantee speedy results and priority treatment.

Right now, testing in the U.S. involves a patchwork of public, private and academic laboratories that can offer their own testing services or partner with drugstores, doctors and other groups. That decentralized system has recently been plagued by supply-chain strains and a surge in demand that has led to delays in results for many individuals.

"We just don't have a real functioning market," where demand for testing can easily find lab capacity in the U.S., said Sean Murray, president of Eurofins's workplace Covid-19 testing program.

To run its tests, Pinewood Atlanta hired health-testing and software-company BioIQ Inc., which relies on a network of labs. The company offers results in 24 to 48 hours, and Mr. Patterson says his studio is also willing to courier or rapidly ship tests to labs for faster processing.

"The tighter your feedback loop the more quickly you can learn and adapt," BioIQ Chief Executive Justin Bellante said of the need for quick turnaround times in results. Weekslong waits for many people tested in the U.S. have slowed contact-tracing and containment efforts.

Workers at Pinewood Atlanta report for testing days before they are scheduled to be on the lot to allow time for results to come in. A nurse performs a nasal swab for their first test; if that first test comes back negative, subsequent tests are conducted via saliva samples.

All workers on Pinewood productions have to answer health questions via an app on their phones. A completed questionnaire and a negative Covid-19 result get an all-clear code on the app, which workers present at a checkpoint at the studio. To open doors on the campus, workers must scan a badge; the badges only work if the wearer has received a negative test result.

Security guards at the checkpoint on the lot issue cleared workers a different color wristband each day. On-site Covid compliance officers, as well as fellow workers, keep watch to ensure everyone has the same color wristband.

The frequency of testing for workers at the studio is determined by factors such as the level of person-to-person interaction in their jobs. The highest-risk workers are tested three times a week, and Mr. Patterson said some actors prefer daily testing.

Figuring out testing led to some friction along the way, Mr. Patterson said, but partner studios and unions have reached a point where some preproduction work has resumed. The film industry as a whole hasn't yet adopted formal testing rules and Pinewood Atlanta will adjust its still-evolving protocols as standards are established.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised that testing workers without virus symptoms may be useful in areas with significant community spread, though employers should consider factors such as the availability of tests and rate of positive results in previous employee tests.

Siemens Healthineers AG's world-wide testing program for its 50,000 workers will rely on consistent rules for all employees and includes regular testing for active infections and viral antibodies.

Workers' testing will depend on their location, the state of infection in the area, how much they travel and their work setting, said Deepak Nath, the company's president of laboratory diagnostics. Those who report to a corporate facility or travel in areas where the virus isn't contained will be required to get weekly tests and monthly antibody tests, which Siemens Healthineers produces.

Public-health officials have given mixed reviews to antibody tests, which require a blood draw to detect the presence of virus-fighting cells. They warn that having had Covid-19 isn't a guarantee against future infections. Yet medical advisers who work with employers say the tests can give companies a sense of the prevalence of the virus among their workforces.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has partnered with the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard to test workers in the Los Angeles area and in Washington state for Covid-19 antibodies, said people familiar with the matter. SpaceX didn't respond to requests for comment.

Dr. Nath said he didn't expect needing such elaborate testing to keep workplaces open back in March, but the continued global infections make it necessary, he said. The company is self-insured, meaning it pays for all of its employee health-care costs. It declined to say how much testing will likely cost.

"We truly haven't used cost as a filter through which to say whether we test or don't test," Dr. Nath said.

Grocery-chain Kroger Co. has begun shipping at-home tests to workers that cost about $60 to process. Microsoft Corp. offers on-site testing to employees and their families if they want it, a spokesman said.

While workplace testing is a financial strain for businesses now, costs could fall as pooled-testing methods become available, Mr. Murray of Eurofins said.

"It really is about money. If it were free, I think there'd be testing all over the place," he said.

Employers are trying other tactics alongside testing such as new air-quality and circulation measures and additional cleaning. At Pinewood Atlanta, productions are likely to employ fewer extras, and intimate moments between actors will be simulated with visual effects, Mr. Patterson said.

"Will it actually be actors exchanging spit? Unlikely," he said. "If we can do characters traveling universes and conquering worlds [with effects], we can certainly have two lovers kissing."

#Pinewood Atlanta #Loki #Disney+ #Falcon and the Winter Soldier #WandaVision #MCU

[newstfionline]

Friday, July 30, 2021

Alaskan coast 8.2 magnitude earthquake was the strongest one in decades, official says (CNN) The 8.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off Alaska’s coast Wednesday night was the strongest one since 1964, an official told CNN. The very strong quake was located about 56 miles (91 kilometers) east southeast of Perryville, Alaska, and happened around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said. “This event was felt throughout the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak,” according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

Homes lose water as wells run dry in drought-ravaged basin MALIN, Ore. (AP) Judy and Jim Shanks know the exact date their home’s well went dry—June 24. Since then, their life has been an endless cycle of imposing on relatives for showers and laundry, hauling water to feed a small herd of cattle and desperately waiting for a local well-drilling company to make it to their name on a monthslong wait list. The couple’s well is among potentially hundreds that have dried up in recent weeks in an area near the Oregon-California border suffering through a historic drought, leaving homes with no running water just a few months after the federal government shut off irrigation to hundreds of the region’s farmers for the first time ever. Officials have formal reports of 117 empty wells but suspect more than 300 have gone dry in the past few weeks as the consequences of the Klamath River basin’s water scarcity extend far beyond farmers’ fields. Worried homeowners face waits of six months or more to get new, deeper wells dug because of the surging demand, with no guarantee that those wells, too, won’t ultimately go dry. While much of the West is experiencing exceptional drought conditions, the toll on everyday life is particularly stark in this region filled with flat vistas of sprawling alfalfa and potato fields and normally teeming wetlands.

Biden orders tough new vaccination rules for federal government (AP) President Joe Biden on Thursday announced sweeping new pandemic requirements for millions of federal workers. Federal workers will be required to attest they’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus or else face mandatory masking, weekly testing, distancing and other new rules. The newly strict guidelines are aimed at boosting sluggish vaccination rates among the four million Americans who draw federal paychecks and to set an example for private employers around the country. The administration encouraged businesses to follow its lead on incentivizing vaccinations by imposing burdens on the unvaccinated. Rather than mandating that federal workers receive vaccines, the plan will make life more difficult for those who are unvaccinated to encourage them to comply. Biden also directed the Defense Department to look into adding the COVID-19 shot to its list of required vaccinations for members of the military. And he has directed his team to take steps to apply similar requirements to all federal contractors. Biden also urged state and local governments to use funds provided by the coronavirus relief package to incentivize vaccinations by offering $100 to individuals who get the shots. And he announced that small- and medium-sized businesses will receive reimbursements if they offer employees time off to get family members vaccinated.

Mexico declares $3 billion U.S. security deal ‘dead,’ seeks revamp (Washington Post) Frustrated by raging violence, the Mexican government is seeking to overhaul the Merida Initiative, a $3 billion U.S. aid program that’s been the centerpiece of security cooperation between the two nations for more than a decade—but has failed to reduce bloodshed. Mexican officials say they have been meeting with Biden administration officials since late spring to refocus their cooperation against drug cartels and other criminal groups, amid growing concerns that such gangs are expanding their control over Mexican territory. “The Merida Initiative is dead. It doesn’t work, okay?” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told The Washington Post in the government’s first detailed comments on the discussions. “We are now in another era.” Launched during the presidency of George W. Bush, the Merida Initiative initially provided hundreds of millions of dollars for aircraft, helicopters and other hardware for Mexico’s security forces. In recent years, the funding shifted to technical aid and training to strengthen Mexico’s police and justice system. But despite the billions of dollars in aid, there has been a “huge, huge increase in violence,” Ebrard noted. Homicides in Mexico have quadrupled since the initiative was announced in 2007. Drug overdose deaths in the United States, meanwhile, soared to a record 93,331 last year, fueled by the rising use of fentanyl, much of it smuggled across the southwest border.

Something strange is happening in Britain. Covid cases are plummeting instead of soaring. (Washington Post) This is a puzzler. Coronavirus cases are plummeting in Britain. They were supposed to soar. Scientists aren’t sure why they haven’t. The trajectory of the virus in Britain is something the world is watching closely and anxiously, as a test of how the delta variant behaves in a society with relatively high vaccination rates. And now people are asking if this could be the first real-world evidence that the pandemic in Britain is sputtering out—after three national lockdowns and almost 130,000 deaths. Public health experts, alongside the government, predicted that cases would be rising in Britain at this point, perhaps even exponentially.

France Gave Teenagers $350 for Culture. They’re Buying Comic Books. (NYT) When the French government launched a smartphone app that gives 300 euros to every 18-year-old in the country for cultural purchases like books and music, or exhibition and performance tickets, most young people’s impulse wasn’t to buy Proust’s greatest works or to line up and see Molière. Instead, France’s teenagers flocked to manga. As of this month, books represented over 75 percent of all purchases made through the app since it was introduced nationwide in May—and roughly two-thirds of those books were manga, according to the organization that runs the app, called the Culture Pass. The focus on comic books reveals a subtle tension at the heart of the Culture Pass’s design, between the almost total freedom it affords young users—including to buy the mass media they already love—and its architects’ aim of guiding users toward lesser-known and more highbrow arts. Opponents accuse Macron of throwing cash at young people to court their vote before next year’s presidential election.

Europe on vacation, but vaccinations not taking a break (AP) Europe’s famed summer holiday season is in full swing, but efforts to inoculate people against the coronavirus are not taking a break. Instead, with lockdowns easing despite concerns about variants and nations looking to breathe new life into their ailing tourism industries, vaccinations are being taken to vacationers. From France’s sun-kissed Mediterranean coast to the azure waters of Italy’s Adriatic beaches and Russian Black Sea resorts, health authorities are trying to make a COVID-19 shot as much part of this summer as sunscreen and shades for those who are not yet fully vaccinated. The new drive to take shots to tourists is a way of adapting to Europe’s annual summer migration, when it seems whole cities empty of their residents for weeks.

Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots 'worrisome,' U.S. govt watchdog says (Reuters) Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots marks another "worrisome development" for the Afghan Air Force as it reels from a surge in fighting, a U.S. government watchdog said in a report released on Thursday. At least seven Afghan pilots have been assassinated off base in recent months, two senior Afghan government officials told Reuters, part of what the Islamist Taliban says is a campaign to see U.S.-trained Afghan pilots “targeted and eliminated.” The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in its quarterly report to Congress covering the three-month period through June, broadly portrayed an Afghan Air Force (AAF) under growing strain from battling the Taliban amid the U.S. withdrawal—and becoming less ready to fight. The AAF’s fleet of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, for example, had a 39 percent readiness rate in June, about half the level of April and May.

Floods make thousands homeless in Bangladesh Rohingya camps (AP) Days of heavy rainfall have pelted Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, destroying dwellings and sending thousands of people to live with extended family or in communal shelters. Just in the 24 hours to Wednesday alone, more than 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) of rain fell on the camps in Cox’s Bazar district hosting more than 800,000 Rohingya, the U.N. refugee agency said. That’s nearly half the average July rainfall in one day while more heavy downpours are expected in the next few days and the monsoon season stretches over the next three months. Citing initial reports, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 12,000 refugees were affected by the heavy rainfall while an estimated 2,500 shelters have been damaged or destroyed.

Thailand sets up hospital at airport; Cambodia closes border (AP) Health authorities in Thailand raced to set up a large field hospital in a cargo building at one of Bangkok’s airports on Thursday as the country reported record numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths. Other field hospitals are already in use in the capital after it ran out of hospital facilities for thousands of infected residents. The airport, a domestic and regional hub, has had little use because almost all domestic flights were canceled two weeks ago. The quick spread of the delta variant also led neighboring Cambodia to seal its border with Thailand on Thursday and order a lockdown and movement restrictions in eight provinces.

Outspoken Chinese billionaire Sun Dawu sentenced to 18 years in prison (CNN) Billionaire Sun Dawu, a vocal critic of the Chinese government, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” according to an official statement posted by the court. Sun was arrested in March this year. His company, Hebei Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group, owns farming operations in China and employs about 9,000 people in poultry processing, pet food production and other industries. He is also famous for being an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party. As part of his 18-year sentence, Dawu was also fined 3.11 million yuan ($480,000). Sun was one of very few people in China to publicly accuse the government of attempting to cover up the extent of the African swine flu outbreak in 2019, which eventually killed more than 100 million pigs in the country. In an interview with CNN in May 2019, Sun said local officials had only retested his pigs for the disease when he had started to post pictures of the dead animals online. Sun’s sentencing comes amid a growing crackdown on private enterprises in China, as Beijing attempts to pull into line the country’s free-wheeling entrepreneurs. In a set of guidelines put out in September 2020, the Communist Party said the private sector needed “politically sensible people” who would “firmly listen to the party.”

Lockdown Under (Reuters) Sydney, Australia announced Wednesday that they would be extending their lockdown by four weeks. The extension was announced with frustration by Premier Gladys Berejikilan, who stated, “I am as upset and frustrated as all of you that we were not able to get the case numbers we would have liked at this point in time but that is the reality,” during a televised news conference. Berejiklian added police would boost enforcement of wide-ranging social distancing rules and urged people to report suspected wrongdoing. The multiple lockdown extensions have turned a “snap” lockdown into the country’s longest, with many fearing another recession.

Probe into Beirut blast stalls again, leaving families fuming one year on (Reuters) Ibrahim Hoteit lost his younger brother, Tharwat, in the huge explosion that ripped through the port of Beirut last August. He went around hospitals collecting body parts, starting with Tharwat’s scalp, and buried his remains in a small coffin. Nearly a year later, Hoteit, a spokesperson for families of more than 200 people who died in the disaster, is still trying to call to account those he says are responsible for allowing the accident to happen. As Beirut prepares to mark the first anniversary of a blast that flattened large swathes of the city, politicians and senior security officials have yet to be questioned in a formal investigation. Much of the devastation from the blast is still visible. The port resembles a bomb site, and many buildings have been left in a state of collapse. Major questions remain unanswered, including why such a large shipment of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in bombs and fertiliser, was left stored in the middle of a crowded city for years after being unloaded in 2013.

#headlines #news

[sunflower-swan]

Not fandom related. TW for Covid content. I just need to put this out there.

...

...

...

One year ago this week...

Wednesday, March 11, 2020: My HS Choir sang the national anthem at the opening game of the state basketball tournament. We had lunch on Mass Street. My Mom came to see me and have lunch together. Dad was busy with farm stuff. My kids were excited to meet my Mom. On our way home we visited the capital building because they had never seen it before.

Thursday, March 12, 2020: HS Music trip to St. Louis cancelled. We were supposed to leave in a week. The kids had been fundraising for a year. We still haven't taken this trip. I'm hopeful for next year.

Friday, March 13, 2020: All of my groups had fantastic rehearsals. We were on the right path to having another great contest season. I told my kids I would see them Monday. We had four more days until Spring Break.

Sunday, March 15, 2020, around 5pm: Schools in my state shutdown until further notice.

Sunday, March 15, 2020, around 5:15pm: Calls and texts from crying and hysterical seniors who just lost all of their lasts. Who had been practicing their solos for months because this was going to be the year they received top marks at state music. Who had their final day with their band and/or choir family and they didn't know it at the time.

And then...

November 2020: A staff member tests positive. I was sitting next to them in a meeting the day before. We were both wearing masks and socially distanced. I was not quarantined.

Also November 2020: Three of my students test positive. I sit next to one of them during band rehearsal the day before. We were socially distanced and I'm not quarantined.

Still November 2020: My BIL tests positive. Sister and kids are quarantined. Family Thanksgiving is cancelled. We'll get together for Christmas.

Day after Thanksgiving 2020: My Uncle calls me to say he was in the hospital a few weeks ago for Covid. My Uncle never calls me. I probably hadn't talked to him in... A year? It was nice to talk to him but apparently thinking you're going to die changes a person.

A week before Christmas 2020: My Dad and his parents admitted to the hospital for Covid. My Dad and Grandma come home. My Grandpa does not... He passes away on New Years Eve. We did not have family Christmas.

Two weeks ago: We made an impromptu visit to see my family. It did not suck as much as I expected it to, to be at my grandparents house. It was the first time had seen them in person in four months. My Grandma is having surgery to remove her thyroid soon. When she was in the hospital for Covid the doctors found early stage cancer.

It has been a real turd of a year for everyone. For educators I feel like it has had an extra special suck. In my classroom (band & choir), kids are literally projecting their breath forcefully into the air. Kinda scary in an environment where kids are often unknown carriers of a dangerous virus that is transmitted through droplets expelled from one's mouth.

In August, when I found out my school was going completely in person with no mask requirement, I did some serious soul searching for a couple of days. In the end, I took the gamble that if I got sick, odds where good that I would feel lousy for a week or two but ultimately be ok. If I wasn't at school, then my kids would not be able to play their instruments or sing, and what's the point in being in music if you can't do those things?

I still feel like that was an unfair choice I was forced to make. The choice between my future health and my students education. For many kids, their elective classes get them out of bed and at school every day. A couple of teachers chose to teach remotely. I'm glad they had that option. The way I looked at it, if I wanted my program to survive beyond this year, and I did, then I had to be at school.

Not gonna lie, that first month of school was rough on me. I hadn't been around anyone other than close family in about six months. I went to the store a couple times with my husband early in the spring. Apparently I don't hide my fear as well as I think I do because we got home and he said that he wouldn't make me do that again. And he hasn't, bless him.

Except... Our weekly trips to the store were fun. We don't really go out so that was our time together outside of home. And we lost that. He still does the shopping on his own. It's the only time he leaves the house other than when we walk the dogs in the evening. (His job allows him to work from home.)

Which brings us to today. I got my second Covid shot on Friday. Saturday I spent the day in bed. I didn't feel "bad" I was just too exhausted to do anything. Yesterday I felt better but still kinda tired. I don't like needles or shots, and the thought of receiving an emergency vaccine really scared the hell out of me.

Teachers in my state were part of group two, right after senior citizens and health care workers, to have the chance at the vaccine. Some of my colleagues chose to opt out. In the end I decided to get it because my Grandpa couldn't. He was gone before it was an option.

And then my Dad sends me this picture this morning:

I was probably about six years old here. And that's my Grandpa helping me ride a bike.

Tell your loved ones you love them every chance you get. Don't take a single second for granted.

...

This ended up way longer than I expected it to be. When I started it was just going to be what happened a year ago. And then it sorta snowballed into everything from the past year. If you've made it this far, well, congratulations I guess. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

#covid 19 #covid tw #covid vaccine #personal

[avaantares]

My New Ventilated Social-Distancing Movie Theatre

(or, how I bought a 2020-proof social life for less than $100)

So the USA is (still) a hot mess in terms of pandemic response. Because both my father and I are at increased risk for complications from COVID-19, and my sister and I have to work together in person to run our workshops, my entire family has been in a state of self-quarantine for six months straight (with no end in sight). But it’s hard being in constant isolation, so the four households that comprise my local family have been doing weekly outdoor gatherings -- with plenty of hand sanitizer and safely-spaced tables -- so we can see each other and socialize at a distance. However, that’s only feasible when the weather cooperates.

I’ve also really missed watching movies with friends, which prior to the pandemic had been a regular activity. I have a 70-year-old tripod screen I inherited from my grandfather and a projector I use for running panels at conventions, so we’ve watched occasional DVDs outdoors, but we could only do that on evenings without wind (which could tear the brittle screen) or rain (which would damage the projector), and we have to be careful not to have the sound too loud because it might disturb the neighbors.

A couple weeks ago, when our city delayed reopening again due to rising COVID-19 case numbers, I decided to convert half of my garage into an outdoor movie theatre. It turned out pretty well, and it only cost about what I would spend on movie tickets in an average year (and since I’m not going to any movies in 2020, it’s pretty much a wash). I’m sharing the details in case it gives anyone else ideas for making a health-conscious social hangout!

Obviously YMMV, and in areas with higher case numbers (hi, FL & AZ), this still might be too much contact. Be safe and follow official recommendations to prevent viral spread, folks!

The Space

Before I settled on the garage, I considered building a movie space under a tent canopy (nixed because they’re almost impossible to anchor through Midwest storm winds) or carport kit (too expensive and high-maintenance for me), so there are definitely other options depending on where you live, your typical weather, and what space you have available!

My garage has an unusual layout that allows for better-than-average ventilation. When it was first built, it was a 2 1/2-car garage with the doors facing the street and windows on the side. About 40 years later, the owners decided to move the driveway to the other side of the house, so they built a second garage attached to the drive-door side and knocked out an end wall to put in a new overhead door. This means that by square footage, the garage could hold four cars, but the way the drive doors are situated, it’s a divided two-car garage with a bunch of extra space at the far end. The two sides are connected by one of the original overhead doors, which means that three of the four walls have openings that allow for air movement. (More on that below.)

Normally there’s a car in each side of the garage, but I decided I was willing to park outside all summer for the sake of having a social life. Over the course of a week, I emptied and thoroughly cleaned the half of the garage that has the windows.

Air Flow

Constant fresh air flow is critical to flushing aerosolized particles that can spread the virus, so in order to make a safe indoor space, I had to simulate outdoor air movement. I opened all three overhead doors and both windows, then placed several fans to draw air through the building: One in each window, one along the side wall, and a box fan in the connecting door between the two sides of the garage to pull more air in from the outside. To make sure air was actually moving through the building and not just circulating within it, I turned on all the fans while I was sweeping the (very dusty) floor and walls, and adjusted the fan angles until the dust blew straight out the overhead door, rather hanging in the air or gathering in the corners. (Experts recommend that to prevent virus transmission, indoor spaces should have 100% air turnover every 10 minutes; obviously I have no way of testing that in a garage, but there is a constant light breeze through the building and stuff seems to be blowing out, so I feel pretty good about it.)

Projection Setup

I already had the projector and DVD player (I took the one out of my living room, since I usually just watch DVDs on my game console anyway), but I wanted a larger wall-mounted screen, since my grandfather’s 1950s screen was designed for showing vacation slides in a living room, not wide-screen films. Hanging fabric screens are very cheap, but I opted for a 120″ retractable screen so it would stay clean in the dusty garage. I also have an old set of monitor speakers that provide nice stereo sound.

Seating

The beauty of setting up in a garage is that it’s basically outdoors, so you can use lawn furniture or bean bags or old chairs you pulled out of someone’s trash (I do this regularly; it’s how I got my entire patio set). Measuring out at least 6 feet between each table and staggering their positions so nobody was directly downwind of another table, I set up all the card tables and folding tables I owned, and put a pair of chairs by each one so that couples from the same household could share a table but not be in close contact with any other groups. I put my largest folding table (which was also salvaged from the trash -- seriously, it’s the best way to get stuff!) against the wall right by the open door to serve as a snack table, so it’s on the opposite wall from the seating and nobody would be breathing on the food. I covered all the tables with decorative heavy-duty vinyl tablecloths (mostly for sanitation purposes, because those tables have been sitting out in my garage and I know I’ve had raccoons and opossums out there -- not to mention the colony of bats that lives in the loft off the back of the garage).

This setup can seat up to eight people, and even provides a place for serving food. (I put pump bottles of hand sanitizer on each table and on the food table, and people wear face masks when they’re loading up their plates, so there’s minimal contamination risk there.)

Total Cost

My out-of-pocket cost for this whole project was only about $83, though that’s because I already had a lot of stuff lying around. Here’s a more complete breakdown:

Fans: I already owned the box fan ($25 new) and a couple other fans that I’d picked up super cheap at garage sales ($5 or so), because my house is old and the HVAC is not very efficient. The only new fan I bought for this project was a refurbished air circulator from Amazon ($14), because I needed a small but high-velocity fan to fit in a window.

Projection setup: The only new thing I bought was the screen, which was $65 including shipping (though non-retractable fabric screens start around $10-15, so if you’re on a budget you can get one very cheap). I bought the projector used on eBay about eight years ago. I think I paid around $40 for it then, but prices have come down since; I’ve seen discount projectors for as low as $20. The DVD player is a cheapo region free model, which I got a decade ago for maybe $30. The speakers were secondhand; I’ve also used an old set of external PC speakers ($10 from Goodwill) when running video off my laptop, and they worked well enough in the indoor space.

Seating: Almost all the outdoor furniture I own came from other people’s trash, so I didn’t pay anything for it! Any kind of seating or tables will work, though. I did invest about $4 for new tablecloths, which I got on seasonal clearance.

Bonus Perks

I’ve discovered that the garage walls block a LOT of light and sound unless you’re standing directly outside the drive doors, so we can watch movies for half the night or stay up late chatting and we aren’t disturbing the neighbors! We couldn’t run movies out on the patio late at night because the sound would carry to neighboring houses.

Also, when we’re watching a film in the evening, we get to watch my bats fly through the garage on their way to and from dinner! (Which might be an annoyance to the bats if we were out there all the time, but we try to keep our volume low and we’re only out there about once a week, so I don’t think we’re disturbing them too much.) Bats are protected in my state, as some of the native species are critically endangered, and we try to encourage nesting as they’re essential to pest insect control. I love watching them fly around!

The setup also works well for video games. A local friend and I had been playing online, late at night because it was the only time we could get enough bandwidth to maintain connection (the ISP in my area is not super reliable), but now we can sit on opposite sides of the garage and play local co-op with no lag:

So, in summary, my “movie theatre” is by no means a luxurious setup, but it was cheap :) and it’s a great way for my small pandemic social bubble to get together and chat, have a movie night, or play games without risking being in a closed room together.

#social distancing #home theatre #my rock star life #2020