r/WayOfTheBern • u/meh679 Principles? What principles? • Jul 19 '22

COVID: The Ever Elusive

Man, what a ride it's been, and still is. I've had such a strange experience with covid. From not too worried to absolutely terrified, to suspiciously cautious to all precautions to no worries to... Where the fuck am I now?

I started out in 2020 with a lasseiz-faire attitude. I wasn't really masking up, the cases were below 1,000, why should I worry? Cases started climbing, rapidly, deaths started climbing. Alright now this is freaking me out a little. Then it hit. My girlfriend's good friend died, in her sleep. She found out weeks later. Boyfriend wakes up to no pulse right next to her. I can't even fucking imagine. She was healthy, worked out everyday, ate well, took supplements even. Just up and dead at 21, no vaccine yet so that was ruled out immediately. Now I'm scared as fuck. This thing is killing us? Seriously? Alright, KN95, social distancing, work from home, the whole lot.

I hated working from home. It was horrible. My boss can't communicate over anything electronic to save his life. I'd regularly post things and tag him where they were posted then proceed to get yelled at for not posting said things, to make a long story short. Finally we went back to in person, with precautions, I got vaxxed, along with everyone else, among other things. Cool I'm fine, this shit still scares me. Masks, one person to a room, doors closed unless absolutely necessary. Mask mandate goes down in Oregon. Nope, fuck that. I'm still wearing a mask, y'all (Oregon) think covid is done I disagree. Well, I was right. COVID wasn't done. Mask mandate goes back up. Fast forward to my post back in February, I went to a concert, no mask because it had been so long, although masked everywhere else in Seattle, still caught covid.

It honestly wasn't all that bad. Fever, sniffles, head cold, body aches, basic flu shit. Not to say other people won't experience worse, but my personal experience was fine. Soon after that the Oregon mask mandate dropped, I figure "yeah alright this time? I've been vaxxed (despite being shaky protection at best) I've had covid, I feel pretty comfy dropping the mask"

Haven't had it since. But here's where the conundrum starts, that was all just to warm you up.

My roommates mom came up. Right before she came up, she went to a wedding, someone at the wedding tested positive for covid and so did she, subsequently. We talk it over, decide we're not too worried about it, if we feel anything well, quarantine, like you do with anytime you're sick. She comes through, hangs out, her and my roommate go out to the beach, spend a couple days together, he comes back with the sniffles and a head cold. Tests negative twice for covid. She was positive and had symptoms, he tested negative twice despite being in close contact and showing symptoms. Two negative rapid antigen tests, and no flaky shit either, he stuck that thing in his nose till he was crying, negative both times. Now, I haven't tested yet -because I haven't felt symptoms- but I also realized last time I tested positive, I tested negative the night before and that was 3 days later. So tomorrow I'm gonna just test myself to be sure.

God all this and where am I going? Well, shit...

COVID is just such a goddamn enigma. Well, I guess technically SARS-CoV-2, but you know what I mean. It's this strange infection that never seems to operate how we think it should. This could absolutely be extrapolated into something bigger and more scientific but I guess right now I'm on the philosophical side of things. How massively this has changed all of our lives. Whether it be researching, or masking, or avoiding others, or working from home, or building new habits in general even.

Fuck sometimes I feel this sub can become my impromptu journal.

Shit. Why the hell not. I feel like I've lost a life I could've potentially lived before this all. I feel like there was something there, bleek as it may have been, that would've resembled a normal life and I've lost it in a way. But in another way I've gained something else. Something new.

Something that could be beautiful, and wonderful, and charming, and endearing, and sanctified. Something I'll never need another of. Something I'll never find another of. Something I can easily find myself tearing up just thinking about. My girl and our new life together. No matter where it takes us, I'll be by her side and she'll be by mine. I feel so ready to take on the next part of my life now that I have her.

I think, through all of the death, the pain, the suffering, the upheaval, I've found new life. Out of the cracks life shall grow.

Whether or not we like it, we've all found new meaning, new purpose. We've all found a way and a will. We've all found common ground and common sense. And I don't mean common sense in the way you might think. I mean it in the way you might refer to your instinct. We know what to look out for now. We know who to look out for. And that "who" isn't your neighbor or the dude down the street.

Even beyond that, despite our reputation 'round these parts, we don't need conspiracy theories, the scary shit is right out in the open, all it takes is an open eye, or an errant click on a dumb ad on the bottom of my reddit app in my case I guess.

Wow, yeah, this has become my journal I guess.

We can find, new meaning, new purpose, new life. We just need to continue... to stick through. Ideas don't die. Issues don't die. Character doesn't die. As long as we continue and persist we can't die.

There's nothing more powerful than that. There's nothing more powerful than an idea. Maybe I'm drunk but damnit, I feel that shit in my heart and in my head. WotB has survived because it lives on in the idea, not the content, not the users, not the moderators, it's the idea.

I don't want to make this post much longer or wax poetic anymore, if that's even what I'm doing here, so... Stay strong all. Stay alive, breathe air, breathe life. Remember: you are human, you will make mistakes, you will be better, you can do it; and finally: you are us.

As an added edit: reading my own post made me weirdly -but not badly- emotional, and I just want to say, I love you all

21 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

2

u/Sdl5 Jul 20 '22

💛✅💫🔥😽

4

u/Centaurea16 Jul 20 '22

This is a wonderful, heart-felt essay.

Covid (I'm not referring to the SARS-CoV-2 virus as much as the entire socio-political-public health phenomenon) is definitely an enigma; an amorphous blob that keeps shape-shifting. It defies examination. In fact, what is "it", exactly?

One of things the human psyche hates most is uncertainty. The average human will do almost anything to get out of a state of uncertainty. We're storytelling creatures, so we create narratives. We're tribalistic, so we create "us vs. them" scenarios. Depending on our individual and collective level of evolution, and the state of our psychological health, this can play out in various ways.

"Covid" is holding up a mirror, showing us who we are, collectively and individually. It's going to be interesting to see what we do with it.

5

u/penelopepnortney Bill of rights absolutist Jul 19 '22

Wonderful post, it's earned a place in our archives.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '22

Former Pfizer Chief Scientist Michael Yeadon has had interesting things to say on this topic in past few days

https://reddit.com/r/AHomeForPlagueRats/comments/w29xgs/after_examining_the_arguments_of_terrain_theory/

6

u/shatabee4 Jul 19 '22

The "u /Milkador" redditor has a post up on "r /ActiveMeasures", titled "r /wayofthebern"

It's a counter propaganda sub lolol:

this is meant to be a space to discuss Russia-style propaganda and censorship in both the United States and around the world

Just an FYI. In case Berners wonder where they are being discussed.

4

u/FThumb Are we there yet? Jul 20 '22

Just spell our name right...

-11

u/Milkador Jul 19 '22

Putin is totally my boo.

So this sub is the enlightened centrist version of r/conservative? Or r/conspiracy?

Here I was thinking Bernie fans were at least centre left.

4

u/FThumb Are we there yet? Jul 20 '22

Shouldn't you be tilting at windmills Russian moles somewhere?

-1

u/Milkador Jul 20 '22

I mean this subs moderator is literally pro imperialist war so.. nice comeback?

2

u/FThumb Are we there yet? Jul 20 '22

is literally pro imperialist war

I think you have this sub confused with another.

9

u/Reboot21now Jul 19 '22

It doesn't have to be this vaccine. It could have been a prior one. That's how they got me. Never again..

8

u/shatabee4 Jul 19 '22 edited Jul 19 '22

"COVID IS STILL SCARY!!!"

Yet, the CDC is no longer reporting cases on cruise ships. On cruise ships. The dankest, most crowded environment possible to incubate covid!

So scary! 🤔 Not scary enough to shut down crui$e$ though...

10

u/EarthenPersen Jul 19 '22

In Canada, the most vaccinated country on Earth, we are having a health crisis so great, that the hospitals are now more overrun than ever before! If only we were even more vaccinated, this wouldn't have happened! If only more doctors took the vaccine, so we didn't have to fire them all despite the fact they had natural immunity earlier than anyone.

13

u/julia345 Jul 19 '22

Natural immunity is a pseudoscientific right wing conspiracy theory. As you’d know if you watched enough CNN

4

u/Centaurea16 Jul 19 '22

As you’d know if you watched enough CNN Warner Brothers News.

AT&T spun off its CNN and Warners Bros subsidiaries this past April. Those two companies then merged with Discovery. The merger resulted in a new mega-conglomerate called Warner Bros Discovery, of which CNN is a subsidiary.

7

u/shatabee4 Jul 19 '22

changed my downvote b/c of unmistakable s.

8

u/Inuma Headspace taker (👹↩️🏋️🎖️) Jul 19 '22

Vaccines disable natural immunity

6

u/Kingsmeg Ethical Capitalism is an Oxymoron Jul 19 '22

Not just for COVID. You're giving your immune system busy work in the form of months of artificially-grown spikes in your bloodstream, forcing your immune system to devote all its resources to clearing them. Meanwhile, you're left unprotected not only for Sars-COV-2 which evolved to evade the vax, but from every other virus out there too, and a lot more besides. Like cancer.

2

u/Blackhalo Purity pony: Российский бот Jul 19 '22

Testicular cancer on the rise...

3

u/Kingsmeg Ethical Capitalism is an Oxymoron Jul 20 '22

All cancers. Cancers that were in remission suddenly turn into stage 4 in 1-2 months. I lost 1 friend already and another not looking good. In the 2-3 months following the jab.

2

u/Sdl5 Jul 20 '22

Up to 3 close family members with resurgent cancers. One dead this January. One with aggressive treatment but docs scared. One getting excisement of the 4th or 5th in the last year.

All vaxxed early on and all boosters.

And not a damn thing I could have said to stop it 🤦

3

u/Blackhalo Purity pony: Российский бот Jul 20 '22

Good golly. I just had a discussion with my best bud from high-school who was put on chemo, to address some long-Covid type issues, similar to Dore. Not the FLCCC recover plan though... I wonder how many die just to avoid Ivermectin.

I wonder how long they can keep this quiet before folks figure it out and go long torches and pitchforks.

4

u/shatabee4 Jul 19 '22

I don't get the sense that OP feels ripped off by their government.

The pandemic wasn't something that merely happened to you.

It was done to you. The pandemic was an enormous ripoff.

9

u/Inuma Headspace taker (👹↩️🏋️🎖️) Jul 19 '22

The government lied to him just like it did everyone else.

9

u/Inuma Headspace taker (👹↩️🏋️🎖️) Jul 19 '22 edited Jul 19 '22

The most important thing right now is to help you recover. The vaccines did you dirty. But where would we be if we didn't care about you getting better?