@cremevax @giflian Same here. Last evening my wife and I sat in an arena full of thousands of cheering people watching some very talented Olympic figure skaters, wearing our #N95 respirators of course. I don’t think I would have gone if we weren’t in this “very pleasant break.”

Thanks for posting those #Covid #wastewater plots and summaries. Much appreciated.

Holy Shit! NASCAR driver Kyle Busch has died aged 41, he raced last weekend

I swear he had Long Covid, constantly mentioning illness, fatigue, requesting doctors at races, respiratory issues

#Covid #Covid19 #LongCovid

https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2026/05/21/kyle-busch-two-time-nascar-cup-series-champion-dies-at-age-41/

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@cremevax/116609840283359620

This really does seem to be a significant and sustained lull. I would be happy to have this nasty little pathogen disappear, or at least as worn out and exhausted as it's made me for the past six years. Even without ever having had #Covid.

cremevax👩🏻‍💻🏳️‍🌈​🇨🇦🇺🇦 » 🌐 2026-05-21
@cremevax@infosec.exchange

Hello, these are the weekly #washingtonstate #kingcounty (that is, #seattle and environs) #COVID #COVID19 #wastewater toots.

A quick reminder that this King County respiratory disease data comes from Washington State, not the federal government.

The West Point (WSPT) sewage treatment plant's 7 day running average got updated this week, yay. It's pretty low, so another yay for that. The last 7DRA calculation was on 5/12.

WSPT is one of three King County(-ish) sewersheds in this dataset. You can find overviews, individual sewershed results, and a breakdown of variants for the state wastewater surveillance program, along with other metrics like case counts and hospitalizations for Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses, at https://doh.wa.gov/data-and-statistical-reports/diseases-and-chronic-conditions/communicable-disease-surveillance-data/respiratory-illness-data-dashboard#WasteWater. If you go to the page and click "learn more" in the statewide view tab, you can find out lots of details about how these data are calculated and how to interpret them. The dashboard gets updated every Wednesday (generally). The Department of Health is here on the fediweb, at @WADeptHealth

Alt...

A screencap of the Washington State Department of Health's Covid wastewater data for the West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant. The trend line of the graph is described in the toot text.

The FDA's vaccine advisory committee, VRBAC, is scheduled to meet May 28th to discuss strain selection for the 2026-2027 #covid #covid19 vaccine. Details, including how to comment, are here:

https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/vaccines-and-related-biological-products-advisory-committee-may-28-2026-meeting-announcement

2/?

They're all dead.

Every man, woman, and child I knew who was not related to me died during COVID-19. Imagine waking up in a world where everyone you know is gone.

For my grandfather, who lived to be 103 years old, this happened to him in his mid-90s. For myself, this started happening at the age of 39 and finally concluded just before I turned 40. In my small state of Massachusetts, over 60,000 people died from COVID. That is comparable to an entire city's population being wiped off the map. Meanwhile, in my country (USA), we led the world in recorded COVID deaths, with over 1,000,000 people dead.

And yet on social media, particularly on Facebook, we had waves of insufferable people trying to argue that COVID-19 was only a mild cold, that masks were a form of oppression, and even making nonsensical claims that vaccines contained secret 5G tracking chips or caused COVID. 6 years later, after the pandemic (2020), now the year 2026, there are still people who refuse to accept reality.

Just between you and me, I want to punch Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, square in the jaw with everything I've got. Watching our policies change to protect known misinformation, as opposed to fighting it as we once did, has been personally insufferable.

Internally, we were made aware of these policy changes before his famous video, where it was obvious he was kissing Donald John Trump's ass. And just before those policy changes, I technically deleted my personal account — knowing, unfortunately, that it would privately remain in the system for an unknown duration. However, for me, the move wasn't that dramatic since I had been slowly weaning myself away from Meta after learning how everything worked behind the scenes.

Facts usually — though unfortunately not always — matter on the Fediverse. The Fediverse is not perfect because it is run by people, and people are far from perfect. Having said that, at the very least, if you tried to claim COVID-19 was a hoax and that few or no people were ever harmed by it, you would find it very difficult to be accepted here.

But I digress. Being a highly factual person — as opposed to one of the many who seem content accepting so-called "known truths" — is a big deal to me. The fact that the Fediverse usually thrives on hard facts, alongside the occasional shared life experience, matters deeply to me.

I further digress. Everyone I knew, except for a few family members, is dead. And when you're in your 40s, it's not like childhood where you can just walk up to a complete stranger and ask to be friends. When everyone you once knew is gone, you no longer have a social network to introduce you to new people, either.

This fact is only compounded by working remotely; most of my coworkers are on the other side of the world, since I happen to work for a division that isn't located anywhere near me. Times have also changed. Even if you work face-to-face with the public, crossing that professional line at the workplace is a minefield — and asking for trouble that most people simply cannot afford.

My mindset and values are the opposite of someone who goes clubbing or sits at a bar. I drink only once or twice a year, and usually, it's just a glass of wine. My interests aren't completely exclusive, but they may as well be, since most social gatherings I've looked into happen in another state or a different part of the country. I joined a hiking group once, only to discover that they didn't really talk to anyone; they just wanted company so they wouldn't be in the woods alone. And my neighbors often keep to themselves — which I honestly prefer, since their outbursts among themselves, which thankfully don't involve me, usually end with needing to call the police.

I'm not alone, since I care for an aging family member and have other family members to speak with. But if I'm being perfectly honest, I think the engagements I have here can be beneficial.

The freedom to agree and respectfully disagree — and simply to know that others hold both similar and different views from my own — allows us to explore those differences. I think these exchanges have been both helpful and educational. If anything, it has prevented me from being trapped in a bubble.

To be continued....

Post 2 of ?

#Fediverse #Mastodon #Misskey #Anniversary #COVID #COVID19 #LongCovid

Hello, these are the weekly #washingtonstate #kingcounty (that is, #seattle and environs) #COVID #COVID19 #wastewater toots.

A quick reminder that this King County respiratory disease data comes from Washington State, not the federal government.

The West Point (WSPT) sewage treatment plant's 7 day running average got updated this week, yay. It's pretty low, so another yay for that. The last 7DRA calculation was on 5/12.

WSPT is one of three King County(-ish) sewersheds in this dataset. You can find overviews, individual sewershed results, and a breakdown of variants for the state wastewater surveillance program, along with other metrics like case counts and hospitalizations for Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses, at https://doh.wa.gov/data-and-statistical-reports/diseases-and-chronic-conditions/communicable-disease-surveillance-data/respiratory-illness-data-dashboard#WasteWater. If you go to the page and click "learn more" in the statewide view tab, you can find out lots of details about how these data are calculated and how to interpret them. The dashboard gets updated every Wednesday (generally). The Department of Health is here on the fediweb, at @WADeptHealth

Alt...

A screencap of the Washington State Department of Health's Covid wastewater data for the West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant. The trend line of the graph is described in the toot text.

What we caught in Beijing. Genetic sequencing by Alumina. Big news not covered by Democrats. #covid #geneticsequencing #democrats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GZAHsl20b4

Adnkronos - ultimoratop: Cannes 2026, giorno 8: riflettori su Pedro Almodovar, presenta 'Amarga Navidad'news dalla nostra inviata

(Adnkronos) - Protagonista dell’ottava giornata del 79esimo Festival di Cannes è Pedro Almodóvar, che presenta in Concorso ‘Amarga Navidad’ insieme a un cast corale, dove figurano la sua musa Rossy de Palma, Barbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon e Victoria Luengo. Il film intreccia due linee temporali - il 2004 e il 2026 - e attraverso il racconto di due storie si interroga sull’autofinzione, chiedendosi fino a che punto un autore possa spingersi nel racconto e se le vite degli altri siano un territorio proibito oppure una materia da cui attingere liberamente, anche quando tocca dolori altrui. La Croisette accoglie un altro grande ritorno: quello del regista russo Andreï Zvjagincev, che presenta in Concorso ‘Minotaur', il suo nuovo film a nove anni da ‘Loveless’. Un’assenza lunga e dolorosa, durante la quale è quasi morto a causa del Covid che lo ha costretto a passare molti mesi in una clinica in Germania, dovendo reimparare a muovere gli arti. E poi la guerra in Ucraina e la rottura con la Russia. E questo film, che lui definisce pacifista, si oppone alla guerra condotta dal regime di Putin attraverso il racconto delle conseguenze del conflitto attraverso la vita coniugale. A Cannes arriva anche l’attore e regista Andy Garcia con 'Diamond', da lui scritto e diretto. Il film è una dichiarazione d’amore a Los Angeles e un omaggio ai classici intramontabili del genere noir. Nel cast, oltre Garcia, Brendan Fraser, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray e Vicky Krieps.

Cannes 2026, Day 8: Spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, presents ‘Bitter Streets’ news from our correspondent

(Adnkronos) – Pedro Almodóvar is the protagonist of the eighth day of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, presenting ‘Bitter Christmas’ in Competition alongside a choral cast, featuring his muse Rossy de Palma, Barbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon and Victoria Luengo. The film intertwines two time lines – 2004 and 2026 – and through the telling of two stories, it questions autofiction, asking to what extent an author can push themselves in the narrative and whether the lives of others are a forbidden territory or a freely accessed material, even when touching on the pain of others. The Croisette welcomes another major return: that of Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev, presenting ‘Minotaur’ in Competition, his new film nine years after ‘Loveless’. A long and painful absence, during which he almost died from Covid, which forced him to spend many months in a clinic in Germany, having to relearn how to move his limbs. And then the war in Ukraine and the rupture with Russia. And this film, which he defines as pacifist, opposes the war waged by the Putin regime through the telling of the consequences of the conflict through the lives of a couple. Andy Garcia also arrives in Cannes with ‘Diamond’, written and directed by him. The film is a declaration of love to Los Angeles and a tribute to the timeless classics of the noir genre. In the cast, in addition to Garcia, Brendan Fraser, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray and Vicky Krieps.

#Cannes2026 #PedroAlmodóvar #CannesFilmFestival #RossydePalma #BarbaraLennie #LeonardoSbaraglia #AitanaSanchez-Gijon #VictoriaLuengo #Croisette #Russian #AndreiZvyagintsev #Covid #Germany #Ukraine #Russia #Putin #AndyGarcia #Cannes #LosAngeles #Garcia #BrendanFraser #DustinHoffman #BillMurray #VickyKrieps

https://www.adnkronos.com/spettacoli/cannes-2026-giorno-8-riflettori-su-pedro-almodovar-presenta-amarga-navidad-videonews-dalla-nostra-inviata_3CRtfRmh5BqVBVt0wIdgOL

Does anyone on here know where to find this recent Swiss Re Institute Covid report? I don't see it on Swiss Re's site, nor do I see any recent news articles mentioning it.

#Covid #SwissRe

Alt...

Screenshot of a Twitter post from Mike Hoerger: The Swiss Re Institute suggests COVID will kill about 150,000 Americans this year (excess deaths), so it's more like a bad cancer than a bad flu. I would suggest talking to scientists who do Covid research and continue to take it seriously. My wife and I lead separate PhD programs. We homeschool so that our children do not experience the brain damage and other health problems from reinfections, which continue to pose a serious burden in 2026. It remains the most common chronic health condition in kids. A key reason why it might appear "milder" is that about 2 million Americans have died from COVlD (excess deaths). Wipe out 2 million people most vulnerable to any health problem, it will almost always appear acutely milder.

@mcnado I am looking at our PHO Bonnie Henry in British Columbia, doing a 'mild' presser over Hanta on a long holiday weekend (even jaded media caught that) - and if Ebola hits Canada she will turn to herd immunity

In baseball 3 strikes, you're out - she fucked SARS1, SARS2, now likely Hanta

and keeps failing upwards

#Covid #Covid19 #BCpoli #CDNpoli #HantaVirus

Chise has a nice thread on bsky about a study published in the NEJM showing ensitrelvir, an antiviral, is an effective post exposure treatment for #COVID
#COVID19. It has already been approved in Japan and is currently under consideration in Europe and the US.

https://bsky.app/profile/sailorrooscout.bsky.social/post/3mly7qydaak2u