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tomorrowusa · 1 month

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Four years ago today (March 13th), then President Donald Trump got around to declaring a national state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration had been downplaying the danger to the United States for 51 days since the first US infection was confirmed on January 22nd.

From an ABC News article dated 25 February 2020...

CDC warns Americans of 'significant disruption' from coronavirus

Until now, health officials said they'd hoped to prevent community spread in the United States. But following community transmissions in Italy, Iran and South Korea, health officials believe the virus may not be able to be contained at the border and that Americans should prepare for a "significant disruption." This comes in contrast to statements from the Trump administration. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Tuesday the threat to the United States from coronavirus "remains low," despite the White House seeking $1.25 billion in emergency funding to combat the virus. Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC’s Kelly Evans on “The Exchange” Tuesday evening, "We have contained the virus very well here in the U.S." [ ... ] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the request "long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency." She also accused President Trump of leaving "critical positions in charge of managing pandemics at the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security vacant." "The president's most recent budget called for slashing funding for the Centers for Disease Control, which is on the front lines of this emergency. And now, he is compounding our vulnerabilities by seeking to ransack funds still needed to keep Ebola in check," Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday morning. "Our state and local governments need serious funding to be ready to respond effectively to any outbreak in the United States. The president should not be raiding money that Congress has appropriated for other life-or-death public health priorities." She added that lawmakers in the House of Representatives "will swiftly advance a strong, strategic funding package that fully addresses the scale and seriousness of this public health crisis." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also called the Trump administration's request "too little too late." "That President Trump is trying to steal funds dedicated to fight Ebola -- which is still considered an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- is indicative of his towering incompetence and further proof that he and his administration aren't taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as they need to be," Schumer said in a statement.

A reminder that Trump had been leaving many positions vacant – part of a Republican strategy to undermine the federal government.

Here's a picture from that ABC piece from a nearly empty restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown. The screen displays a Trump tweet still downplaying COVID-19 with him seeming more concerned about the effect of the Dow Jones on his re-election bid.

People were not buying Trump's claims but they were buying PPE.

I took this picture at CVS on February 26th that year.

The stock market which Trump in his February tweet claimed looked "very good" was tanking on March 12th – the day before his state of emergency declaration.

Trump succeeded in sending the US economy into recession much faster than George W. Bush did at the end of his term – quite a feat!. (As an aside, every recession in the US since 1981 has been triggered by Republican presidents.)

Of course Trump never stopped trying to downplay the pandemic nor did he ever take responsibility for it. The US ended up with the highest per capita death rate of any technologically advanced country.

Precious time was lost while Trump dawdled. Orange on this map indicates COVID infections while red indicates COVID deaths. At the time Trump declared a state of emergency, the virus had already spread to 49 states.

The United States could have done far better and it had the tools to do so.

The Obama administration had limited the number of US cases of Ebola to under one dozen during that pandemic in the 2010s. Based on their success, they compiled a guide on how the federal government could limit future pandemics.

Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm

Of course Trump ignored it.

Unlike those boxes of nuclear secrets in Trump's bathroom, the Obama pandemic limitation document is not classified. Anybody can read it – even if Trump didn't. This copy comes from the Stanford University Libraries.

TOWARDS EPIDEMIC PREDICTION: FEDERAL EFFORTS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN OUTBREAK MODELING

Feel free to share this post with anybody who still feels nostalgic about the Trump White House years!

#covid-19 #coronavirus #pandemic #public health #donald trump #trump's incompetent response to the pandemic #covid state of emergency #2020 #trump recession #51 days of trump pandemic dawdling #obama pandemic playbook #2010s ebola outbreak #nostalgia for trump administration #republicans #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who

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rennorthernlights · 4 months

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The World We Knew

Chapter 1: Radioheart, Chapter 2, Chapter 3,

Trigger warnings; Zombies, mentions of death, very brief mention of suicide in the very beginning.

You can also go to AO3 for RenNorthenLights. I post more on there than here. If you go to my AO3 than PLEASE look at the tags for this fic! MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

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October-ish, 2023. Time??? Location???

It’s become almost routine now.

Waking up at the ass crack of dawn, checking her backpack, cleaning her rifle, making sure the ‘room’ she’s in is safe. Over a year ago she wouldn’t be up this early. Over a year ago she wouldn’t even be touching her fathers rifle without permission. But life has a funny way of throwing curve balls. In this sense, life threw a massive curve ball at everyone and everything. The world as she knew it become sick with disease— No, not COVID-19, though many speculated that it was the reason, the beginning of it all. No it was the dead-come-back-to-life-and eat-your-face kinda disease. Normally people bring up that type of disease in conversations with speculations on the “what if” scenarios of what they’d do.

Many of her college friends all had plans and ideas and yet most of them now roam the streets looking for the next person to chomp on. Ironic isn’t it? She never believed she’d live this long hell many times the conversation of “Quick a zombie apocalypse happens! What do you do?!” She’d laugh and says she’d die in the next month or two. To which her friends would moan and groan because surely “You wouldn’t give up so easily?? Come onnnn what would you actually do.” She’d think it over and before putting much thought, she said.

“I’d kill myself.” Her friends went silent before laughing at how serious she sounded and even she laughed. A good banter back and forth as her college friends sipped on cheap booze. “No, no, but in all seriousness. I’d stay with my parents. My dads a police Captain after all. He’s taught me how to shoot before I could write and my ma… well she’ll probably teach me something.” Snorting a chuckle since her moms a teacher. One of her friends asks what she’d do if her parents became zombies.

“Well I guess I’d try to find groups to stay in. What do y’all think? I guess I’d put up with y’all.” Nudging her friend playfully on the shoulder. Laughter in the room as the music starts playing and the cheep booze starts kicking in. As her friends dance and sing to “Only Girl in the World” by Rihanna she sits on the couch in deep thought. Her drink in hand as she thinks bout her life. Thinks about her finals coming up and how she’s gotta take all the tests to become a nurse. Both her parents were exceptionally happy that she didn’t follow in their footsteps.

“I love kids but please… do not become a teacher.” Her mother sounded so exhausted when they spoke early on the phone. “And don’t become a police officer!” Her father yells in the background. The running joke for every phone call even though her parents are well aware that she’s going to be a nurse. She’s been deadset on it since she was a kid. She doesn’t plan on telling her ma that she’s gonna try and apply to be the school nurse where her ma works. Sipping her booze some more as the apple news on her phone pings “Reports of a New Virus, Scientists say… ”

She huffs, reading the first couple of paragraphs before getting bored and exiting out of the article. “Probably another variant of COVID. Great another shot I’m gonna have to take.” Turning her phone off and chugging her drink before she starts dancing with her giggly and much too drunk friends.

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Oh how life turned so fast and so quickly the following week. Nearly half of the friends in the room became the first percentages of “Turned” and the other half “Missing, have you seen them?” She barely made it out herself. But that’s life. Cruel and beautiful and so, so lonely in the world she now knows. She stays too long thinking about it and she’ll drown. She doesn’t want to think about her friends, her home, her… family. It’s still too much even after all this time. Even with it being well over a year it still hurts.

Shaking her head of those thoughts as she gets situated. Glad that she triple checked the ‘room’ she’s in. Her anxiety has been through the roof these last couple days and every lil noise is having her jump. At least she can put her mind at ease since she’s checked and barricaded the exit. A couple deads outside that she handled quickly. Who knew that she’s be so proficient with a bat and knife? She’s a good shot but before a to keep her rifle hidden. Not many bullets being made anyways..

She turns her radio on as she waits for it to come to life. For months she been speaking on it. Using it as a dairy of sorts, it helps her when she feels the loneliest. Helps when the days feel colder than what it typically does in Texas. She spoke and spoke until one day it started speaking back. The man on the radio commented how he’s been hearing her speak and at first, he and his group thought it was a hoax since they couldn’t get the radio to work. She didn’t speak on it for days, but the men would still speak back and call out to her.

Finally, she worked up the courage to speak back and from then on, they’ve become a part of her routine. Once a day around noon they’d speak. She has her rules, No names, no locations, no descriptions. She doesn’t want to get attached only to one day not hear them speak back again. She doesn’t need another name added to her list of grief. That, and as much as she wants to trust them, she knows that humans can be just as dangerous if not more so.

“Static, come in Static.” She grins as she sits in the office room that she’s been sleeping in. Stretching her legs as she’s never gotten used to the floors even after all this time. Her legs stiff as her other hand rubs her knee. The radio crinkles and scratches until finally.

“Must you keep calling me that?” The man speaks, the heavy Scottish accent shining through, and she can just tell he’s grinning. “I’ve told ya, mah name is Joh- “

“No,” she cuts him off as she clicks on the button. “No names. I don’t... I don’t want to hear it, please.” She’s told him before that she doesn’t want to hear his name. He’s been understanding but sometimes he’ll still try it... The thought that there is an actual person behind the radio scares her and intrigues her. Hearing someone even through all this mess makes it all bearable even if it’s just by a little bit. “Don’t make me ‘hang up’.” A lighthearted threat. She wouldn’t actually do that. She needs her daily talks with them.

“I know, Bonnie, I know,” the voice speaks with understanding. The man knows all too well on why it’s easier to stay nameless, easier to not be attached incase the voice one day doesn’t speak back. “But one day I would love ta hear my name from your pretty voice.” The voice chuckles, “Where are ya now?” A hopeful tinged to his voice.

“You know I don’t give locations, Static.” Singing back her words with a furrow of her brow. “But… I’m in an office building.”

“Ah, I see that’s become a fan favorite of yours.” A tease in the man’s voice. “Oh, it seems my friend wants to speak to ya.” Her eyes perk up as she knows who is about to speak.

“Electricity!” She smiles big and she just knows Static is rolling his eyes.

“Sunshine haven’t heard from you since, Static,” emphasizing the other man’s nickname and she can practically hear the glare. “has been hogging you.” Electricity, as she’s been calling him even though he’s also tried to get her to call him by his name, has a much softer voice. Calmer and levelheaded compared to Static who's more outgoing and louder. She’s called them the duo 1 and duo 2 before she called them Static and Electricity. Much to their annoyance and amusement, much better than her other idea of calling them Thing 1 and Thing 2.

“Well next time hit him or something.” She smiles as she can hear Static mouthing off something. Probably Static telling him where she’s been in for a bit. “In an office building again? That seems to be your usual, yeah?” The man speaks lowly. His words concerned and yet with the subtleness of memorizing something.

“Am I that predictable, Electricity? She stands up from where she was sitting. “Static said something similar.”

“Not predictable just doing what you always do, Sunshine.”

“That’s… That means I’m being predictable.” She teases as he stammers.

“No, no, I meant that you are more comfortable with what you know to be safe.”

“Soooo predictable with my safety?” She teases as she can hear him muttering “bollocks” like he always does when, she assumes, he is flustered. “I’m pulling your leg, Electricity. Just messing around and being a brat.”

He laughs and sighs in relief. His voice cool like the summer breeze after a rainy day. “So where are you?” His voice sounding slightly insistent.

“No where near you.” Rolling her eyes as they always ask the same questions everytime they talk. “Quit askin, I’m fine on my own. I don’t do groups and you know why.” She’s told them about her run in with the only group she’s been with. Handmaidens Tale meet zombie apocalypse and she barely got out.

“I know, I know, you’ve done well on your own, but a little help goes a long way, Sunny.” Sometimes she wishes she would hate the nicknames that they give her but it does give a warm fuzziness in her stomach whenever they say it. Sighing as she speaks back. “Oh yes because you’re military right?” A bit of sarcasm in her voice as this is one of her questions that she always asks.

“Taskforce 141, Special Operation Forces, you already know this, Lass.” The other man speaks making her jolt. Guess he was listening in when she was speaking to Electricity.

“Yeah, yeah, just making sure you’re not lying and trying to sound more badass than you both already do.” Remarking quickly as a light blush spread on her face. The way he’s speaking sounds deeper. Like she’s in trouble somehow and he’s going to correct her.

“We know, Sunshine, we know you just want to be safe. It’s hard to trust especially with the dead around.” Electricity’s speaks softly, the cool to Static’s heat, “But to say it again; Joh— I mean, Static, is a Sergeant and I am also a Sergeant. Static is an expert in demolitions and trained as a sniper. I myself am an expert with prime target eliminations and covert surveillance.” He says it so sincerely and she has half a mind to believe him.

“And why are you all the way in Texas then?” They’ve told her how they moved up here and she knows the reason, but she wants them to say it again.

“We received word that a base, Fort Sam Houston, was working on a cure for the zombie virus. The BAMC is a hospital within that fort that was conducting research.” Electricity sites off the very thing that they’ve repeated for the last month.

“And?” She makes a go on motion that they can’t see but she knows that they can imagine that’s what she’s doing.

“But when we got there it was already over run and Kyl— I mean Electricity almost got killed in the process.” Static says, he sounds upset. “We’ve been over this, Lass. We tell you about the same things over and over again.” A hushed murmur from Electricity is heard and she starts feels bad.

“I know… I’m sorry, I just...” she starts off as she tries to not sound upset. “I just want to make sure that I can trust you. Last time I did...”

“Handmaidens tale, you’ve told us about it. The leader, Abraham, is a far-right Christian, yes?” Static says the man’s name and she shivers as she gives a tiny yes in reply. “He tried to keep you. To force you to stay with his group and be treated as a... how did you say it?”

“A breading cow.”

“Yes, that,” he sighs deeply on the radio, and she wonders what he and Electricity looks like. Wonders if they are as comforting as their warm voices. Wonders if they have beards or stubbles but her self-imposed rules keep her from asking. “I know it’s a lot, learnin ta trust when it's hard to. We’ve promised since the beginnin ta be honest and if I ever see him.” The threat is laced in his voice but he clears his throat. “Enough of that. We are finally moving to Houston. We acquired a car. A Jeep to be more precise. Any chance we’ll be near ya?”

“You might be…” she says softly as she bites her tongue. The urge to let them come to her gets harder and harder to say no to everyday they speak. “I don’t give locations, Static.”

“I know but can’t blame a man for trying. Oh?” She can hear his eyebrows furrowing as voices in the background speak. They’ve told her that they are a group of 4 in total. She’s never heard the other 2 speak but she can sometimes hear them… they sound funny. “It seems we have to cut this shorter, Bonnie.”

“We’ll speak again tomorrow, Sunshine, we promise.” The other man promises, and she knows they will. They’ve never broken a promise. Never did more than what they couldn’t do from the month that they’ve talked.

“I’ll see you both tomorrow and please,” she stresses the word as she hopes and prays that one day they can meet. That she’ll be brave enough to let them in and find her. “Please be safe. Please don’t get hurt, okay? I’ll metaphorically hit you, I swear I will.”

“Always, Bonnie, we will always be safe. Take care and check corners and windows. Make sure you can quickly get’n and out. Don’t go’n if your gut tells ya not to.” Static says, listing off his advice like he would to a fresh-faced recruit. “Don’t play fair and don’t play kind. Everyone’s an enemy until proven otherwise.” He waits a couple seconds before he passes it to the other man.

“Make sure to pack light and that you can easily grasp your weapon.” Electricity warns. A deep sigh from him before he speaks, “And if you ever… if you ever need help, just... please just tell us. We’ll do whatever we can to come for you, okay?” He waits and waits for her to speak but when she doesn’t, he sighs. He waits another minute and then the radio turns to static signaling the end of their conversation.

“I know,” she says softly as she hears the static of the radio. “Be safe, please be safe.” She murmurs the bits of name that she has overheard them say. Going against her own rules of not saying their names even though she knows it’s half of what their names are. She’s gotten too attached and now… now she’s worried. Worried for men she’s never met and probably never will.

“One can dream,” she rolls her shoulders and bends to stretch. Her stomach growling as she knows it’s about time to eat. Pulling her backpack on the office desk and opening it. A couple cans of food and jerky from gas stations. 2 water bottles and a simple medkit along with an extra shirt and pants. “Okay… raviolis or beans….” Humming as sits and pops open the beans. “I’ll save the raviolis for a special day.”

She’s sat for too long on her ass now it’s time to get a move on. Can’t stay for too long in the same places. Always gotta keep moving to different places. Curse the anxiety that still makes her think that a zombie is around every corner. Guess that’s what she’s been alive for so long.

#simon ghost riley #johnny mactavish #john price #kyle gaz garrick #141 x reader #poly 141 #ZombieAU #The World We Knew #TWWK #If you go to my AO3 please read the tags #It’s a slow build to when the boys finally meet Reader #No physical descriptions of Reader or a name for Reader #Reader uses She/Her pronouns though #Reader is Texan cause I’m Texan and I haven’t been to most other places so I just set it up in Texas

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maaarine · 10 months

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The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think (Joanna Thompson, Quanta Magazine, Jan 26 2023)

"A literature review that appeared in Molecular Psychiatry in July was the latest and perhaps loudest death knell for the serotonin hypothesis, at least in its simplest form.

An international team of scientists led by Joanna Moncrieff of University College London screened 361 papers from six areas of research and carefully evaluated 17 of them.

They found no convincing evidence that lower levels of serotonin caused or were even associated with depression.

People with depression didn’t reliably seem to have less serotonin activity than people without the disorder.

Experiments in which researchers artificially lowered the serotonin levels of volunteers didn’t consistently cause depression. (…)

Although serotonin levels don’t seem to be the primary driver of depression, SSRIs show a modest improvement over placebos in clinical trials.

But the mechanism behind that improvement remains elusive.

“Just because aspirin relieves a headache, [it] doesn’t mean that aspirin deficits in the body are causing headaches,” said John Krystal, a neuropharmacologist and chair of the psychiatry department at Yale University.

“Fully understanding how SSRIs produce clinical change is still a work in progress.”

Speculation about the source of that benefit has spawned alternative theories about the origins of depression. (…)

Repple warns, however, that another explanation for the effects his team observed is also possible: Perhaps the depressed patients’ brain connections were impaired by inflammation.

Chronic inflammation impedes the body’s ability to heal, and in neural tissue it can gradually degrade synaptic connections.

The loss of such connections is thought to contribute to mood disorders.

Good evidence supports this theory.

When psychiatrists have evaluated populations of patients who have chronic inflammatory diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, they’ve found that “all of them have higher-than-average rates of depression,” said Charles Nemeroff, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of Texas, Austin.

Of course, knowing that they have an incurable, degenerative condition may contribute to a patient’s depressed feelings, but the researchers suspect that the inflammation itself is also a factor.

Medical researchers have found that inducing inflammation in certain patients can trigger depression.

Interferon alpha, which is sometimes used to treat chronic hepatitis C and other conditions, causes a major inflammatory response throughout the body by flooding the immune system with proteins known as cytokines — molecules that facilitate reactions ranging from mild swelling to septic shock.

The sudden influx of inflammatory cytokines leads to appetite loss, fatigue and a slowdown in mental and physical activity — all symptoms of major depression.

Patients taking interferon often report feeling suddenly, sometimes severely, depressed.

If overlooked chronic inflammation is causing many people’s depression, researchers still need to determine the source of that inflammation.

Autoimmune disorders, bacterial infections, high stress and certain viruses, including the virus that causes Covid-19, can all induce persistent inflammatory responses.

Viral inflammation can extend directly to tissues in the brain. Devising an effective anti-inflammatory treatment for depression may depend on knowing which of these causes is at work.

It’s also unclear whether simply treating inflammation could be enough to alleviate depression.

Clinicians are still trying to parse whether depression causes inflammation or inflammation leads to depression. “It’s a sort of chicken-and-egg phenomenon,” Nemeroff said.

Increasingly, some scientists are pushing to reframe “depression” as an umbrella term for a suite of related conditions, much as oncologists now think of “cancer” as referring to a legion of distinct but similar malignancies.

"And just as each cancer needs to be prevented or treated in ways relevant to its origin, treatments for depression may need to be tailored to the individual."

#article #health

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beardedmrbean · 1 year

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Who knew? Nearly three and a half years after Covid-19 first appeared on the scene, the World Health Organisation has declared the pandemic officially over.

And there we all were thinking it had ended more than a year ago, when the UK and much of the rest of Europe abandoned the last of their Covid restrictions.

Late to recognise Covid as a pandemic, the WHO has also been late to acknowledge that thanks in large measure to Western medicines and vaccines, it is also now essentially part of history.

Perhaps that's because of the continued influence of China, which only very recently abandoned its zero-Covid policy.

As long as a major economy was still imprisoning its citizens at the slightest sign of infection, then I suppose it was indeed hard to declare the disease no longer a public health emergency.

For most of us, the pandemic has nevertheless been over for a long time now.

The grimly dispiriting legacy is, however, still very much with us.

In the UK, the national debt is a fifth of GDP higher than it was, inflation has soared to double digits, economically sub-optimal work from home remains deeply entrenched, labour shortages abide, and many people still complain of long term sickness – much of it unrelated to Covid as such but seemingly triggered by the pandemic's deprivations – with record numbers claiming out of work benefits.

The Government's response to Covid always looked to me like a ruinous over-reaction, and I became something of a lockdown sceptic.

I say “something of” because in the initial stages of the pandemic – call it the “we're all going to die” phase – something fairly dramatic was obviously called for, watching the TV images of emergency hospitals being built in Wuhan and overwhelmed ICU units in Northern Italy.

Politically, it would have been virtually impossible for the UK to have stood alone in remaining open even as virtually the whole of the rest of Europe was closing down.

The Government would have fallen within weeks if it had stood by and done nothing.

Even Sweden, which seems to have got its approach about right, eventually implemented a watered down version of the restrictions imposed elsewhere.

Instinctively, Boris Johnson, then Prime Minister, was against lockdown, preferring instead the idea of “herd immunity”, but then he became seriously ill himself, and ended up fully embracing the made-in-China response.

For some, such as the former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption – who would regularly warn of police state authoritarianism – the objection was on principled libertarian grounds.

This was, however, very much a minority position. One of the most remarkable things about the whole sorry affair is quite how compliant the country proved, and how quickly we succumbed to instruction.

Somewhat alarmingly, it turned out that supposedly freedom loving societies are remarkably willing to submit to authoritarian rule, especially if paid to stay at home, as was the case with furlough in the UK.

Even the Government was surprised by the obedience.

Yet it was always abundantly clear that these were essentially temporary, wartime measures that would be lifted once the emergency was over, so on those grounds at least, most of us were initially willing to go along with the heavy handed approach imposed.

No, what worried me was not so much the loss of liberty as the economic impact, and once the case mortality rate was confirmed at less than 1 percent for advanced economies, the lack of proportionality and cost benefit consideration.

I could never quite accept the argument that what was being done was similar to putting the economy into a medically induced coma, with the patient reawoken as if nothing had happened once the pandemic was over.

As we can now see, the lasting damage was monumental.

It would no doubt have been disastrous had the health service been overwhelmed, but when the main justification for lockdown becomes the rallying call of “protect the NHS” you have to ask yourself what the whole thing was really all about.

Insulating the health service from a sickness it is there to treat?

You cannot put a price on life, it can be argued, and therefore almost any cost is justified. It is also true that in the fog of war, mistakes are bound to be made; over-reaction is possibly better than under-reaction.

All the same, it now seems abundantly clear that the treatment was in many ways worse than the disease itself. We'll never know the counterfactual, or just how many lives were saved by imposing a strict series of lockdowns.

Most epidemiologists will tell you that it was a lot.

But they are not paid to think about the wider consequences, and it is now patently clear that the lasting damage to education, the economy and to wider public health was off the scale.

What are the lessons? We don't need to wait for the results of the official inquiry, still years away, to know some of the answers.

Let's make a start by examining the death toll, reported on a daily basis during the pandemic as if in some kind of international competition for how effectively each country was dealing with the crisis.

For a long time, Britain seemed to be bottom of the class, which in turn instructed the severity of the counter measures thought necessary.

The worse the numbers looked relative to others, the more draconian and prolonged the restrictions became.

Given differing methodologies and reporting systems, the best way of measuring the impact is not through recorded deaths from Covid, but via the excess death rate over and above what would normally be expected.

On this measure, most major advanced economies ended up in much the same place.

Britain was slightly worse than Germany and France, but not significantly so, and actually quite a bit better than Italy and Spain, according to estimates published in the Lancet.

This was not the impression you got at the time, when the British response was widely viewed as uniquely incompetent.

What is more, Scotland did worse than England, notwithstanding the plaudits the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, received for outbidding Westminster on the countermeasures needed.

The same is true of Wales, whose first minister, Mark Drakeford, was similarly lauded for a more restrictive and therefore seemingly capable approach.

Well, not according to the numbers.

Culture wars, I'm afraid to say, are as likely to determine your view of the efficacy of lockdown as the underlying facts of the matter.

What we now know, however, is that lockdown is an extraordinarily costly way of dealing with a pandemic.

It is to be hoped that this lesson at least has been learned, and that the response to future pandemics will therefore be better calibrated to the severity of the disease.

A 1pc case mortality rate scarcely seems to justify what was done, even if it was admittedly much higher in older age cohorts.

A more consensual approach that keeps people properly informed but allows them to make their own choices on the degree of risk they are prepared to run must be the way forward.

#nunyas news #who knew?#lots of people did and you censored them #anyone that spoke out was ejected from the room

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submalevolentgrace · 1 year

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"The global public emergency caused by Covid-19 may be officially over but the pandemic will still be with us for many years. Nor is it clear that governments have learned sufficiently from the outbreak to be ready to fight off new emerging microbes that could trigger worse calamities.

These are the stark conclusions of scientists reacting to last week’s news that the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer considers Covid-19 – which has killed more than 7 million people over the past three years – to be a public health emergency of international concern.

Most researchers welcomed the decision because it reflects the fact that the acute phase of the Covid-19 outbreak is now over. At its peak, in January 2021, the global death rate reached more than 100,000 people a week. Last week it had dropped to about 3,500.

However, health officials and scientists also pointed out that immunity to the disease remains short-lived, while there has been considerable slackening in restrictions previously imposed to prevent people from infecting each other. Future waves of infections are therefore inevitable, they warned."

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didanawisgi · 4 months

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#covid-19 vaccine #covid-19 #heart failure #propaganda #immune tolerance #immune escape

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 8 months

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reading update: august 2023

wow what a month!!! I turned 27, I got to do so much work on a documentary on queer style, and most importantly I read a batch of really cool books that I'm so excited to ramble about. so let's cut the bullshit, here's what I've been reading!

Condomnauts (Yoss, 2013; trans. David Frye, 2018) - thank you to, who else, tumblr user @condomnauts for the recommendation! the premise of this book is so sensational: humankind has taken to the stars and become part of a bustling galactic community, with a catch: politeness demands that when different species get together to trade, they open negotiations by sending members from each crew to have sex with each other. these "condomnauts" are highly in demand among humans, since it takes a very particular kind of person to figure out how to bone down with someone who isn't even remotely human. but it's not all fun or free-wheeling space orgies; our protagonist, Josue, is up to his eyes in unresolved trauma from the miserable violence and poverty of his upbringing (seriously, look up those trigger warnings; it gets pretty yucky out there) and has definitely never been to space therapy. ultimately this book isn't as much of a romp as I might have hoped and does fall a bit more into "let's explain at length how the sci-fi tech works" than I usually like, but. BUT. I have to say, the payoff at the (deep sigh) climax of the book (and it is, in fact, a climax) took me totally by surprise and made me SHRIEK with delight when I realized what was about to happen; huge props to Yoss for bringing that particular plot point so perfectly full circle.

Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs (Jamie Loftus, 2023) - I'm a huge fan of all of Jamie Loftus' nonfiction podcast series (go listen to Ghost Church, like, immediately. stop reading this an go do it) so I was naturally pretty fucking stoked for her first foray into nonfiction books. the premise is simple enough: driven by a need to consume a truly terrifying amount of hot dogs for research, Loftus and her boyfriend set off on a cross-country road trip, sampling hot dogs across America so that Loftus can alternate descriptions of the most iconic contemporary hot dogs with an investigation of the hot dog's sordid past. as is pretty much the signature of Jamie Loftus' work, to me, the end result is much funnier, weirder, and sadder than the innocuous-sounding premise would suggest; in addition to the perils of colonialism, capitalism, COVID-19, and factory farming, Loftus does a remarkably tactful job documenting the the downfall of her own relationship as she searches for the perfect dog. cannot recommend enough, an incredible debut.

Yellowface (R.F. Kuang, 2023) - a couple of months ago I read my first R.F. Kuang book, Babel, and thought that it couldn't possibly live up to the amount of hype that it was getting at the time. and I was wrong! Babel was tremendous! but surely R.F. Kuang, that crazy son of a gun, couldn't pull it off twice in one year. and yet! Yellowface was a book I found hard to put down, because with each chapter came some fresh new BUGFUCK CRAZY BULLSHIT from our terrible, terrible protagonist. maybe the plot hinging so much on extremely online book discourse will make it inaccessible for some readers, but as someone who used to spend a lot of time on lit twitter I got it and felt seen. honestly, if this kind of discourse broke loose on twitter tomorrow - a white author stealing the work of her Chinese-American friend? publishing it after her friend's tragic premature death?? changing her name to sound more racially ambiguous??? - I might go crawling back to X dot com just to gawk. this is a satirical thriller of the highest order, and if you love mess as much as me you will gobble this shit up.

The Prisoner's Wife (asha bandele, 1999) - and now for a totally different vibe than I've been bringing you so far! bandele's memoir is an absolutely wrenching account of falling in love with Rashid, a man incarcerated for murder and the ensuing fight to build a life together. bandele is a poet and it shows; her words flow beautifully even in the ugliest of circumstances. this is no suffering porn but a nakedly honest account, all of the good and all of the bad in her relationship. the struggles are never limited to the inhumanity of American carceral system, and the reader is also witness to the usual growing pains of two people learning how to love each other heightened by the enormous obstacles of stolen autonomy. but for every moment of difficulty there is love, such an enormity of love that you at time feel the need to look away from someone being so vulnerable. but I'm so grateful bandele shared the way she did. even reading the book two decades after its publication, with the knowledge that she and her husband Rashid would ultimately divorce, did nothing to dull the love. the love was real, and bandele captured it with devastating precision.

Clay's Ark (Octavia E. Butler, 1984) - god, I love Octavia. just when you think you know where she's going with a story of a creepy codependent psychic cult she zags on you and introduces a SECOND creepy codependent cult, this time in the form of a bunch of HORNY PARASITIC SPACE WEREWOLVES hiding out in the desert! there was no mention of Mary and the Pattern! where are they, Octavia? why are they sending people into space? what does it mean that aliens are in play now? are they going to fight in the next book? god, I hope they fight. there was some gruesome shit in Clay's Ark, but man was I compelled.

My Wandering Warrior Existence (Nagata Kabi, 2020; trans. Jocelyne Allen, 2022) - this was a really exciting new turn for Nagata's graphic memoirs! this one is a great reflection on ✨romance✨ as Nagata begins the arduous work of trying to figure out what romance means to them and what she'd actually want out of a relationship. there was a lot that I related to immensely, although our outcomes may be different - in my case, I realized that building so many mental hurdles for myself because I didn't want to be in a relationship at all. watching someone else navigate that journey at a later age than people are usually expected to is so cool, especially doing it so thoughtfully and with such candor and coming from a place of queerness. I don't know where things are going for Nagata Kabi, but I'm excited for the next translation of her work to be released in November. and I really recommend this graphic memoir to anyone trying to figure out their own romance situation, whether or not you're read the preceding volumes; it can stand quite well on its own!

Love, Hate & Clickbait (Liz Bowery, 2022) - guys. listen. I was so prepared to hate this romance novel, but "a governor forces two of her male staffers to fake date each other to win #woke points" is pretty heinous premise! and it SUPER doesn't help that one of these guys, Thom, is a stone cold manipulative bastard who's chronically online and obsessed with his job to a generally terrifying degree. (the other guy, Clay, is just kind of a doofus who's been, I think, accidentally autism-coded.) but by the end [SPOILERS] Thom has uuuuuh suffered complete and total ego death and renounced his entire life, and it kind of rules? idk, the fake dating might be kind of long and tedious if you're not into fake dating, by which I mean it was tedious for me, but the climax really catapulted it up the list of romance novels I've read this year. also I regret to say the sex is pretty good.

Docile (K.M. Szpara, 2020) - god almighty I put off actually getting to this book for YEARS but I'm glad I did, because I don't know if I would have had the range to appreciate her back in 2020. the basic bones premise - a slightly future dystopia in which those in extreme debt can take a drug called Dociline to become a passive blank slate and sell themselves as servants for the ultrawealthy - barely scratches the surface; it's an intoxicating story about power, control, cobsession, consent, vulnerability, exploitation, capitalism, and loss of self in so many different ways. also I once again regret to say that the sex is pretty good. I completely understand why this book wouldn't be someone's cup of tea - jesus CHRIST read those content warnings - but I couldn't read it fast enough.

Carnal Knowledge: Sex Education You Didn't Get in School (Zoë Ligon and Elizabeth Renstrom, 2020) - what a fun book! for those of y'all who don't know Ligon's work, she's the owner of Spectrum Boutique, a Detroit-based sex toy store that I endorse wholeheartedly and as often as possible! Ligon has put together a great little book of beginner's sexual affirmations, covering everything from body image to pubic hair to relationship styles as well as, naturally, sex toys. it's a great read for anybody, and Renstrom's whimsical, vibrant photos make it a delight to flip through. I'd recommend it for anyone, especially my many anons over the years who have asked how to start getting more comfortable thinking and talking about sexuality. it's a great place to start, a gorgeous little safe space of a book that welcomes everyone to think more widely about pleasure and how to find it.

#reading updates

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rhube · 2 months

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I just completed the Patient-Led Research COVID-19 Patient Experience Survey.

Be warned, it took a *lot* longer for me to complete than they advised, I guess because I had a lot to say in the free-text fields, but I imagine we all would. You can stop and start at any time as long as you finish in 2 weeks, though.

Towards the end I found some of the questions enraging, but that's the norm when they talk about mental health.

If you're anything like me you'll probably find it fairly triggering in places, but that's par for the course. At the end of the day they can't act on our evidence if we don't tell them, so if you are able to do so, it's valuable, and I generally respect the work Patient-Led Research are doing in this area.

#covid #covid 19 #long covid #patient-led research

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thoughtportal · 3 months

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As a surge of respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 and influenza, continue to spread across the United States, experts are warning it could lead to a rise in cardiovascular complications.

Weekly COVID hospitalizations are currently sitting at 32,861 for the week ending Jan. 13, lower than the week before but similar to levels seen in January 2023, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Similarly, there were 14,874 weekly flu hospitalizations, lower than the week before but comparable to levels seen in November 2023, the data shows.

Many Americans may assume that complications from respiratory illnesses are limited to sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia and other sicknesses that affect the upper or lower respiratory tracts.

However, Dr. Deepak Bhatt, director of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City, said there are two potential routes by which these infections can contribute to heart problems.

"The more common pathway is if somebody gets really sick, say with influenza, running a high fever or getting dehydrated, getting hospitalized because of complications of influenza," he told ABC News. "That's a setup for having heart problems."

Fever or dehydration can raise a patient's heart rate and, particularly for those who have heart disease or heart disease risk factors, this can be very dangerous. Additionally, respiratory infections can cause inflammation, which, in turn, can cause plaques in the blood to form clots -- a potential trigger of heart attacks.

"The inflammation is a result of any serious infection but, including infections like influenza and COVID, can then cause inflammation at the site of plaque buildup in a heart artery and that can help promote that plaque to rupture," Bhatt said. "Or in other words, flowing blood is exposed to the inner contents of that fat and cholesterol and when that happens, blood clots form, and if they block the artery completely, that's what can cause a heart attack."

The other pathway, which is more direct but rarer, is myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle, usually following a virus.

Myocarditis can cause arrhythmias, which are rapid or abnormal heartbeats. It can also cause the heart muscle to weaken, resulting in cardiomyopathy, which affects the heart's ability to pump blood effectively.

Additionally, in rare circumstances, myocarditis can lead to heart failure and cardiogenic shock -- another condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood to meet the body's needs -- even in otherwise healthy patients.

While these conditions are more likely to affect older adults, those with known heart disease, or those have known multiple cardiovascular risk factors, Bhatt said there may be people who don't know they're at risk.

"One challenge with heart disease is not everybody knows that they have it," he said. "That is, there are people that are walking around with heart disease, but the diagnosis hasn't been made, because they've not had any symptoms yet."

He continued, "But the stressor of a really severe illness, like influenza, can sort of then unmask what has sort of been there all along, but sitting there silently."

Bhatt recommends anyone who is not yet vaccinated against flu and COVID, and RSV for older adults, should get their shots now.

CDC data showed that uptake has been lagging As of Friday, just 21.5% of adults aged 18 and older have gotten the updated COVID vaccine and 46.7% have gotten the flu shot. Additionally, just 2.1% of adults aged 60 and older have gotten the RSV vaccine.

More importantly, if someone is sick and they have chest pain or are out of breath that is worsening, they should call their doctor or 911, regardless of whether or not they have an underlying condition or risk factors, he said.

"If somebody's having really significant discomfort in the chest and symptoms in the chest, and it's getting worse, especially rapidly, don't just assume it's because, 'Oh, I have a bad cold, or I have influenza, or I have COVID," Bhatt said. "Calling 911 is always the right thing to do."

#article #covid #heart disease #pandemic #science #medical news #flu

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 4 months

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New SpaceTime out Wednesday....

SpaceTime 20231220 Series 26 Episode 152

Deciphering the ancient history of a Martian lake

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has just passed its one thousandth Martian day on the red planet.

MAVEN watches as the Sun’s solar wind suddenly disappears

In December 2022, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN – or MAVEN spacecraft observed the dramatic and unexpected “disappearance” of the solar wind.

Computer issues affecting Voyager 1 in interstellar space

NASA Engineers are working to resolve an issue with one of the Voyager 1 spacecraft’s three onboard computers.

The Science Report

The new inhaled COVID-19 vaccine that triggers a better immune response than injectable vaccines.

Scientists have created the world’s first supermirrors in the mid-infrared range.

New study warns that more than four hours of smartphone use daily was linked to a increased health risk.

Alex on Tech The Deep South super computer

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States. The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science. SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research. The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network. Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor. Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. Later, Gary became part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and was one of its first presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually. However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage. Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently. StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016. Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #esa #astrophysics #spacetimewithstuartgary #starstuff #spacetime

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dailyunsolvedmysteries-movedd · 7 months

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The strangest and main events that happened in 2022

The British Queen Elizabeth II died

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.

The number of COVID-19 cases exceeded 300 million worldwide

The first successful heart transplant from a pig to a human patient occurred

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

An outbreak of monkeypox begins when the first monkeypox virus case is reported in London, the United Kingdom.

A large eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai, a submarine volcano in Tonga, triggered tsunami warnings in Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand, Samoa, and the United States.

A number of large black holes lurking in dwarf galaxies that have previously been overlooked by astronomers were discovered. Our own Milky Way galaxy’s supermassive black hole has been recently discovered by newly discovered black holes.

The UK goes through 3 prime minsters

A series of severe heatwaves from July to August hit Europe, causing at least 53,000 deaths and additionally causing major wildfires, travel disruption, and record high temperatures in many countries

Pakistan declares a "climate catastrophe" and appeals for international assistance, as the death toll from recent flooding in the country exceeds 1,000, the world's deadliest flood since 2017.

A fatal human crush occurs during an association football match at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang Regency, East Java, Indonesia, killing 131 people and injuring more than 500

A Hypatia stone from an extra-terrestrial planet could be the first tangible sign of an explosion of type Ia supernova. Among the universe’s most energetic events are these rare supernovas. It is possible that Hypatia is a “forensic” clue from the early formation of our solar system of a cosmic story that spans millions of years.

Those approaching Gatwick Airport were confused after a prankster erected a sign reading “Welcome to Luton.” Air passengers arriving at the UK’s second-largest airport, which is located just over 30 miles south of central London, can make out the 60m (197ft) sign.

A recently developed artificial skin system closely resembles human skin. The system uses electronic signals to sense temperature, humidity, and pressure simultaneously. This is leaning towards more intelligent prostheses being created and also more sensitive robots.

Elon Musk completes his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

At least 156 people are killed and another 152 injured in a crowd crush during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea.

#news #events #2022 #weird #creepy

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fandom-girl-99 · 2 months

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Hey, guys! Came out of hibernation!!! Check out the 8th chapter of this story! Enjoy and thank you for reading!! #Ao3 #TVD #TheOriginals #fanfiction

Chapter Summary:

SHE'S HERE!

Family is important both beyond the grave and on the living plane.

Story Summary:

How much can four things change a timeline?

Elena is about to find out!

*Beware The Tags!* *Trigger Warnings: Mention of Rape, Torture, World Wars, Imprisonment, Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse, Mention of the war in Ukraine and several ongoing touchy topics, Mention of the Covid-19 Pandemic.*

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kickingitwithkirk · 10 months

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Greetings from Austin

Summary: Jensen and Jared are at odds over a monumental decision that changes their lives in a way they couldn’t have envisioned.

Pairing: Alpha!Jensen Ackles x Alpha!Jared Padalecki x Omega!OFC

Word Count: 639

Warnings: a/b/o, J2 are married/mated, homophobia, bisexuality, biphobia, angst, cursing, jealousy, depression/anxiety, medical stuff, sexual dysfunction, infertility, IVF, surrogacy

*additional warnings to be added in future parts.

A/N: Here we go again with one my weird as hell dreams, series Inspired by this art.

A/N II: There is no intentional hate or malevolence intended towards any of the Ackles or Padalecki families. This is a purely fictional piece containing real and created persons/names/events set in the fictional A/B/O verse. Some dates/events altered to fit story.

*no beta-all mistakes are mine

*divider by @writeyourmindaway

*images found online

Prologue

Austin, TX

Mid-July

“Babe,” Jensen softly says in a low voice to the person seated next to him in the waiting room, “Babe,” he tried again, still getting no response. Leaning closer, his breath puffing into his ear startled Jared, his what is muted by the finger he’s been chewing on.

“You can’t do that, can’t have you getting sick.”

Taking his hand, Jensen pulls it away from pretty, pink lips, gently caressing the finger. Jared had finally stopped chewing on his hands when Covid-19 became widespread.

“Where’s your gum?” Jared bites his lip as Jensen retrieves his pack and hands a piece to him. “What’s got you masticating again?” He inquires as Jared pops the stick in his mouth.

Jared chews the gum nervously, weighing how to answer the question knowing Jensen won’t accept anything less than the whole truth. “What if something goes wrong again because of me.”

Jensen’s brow furrowed. He learned years ago that while their relationship was equal, there were times he had to be the lead Alpha due to Jared’s mental state overwhelming him, as it had the last few weeks.

***

After the public announcement in March of 2019 that would be Supernatural's last season, and when finished with pickups, they would take an extended break and concentrate on their marriage.

Jared intended to stop acting indefinitely, pursuing other interests while Jensen concentrated on his music.

Of course, things didn’t end up how they planned.

Jared entered negotiations to star in the Walker, Texas Ranger reboot with being an executive producer, and Jensen collaborated with Kripke to audition for the role of Soldier Boy in The Boys' third season.

But by March 2020, everything halts thanks to the Coronavirus.

The shutdowns left Supernaturals' final two episodes with no definitive filming date while other projects were on pause until finishing that seemingly never-ending last season.

For the first time in years, they had the luxury of leisurely schedules not on a timetable, could communicate with friends and family uninterrupted, and deal with their other businesses and charities, leaving most days free to enjoy being together without constraint.

But even the amazing, mind-blowing vigorous sex on every horizontal/vertical surface that could support the two big Alphas filled so many hours, and, like many couples, they started getting each other's nerves and looked for another way to stay occupied.

By late May, Jared wasn’t sleeping or eating much, and leaving the house had become a chore. When he hit his fourth day in bed, Jensen bodily dragged him into the bath for a shower, then drove to his doctor’s.

During check-in, they informed Jensen only patients were allowed in the facility. Jared started panicking, saying he had chest pains and couldn’t breathe. They rushed him in with Jensen hot on their heels after morphing into an overprotective Alpha mate; no one was stopping.

Jared’s doctor deduced that the lockdowns prohibiting him from his routine checkups and periodic adjustments needed to his medications triggered this episode.

The first step was to wean him off his current prescriptions and change to a newly approved, alternative regime. He was checked in a facility for ten days under observation while detoxing off his meds.

His therapist switched his twice weekly tele-counseling sessions to daily for the foreseeable future, and Koda's certification as his emotional support animal was approved. His progress was slow, but he was returning to his sweet-natured, big-hearted, exceptionally tactical, overgrown puppy self.

When the surprise call from the clinic came a few days ago about an appointment opening, Jensen initially didn’t want it, still in his overly excessive protective Alpha mode. Jared’s outburst made him relent, fearing they were on a collision course for a significant setback if he didn’t.

And Jensen, being Jensen, went overboard to ensure the appointment was one hundred percent private.

tbc

Part I

SPN TAGS: @donnaintx @lyarr24 @flamencodiva @b3autyfuldisast3r @lassie-bird @nancymcl @spnbaby-67 @leigh70

Sam/Jared: @idreamofplaid Dean/Jensen: @thoughts-and-funnies @stoneyggirl2 @akshi8278 @beabutterfly987 @smoothdogsgirl @siospins2

GFA: @babypink224221 @waywardjoy @let-me-luve-you @all-4-wincest

#greetings from austin #jensen ackles #alpha!jensen #jared padalecki #alpha!jared #alpha!jensen x ofc x alpha!jared #non traditional a/b/o #j2 au #husbands #sam winchester #dean winchester #walker #soldier boy #a/b/o dynamics #slow burn #a/b/o #supernatural #spn #j2

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redheadspark · 2 years

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Hiyya

I don't remember if i already sent this so if not could i request 'going to hold hands in a stressful situation' and “i’m here for you.” with Barry

Thanks

A/N: This is far too cute for Barry! Thanks for the request, anon!

Deep Breath

Summary: Being in Quarantine during a Pandemic was beyond stressful, even with your boyfriend to help with the nerves

Warnings: Talks about the 2020 COVID 19 Quarantine, so that might be a trigger for any readers!

Apart from that, just some fluff!

April, 2020

"Are you sure you're alright, mom?"

"Honey, we're fine! Your brother is already helping us out and getting our food for us while we're hunkering down. Everything okay out there in England?"

"Yeah...yeah it's fine,"

"Baby...you don't sound fine,"

No, you weren't fine.

You were in England when the entire world was shutting down due to COVID 19 running rapid everywhere. You were merely staying for a few months, about to head home come mid March to be with family for the summer when everything happened and halted at once. You were watching the news sometime before that, right after New Years and hearing about COVID 19. You thought, as well as the rest of the world, that it'll blow over and not be a big deal.

Let alone a Global Pandemic.

Planes were landed, everyone going into quarantine for weeks and weeks on end. It started with two, then it expanded with crazy news scares and people dying left and right from the virus. You could only watch day after day, seeing the number rise of those infected and those who passed away, fearing the worst since your home was in America and your family was stuck there.

You wanted to be home with them, with your mom and dad, just for the sake of knowing that they were okay and staying safe. They had a healthy lifestyle to begin with, but this virus held no prisoners from what you remembered reading on the news. So you had to resort to phone calls and FaceTime, which was not the same.

Currently you were talking to your mother on speaker, pacing back and forth like a caged animal as the news was on mute on the tv.

"Mom, I'll be fine. I just...I wanna be there with you and dad," You admitted on the phone, hearing the front door of the flat open. You looked, stopping your pacing near the living room couch to see who acme through and looked the door behind him.

"Is that Barry? Hello Barry!"

Barry threw off his mask and shrugged off his jacket, grinning from hearing your mom on the phone and was about to smile at you. Yet he saw your concerned face, biting her nails and holding the phone in your other hand as you two looked eyes. He sighed, giving you a soft smile as he walked over.

" 'Ello Ms. C! How are you holdin' up?" Barry asked aloud, sneaking a kiss in your hair as your mother sighed on the phone.

"We're just fine over here, Barry. I need you to convince my daughter that we're fine and perfectly safe," Your mother said on speaker, you huffing and glaring at the phone.

"I'm just worried about you," You reasoned, feeling like you were having some anxiety in your mom not understanding what you were feeling and wanting to express. Barry immediately took your hand in his, squeezing it tightly as you closed your eyes for a brief moment to calm yourself.

"I know you are, sweetheart. You don't have to worry with your dad and me, okay?" You mom said calmly to you, almost seeing through the phone that you were anxious, "Your brother is helping, and we are staying inside with no one visiting. It's gonna be alright, this will all be over before you know it, alright? You need to turn off the news for a bit and just relax,"

"Okay," you hummed, opening your eyes again and staring down at the phone as you sighed, "I'll let you guys go and call you later this week. Love you, mom,"

"Love you too, baby," Your mom said to you, "And Barry?"

"Yeah Ms. C?" Barry asked next to you.

"Keep and eye on my girl for me, please? Make sure she rests," Your mom said to him, Barry grinning as he wrapped an arm around you to pull you in a bit closer.

"You got it. Talk you soon!" Barry said to you, your mother then hanging up on her end. He took the phone from your hand and chucked it on the couch, wrapping you in his arms and you two simply holding each other in the flat. You breathed him in feeling his fingers along your backside and near your shoulders.

You and Barry were already used to living together for some periods of time, meeting on the set of Eternals when you were on the crew and Barry was one of the main actors in the film. You both hit it off so fast and quickly that it was hard to turn him down when he asked you on a date in the middle of shooting. He was the perfect gentleman, his co-stars making fun of him when he would grin from seeing you on set or helping the crew.

You both were serious in your relationship together, you needing to split your time between England and America since your family was still there. You got a few more jobs on other film and TV sets behind the scenes, one of which was in England and you were wrapping up when COVID hit.

Barry had you stay in his flat when you were working, he was working too with his own projects so the pair of you were mostly out throughout the day. Yet when you two were together at the flat, you made the most of it together. Now you were getting more time together because of Quarantine, you hearing horror stories of couple breaking up and marriage falling apart because of being together and confined together.

It was the opposite effect for you two though, and you were thankful.

"What can I do to help you feel better, luv?" Barry murmured in your hair as you clung onto him, "I know you wanna see them, but they're okay. I wanna help ya, tell me how,"

"Just be here with me?" You asked sheepishly, not wanting anything else but to have Barry with you. He nodded his head, moving with you still wrapping in his hold for you both to fall onto the couch. He hoisted your leg over his, your head nestled against his shoulder and his arm rubbing your back soothingly. Barry reached for the tv remote, turning it off finally and leaning back a bit to snuggle you close and have you feel that stress and tension release.

"I'm here for you," Barry reminded you, you saying nothing but watching out the window as some birds were flying by, "Your mum's right: this will be over soon and we can go back to our regular lives again, alright? I love you,"

You nodded your head, wrapping your arms around him a pinch tighter as you took in a big breath.

"I love you too," You replied, "Thank you for being there for me through all of this"

"Of course, luv," He hummed in return.

"Especially when I'm bitchy and mean at you," You commented, hearing him snort as you looked up at him.

"Now wait a second, I think it's hot when you're bitch at me," He coyly joked. You glared, poking his sides as he laughed and held you tighter, "Alright, alright! Let me order us some take out for dinner tonight and we can watch some trashy reality shows,"

"Oh, you woo me," You joked, Barry sticking out his tongue before he fished out his phone and started tapping away on the Door Dash app. You watched him with a smile, thinking you were rather lucky to have someone as kind and warm as Barry in your corner during a Pandemic. You still missed your parents, you still wished that you were there with them to you knew they were okay.

But Barry taking care of you made it better

The End.

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