With official Long Covid numbers being confirmed by StatsCan, public health + other leaders have no excuses left.
We need to break the silence + end the denial. There is no cure for Long / Chronic Covid. And *millions* of Canadians have been harmed already. (Scroll to the end for concrete actions you can take today).
"Mild" + asymptomatic cases can + do cause it — even in healthy, fully boosted people (but skipping your booster increases risks further).
Cognitive damage is bad for us, and now widespread.
Viral persistence is bad for us, and now widespread.
Organ damage is bad for us, and now widespread.
Every infection risks incurable disability. Rolling snake eyes is less likely.
And acute Covid killed more Canadians in 2022 than in any prior year of the pandemic — and that’s without accounting for delayed reporting & undercounting.
(and no… viral infections are not, in fact, good for our immune systems)
We've normalized a constant tide of death, organ damage + disability at a scale that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago -- and things are objectively getting worse.
It’s not sustainable (yet I see few sustainability leaders speaking out).
It's not equitable (yet I see few DEI advocates speaking out).
It's not just (yet I see few justice advocates speaking out).
But just because we can’t keep play-acting 2019 doesn’t mean we have to go back to 2020.
There's no such thing as a safe infection. But we do have tools to prevent them. The same tools people have been calling for since 2020. We just have to put in the tiniest bit of effort to use them + demand brave, competent leadership.
Here's the hard part:
We have to recognize our own denial, anger, shut-down and risk-seeking as maladaptive trauma responses that are hurting all of us.
"I hate masks" is a trauma response.
"I don't want to talk or think about it" is a trauma response.
"I just want to YOLO, who cares if I get sick" is a trauma response.
We have to recognize our triggers, cognitive biases + distortions.
And we have to recognize that tools to prevent infections aren’t a threat — they are the only thing we have to secure our safety, autonomy + freedom. Tools to prevent infection are what allow us to "live with the virus" + "enjoy our lives."
We can live with N95s, or we can live with chronic infections, mass death + disability.
We need:
• Paid sick days
• Freely available K/N95s
• HEPA Filters & CR Boxes
• ASHRAE 241 implementation
• MERV-13 or better HVAC filters
• Mandatory masking in health facilities
• Clean indoor air, especially in schools, workplaces, public transport + healthcare
We also need:
• Funding for Long/Chronic Covid treatment research
• Funding for nasal & other next-gen vaccines
• A new cohort of public health leaders
Now, this isn’t just a call to action. It’s also an action plan. Feeling overwhelmed?
Start with one of these steps, today:
• Invest in a HEPA filter. Here's one I like.
• Put a Merv-13 filter in your furnace & set the fan to "on".
• Grab an air cleaner kit from startups like North Box Systems, Nukit or Clean Air Kits
• Tell people to stay home when sick or exposed (guests are welcome; Covid is not)
• Stay home when *you* have symptoms or recent exposures
• Open a window when people visit
• Wear a K/N95. Sometimes is better than never. Find one you love with a sample pack.
• Invest in a C02 monitor + measure indoor air quality. This Aranet4 is best-in-class. Here’s a more affordable option.
• Found a workplace committee on indoor air quality
• Join groups like Ontario School Safety
• Name your feelings.
• Talk about it.
There's no cure for Long / Chronic Covid, but there is a cure for denial.
As with the AIDS crisis and Big Tobacco’s harms before us, we need to break the silence, protect ourselves & our loved ones, and reset public policy.
We can slash transmission if we try.
Let courage, compassion, and clean indoor air lead the way.
*This newsletter contains some affiliate links — a humble way to try to get a small bit of compensation for my time & energy researching, writing about, and advocating around this stuff which, let’s face it, I’d be doing anyway!*