[ SECRET POST #6489 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6489 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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04. https://i.imgur.com/BcLOVR6.png
[NSFW; Eldrea: Sex Saga by Taboo Tales]



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05. [WARNING for discussion of racism, probably]




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06. [WARNING for discussion of underage]
















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #926.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Ever feel like people have gotten weird about illness since the pandemic?

[(Anonymous)]

Background, I both worked in a healthcare setting in 2020 and have an autoimmune disorder that puts me at significantly higher risk than most.

I'm like your friend too in a lot of ways. Partially it is because of the insane level of selfishness that was displayed during the pandemic that I experienced first hand. Before 2020, I never fathomed people would be comfortable exposing others to an illness that dangerous, because I personally could not imagine knowing I had say the flu and still going to a restaurant or something. 2020 first and foremost showed me that no, there is a lot of people who do not give a single fuck about others and would rather get everyone they know sick instead of wearing a stupid mask. Where I worked it was illegal in the state to go into a doctor's office without a mask for a time, and the amount of patients I had to turn away or who screamed at me for telling them they needed to put a mask on was depressing. So now when I do catch something and I know the source I'm angry, because yes getting sick is a natural part of life but so MANY illnesses I've contracted could have been avoided with a little bit of common courtesy. So, yeah, it's now in a lot of cases "how dare you be so inconsiderate" because it is just carelessness.

The other part of it that others have mentioned is we in the states don't have to live like this. Other countries who are just as successful have better systems in place like proper healthcare and reasonable PTO/sick time so if you're sick it's easy to stay home and go see a doctor if you need to without having to worry about losing out on pay, having enough funds to cover any medical appointments/treatments, etc. Most people knew and acknowledged our system sucked before 2020 but that was a giant stress test for it and it failed massively.

Re: Ever feel like people have gotten weird about illness since the pandemic?

[ariakas]

Yeah it shattered trust in not just people in general, but also specific people that we thought were trustworthy. My own father lied about having been exposed to someone very sick from heavily symptomatic COVID in the days before visiting my frail 89-year-old grandmother because I was going to be there, and he hadn't seen me in a while. Mid-visit, he started sniffling then coughing and tried to play it off as "allergies" until I demanded he take a rapid test, which turned positive pretty much instantly. Then the truth came out and he admitted he'd been exposed. But, you know, his wants outweighed his own mother's health, life, and safety.

And what's even stupider is if he'd just told me, I would have happily set up time together with him, just outdoors in a low risk environment - it was a beautiful spring day, it wouldn't have been hard to take a long walk or play tennis. But lying was more convenient. Now I'll never trust him again! Hurray!

A friend of mine also lost his job because his aunt lied about being sick to see his new baby (because, you know, sick people around a baby without a developed immune system is no bueno). He'd noticed she was sniffling/coughing and said something (again, "allergies") and like an hour into the visit she admitted she didn't "feel well" (turned out to be full on COVID). Luckily, the kid didn't end up getting it, but my friend did, and had long covid for months afterwards, took too many sick days, and was fired from a job he desperately needed. The aunt still hasn't apologized; if she'd said something they wouldn't have let her see the new baby ://// (Like, even before COVID no one would have wanted you around a newborn if you were sick, why did COVID change this?)

The last one really blew me away: I can hear my neighbour through the walls in the stairwell to my apartment, including her mentioning that the lead singer to her band has COVID, but not to tell anyone, because then they won't go to her next gig, and she needs that money for a trip wants to take to Nepal. Oh boy, a super-spreader event (dude shedding as much virus as humanly possible into a crowd in tight quarters) so you can go to Nepal! Great! Don't postpone the gig or get a guest singer for this one, just get everyone sick!

The whole "half the people you know would sicken, maim, or even kill you and your loved ones if it would slightly inconvenience them to do otherwise" really destroyed a lot of people's faith in others and I don't think it's ever coming back.

AYRT

[(Anonymous)]

Yup exactly this. I'm so sorry about your friend, learning that about your father, and wow your neighbor is insane.

I found out during the pandemic that my sister was an anti-vaxxer and I still haven't recovered from that. She decided not wearing a mask ever and "not being so uptight about the flu" was more important than her six year old son's health, or even worse, our mother's health - our mom has cancer and has been on chemo medication for years. Had she gotten sick it likely would've killed her.

I don't think I will ever understand why we in the states had to lose so many people to covid when all we had to do was experience the mild discomforts of wearing masks and staying home. And not just deaths, so many people's lives have been ruined by long covid. People like OP baffle me.

Re: AYRT

[ariakas]

There's none in my family fortunately but a few of my acquaintances/friends revealed themselves to be antivax conspiracy wingnuts when it all went down and I'll never be able to look at them the same way again either.

I don't think I will ever understand why we in the states had to lose so many people to covid when all we had to do was experience the mild discomforts of wearing masks and staying home.

More than individual stupidity/solipsism I think profits are to blame, at least in the case of the US. The CDC knew their recommendations were ineffective very early on but refused to raise the alarm about it or give more teeth to stricter enforcement because it would damage the economy and since it predominantly killed the elderly/infirm, would not affect healthy workers as much. Then the individual stupidity/solipsism was exacerbated by bad faith actors spreading misinformation either as a political scheme, as a front for corporations looking for back to work, or both.

Though one of my direct subordinates (an otherwise healthy 30-year-old) has permanent brain damage from a covid-induced stroke from being ordered back to in-person work before vaccines were available because "face time" was important and we should "share the burden" with frontline workers (i.e., put them in contact with more people and increase their likelihood of getting sick themselves).