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This article mostly focuses on the province of Córdoba (an hour’s drive from Sevilla) but the gist of it is that the increase in respiratory conditions in the province is because Spain is experiencing a new epidemic wave of Covid. The incidence of Flu and RSV is zero. In other words, all respiratory illnesses happening now are Covid.
Meanwhile there are people coughing all over the place (in June!), others complaining about their “allergies” starting sooner or being harsher than before, and others having sudden “mystery fevers” that leave them in bed for a couple of days. Two weeks ago I was hit with a gastro bug that left me bedridden for 24 hours and then very weak afterwards. And yes of course I tested for Covid because… why the fuck not? Covid can hit other parts of you because it ISN’T PRIMARILY A RESPIRATORY ILLNESS. It’s actually a virus that attacks your immune system and your organs and can leave you totally fucked, even if your symptoms during infection were “mild”. I think the best trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people that Covid is no longer a global health threat.
People requesting my tapas tours are told that I am only offering tours to those who are fully vaccinated and boosted (last available booster). For the most part the response to that has been very positive with people telling me they are really happy to know I am taking precautions. Have had a couple of deniers send me a lecture on how I’m living my life wrong, but you know, fuck them.
BUT I have noticed it is getting more difficult. There’s a bit more push back these days about wearing masks, about even talking about Covid, and I can see that this is probably going to escalate as the world keeps pretending we are “post pandemic”. ALSO… just to point out that almost every article I see on Covid these days shows a photo like the one above of a sad and dirty surgical mask trampled in the street… as in we should all just give up and die already. Because the other greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people that Covid is only harmful to the “vulnerable” creating an US AND THEM mentality with “healthy” people thinking they are immune. Well guess what motherfuckers… you are ALL vulnerable. You just haven’t found out yet. Have a great day.
casa azahar 
I’m seeing this in slo-mo. I shuttered business the weekend in March 2020 that everyone travelling from the US flew home (and passed Covid all around the international arrivals terminals). When I opened up again post vaccines, everyone was cool with the extra protection of masking (I shiver when I think now that we believed cute cloth masks from Etsy or surgicals were enough). When we realized Delta was a thing, I switched up to KN95s and everyone, again, cooperated. But then Omicron showed up and I shut down again. And when I opened up once more, after building a Corsi-Rosenthal box and requiring N95s, a lot fewer people came back — some of them 15-20 year clients who gave no explanation or outright ghosted my “open again” e mail. (They don’t owe me an accounting, but it would be nice to know why I suddenly went from an essential part of their lives that they had bitterly missed to “Nah.”) And now, people regularly show up with their bare faces hanging out and go OOPS I FORGOT MY MASK, meaning they don’t wear it any more except to come to appointments with me. Of course, I keep plenty by the door.
Meanwhile, it’s obvious we need protection more than ever, if you actually LOOK, which no one wants to do. We had a lull here over the spring, and I was able to get to the dentist on a morning when no one else was in the office but staff, lugging my mini filter and extra masks, taking advantage of low transmission rates. That’s what it’s come to. And now things are ticking up again around the country, if you look at virus shed in waste water, which is the only metric we have left. Meanwhile it’s as if there are two nations: the majority that has decided to be la di da, and a little subsection of the population that actually has bothered to educate themselves about Covid. And the first has completely tuned out the second. I have a sign in my office explaining Power Point style who masking is important, what safe masking consists of (not a surgical dishrag), and what Covid can do to people. I tell people to their faces about the journal articles and research that make it clear it is not something to fuck around with. And it’s as if they just don’t hear. “Everyone I know had it and it was no big deal.” “Wearing a mask was a bigger nuisance than getting it.” And my practice is about one fifth of what it was at its peak — I planned on downsizing, but not quite this way.
I’m so tired.
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Frankly I don’t care about the “enforced” downsizing of my business due to covid deniers because I was already looking to pivot (as they say) though I’m still working on that! Pivoting where and how… remains to be seen but there are some good ideas floating around.
Like you, I’m so tired of this too. Having people pretend this isn’t actually happening only because they wish it wasn’t and in the meanwhile not giving EVEN ONE FUCK about anyone else.
I know I take a lot more risks than you do and, trust me, it always feels like dodging a bullet. I’m not financially able to shut down more than I have been doing (and I’ve doing a lot of shutting down!). So I do what I can and hope for the best, while taking precautions.
Haven’t visited my dentist since they cancelled the mask mandate here even though half a tooth fell out a few weeks ago. And when I go to my health centre there are maybe one or two other people wearing masks… you know, in that place WHERE THE SICK PEOPLE ARE. I honestly despair, especially because none of the supposed health care workers have a mask on. Doctors, nurses… not a one. Fuck.
Li
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