last update january 2024
since we passed the acknowledged part of the pandemic, governments around the world have dropped most mitigation strategies that protected the general public from infection.
sadly, viruses do not care about that. just as humanity had to learn that water has to be clean to drink, and hands need to be properly washed to be desinfected, we need to adapt to the reality of an airborne disease, whether we want to call it pandemic or endemic.
most of what was true in 2020 is still true today, but with new knowledge we have been able to update our routines and our strategies. we have the means. we ignore them only at our peril.
Covid is airborne. against popular belief, covid is transmitted not by droplets, but by aerosols. if you can smell someone's perfume or cigarette smoke, you are inhaling aerosols. this is what can transmit covid. there are simple ways to reduce the risk of infection!
wearing a well fitting mask or respirator significantly reduces the risk of inhaling aerosols. you should at least use an FFP2, N95 or KN95. it is important to use them correctly and choose a mask that fits your face, so that there are no holes where air can just circumvent the effect of the filtration material. for more information on masks, the account lola.germs on instagram and tiktok is a godsent.
studies repeatedly show that keeping air clean, that is keeping the measurable co2 level below 500 parts per million, significantly reduces the risk of infection with covid. to achieve this, meeting outdoors, using HEPA air filters, and opening windows are great and affordable ways. most commercially available air filters need to run higher than their "normal" setting to really filter out pathogens, since the "normal" mode is designed for allergens, but the science works. to evaluate the risk in a specific scenario, a co2 monitor can help. there are products in an enormous range of prices, with the gold standard being the Aranet4, with more affordable alternatives available. with a co2 monitor, you can evaluate if a room is safe to stay in for a longer time or not.
there are several chemicals that have shown mitigating effect against an covid infection. the most known are cetylpridinium chloride (cpc), and carageen/caragelose. you can find otc nasal sprays, lozenges, mouth wash, breath mints, with either ingredient in pharmacies, drug stores, supermarkets. cpc has shown to disolve the protective lipid layer of the covid virus, thereby destroying it and having an effect as prep and pep. carageen, mostly used as a nasal spray, builds a protective film on your mucus that makes it more difficult for particles to attach, thereby reducing the risk of infection. it can be used as prep when applied 4x daily on demand. some evidence has also shown that the supplement salivarius k12 can prevent infection with covid, and even soften the course of an infection in hospitalized people.
the gold standard is still PCR testing, but has become rare and expensive, and often difficult to obtain. rapid "antigene" tests have lost a lot of their accuracy since the omicron variant and should never exclusively be relied on. often they will only show an infection after several days of symptoms, when an infected person has been able to transmit the virus already for days. there are somewhat affordable alternatives. devices like the pluslife give very high accuracy with very affordable tests, that can even be pooled, so that multiple people can be tested with only one testing kit. virus.sucks has tons more information on the pluslife.
maybe the most difficult method is the one that is the most efficient in preventing infection: keeping distance to potentially infected people. while at the beginning of the pandemic the slogan of "flatten the curve" was often referring to keeping emergency services available to the most vulnerable people in an effort to slowly infect the whole population to a level of safety, we have come to learn that such a level does not exist. the way global capitalism has shaped the world does not allow for a pulmonary aerosol-transmitted virus to be exterminated in this way. instead, more and more variants popped up, that keep evading our immune defenses. so far, we do not have a vaccine or treatment that can prevent infection or stop the devastating long term effects that even a single covid infection can cause. that said: there are often alternatives to traditional social gatherings and ways of doing things. even though employers have begun to frown upon working from home, there is much we can do to protect our health. be creative! phone and video calls, screen sharing to watch a movie, sending postcards, there are thousands of ways to connect that have successfully been used in long distance relationships for decades. they are just as effective now that our governments go their merry eugenic ways.
especially if you consider yourself an activist, and let's be real, you are visiting my website, you should advocate for methods of covid mitigation in social settings. can your meetings be outdoors? online? do all people you expect to attend have reliable internet and devices to attend online? do your employees need to be on site? can you organize masks and air filters for your event? what about testing? do you know the action groups in your area who can help you with this? i am sure they will be more than happy to assist! if you are a person who ever took time out of their life to consider inclusivity and accessibility, be it whether a text can be read by all, a space can be entered by all, people feel addressed by the language you use: why do you struggle to bring the same concern to the air you expect yourself and others to breath? why do you let your employer make you sick repeatedly with no repercussions? why should someone engage in your group or space if you can not be bothered to keep them safe from a dangerous virus? do you trust the government *that* much?
covid mitigation is direct action! keep your loved ones safe!
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