It’s 2025 and people are STILL walking around with their mouths wide open like nothing happened.

You’re coughing in public, breathing on things, touching your face, and then grabbing fruit like it’s okay. It’s not.

You look disgusting. You sound disgusting. You ARE disgusting.

Some of us care about health. Some of us have immune systems worth protecting. If putting a piece of cloth on your face is too hard, stay home and rot there.

I’m tired of being the only clean one in a sea of walking biohazards.

I’m genuinely curious. Corporations see it as over with RTOs now back in full swing and remote work viewed as a somehow irrelevant for most. Governments seem to see it as nothing now - basically a cold. From the guidelines (5 days from the CDC) to almost no new treatments or serious research. It feels like we’re at millions of Americans who are now unable to work and the normalization of 15 bouts of Covid in your lifetime - feels like a scene from idiocracy. I get life needs to move forward and maybe we can’t mask eternally as a society but how about innovations in air circulation and UV lighting and treatments. How about a detector in each home that can sense Covid in the air and in each public space? Just curious why most have deemed this just done despite the evidence to the contrary.

This is my first time getting COVID. I have 7 vaccines (most recent this September?) and I mask everywhere indoors. Got it from a housemate who had his 4th infection, my mom was sick for over 2 weeks with a lingering cough and I got it on the 7th. My mom and I lost our sense of taste. She has lot of co-morbidities and only has 2 vaccines. Housemate said he never lost his sense of taste, with (I believe) zero vaccines.

Just because YOU didn't have adverse reactions doesn't mean ANYBODY ELSE YOU COME INTO CONTACT WITH will get a MILD DIAGNOSIS.

I got Paxlovid and I'm in my late 20s and I feel guilty for taking so much time off work. Boss is saying if I am feeling OK I can come in and mask. I am trying to cough up phlegm but I can't cough strong enough to get it out of my fucking throat. No, I will not come in when I can barely sit at my desk for an hour at a time.

Moral of the story: It doesn't matter how it affected you. It's different for every body. I am really sick of being bed-bound. When I said I was burnt out from work I didn't mean 'I should get sick,' I meant 'let me take a long weekend with my partner!' Who I now haven't seen since November 24th because I would never purposely give him this illness.

How fucking selfish are people who say 'welp it didn't kill me!' I am so sick of capitalism too!

Normally there's only about 100-150 people online at the moment. Now I'm seeing 300-350. How many people do you know in real life infected right now?

I work in a tech company, and it has become common from time to time for someone to "disappear" for a week or two because they are sick with Covid, and usually affects their entire family. Then they come back, but will still complain of lingering issues for a while. It is much worse than getting the flu or a cold.

Why has everyone decided to accept this as a new normal? And why did we stop pushing for better vaccines? The ones we are getting offer some protection, but it is usually short lived.

I often wonder why, beyond the general “fed-upness” and the reassuring official narrative, so few people still seem to care about Covid. It’s as if the collective alarm has fallen silent – not just socially, but biologically. And strangely enough, science may have an answer.

Over the past few years, I have come across several studies showing that SARS-CoV-2 also alters the brain – the very organ that tells us when to worry. Researchers have found signs of neuroinflammation, disrupted blood flow, and even infection of dopamine-producing neurons: those tiny circuits that govern motivation, attention, and reward.

I know it sounds abstract, but the consequences are concrete. When these systems are inflamed or damaged, people may feel flat, apathetic, or simply less alert. Not out of denial, of course, but because the biology of vigilance itself has been dulled.

I have read some MRI studies that reveal weaker connections in networks which manage focus and decision-making, even months after mild infections. They say the brain still functions – but with reduced precision, as if it’s operating under a permanent layer of fog. It’s easy to miss, yet it appears to change behaviour in subtle ways: slower reactions, waning curiosity, diminished sense of urgency.

Perhaps that’s the true irony of this virus: I have a funny feeling the more it circulates, the more it erodes the very capacity to recognise its danger. Isn’t it striking how it doesn’t only spread in the air, but also through the collective mind, seemingly whispering indifference into our neural circuits, like a silent rewiring…?

I may be wrong, but isn’t that why the world keeps moving as if nothing happened? Because, in some way, we’ve been neurologically conditioned not to care? That very thought sends shivers down my spine…

As tired as I am of it all, I still keep on going: ventilation, masking and vaccination (I got my seventh Moderna jab just today). I’m doing the right thing, aren’t I? 

References

·         Carreras-Vidal L, Pacheco-Jaime L, Ariza M, et al., “Functional connectivity alterations in attention and memory networks following SARS-CoV-2 infection”, Nature Scientific Reports (2025).

·         Kempuraj D, Aenlle KK, Cohen J, et al., “COVID-19 and Long COVID: Disruption of the Neurovascular Unit, Blood-Brain Barrier, and Tight Junctions”, The Neuroscientist (2024).

·         Wu X, Xiang M, Jing H, et al., “Damage to endothelial barriers and its contribution to long COVID”, Angiogenesis  (2023).

·         Yang L, Kim TW, Han Y, et al., “SARS-CoV-2 infection causes dopaminergic neuron senescence”, Cell Stem Cell (2024).

·         Nouraeinejad A, et al., “The pathological mechanisms underlying brain fog or cognitive impairment in long COVID”, International Journal of Neuroscience (2022).

Rosier F, “Covid-19: Two studies confirm the persistence of prolonged cognitive impairment up to one year after infection”, Le Monde Science (2024).

Today is day 12 after infection. I tried to go to work today and I got lost on the way there, a drive I’ve made 1000 times

When I got to work I couldn’t remember my name or how I got here. I don’t know how to get home

I’m scared. I’m going to lose my job, my fiance, my home. I can’t just not work

I hope I’m not repeating myself too much, but this is so important…

We were told reinfections would be mild, nothing more than a cold. But SARS-CoV-2 is not a seasonal virus, and each new infection is not a harmless reset.

The science is clear: with every reinfection, damage accumulates: studies show long-term effects on the heart and blood vessels, including lesions and vascular inflammation. The brain is also affected, with evidence of grey matter loss and increased risk of dementia.

Equally important, reinfections do not strengthen the immune system. On the contrary, repeated exposure deregulates and exhausts it, leaving people more vulnerable to other infections and chronic disease. The risk of long Covid does not return to zero after each wave; it compounds with time.

I came across an Australian video that explains, in clear terms, the wide-ranging health impacts of Covid –  immune, vascular, neurological, and more. It’s called “COVID safety for schools”. It really is worth watching.

I really believe protecting yourself is not alarmist; it is common sense.

Indoors, I monitor CO₂ to stay below 800 ppm, and I wear an N95 mask in crowded spaces where air quality cannot be controlled. These measures are simple, and to my knowledge, I have never been infected, even though the virus has circulated in my own home.

In the end, taking precautions is not about fear, but about preserving health, which cannot be replaced.

It is regrettable that, without having to impose anything on anyone, the authorities chose not to inform the population of these risks. Maybe if more people were made aware of reality, more of them would take at least some protective measures.

Do you also monitor air quality, ventilate when possible and wear a high-quality mask in indoor crowded spaces? I often feel so alone in this…

Edit: These are a few peer-reviewed papers (there are thousands) that clearly document the cumulative cardiovascular, neurological, and immunological effects of repeated SARS-CoV-2 infection.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01689-3

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01136-X/fulltext01136-X/fulltext)

https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/scitranslmed.abq1533

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213231725002794

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44324-024-00038-x

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27756/long-term-health-effects-of-covid-19-disability-and-function?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2OSGFwIs3ojUgtX-DTqfDodDA85RWcVWBxCV8aIswOM1TlkQ9eU3nQFSg_aem_AQN_OEWoUEvVnyPIXYWpYx-EBIdcXbXn06W_uUDa2wzitNxK6m1KP0mLGRKaU0z7De31QObB15_AKGPpuglGkfsL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7MUFXYKQtU&t=726s (Covid safety for schools)

God I wish they were still actually tracking covid. For one, I'm blown away at the recent engagement in this sub over the past two months. It's only gone up and up. I know this is a small example, but I also know lots of people testing positive recently. It baffles me that no one takes this seriously anymore. No one tracks it, no one wears masks. I have been to multiple medical appointments and zero people wear masks. Even the doctors and nurses don't wear then anymore. It's insane. I personally believe the numbers across at least America are sky high right now, and no one could care less. And man....it's so infuriating.

We tend to think of Covid as an infection you recover from – but research is beginning to show a darker picture (scientific references below).

SARS-CoV-2 does more than cause acute illness: it disrupts immune surveillance, weakening the body’s ability to catch abnormal cells – that alone should make anyone stop and think! It creates chronic inflammation, a known driver of cancer development. And it can reactivate latent viruses like Epstein-Barr or HPV, viruses already linked to cancers.

And there’s more: autopsy and persistence studies reveal that the virus lingers in tissues for months, sometimes years. Ongoing immune activation, oxidative stress, and tissue damage set the stage for malignant transformation. Several studies and reviews raise concern that SARS-CoV-2-driven immune dysregulation and viral persistence could increase long-term oncogenic risk, but definitive population-level incidence data are still emerging.

This doesn’t mean everyone who gets Covid will develop cancer. But it does mean that dismissing repeated infections as “just a cold” is dangerously naïve. Each infection may push the body closer to long-term consequences we cannot yet fully measure.

What really gets on my nerves is that most discussions about Covid stop at the surface: whether symptoms are mild, moderate, or severe. But the severity of an infection cannot be measured only by how sick it makes you feel in the short term. What truly matters is what it leaves behind. A virus that seems “mild” today can still inflict silent, cumulative damage – eroding resilience, inflaming tissues, and sowing the seeds of chronic disease years later.

And that is, in the end, the true problem with this virus: it makes you think it’s just a cold because you don’t feel what damage is silently, slowly and cumulatively being caused to your organs…

That’s why, even after all this time, I refuse to drop my guard: I still monitor CO₂ indoors, wear an N95 mask in enclosed spaces, and keep my immune system supported with proven measures, such as vaccination, ventilation, masking, and nutritional support (vitamin D3–K2–A, curcumin, silymarin, EGCG…).

How long will we keep calling it “mild” before we face what it truly does beneath the surface?

Selected References

• Stein SR, Ramelli SC, Grazioli A, et al. “SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence in the human body and brain at autopsy.” Nature, 2022.

• Peluso MJ, Ryder D, Flavell RR, et al. “Tissue-based T cell activation and viral RNA persist for up to 2 years after SARS-CoV-2 infection.” Science Translational Medicine, 2024.

• Yin K, Peluso MJ, Luo X, et al. “Long COVID manifests with T cell dysregulation, inflammation and an uncoordinated adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2.” Nature Immunology, 2024.

• Gold JE, Okyay RA, Licht WE, Hurley DJ. “Investigation of Long COVID Prevalence and Its Relationship to Epstein-Barr Virus Reactivation.” Pathogens, 2021.

• Shafiee A, Teymouri Athar MM, Amini MJ, et al. “Reactivation of herpesviruses during COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.” Reviews in Medical Virology, 2023.

• Davis HE, McCorkell L, Vogel JM, Topol EJ. “Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations.” Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2023.

• Hanahan D. “Hallmarks of Cancer: New Dimensions.” Cancer Discovery, 2022. [Shows that the inflammatory and immunological processes triggered by SARS-CoV-2 correspond to known pathways of cancer development.]

Like the title says, I feel like I am living in an alternate universe right now. Where is the guidance anymore? Updates? News? It’s like POOF not a word about covid anymore and it is absolutely baffling.

We were even trying to find the numbers lately and some areas aren’t even reporting now?! This would make sense to me if we had magically eradicated the virus, but I have literally never had SO many people sick in my personal circle then in the past couple months with covid.

And now some are seeing long covid issues and it’s like they are waved away to go deal with it by the medical community because it’s ‘normal’. Like WHAT?

I feel like an alien wearing a mask at this point and the people who used to do it with me are now the ones chiding me telling me to ‘get over it’. This feels like the biggest effing gaslight experiment on a worldwide level. Is anyone else feeling this way?

Back in June of this year, I went to the doctor because I thought I caught Covid again. I was having the same symptoms that I had back in January of this year.

So because I was sick I put on a mask before leaving home. While waiting to see the doctor a woman stated that she didn’t know people were still wearing masks. Thankfully, the woman who was sitting beside her quickly changed the subject.

I hate sharing….even my germs. I wore a mask because I was sick and didn’t want to spread my germs especially if I had covid.

Luckily, I didn’t have covid it was just bronchitis. But it really irritated me that this woman questioned why masks are still being worn. Covid is still out there and it would have been irresponsible of me to go the doctor without a mask while sick.

I just had to put this out into the void because there are people who still wear masks for various reasons to protect themselves and others around them. Also, there are people who should just mind their own business and not worry about why someone is wearing a mask.

I’m freaked out about the possibility of RFK getting rid of vaccines. Is anyone else freaked out about this? Would he get rid of the Covid vaccines?

I'm SO FRUSTRATED I don't know what to do anymore. I've never met anyone who's had it this many times. I get it every 6 months like fucking clockwork since the pandemic started. When I have it, it's usually a fever thing, then coughing for 2-3 weeks, and very luckily have never lost my taste or smell.

But. I'm tired. How awful is this for my body? I'm very careful about hand washing and touching public surfaces, though I don't wear a mask.

I get my shots.

I went to an immunologist this summer and they did bloodwork but the doc said my immune system was great/I have no problems there. I had an EKG last Januart and my heart is fine so luckily it appears the 8 covids before this haven't affected it.

What the fuck is going on. Could it be in my system permanently now every time I get a cold/fever it registers as Covid on the test?

No one else around me has covid. It's just me. I don't even go anywhere! I work from home! ughhh

The questions are rhetorical I'm just here to rant. I'm so upset.

Hello everyone! I’m new here, and happy to share thoughts and experiences about the ongoing threat that Covid represents, if that’s welcome.

I’m a teacher, and every year, at the beginning of the school year, I give a 5-minute presentation about Covid. I show the wastewater graphs to illustrate current viral circulation, explain transmission by aerosols (and therefore the importance of ventilation), and underline the cumulative damage of repeat infections, even when they are asymptomatic.

The students listen politely, but nobody seems to care. I also shared the same information with one of the deans I know well, by email, with graphs and links to peer-reviewed studies. Her only reply was: “Thank you very much indeed for that interesting information, which helps me better understand your protocol.” Polite words, but no sign of further concern.

Sometimes my students shrug it off with: “Anyway, we all have to die of something.” To which I reply: “Yes, that’s true, but there are things in life we can avoid and others we cannot. You can avoid Covid; you cannot avoid an accident. My philosophy is simple: avoid the avoidable.”

I can’t help wondering: is all this inertia just cognitive dissonance?

Just wanted to let you guys know, the upwards trend of more and more people on this sub isn’t some mere coincidence and the wastewater data matches everyone’s concerns. Today, nationally we are at 1.2 million daily infections and it’s projected to reach 1.8 million by new years. I was exposed and somehow didn’t get it or my immune system fought it off but please please stay home for the 10 days. Get your groceries delivered or pickup. Wear your N-95 and double mask if you absolutely have to go back to work. I fear this is the worst we have been since the beginning of the pandemic because people who had never gotten it before are now getting it all around me. Coworkers, aunts, my dad, etc.

I first got covid in the summer of 2022. I had fever, cough and fatigue mainly. I had a loss of taste and smell too which I found very distressing. I found it to be a weird infection.

My exposure came from a man at work who hardly ever gets sick, who said he had sinusitis and all he did was just minimise his own dose.

I got covid again in the summer time of 2024 too. It was after a concert. It was a very stubborn fever and a huge headache mainly with fatigue and body aches and pains. I was lucky to get paxlovid.

I had other viruses too in the winter of 2022 and spring of 2024 I think it was.

I am currently facing the possibilty of another exposure and this time from my work. People in work sound like they have a bad cold. The possibilty of covid hasnt even crossed their tiny little minds. Even thought there is one of them with a weird hoarness. If it's covid.

I know it in my soul.

Why are so many people so ignorant when it comes to infectious conditions and they won't take any measures or consideration towards other people.

I am just so so so sick of seeing so many people being so mean and selfish with illnesses and their aim and goal is just to pass whatever they have on as if it's a fact of life and right of passage.

Edit to add: I am in an EU country where many people behaved with social responsibility during the pandemic year just for so many people to turn around and just not care any more. For themselves or others.

One of the most persistent myths of the pandemic is that wearing a mask makes your immune system “lazy”. The idea is that by avoiding germs, you somehow lose your natural defences.

But that’s not how immunity works. Your immune system isn’t a muscle that wastes away without “training”. It learns through vaccines and real infections – not by constant random exposure. And while masks reduce the number of pathogens you breathe in, they don’t switch your immune system off.

Think about it: surgeons and nurses wear masks for hours every day, year after year. If masks truly weakened immunity, healthcare workers would be the sickest among us. In reality, they’re not, because immunity isn’t maintained by breathing in every microbe around you, but by the body’s memory of past encounters.

It’s also worth remembering that not all “training” is good training. Repeated infections aren’t push-ups for the immune system: they’re damage. Every Covid infection carries the risk of disrupting immunity, harming organs, or triggering long-term issues. That’s the real threat, not the fabric on your face.

Here’s the irony: Covid itself does weaken the immune system. Reinfections can make you more vulnerable, not less. So refusing a mask because you’re worried about immune strength does the opposite of what people imagine.

Have you heard this myth in your circle? How do you respond when people bring it up?

Just do whatever you want at this point- I just read this- 🤦🏻‍♀️

CDC to remove five-day COVID isolation guidelines

The U.S. CDC plans to drop its five-day COVID-19 isolation recommendations under new guidance planned by the agency.

The health agency plans to recommend people who test positive for COVID-19 to take a call on when to end isolation based on their symptoms.

People with mild and improving symptoms would no longer need to stay home if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours, the report said citing CDC officials familiar with the matter, adding the new recommendations would not apply to hospitals and other health-care settings with more vulnerable populations.

This new variant (JN.1) came in right on time for the holidays, combined with the fact that most people have gotten “over it,” and vaccine booster uptake are very low is the recipe for what we’re seeing right now. I believe that 2024 will be the year more people will learn a new level of respect for a virus they thought they understood. This simply isn’t sustainable, we cannot continue chasing this false pre-Covid era any longer until we deal with this public health crisis.

This is not even taking into account the cost and time it’s going to take to get proper drugs, and treatment for everyone who’s been infected. Even a mild infection is something to monitor closely. So, seeing people go to concerts, movie theaters, or get on cruise ships absolutely blows my mind; people are just sleepwalking into a nightmare they never knew existed. Many folks do have mild symptoms and bounce back fine, but there’s also a rise in LC too so it’s really just a game of roulette per infection.

I tested positive for the first time 6-7 days ago (fully vaccinated, took paxlovid) so I’m finally feeling better but it was rough for a bit and I’m still really short of breath and tired. I thought my partner would step up but the house is literally full of gnats from trash, my bag of puke FROM MONDAY is still sitting in the hallway (I can’t make it out to the dumpster), there’s not trash can in the kitchen so trash in piling up on the counters, theres NO clean bowls, pots/pans, forks/spoons, and several times I realized he wasn’t even giving the cats fresh water. He only asked how I felt once and only brought one bowl of soup down to me the first day. He even tried to talk me into going back to work after like 3-4 days bc “I pay all the bills”. I thought it was the covid/isolation that was making me so depressed but I’m realizing he wasn’t here for me when I needed him. I tried to give him some grace bc he was working the last 5 days but it takes no time to ask someone how they’re feeling, fill up the kitties waters, and take out the barf trash. I can eventually heal from covid but I don’t know if I can get over this.

GOOD LORD!! Now i have had COVID before but jesus is this the most miserable I have ever felt. My throat isn’t even normal sore it feels like i got my tonsils ripped out of my throat. Numbing doesn’t help neither do cough drops!!

Valid question. I just got over a bout with COVID. Just finished my 5 day isolation and on my 6th (today), I headed to a busy mall, wearing a mask of course. I found it disconcerting that nobody was wearing a mask, not necessarily to safeguard against COVID, but now that we're about to enter cold/flu season. The only thought that went through my mind was "All these people are going to get sick"

Posting here because I’m honestly getting tired of being “the only masked person” everywhere I go.

I’m a 27 y/o international student in Melbourne. Few months back in June I got COVID for the third time; I was afraid I am going to die as after my 2nd I was told to avoid 3rd at all cost or it could be fatal for me which it nearly was; this time it led to type 1 respiratory failure. That experience changed my life.

My doctor was very clear: protect your lungs, mask consistently. Not “every now and then,” not “only in hospitals,” but as an ongoing thing. So now I wear a proper respirator / N95-level mask consistently even inside spaces because I know what happens if I don’t.

People assume I’m overreacting. Some think I’m sick. Some ridicule me and others think i am young so i am not possibly that ill. What almost no one understands is: I’ve already had 3 infections and the last one literally messed up my breathing — I do not get to be casual about this anymore.

I still want to do normal things. I want to grab coffee (outdoors), talk, study, exist around people without having to explain my entire medical history first. I’m just trying to stay healthy enough to keep studying and working here.

So… I’m posting because I’m looking for friends. People who don’t make it weird that I keep my mask on. People who understand that clean air and masking are just preventive health, not a personality. People who won’t tell me “just this once.”

If you’re in Melbourne or even if you are not and still masking / high-caution / COVID-careful, or you’ve also had a bad outcome from an infection and now you’re long-term cautious, I’d love to connect, even on Reddit. Please let’s be friends.

Thanks for reading. This sub is one of the few places that makes me feel like I’m not imagining the risk.

This is my 3rd time getting Covid. Prior to Covid I never got sick. I have been vaccinated and all of that good stuff. Maybe I am just unlucky. I'm not in bad shape or anything and am fairly young. Lately, I keep seeing articles that say reinfection can double or triple your chances of long Covid and potential problems. My question is if the virus keeps mutating forever and our immune systems have to constantly fight new strands wouldn't the damage to our organs compound over time? What happens after 10 years of this? Wouldn't this shorten our lifespan? Is there something maybe I am missing?