comment: >
  
  The mask thing always makes me chuckle. I was running around Lake Washington(Seattle) during the summers with forest fire smoke in an n95 mask way before COVID. It was fine aside from the sweat.
context: I remember the huge lines of parents  in FL taking their kids to a shady chiropractor to get them mask exemption letters for $50 a pop. >
  
  "Covid-19 deaths displace influenza and pneumonia, becoming the top cause of death caused by any infectious or respiratory disease. 
  It caused “substantially” more deaths than any vaccine-preventable disease historically,
  the researchers wrote." >
  
  I’m still haunted by my conservative friends who insisted in 2020 that “kids don’t get COVID.” That was always a lie, but they believed it. They still believe it. Facts don’t matter and they do not care. Dead children didn’t convince them when it was guns. Dead kids won’t convince them when it’s a virus. How tragic. How pointlessly tragic. >
  
  I vividly remember members of my family saying since they had COVID early on, they’d never get it again. No need to vaccinate and spike proteins blah blah blah. They’ve had it 3 times now, and each time is worse. One is thinking they have some long COVID symptoms now too. 
  I finally got it around Christmas coupled with the flu and had the highest fever since I was a kid at 103+. I’m not sure if it was the flu or COVID that fucked me. It sucked. >
  
  Dad swears he had it before the first reported case even though he was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia  and has refused to vaccinate. His wife works in a major hospital. Betting you can guess her vax status as a medical professional in Ohio. Swore he couldn't wear a mask because it made it too hard to breathe with his beard. Went out to dinner in crowded restuarants 3 times a week with his hospital staff wife while refusing to vaccinate or wear masks. 
  Family swears grandma died because "her lungs were shot" not because she had covid in an over run hospital. I gave up.