nap day post covid

01/18/26

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2026 has been sleepy. at first bc i was partying .. nd 4 nye then seeing friends @ body. cute that me & the dj & the sound guy were all matching wearing smiley faces for throwback rave night. mine was melting & so was i! candy flip but omg was i depleted afterward. sugar rush sugar crash lol

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& then i fell very ill. im not surprised, since everybody seems to have been sick over the ny weekend, & i was out in several different crowds. shot in the dark where i actually picked it up from. alw a numbers game of exposure + viral load. i mask basically everywhere in my daily life. then try to as much as i can on the dance floor .. the social pressure is strong around masks, both during the day to day as well as in rave space. its isolating but ive gotten used to it. sweat tho .. wifey & i use really high quality masks. part of what makes them so effective is an electro-static layer of fabric that, unfortunately, also soaks extremely fast when exposed to any amount of moisture. then once soaked, its v difficult to get any airflow .. so during raves im running in n out, back n forth to either adjust it or swap for a fresh one. too often there comes a point when my supply runs out, or i lose my last breathable one .. its an imperfect system & high key i need to have more discipline around it this year. if i or we believe dance floors can be revolutionary spaces then i & we should mask. if not literally on the dance floor, then in our daily lives as to mitigate spread between the varying zones of risk/consent that we inhabit. i & we choose to go to parties, but my/our baristas, & check out clerks, & whatever other kind of worker we encounter throughout our days have no say in serving me/us, therefore embodying a different level of consent to disease risk than i/we do. masking (in fact all mitigation efforts) helps those who experience varying levels of risk/consent/need to coexist safely in shared space.

in particular i find attitudes towards masking at the rave confounding .. these spaces tend to be so sex/drug positive & educated & harm redux forward in mindset, it surprises me how excluded covid is from the conversation/consideration of these practices. long-covid is literally an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (aids). im not saying that frivolously or hyperbolically. covid is to long-covid as hiv is to aids, even if by different mechanisms, the relationship & effect r the same. repeated covid infections severely damage/weaken the immune system. even “mild” covid infections can cause long term damage that renders the body’s ability to respond to subsequent illnesses extremely inefficient. this season's super flu thats going around is a misnomer. theres nothing “super” about it. in fact its as normal as any other flu strain! but its spread has been as wide & many’s reaction so unexpectedly severe (earning its super superlative) bc repeated covid infections have dramatically suppressed our collective immuno-response to a degree that a virus which would otherwise be considered routine, or “minor”, is now experienced as severe infection. plus nobody masks, which means its spread is completely unmitigated. the very same reason why ppl have had so many repeated covid infections to begin with! the cumulative effect is staggering.

same reason too as to y repeated covid infections are a primary factor driving the surge of people considered young & healthy experiencing sudden & unusual medical emergencies (heart attacks, kidney failure, aggressive sudden onset cancers), even dying from them, when they otherwise wouldnt even be considered at risk. their immune systems have been compromised to a degree that they now should/would be considered in an entirely different, much higher risk category, for a much wider margin of conditions & illnesses. same reason this season’s flu was so bad. covid is a mass casualty & mass disabling event. still. the good news is that information is out there, & mitigation practices have continued to be refined & developed even “post” pandemic, so the time has never been better to educate urself & adjust ur response. also will help u catch the flu less, too!

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one of the reasons i miss the warehouse so much is that masking was less obtrusive in that space. nobody gave a shit! but at the club or on an intimate dancefloor it becomes a barrier. i still kiss ppl, & have conversations, & dance af. maskers are often incorrectly assumed to be anti-social. maybe bc theres a widespread misconception that masking inhibits socialization, or is a signal that the wearer is holding on to unprocessed trauma/anxiety, or that theres simply no need to take such precautions “post” pandemic. its frustrating that otherwise progressive / sociable / supportive / influential ppl in the scene take a complete non-engagement towards masking or (most) ppl who r masked. which is confusing bc masks were literally a large part of rave culture in the 90s/00s! sometimes for drug use sometimes for health sometimes just for fashion. even in the 2010s there were ppl i knew thru the scene who i only ever encountered masked. those whose primary employment was in these spaces, and saw masking as necessary in order to maintain their health while interfacing w as many ppl as they do. to avoid jeopardizing their employment due to absence, or miss out on income, or get their staff / touring talent sick (or pickup whatever they may be carrying). high key the same reasons we now should be masking in public places & spaces of employment!! who are we to claim the right to disable our fellow workers 🤔

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in the process of returning to normal, there have been many influential voices (at least in my circles) who have loudly advocated for ppl stop to masking as a way to process the trauma of “lockdowns” - as the only way to feel comfortable engaging socially w each other again. really what they were encouraging was avoidance & a eugenics mindset. one that the imperial capitalist system also perpetrates & highly encourages precisely bc it serves their own interests to be "post" pandemic. never forget that it was the airlines holding the economy hostage in order to force the gov to drop mask mandates that "ended" the pandemic (see? general strikes work!). also do not discount pandemic avoidance as an anti-insurrectionary strategy.

remember 2020?? like really, remember how much of a camaraderie there was in creating a “new normal”? we live in direly revisionist times bc now, most of us associate the personal inconvenience of collective safety measures from that time (vaccine cards, social distancing, masking, etc) with a generalized “trauma” of surviving “lockdowns” .. to be clear there were no lockdowns in amxrica! what did occur, tho, was a complete societal reframing of how communal effort & harm reduction could drive a radical reimagining of social relations sprung from global common struggle. and then the riots happened. a straight line. yes the riots were against pig murderers, but the flashpoint was the “new normal” that we were all engaging in / struggling towards, together. thats why the push for a return to normal was so prevalent, so spiteful, so emboldened as cultural propaganda. u are not immune to propaganda. case in point, when was the last vaccine you had? when was the last time you masked in public? do u think the covid pandemic ever ended?

but at the warehouse wearing a mask i just kind of fit in to ppl who would otherwise see it as standing out. remember how dusty point of contact 1 was??

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idk i hate talking abt covid & masking bc every time i do ppl immediately tune me out & its so isolating, and generally only compounds the isolation i (we) face from simply wearing masks to begin with. ppl call me a scold & maybe i am a bit. i do feel a deep anger at those around me for not taking the continuing pandemic more seriously (or even simply acknowledging it, & at worst actively perpetuating the eugenicist mindset that enables its perseverance). especially now, 6 years into it, our research & understandings & mitigation strategies have advanced to a point where we could & should implement common industrial-scale precautions (high-efficiency air filtration, as an obvi example) while also adapting our individual mitigation measures to fit our own level of need / risk / lifestyle, while ensuring we still protect those around us. if there were widespread adoption of this, we could very likely end the pandemic altogether. at the absolute least we would ensure the safety of our communal public spaces in the present, and not exclude anyone from public life bc of their health status, and increase the likelihood of preventing future pandemics. could u imagine such a world?? pls??

maybe i wouldnt have caught this illness over nye if i masked more diligently. maybe i prevented the spread to others during the instances i masked afterward. impossible to say fs, but just as with harm redux & safe sex practice, id rather take informed imperfect actions than guess & pray & stay ignorant. masks are prophylactic!!!! air filtration too. why do we insist on keeping our heads buried in the sand??

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