Watch out for the Plague Rats-in-Sheep's Clothing
Nothing is more vile than masking advocates who proudly go around maskless...
I’ve been waiting to write this piece for a few weeks now. Today is finally the time.
It’s important to call out the hypocrites who call themselves “Covid experts.”
This is an important thing to do, because:
Even people in the “Zero Covid” or “Covid cautious” community often follow people uncritically because they have credentials in medicine or other sciences, or because other people look up to them as “experts.” So instead of seeing a maskless restaurant selfie from a supposed “Covid expert” and thinking “Wow, I guess they’re not so credible after all,” which would be the rational conclusion, they go “Oh! Yes! That restaurant masklessness was in their ‘risk budget.’ They know what they’re doing, they’re an ‘expert’!”
These “Covid experts” want all the worship and fandom from the Covid cautious community, but none of the responsbility of actually doing the right thing. Fuck that shit.
Every maskless public outing contributes to a chain of transmission that gets people permanently disabled or killed.
Critical thinking skills are dangerously lacking in many of the people who call themselves “Covid cautious.” A true critical thinker judges people based on their actions, not on their academic credentials or fame.
The fact that these supposedly “Covid cautious” chatlatans happily post selfies on their social media of them doing this shit just demonstrates that they have no shame in the deaths their dangerous actions are causing. And they have no shame that they’re influencing even more people to go out maskless and engage in other Covid reckless behaviours.
Usually I start my blog writing in the application where I do all of my other writing, LibreOffice Writer. My book manuscripts get uploaded to publisher’s websites, and my corporate blogs get emailed as attachments to my boss. And for my strictly recreational writing here, I copy and paste my writing from LibreOffice Writer to the Substack web interface. If there’s some video or graphics, those get added in the web interface once all the text is in.
This particular blog is an exception. There are so many screenshots in this blog that it would actually be more practical to start from Substack’s web interface directly. Because I want my work to be as accessible as reasonably possible, I’ve added alt text to my images as well. Which is something I’ve been doing for a few years now anyway.
So, here’s your feature presentation. Infuriating maskless selfies from so-called “Covid experts.” Special thanks goes to Michael Hicks and Just A Neighsayer for not only being good people who actually live according to their Covid cautious values, but also for indirectly helping me to write this blog post. Because I’m actually shaking in anger as I write this. Go check out Hicks’ Pandemic Enclave when you have a chance because he’s a good man doing good work.
A collection of selfies from people who should go fuck themselves
Legend in her own mind New York Times bestselling book author and Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz presents herself as an advocate of Covid caution.
On Bluesky a few weeks ago, she wrote: “I totally 100% agree, that's why I don't ever share unmasked pics. Providing appropriate context is almost impossible & they'll always be weaponized by the worst ppl.”
Oh, really?
My reply…
Why was I being so snarky? Because this is what was in the exact same thread…
Remember, just previously she wrote: “I totally 100% agree, that's why I don't ever share unmasked pics. Providing appropriate context is almost impossible & they'll always be weaponized by the worst ppl.”
Yes, usually when I don’t want people to see my pics, I smile for the camera in front of a photo backdrop with my name all over it. /sarcasm
I have books to promote. For the time being, it’s my two books that were both published in November 2023, Hacker Culture: A to Z and Cloud Penetration Testing for Red Teamers. For Hacker Culture: A to Z, I have a publicist and her name is Rebekah Epstein. She’s from PR By The Book. She’s been doing a great job for me! A couple of weeks ago, I appeared on CBC Radio (CBC is Canada’s national broadcaster). And I have a few media appearances with American mainstream media outlets in December. Most people have heard of these outlets, but I don’t want to name them before I record them, in case I jinx them.
I have made it clear to Ms. Epstein that I will only do media appearances through the internet or over the phone. (I even have a webinar on December 7th, The Genesis of Computing.) She has been happy to cooperate. Sure, I may have missed a few publicity opportunities. But there are more important things in life than appearing on MSNBC, such as my health, the health of my community, my credibility, and my dignity.
I can afford to refuse Covid reckless PR opportunities. But not poor underdog New York Times bestselling Taylor Lorenz. /sarcasm
In addition to actually living according to my values and not going around engaging in plague-spreading behaviour, I respect my readers and their intelligence. I would never ever say “I don’t take unmasked photos” in one Bluesky post and smile masklessly at a public event in another post. Like, holy shit.
Okay, onto some more plague rats-in-sheep’s clothing…
I wrote about the assholes above in this post: World Health Network’s maskless mascot and their loss of credibility
Do not waste your time volunteering for the World Health Network, please.
Besides, Dr. Ding is best buddies with Ashish Jha.
Read about how dangerous Jha has been in the US government fake “Covid response” on Anthony Leonardi’s Easy Chair Substack (A Covid Positive Milestone) and on Pandemic Accountability Index (Citizen Scientists Picked Up the Slack. Now They're Catching Flack.)
There’s more!
Mind you, Prather is probably a Nazi. “88” (as in her username) is a Nazi dogwhistle and I highly doubt she was born in 1988.
Plus here are Prather’s own proudly online posted maskless selfies…
Christine Cooper wonders why she got Covid when she takes so many precautions!
Thank you, Just A Neighsayer. Now please, I beg of you, leave Xitter and join Mastodon, or Bluesky, or both.
Now back to the group of aersol scientists. And Joey Fox. Michael Hicks says it best…
![Michael R. Hicks, COI @MichaeLE • lin ••• On top of that, we're entering YEAR FIVE of the pandemic. Any aerosol expert who doesn't know by now how SARS2 is transmitted shouldn't be in the field. One could argue they've been seduced by "vax and relax," but not that they're ignorant of transmission mode. 1:1 Michael R. Hicks, COI @MichaeLE • 17h ••- Then we get to the good part, "let them live their life. If someone wants to eat in a restaurant, it's a free country." [Note: Joey's Canadian, but all this applies in the U.S. and many other places.] Is it a free country, Joey? Is it really?](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F831808f9-7e20-4f8d-a4d8-2bd82b254a4b_1080x2400.png "Michael R. Hicks, COI @MichaeLE • lin ••• On top of that, we're entering YEAR FIVE of the pandemic. Any aerosol expert who doesn't know by now how SARS2 is transmitted shouldn't be in the field. One could argue they've been seduced by \"vax and relax,\" but not that they're ignorant of transmission mode. 1:1 Michael R. Hicks, COI @MichaeLE • 17h ••- Then we get to the good part, \"let them live their life. If someone wants to eat in a restaurant, it's a free country.\" [Note: Joey's Canadian, but all this applies in the U.S. and many other places.] Is it a free country, Joey? Is it really?")
![Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelt- 17h --- Joey’s another example of an expert who's often on the same side as we are, but is NOT on the same team. << Read that again. He and others like him are great sources of information, but their allyship is very conditional. | wrote more about this here: Q1 1 @®46 sor [] Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelf- 17h «-- Also, for those who would say, “We shouldn’t be shaming these people, but trying to convince them to our cause!” Go back through and look at the initial responses to all the experts who were called out for high-risk behavior (classics are Gregg Gonsalves and T. Ryan Gregory). Be, Joey Fox 6 @joeyfox85 «<r | support ensuring everyone is provided with clean air.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78486905-3c39-4d7f-8721-5ead9ab397d5_1080x2400.png "Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelt- 17h --- Joey’s another example of an expert who's often on the same side as we are, but is NOT on the same team. << Read that again. He and others like him are great sources of information, but their allyship is very conditional. | wrote more about this here: Q1 1 @®46 sor [] Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelf- 17h «-- Also, for those who would say, “We shouldn’t be shaming these people, but trying to convince them to our cause!” Go back through and look at the initial responses to all the experts who were called out for high-risk behavior (classics are Gregg Gonsalves and T. Ryan Gregory). Be, Joey Fox 6 @joeyfox85 «<r | support ensuring everyone is provided with clean air.")
![Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelf- 17h «-- But none of these folks who've been called out - even gently - in the past, have, so far as | know, changed any of their behavior. This is why the “we have to try and convince them” approach, to me, is at best ineffective, and at worst a way to just let these folks off the hook. Q1 1 @®44 i370 [] Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelf- 17h «-- “But why should we bother calling them out? What's the point?” The point is this: EVERY TIME we don’t call out high-risk behavior, especially by experts, normalization of “the urgency of brunch” takes another step forward. Every fucking time. OF ©®o64 liso Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelf- 17h «-- | don’t expect calling these folks out is going to change THEIR behavior, although it serves as some small mechanism of accountability. But | believe calling this shit out can serve as a warning to at least some folks that this behavior is NOT SAFE to follow.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F74b50b52-a855-4ab1-aec3-a2f8d73d5a36_1080x2400.png "Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelf- 17h «-- But none of these folks who've been called out - even gently - in the past, have, so far as | know, changed any of their behavior. This is why the “we have to try and convince them” approach, to me, is at best ineffective, and at worst a way to just let these folks off the hook. Q1 1 @®44 i370 [] Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelf- 17h «-- “But why should we bother calling them out? What's the point?” The point is this: EVERY TIME we don’t call out high-risk behavior, especially by experts, normalization of “the urgency of brunch” takes another step forward. Every fucking time. OF ©®o64 liso Michael R. Hicks, CO\ @Michaelf- 17h «-- | don’t expect calling these folks out is going to change THEIR behavior, although it serves as some small mechanism of accountability. But | believe calling this shit out can serve as a warning to at least some folks that this behavior is NOT SAFE to follow.")
A-fucking-men.
I’m not sharing this stuff for revenge. I don’t have to worry about getting revenge on these plague rats-in-sheep’s clothing because their inevitable Covid infections will destroy them.
Don’t let these assholes get away with excuses like:
“But the CO2 was 500ppm!”
“But we were outside!”
“But I only took it off for the photo!”
I have scientific citations here: Air quality is not a substitute for respirators
Plus, Jessica Wildfire wrote a great new piece on OK Doomer here: Can You Catch Covid Outside? Yes, You Can.
It’s a crying shame that Hicks and Wildfire are genuinely Covid cautious. Hicks got infected because his company made him go on a business trip and although he didn’t even take his respirator off to eat, he didn’t realize that he should have run HEPA in his hotel room for an hour or so before taking his respirator off in there. His own hotel room. And Wildfire got infected because her young daughter got infected, because her daughter was infected by another child while playing outside.
The plague rats have made the Covid pandemic so bad that even these very minor slipups from hypercaution are all it takes to get infected now.
So I wear my respirator literally every single second I’m not inside my apartment. Including when I’m outside. Including when I leave for two seconds to put my garbage down the garbage chute. I don’t open my door without my respirator already on, and when I get back home I leave my respirator on for a good five minutes after closing my door to give my front door HEPA time to remove whatever Covid could have come in from the hallway on my floor. I live on my own. My respirator doesn’t even come off to eat and drink in public. I eat and drink at home.
All it takes is one infection to end up bedridden, brain damaged, and prone to heart attacks, strokes, and many other diseases. Even if you’re young, perfectly healthy, and vaxxed just prior to infection. And each subsequent infection makes sudden death and long Covid even more probable. Each additional infection is worse and worse.
I have never been infected with Covid and I will fight to the ends of the Earth to avoid even a single infection. Unfortunately, I have to live with the fact that my partner of five years (who fortunately doesn’t live with me) has been going to supermarkets and restaurants maskless. I arm him with respirators, tests, and all the scientific facts and he still goes out trying to destroy himself. I’m still furious. And he will never be allowed maskless in my presence or in my home without a very recent negative Cue test.
This Christmas, I’m going to spend the day away from my apartment for the first time since Christmas 2019. It will be Jason (my partner), his dad, and his stepmother. That’s it. At my expense, all of us will be Cue tested immediately beforehand. I don’t have to be with anyone, I will see their test results in my phone app. Negative Cue tests are my condition for all four of us being maskless in their home. And I’m spending a fortune on a private car service to get us from Toronto to three hours away small town Ontario (I don’t want to name the town they live in), and back. I will literally be spending about $1,500 or more to have a Davos Safe Christmas with my in-laws. Wish me luck.
Kim Crawley, buttondown.email/Crowgirl, @crowgirl.bsky.social, @crowgirl@hachyderm.io, linktr.ee/kimcrawley