Sign in Subscribe

I'm going to write about my life unfortunately.

Since the Omicron variant swept through the United States in 2021, I've been wearing a high-quality and well-fitting KN95 respirator anytime I leave the house.

I'm going to write about my life unfortunately.

In this issue:

  • Portrait of the Artist as a Covid Cautious Person
  • Plague News

So, after some thought and analyzing engagement (people open but don't click), I am going to pivot the style of Rhinestone Mice:

I'm going to write about my life unfortunately.

I will continue to share plague news (below) as my life is plague news adjacent, if not plague news itself. The past six months have been exciting and harrowing to say the least. Compiling Plague News has given me an even closer look into the shitshow and I am terrified.

A lil about me

I have been taking precautions around COVID-19 since 2020. Since the Omicron variant swept through the United States in 2021, I've been wearing a high-quality and well-fitting KN95 respirator anytime I leave the house.

People who take airborne disease precautions are widely dubbed Covid Cautious. Or an evermasker, the little plague mouse surviving on the wayside. We value our lives and the lives of others. We are scientists and believe in science. The anti-anti-vaxxers.

I bought a fancy Levoit. I have not been to a live music show in over five years. I have not performed live since February 2020. This breaks my heart and a lot of people are ableist assholes.

I thankfully have worked remotely most of my career but I currently have been unemployed for almost year.

I have been sober from alcohol for eight years. And I very much want to write about sobriety In These Times. I'm strong-willed and I've had a smooth-sailing sobriety, and I want to help others, because Jesus fucking Christ. I can completely understand why people have turned to drinking. This shit is hard.

Subscribe to Rhinestone Mice

Real talk

Twenty-two people I know have died since March 2020. I kept a list. I stopped keeping the list earlier this year after my ex-girlfriend died and I found out seven months after her funeral. I have no idea what happened to her.

I wonder if I know so many people who died in such a short amount of time because of how many addicts I knew, having been one myself. Many of the people on the death list were alcoholics. Twenty of the twenty-two were cis-men. With exception of two people (both relatives), everyone dead was under sixty.

The youngest was thirty-four, my best friend's little brother, who died of COVID-19 in July 2020. He was a restaurant manager in the Boston Seaport.

Special interests

Since COVID-19 entered daily headlines in early 2020, I have not stopped reading about the virus and the societal outcomes. I have a few, very intense and life-long special interests. These include:

  • Mice
  • Pandemics (specifically viral pandemics)
  • Journalism with a focus on misinformation
  • Genetics and evolution (see mice)

To read so much about this point in time, being in this point in time has been amazing, disorienting and sea-sickening. I can see how it's not for everyone. You need to be able to handle looking death in the face.

Engulfing news and reporting around the on-going COVID-19 pandemic began as part of my special interest and then it grew into something much more existential and vital.

Eventually and to my horror, I realized I was incredibly high-risk for Long COVID and severe illness from the virus. And so were many other people I knew and loved. One by one, I watched the few friends I held communication with develop Long COVID and other new and concerning health issues.

Trying my best

Understanding viral transmission and infection is complicated and fascinating. It took me a long time to accept, but I can sympathize with people not being able to fathom the existential threat of COVID infection. I know how powerful misinformation is and I am a grandmaster in disassociation.

Sticking your head in the sand works. For a little while.

But you cannot ignore fascism. Either you are complicit or you fight. There is no other choice.

Dismissing disabled people and people of color (who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 infections) is fascism and eugenics. Believing "Covid is over", is part of the mechanics of fascism. The German Nazis used disease as a weapon. Anne Frank died of typhus.

I still struggle comprehending why many people and former friends have thrown me to the wayside and why I no longer can participate in society the way I used to. I believe that everyone should make it home safely and everyone should have access to a happy and healthy life. The pandemic has shown me, bare-faced, I am an outlier in this belief.

But maybe I'm wrong about being an outlier.

Maybe most people do care about humanity. Maybe with the deluge of continuous trauma, division and violence (also mechanics of fascism), especially in the United States, people have lost focus on each other; people are focusing on their own survival. They are making the mistake thinking they can survive alone; an age-old American narrative, the American Dream.

This goes for me too on the cloudy banks of the wayside, I can't do this alone.

I have tried so hard to "get through to people" over the recent years. And as spirit-deflatingly difficult as it's been, I have not given up on trying to get others to see the existential threat to humanity and themselves. I have not given up trying to convince people that they should care about each other.

If I give up on humanity, I will have given up on myself. Mitigating and controlling the climate-change-caused pestilence is a group effort. The only way out of this is to work together.

COVID-19 has never gone away. It has never been over. I love you all.

Subscribe Today
A watercolor and ink drawing of a mouse in some grass

Plague News

With the pivot, I will try to feature more independent journalists and publications focusing on public health and the COVID-19 pandemic. I am considering doing interviews with people in the Covid Cautious community. People doing the good work. Get at me.

Although, as much as I am interested in COVID-19, climate change is the Old God threat, and with it many other viral zoonotic threats like bird flu. With misinformation, natural disaster and genocide, and lack of global treatment access and mitigation, we see resurgence of eradicated illness like measles and polio.

It's not a good time. But we can be prepared and help others understand. Everything starts with empathy.

Please follow The Sick Times, "a journalist-founded website chronicling the Long COVID crisis". They supply a weekly update on COVID-19 trends in the U.S.

National COVID-19 trends, August 5 - The Sick Times
After a slow start, the U.S.’s summer COVID-19 wave is now clearly taking off, with cases increasing nationwide according to all metrics. While the South and West Coast continue to report the highest disease levels, increases are happening across the country.
The Sick Times - Chronicling the Long Covid crisisBetsy Ladyzhets
Research updates, August 5 - The Sick Times
A drug originally developed for celiac disease was found to be safe and effective in treating a post-COVID syndrome in children, according to a new paper published in Science Translational Medicine.
The Sick Times - Chronicling the Long Covid crisisMiles W. Griffis
Three clinical trials for Long COVID are testing JAK inhibitors to treat immune dysregulation - The Sick Times
Three separate trials are testing the immunomodulator drugs abrocitinib (Cibinqo), baricitinib (Olumiant), and upadacitinib (Rinvoq). All are JAK inhibitors, which target specific inflammation pathways.
The Sick Times - Chronicling the Long Covid crisisMiles W. Griffis

If you want to purchase high-quality masks and PPE, I recommend Bona Fide Masks.

I accept donations:

Make a Donation

🦋Follow me on Bluesky.