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Ladies, Gentlemen and Others -
Well, #vanthropology2022 is under way! Two days after my positive Covid test, we rolled out of LA. I was under the impression that I’d probably had it for a week or more already and was already recovering. Ha! Hubris!
We drove east to get out of LA, but ran out of gas (figuratively) somewhere in the Mojave desert. Pulled into a rest area with a throbbing headache, weird pains in my back, and a throat that felt as if I’d been swallowing crumpled sandpaper. Figured we’d get some shut-eye among the hissing, farting semis. The temperature never dropped below 92 all night. Not good. Anyway, avoid the Covid if you can, and if you get it, don’t try to sleep it off in a desert rest area on US 10. That’s my advice.
But that was long ago and far away. I’m writing in Clyde Coffee, in Missoula, Montana, feeling not exactly 100%, but close enough. Headed up to Whitefish to teach a workshop with Anya Kaats and the lovely Budokon folks. Speaking of Anya, check her site for information about #vanthropology2022 meet-ups. We’re doing the first one at our pal Kevin’s place in Kalispell, MT on 9/11. BYO terrorism jokes. (Even if you can’t make the hang-out, save his info, as he’s got space for vanlifers who want a place down by the river.)
We’re thinking we’ll probably head west from Montana, so maybe Spokane, Seattle, Bellingham? Portland, Bend? Yosemite? Santa Cruz? If you live somewhere on our route, and would like to meet other splendid weirdos, contact us (via Anya’s site) and we’ll try to pull something together.
A quick thank you to those of you who responded to my appeal to put me in touch with the dudes in KnowMads, the Seattle-based hip-hop duo. A bunch of folks apparently reached out to them on my behalf, and they got in touch. So amazing to be able to ask for an intro and have it happen. Anyway, they’re in Colombia for the next few months, so no podcast with them soon, but it’ll happen eventually — even if I have to fly to Colombia. (Tax write-off!)
For those of you who support the podcast and all these shenanigans financially, here’s this month’s open thread. I just opened it a few minutes ago, and there’s already an interesting conversation happening about weird-ass Covid symptoms we’ve had.
So 2022.
Hope this finds you well and that our paths cross soon.
CPR
Not to be a dick, but since people just commonly utter things in public spaces about covid like it's just true by default with a casual acceptance that if you got a covid test and it's positive and exhibited symptoms that must mean it's covid, then I think it deserves a friendly rebuttal, since there remains so much dissent.
As everyone knows by now a positive on a PCR test just means it found the viral material it was looking for. If that viral material is the culprit causing symptoms is completely unknown. Most people are always carrying around a few active viruses capable of causing cold and flu symptoms. And because you got a virus doesn't mean that virus was particularly bad, it's far more likely your immune system was taking a dump and had nothing to do with a specific pathogen being more harmful.
Also there's zero logical rigor behind testing for one thing, and then if a symptom emerges claiming that one thing is responsible as it could just as easily be an opportunistic breeder in a body with a lowered immune system response. And coinfection is completely ignored, where covid very well might not be the main thing causing the problem; according to an article on the NIH's website, "One study discovered that 94.2% of people with COVID‐19 were also coinfected with several other microorganisms, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi" - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8242380/
Just sayin for accuracy..."science" doesn't know exactly what made you sick, but is happy to pretend like it does, which just happens to also be a very profitable position to take.