r/ZeroCovidCommunity

I know not everyone will mask all the time, it sucks but I've accepted that. But at one point, it was common courtesy for people to mask if they had to be out in public while sick. Now it feels like NO ONE does that. Multiple people at my job are coughing and sniffling, including the person who sits next to me, with no masks. Not even a regular cloth/surgical.

It just makes me so upset. I get having to come into work sick, I do. But what happened to keeping our germs to ourselves??? I just have to hope my N95 and vaccines are enough to keep me healthy but now I feel like I can't even take a sip of water at my desk! I'm anxious even with my N95 because my eyes are exposed, my hands are exposed. I do my best to wash them frequently but it only takes one slip-up to get something.

I'm considering looking into ADA accomodations as I am immunodeficient but I know how that will make me look. This is a new job, I've only been here a few weeks, and I'm going to have to immediately make myself into a problem because my coworkers have 0 regard for anyone else. I'm just so mad. How hard is it to put a mask on for a few days while you recover???

Why are people ok with being sick nearly every month?! I have extended family that has now been sick 4 times since June that I know of! But that’s totally normal, right? /s I swear they must be immunocompromised at this point, getting sick on a monthly basis. But of course to them covid isn’t real and masking is absurd. Ugh. I’m just so tired of this pandemic and all the covid deniers. I wonder if people will ever learn, but unfortunately I don’t think so.

Let me first recognize the immense privilege it is to even have the option to homeschool, let alone being able to access the physical and/or economic capabilities to even make it possible. I teach at home during the week, and because I have the weirdo job that enables me to work on the weekend, those two worlds can graciously coexist.

That said my friends, I feel like I’m getting hit with an extra dose of reality this past week due to the fact that back in 2021 I started kindergarten with my oldest at home while holding my newborn only two months old in my arms learning how to homeschool and take care of an infant at the same time. This month, the oldest is entering fifth grade still homeschooling and that newborn is now starting kindergarten at the same table where they were downing milk bottles five years prior.

When I had my oldest we never set out to be a homeschooling family, and this lifestyle choice was in direct reaction to schools doing absolutely nothing except “recommended masking” when kids went back to school in this area in Fall 2021. Like many of you here I saw the writing on the wall for how that was going to work, and for the past five years I’ve watched the absolute neglect that institutions who profess to care for children display while they continue to do nothing to adapt in the slightest.

I feel an extra dose of grief this past month further sitting with the fact of knowing that as of summer 2025, Long Covid became the number one chronic illness in kids and that didn’t even move the needle at all. I know life is hard for everybody and everyone has individual circumstances of struggle that many of us know nothing about. Parents especially have the impossible task of raising children in late stage capitalism amidst climate collapse, the birth of American fascism, and even though the vast, vast majority don’t know it or will acknowledge it, yes, an ongoing pandemic whose ripple effect makes everything worse for them as well.

That said, I know I’m not the only one here who has years at this point of trying to educate parents of the dangers of Covid while their kids continually get sick while searching for every other reason why that might be other than damaged immune system systems in tandem with repeated infections.

I feel like I’m forever changed knowing that not having the information is one thing, but when parents do have the information still choose to not educate or teach kids about masking while normalizing the societal harm both to other children and their own by not doing so. It really does feel like a nightmare for me that I don’t know if I ever will be able to fully process. It’s so sad and I wish there was some way we could protect these kids who have no leadership in this lane of life at home or at school. This neglect also creates unsafe spaces for so many children who would thrive in a group educational environment, and I have a lot of grief for not only my kids, but all kids being removed from those same opportunities.

I’m not looking for a solve here, but I do appreciate your time listening as I know I’m not the only parent that finds themselves in this impossible situation of knowing what a lot of your life is going to look like in regards to education at home for many years save for some societal shift or medical miracle raising by Covid aware kids in a world that doesn’t even want to know they exist.

Solidarity to all the parents and everybody fighting against the overwhelming tides of denial. I know how demoralizing it is to have your knowledge and adaptive skills pathologized despite the immense care and empathy towards society and self that you continually choose to exude. We are the pioneers.

Tired of being totally isolated.

Tired of planning every second of my life around airborne precaution.

Tired of the tiniest screw-up being a potentially life-altering event.

Tired of being stuck living with vax-'n-relax housemates and having to schedule my entire life around theirs to avoid exposure.

Tired of being stuck inside for days on end because fatigue, sensory issues, and ailments of age make it too exhausting to mask every time I step outside and then keep masking inside until my air purifiers have run for long enough.

Tired of having no break from this.

Tired of having practically no meaningful support from governments or public health institutions.

Vacation won't help, there's no way I'll ever feel safe or relaxed.

I can't therapize my way out of material circumstances.

It's been six long years and the light at the end of the tunnel still feels so far away.

I'm just tired.

hello all! my parents and i are trying to renew our US passports and my mom is worried that if we take our own photos that it’ll gum up the application. i guess she’s had to redo them once or twice but that was twenty years ago in the early age of digital photography. has anyone had their application get rejected over the picture? i don’t think it’s worth it to get them done in person but i don’t want our applications to get delayed either

I was looking for the rationale for the 30 vs. 90 day recommendations and found this.

Study is relatively old? Sample size is very small?

I got the initial series of Pfizer's vaccine back in 2021 and continued with it through 2024. Side effects were pretty short-lived but I disliked the elevated heart rate I typically get, so last year I opted for NovaVax. Sides seemed to linger for much, much longer (a week or two) than Pfizer, so this fall I'm thinking I'll go back to mRNA.

My question: Have I "interrupted" the mRNA compound effect by using NovaVax last year? Will switching back to Pfizer offer comparable protection as in prior years? TIA.

I had to go to a non-Covid cautious dentist today 🥲. Should I test Wednesday and Friday? Just Friday? Not sure when would be the best day to? Thanks all❤️