!We finally got covid
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agk's diary
12 June 2022 @ 16:30 UTC
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written on iPad via ssh.sdf.org in garage
listening to radio preacher while baby naps
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Evy was miserable and exhausted all week. I was
dead tired Thursday during my shift in the neonatal
intensive care unit. Our toddler spiked a 39.5C
fever Thursday night. Friday she wanted to cuddle,
not play. She wasn't dehydrated or mobilizing acce-
ssory muscles to breathe. She tested covid+ at our
pediatrician office Friday afternoon.
There are 4 people in our home. Store-bought Abbott
rapid tests for us to test twice cost almost a day
of my wages. Balancing new motherhood, school, and
jobs, Evy and I've each worked only once a week.
That makes the tests almost a week of my wages.
Evy, I, and housemate tested covid-. We ordered 8
free SD Biosensor/Roche tests from the Post Office
to test again in a few days when they come.
Friday morning my mouth tasted like an ashtray.
Friday night my fever, muscle and joint aches, and
painful chest cough started. I emailed professors
to ask if I should tell the neonatal intensive care
unit where I worked Thursday (no), if I could get
an extension on a major paper (yes), and what about
the big exam tomorrow (don't come with fever/cough).
Sister-in-law bought the covid tests with cash Evy
wrapped around our Supplemental Nutrition Access
Program (SNAP) Electronic Benefits Transfer card.
SNAP is a food welfare program for the poor and an
agricultural subsidy. She bought us blueberries
from a neighboring state and two dozen eggs from
the college farm near her house with the card. We
have plenty rice, millet, oats, onions, preserved
fish, and canned tomatoes in our pantry.
Saturday my fever peaked at 38.5C. Most of the day
it was 38. My blood oxygen saturation bottomed at
94%, but mostly cruised at 95. I went to the kitch-
en for water and forgot why I was in the kitchen. I
watched a 3-hour playthrough of Command and Conquer
(1995). I wondered how many of my country's arms
industry propagandists grew up on the game's narra-
tive.
During Trump administration we got mRNA vaccine
jabs at hospitals where we work. Our daughter got
passive immunity in the womb. We didn't pay for
vaccination. Evy was boosted at work, I at a drug
store (Medicaid paid for my booster). Our kid's
getting passive booster via breastmilk while we're
sick.
Medicaid is insurance for the poor in my country.
Some states including ours expanded it to anyone
within 150% of the official poverty line. It's good
insurance with no premiums, no deductible, no co-
pay. If I lose my job, we don't lose insurance. I
wish it was expanded to everyone.
Elderly neighbors who watch our kid a few hours
most weeks are sick today. Windows open, fans blow
out to create negative pressure in bedroom where
Evy and kid sleep and garage where I'll sleep til I
quit coughing. I mask in the house. Housemate's
asymptomatic and testing negative; he's at work, at
Walmart.
Covid sucks, even boosted and insured, even this
Omicron BA.4/BA.5 wave after covid's officially
over. I hope our transmission chain doesn't kill
anyone.
* * *
Only 13% of people in low-income countries could
get vaccinated. World Trade Organization's Trade-
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS)
provisions protected pharmaceutical billionaires'
right to become multibillionaires at government
expense.
12th Ministerial of World Trade Organization starts
today in Geneva. Countries that can't afford huge
handouts to pharma want to manufacture vaccines and
rapid tests for their populations. US, UK, EU, and
Switzerland continue to block the petition to susp-
end TRIPS.
Farm and fish subsidies are on the agenda. Crop
failures in grain exporting countries (US, Canada),
US theft of Syrian grain, EU theft of Ukrainian
grain, and sanctions on Russia's good harvest jack
up bread prices, cause unrest.
New shortages worsen problems caused by WTO rules
opposed by 100 countries. Rules prohibit stimulat-
ing domestic production for domestic consumption
with as little as $300 per farmer. US is exempt;
may undercut other countries' agriculture with
subsidies, even for export crops, of $40,000 per
US farmer.
Governments will be overthrown in bread riots be-
tween September and May if the grain problem isn't
fixed.
Fisheries are a similar protection racket. Proposed
Sustainable Development Goals about global collapse
of fish populations will place impossible restrict-
ions on poor countries whose populations rely on
national fisheries for much of their diet. Rich
countries caused fishery collapse, but have capac-
ity to monitor and report as proposed, so may cont-
inue to subsidize overfishing for export.
If the draft passes, cheap subsidized fish will be
sent as food aid to countries starved and sickened
by WTO policy.
* * *
Now that I'm thinking more clearly, I'll try to
finish my paper for school.
