Call me Ishmael
@thewhitewhale.bsky.social
books, words, left politics, learning stuff, long covid (he/him). In Australia, but a citizen of the world.
Views expressed here are my own.
Views expressed here are my own.
Pinned
Hello world.
I'm Michael, a thirty something dude from Australia. Interested in books (literary/fantasy/sci-fi/history/philosophy/etc) and other places cool words are written. Always keen to learn new things.
Afflicted with long covid, and following the science.
I'm Michael, a thirty something dude from Australia. Interested in books (literary/fantasy/sci-fi/history/philosophy/etc) and other places cool words are written. Always keen to learn new things.
Afflicted with long covid, and following the science.
Elon Musk has totally cooked his brain on X. This is not a man who should be deciding anything for anyone. www.knowrogan.com/0044-elon-mu...
www.knowrogan.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Elon Musk has totally cooked his brain on X. This is not a man who should be deciding anything for anyone. www.knowrogan.com/0044-elon-mu...
More evidence for the role of microclots in Long Covid. The neutrophil extracellular traps part is ... beyond my scientific understanding. www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
Scientists reveal another piece in Long COVID puzzle
In patients with Long COVID, a new study has revealed structural association between circulating microclots and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). This finding suggests the existence of under...
www.eurekalert.org
November 11, 2025 at 1:34 AM
More evidence for the role of microclots in Long Covid. The neutrophil extracellular traps part is ... beyond my scientific understanding. www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
That's what I'd call living the dream.
Damn, that's a lot of books. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/t...
A Home That Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Books
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 AM
That's what I'd call living the dream.
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
UPDATE: Canada has announced that it has lost its measles elimination status.
This is a direct result of the increase in anti-vax disinformation, which has caused large, sustained outbreaks in the country over the last year.
This is a direct result of the increase in anti-vax disinformation, which has caused large, sustained outbreaks in the country over the last year.
November 10, 2025 at 6:19 PM
UPDATE: Canada has announced that it has lost its measles elimination status.
This is a direct result of the increase in anti-vax disinformation, which has caused large, sustained outbreaks in the country over the last year.
This is a direct result of the increase in anti-vax disinformation, which has caused large, sustained outbreaks in the country over the last year.
Okay, we've now shown that brain training bullshit definitely doesn't work, so can we please now put that research money and effort into studying some actual medical interventions?
RECOVER: 'RECOVER-NEURO clinical trial shares results of three non-drug treatments for cognitive symptoms of Long COVID'
'None of our rehabilitation approaches to treatment for cognitive Long COVID proved to be effective.'
recovercovid.org/news/recover...
'None of our rehabilitation approaches to treatment for cognitive Long COVID proved to be effective.'
recovercovid.org/news/recover...
RECOVER: Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery
The long-term effects of COVID are real. Join the NIH in the search for answers.
recovercovid.org
November 11, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Okay, we've now shown that brain training bullshit definitely doesn't work, so can we please now put that research money and effort into studying some actual medical interventions?
If your party won't hold the line together in collective solidarity, what you have isn't a political party. It's a club.
November 10, 2025 at 4:01 AM
If your party won't hold the line together in collective solidarity, what you have isn't a political party. It's a club.
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
What we are seeing is a replay of the surrender on Covid protections because it was going to impact the wealth class in a way that would make it harder to accrue wealth without consequences.
Liberals already made the choice to kill millions to maintain the wealth class status quo.
Liberals already made the choice to kill millions to maintain the wealth class status quo.
Maybe important to note it was the disruption in air travel that Democrats couldn't stand and not, you know, 40+ million people not knowing where their next meal was coming from.
November 10, 2025 at 1:17 AM
What we are seeing is a replay of the surrender on Covid protections because it was going to impact the wealth class in a way that would make it harder to accrue wealth without consequences.
Liberals already made the choice to kill millions to maintain the wealth class status quo.
Liberals already made the choice to kill millions to maintain the wealth class status quo.
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
Some healthcare providers are still referring to #mecfs and #longcovid as psychological or "functional" despite considerable research to the contrary. Here, I review the latest findings and expert thinking, with potential for treatment: www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
Research Into ME/CFS Pathology Points to Possible Treatments
With greater understanding of the complex pathomechanisms of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, researchers aim to target treatments.
www.medscape.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Some healthcare providers are still referring to #mecfs and #longcovid as psychological or "functional" despite considerable research to the contrary. Here, I review the latest findings and expert thinking, with potential for treatment: www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
If you are able, please help The Sick Times do vital journalism on the pandemic that's being ignored elsewhere.
Our #LongCOVID journalism requires reader support — with your help, we can prepare our non-profit newsroom for whatever 2026 brings.
Will you donate today and help us keep this vital work going? the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/
Will you donate today and help us keep this vital work going? the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/
November 7, 2025 at 11:17 PM
If you are able, please help The Sick Times do vital journalism on the pandemic that's being ignored elsewhere.
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
bring back maligning racism as the mark of a stupid person. prejudice is the mark of an idiot. if you believe that shit i bet you also don’t wipe your ass
November 7, 2025 at 8:55 PM
bring back maligning racism as the mark of a stupid person. prejudice is the mark of an idiot. if you believe that shit i bet you also don’t wipe your ass
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
I have a new way of responding when people ask me why I’m still wearing a mask.
“I learned this habit when the C-19 pandemic started. What did you learn from it?”
“I learned this habit when the C-19 pandemic started. What did you learn from it?”
November 5, 2025 at 9:56 PM
I have a new way of responding when people ask me why I’m still wearing a mask.
“I learned this habit when the C-19 pandemic started. What did you learn from it?”
“I learned this habit when the C-19 pandemic started. What did you learn from it?”
The NZ health care system (like many) is failing Long Covid patients. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
Researchers say healthcare system failing long Covid patients
A researcher is calling on the government to provide dedicated funding for long Covid.
www.rnz.co.nz
November 6, 2025 at 1:11 AM
The NZ health care system (like many) is failing Long Covid patients. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
Children and young people have higher risks of rare vascular and inflammatory diseases 12 months after a first COVID-19 diagnosis, according to a Lancet study using English health records. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Vascular and inflammatory diseases after COVID-19 infection and vaccination in children and young people in England: a retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked electronic health recor...
Children and young people have higher risks of rare vascular and inflammatory diseases
up to 12 months after a first COVID-19 diagnosis and higher risk of rare myocarditis
or pericarditis up to 4 week...
www.thelancet.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Children and young people have higher risks of rare vascular and inflammatory diseases 12 months after a first COVID-19 diagnosis, according to a Lancet study using English health records. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
"I want no advantage over my fellow man, and if he is weaker than I, all the more is it my duty to help him." - Eugene Debs
November 5, 2025 at 5:08 AM
"I want no advantage over my fellow man, and if he is weaker than I, all the more is it my duty to help him." - Eugene Debs
I found this discussion illuminating on the risks of American Caesarism. know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com/episodes/bre...
Break Glass in Case of Emergency | Know Your Enemy
Matt and Sam are very worried.
know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:34 AM
I found this discussion illuminating on the risks of American Caesarism. know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com/episodes/bre...
Thinking about how people just ignore invisible disabilities, as I decline yet another invitation to go rock climbing
November 4, 2025 at 5:19 AM
Thinking about how people just ignore invisible disabilities, as I decline yet another invitation to go rock climbing
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
#COVID vaccination cuts risk of long-term symptoms in teens by over a third, data suggest
The vaccine is unique in having this effect on progression to a chronic condition, despite infection, the researchers say.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...
The vaccine is unique in having this effect on progression to a chronic condition, despite infection, the researchers say.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...
November 3, 2025 at 7:58 PM
#COVID vaccination cuts risk of long-term symptoms in teens by over a third, data suggest
The vaccine is unique in having this effect on progression to a chronic condition, despite infection, the researchers say.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...
The vaccine is unique in having this effect on progression to a chronic condition, despite infection, the researchers say.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
We're kicking off our biggest fundraiser of the year by participating in NewsMatch, a national campaign to support newsrooms across the US run by the Institute for Nonprofit News.
We need your help to keep telling #LongCOVID stories. Will you donate today? the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/
We need your help to keep telling #LongCOVID stories. Will you donate today? the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/
November 1, 2025 at 2:39 PM
We're kicking off our biggest fundraiser of the year by participating in NewsMatch, a national campaign to support newsrooms across the US run by the Institute for Nonprofit News.
We need your help to keep telling #LongCOVID stories. Will you donate today? the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/
We need your help to keep telling #LongCOVID stories. Will you donate today? the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
F. Scott Fitzgerald: In my book I invented Gatsby lifestyle as a cautionary tale
The president: At long last, we have created the Gatsby lifestyle from the classic novel The Great Gatsby
The president: At long last, we have created the Gatsby lifestyle from the classic novel The Great Gatsby
November 1, 2025 at 4:48 AM
F. Scott Fitzgerald: In my book I invented Gatsby lifestyle as a cautionary tale
The president: At long last, we have created the Gatsby lifestyle from the classic novel The Great Gatsby
The president: At long last, we have created the Gatsby lifestyle from the classic novel The Great Gatsby
The rapid development of Covid vaccines was an incredible achievement. But a vaccine given annually cannot be our only line of defence when 20 weeks after vaccination it has only 16.7% effectiveness against infection, 39.1% against ED visits, and 34% against death. sph.unc.edu/sph-news/new...
New 2025 data shows COVID-19 vaccines provide effective, durable protection - UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
October 27, 2025 Updated COVID-19 vaccines are still providing effective protection against infection, emergency department visits, hospitalization and death, according to new research in JAMA led by ...
sph.unc.edu
November 1, 2025 at 9:41 AM
The rapid development of Covid vaccines was an incredible achievement. But a vaccine given annually cannot be our only line of defence when 20 weeks after vaccination it has only 16.7% effectiveness against infection, 39.1% against ED visits, and 34% against death. sph.unc.edu/sph-news/new...
Reposted by Call me Ishmael
Happy Halloween! We have a some last-minute #LongCOVID themed costume ideas for you! 👻
October 31, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Happy Halloween! We have a some last-minute #LongCOVID themed costume ideas for you! 👻
Covid infection during pregnancy is linked to a higher risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children. www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en/about/new...
COVID-19 During Pregnancy Linked to Higher Risk of Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children | Mass General Brigham
Children born to mothers who had COVID-19 while pregnant face an elevated risk of developmental disorders by the time they turn 3 years old, including speech delays, autism, motor disorders, and other...
www.massgeneralbrigham.org
October 31, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Covid infection during pregnancy is linked to a higher risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children. www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en/about/new...
This is a fun piece tracing the historical intersections of literacy, education and media with class. thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...
We Used to Read Things in This Country | Noah McCormack
Technology changes us—and it is currently changing us for the worse.
thebaffler.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:39 AM
This is a fun piece tracing the historical intersections of literacy, education and media with class. thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...
More reason to wear a respirator and avoid infections.
A number of viral infections, including flu, Covid-19 and shingles, are linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, a new study affirmed.
Covid and Flu Can Triple Your Risk of Heart Attack
A new analysis adds to the research about the link between viral infections and heart disease.
nyti.ms
October 30, 2025 at 6:51 AM
More reason to wear a respirator and avoid infections.