Health Self Defense ❤️‍🔥😷

Bacterial vaginosis is likely sexually transmitted, and failing to treat cisgender men has been a major blind spot in care.

Breaking research on bacterial vaginosis (BV) confirms what many people with vulvas have suspected for years: bacterial vaginosis is likely sexually transmitted, and failing to treat cisgender male partners has been a major blind spot in care.

The JOST study showed that BV is the most common vaginal infection, affecting 1 in 3. It is notorious for recurring; more than half of cases relapse within a year. Many people with vulvas have noticed that BV worsens after sex, and studies have found BV-related bacteria in men.

But, because initial research only tested oral antibiotics in men (which didn’t work), the idea that BV could be sexually transmitted was largely dismissed.

Now, a major study finally proves otherwise. Researchers treated both cisgender women and their cisgender male partners using oral and topical antibiotics, and bacterial vaginosis (BV) recurrence was reduced by nearly half. The results were so clear that the study was stopped early so that all participants could access the treatment.

This is not just a victory for BV; it’s a reminder of how much we still have to learn about health.

For decades, BV treatment has focused solely on cisgender women, despite the possibility of reinfection from untreated partners. This study makes it clear that it’s time to rethink BV care and stop placing the entire burden of this condition on cisgender women.

SOURCE: Vodsticil, Lenka A et al. “Male-Partner Treatment to Prevent Recurrence of Bacterial Vaginosis.” The New England Journal of Medicine vol. 392,10 (2025): 947-957. PMID: 40043236

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40043236/

#HealthSelfDefense

Masks 101

https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/masks-101

Masks, like much of public health, is a collective action and shared responsibility. In societies where collective mask wearing is not established, people often do not want to stand out and wear a mask. But many, many people would wear masks if they knew that the majority would be wearing them too; In this case, people can get superior protection and do not risk standing out.

Our governments have given confusing messages about the use of masks, even outright discouraging it. We believe there should be widespread support from our governments, pro-mask campaigns and education, and free and affordable availability of quality masks. We still hope that these are actions taken in the future, but the failure of governments has left the responsibility on us. The good news is that each person who wears a mask has an impact on reducing transmission that is bigger than themselves.

The more interactions that contain masks, the better! So let’s do what we can to encourage mask-wearing and make it accessible. Every mask used has an impact! Masks work!

For a mask to work there are 2 things to take into account:

1. Filter quality

2. The airtight seal of the mask

The quality of the filter has to do with the percentage of protection it gives, and the seal is what makes it work. If you use a good quality glove but it has a hole, the quality of the glove takes a backseat. The same goes for masks, they must have a good seal, which means no leaks on the sides.

There are 4 types of masks:

1. Fabric

2. Surgical

3. Respirators

4.P100

Any mask is better than none, but understanding the basic science of how respirators work to protect you can help you understand why quality is so important.

1. Fabric: only protect droplets NOT aerosols

2. Surgical: they usually have 3 layers, they protect against droplets and aerosols but because they are very large they create enormous leaks and their effectiveness is low; Maximum safe use is around 3-4 hours

3. Respirators: they usually have 5 layers, they protect from droplets and aerosols; They can be used for a maximum of 25 hours (not all in a row). There are two things that are special about respirators. First, they create an airtight seal around your mouth and nose. Second, they have a static charge that attracts small particles and filters them effectively. Surgical masks have some of that static charge and filter out some particles, but they don’t create a seal. Cloth masks do not have this charge and do not have a good seal either. By filtering aerosols, respirators also filter pollution, smoke and dust.

Certified Reusable Masks: It may be discouraging to learn that reusable cloth masks are not effective in protecting us from aerosols, but there are other options to reduce your waste! Several brands make reusable respirators with disposable filters, such as Flo Mask and Envo Mask. These masks are very expensive, but they are designed to be reused and look really cool.

Valved masks release unfiltered exhaled air and increase the risk of contagion if you are sick, so valveless respirators offer better protection for the community.

1. P100: they are the ones that best protect us against fires, tear gas...

Cloth masks don’t offer very much protection at all.

Respirators provide the best protection against Covid, and they work against all variants.

There’s vast differences in inward mask leakage between N95s and other masks (and remember: leakage is what we’re trying to avoid):

· Fabric 70%

· Surgical 44.2%

· KN95 16.1%

· N95: only 0.6% (this is why they’re the safest!)

It only takes a very small amount of viral aerosol to cause an infection, which is why respirators are the best masks for preventing infection because they filter the air best and offer the best seal.

Adding a head strap (like this one) to KNP95 (OR FPP2) earloop masks can make them fit more like an NP95 (OR FPP2). It helps create a tighter seal and also takes pressure off your ears.

What does the airtight seal have to do with masks? When it is winter and you breathe and see a white color of some kind of smoke, those are your aerosols; we propagate them continuously. They move like smoke and can remain there for hours. Can’t you smell the cigarette smoke of a person smoking 5 meters away from you? The same thing happens with aerosols.

While a surgical mask can physically block airborne particles that can cause other diseases, without that seal around your face, you’d likely still breathe COVID (and other airborne diseases) if you’re exposed, and you’d be spreading it to others if you have it.

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice #HealthSelfDefense

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Long Covid isn’t a tragedy, it’s government negligence.

We must declare that life is more precious than capitalist economies.
“Solidarity is a group that stands together, and would do so for even its weakest member. It is that community which resists the intoxicating lie of individualism—we live for ourselves and by ourselves.”
-Cole Arthur Riley.

We must support our inherent right to health and dignity. COVID-19 is not mild, it is not endemic, and it is not "just a cold." COVID-19 is a serious illness that can damage every part of your body, reactivate dormant viruses, permanently damage your immune system, and disable you.

The ruling classes have a long history of witch hunts to scapegoat the sick in response to infectious disease epidemics, rather than meeting the needs of the population.

Under feudal rule in what is now Europe, the bubonic plague was blamed on the Jewish people, accused of poisoning water wells. During the early AIDS epidemic, gay and bisexual men were demonized for their sexuality outside of heterosexual, monogamous, and partnered marital relationships. The denial of the severity of the COVID and long COVID public health crisis is a denial of science based on materialism. Once they have strayed from the paved path of science, medical judgments about people who report illness, pain, and disability have nowhere to travel except in the furrows of already deep historical prejudices.

Without seeking a scientific explanation (which already exists and is still being researched), doctors too often resort to pathologizing those who are oppressed based on their race/nationality, sex, sexuality, and gender expression. This creates more obstacles for those who are oppressed to access medical care. Sick people suffer from denial of credibility, unemployment, poverty, lack of health insurance, institutionalized racism, the requirement for ID, the oppression of women, and other oppressions based on sexuality, sex, and gender. Those who are oppressed and most impoverished are also more likely to be among the countless sick and disabled people who have stopped seeking medical answers or treatment, just as so many millions have abandoned their long and fruitless search for work and dropped off the unemployment rolls.

The COVID and long-COVID pandemic leaves the most oppressed and impoverished without diagnosis, care, or treatment. Institutionalized racism results, for example, in medical photographs and descriptions of rashes and other physical signs related to COVID and long COVID being documented only in light-skinned people. The long COVID pandemic affects oppressed peoples, from Native Nations on reservations to oppressed people living in impoverished rural communities.

Furthermore, the information available on the topic is available once you begin to investigate, but in many cases, the doctors themselves who talk about long COVID give completely erroneous guidelines. Many have even said that people should exercise (not understanding the fatigue of long COVID) and that reinfections are not dangerous (when there is evidence that they are). In the end, it ends up happening like other illnesses: doctors don't center the voices of those affected and don't understand the situated knowledge of people who experience it firsthand.

Women, LGBTQ+ people, people of color, people with other chronic illnesses, and people with psychiatric conditions who push for a diagnosis are labeled "hysterical." Those who refute these "diagnoses" that are not derived from a scientific process find themselves medically labeled as "problem patients," rather than patients with an as-yet-undetermined medical problem.
The downplaying of propaganda around COVID has been IMMENSE. None of us are immune to propaganda, especially on that scale.

It's extremely normal to feel defensive when presented with a situation where your behavior doesn't align with the values you hold dear. We often want to protect ourselves from discomfort by dismissing the messenger—it happens all the time around COVID safety where people feel shame, so they accuse the messenger of shaming them. But being shamed and feeling shame are not the same thing. We're not seeking to shame; we're seeking to expose the harm being caused in the community, the facts. If those facts make you uncomfortable, that's your cognitive dissonance to process; that can be the impetus for being able to commit to community care.

We're not seeking to move through guilt. We don't believe shame is an effective motivator; in fact, we know that conviction regarding community care can't be achieved simply in conversation; it's a practice of example where we must continually fight the individualism we've been taught. We don't believe in coddling people or sending indirect messages. We believe in the struggles against eugenics, which have brought together affected groups, such as the Black Panther Party, which recognized that sickle cell anemia was a neglected genetic disease because the majority of those affected were of African descent. There was a rapid detection test based on a simple finger prick, but it wasn't widely used. Or in the case of the fight against HIV, where groups spoke about the importance of not only condom use but also syringe sterilization for addicts, in the case of prostitutes, and the violence experienced with condom use. We believe in learning from our past, practicing it, and looking to the future.

You are at risk for long COVID. It's never too late to start wearing a mask again. We have the power to protect each other. Get involved with your local mask group or clean air club. Reject eugenics, reject ableism, reject mass infection. Wearing a mask is love. Wearing a mask is community care. Wearing a mask is solidarity.

While we understand that COVID and long COVID affect the most marginalized people the most, we understand that the vulnerable/non-vulnerable dichotomy is not only a lie, but propaganda for "us" and "them" in fragility. We are all within fragility; don't buy into the narrative of immunological neoliberalism.

We can't talk about COVID without talking about the politics of desirability. They exist as a hierarchy that determines who deserves care and love. They are based on white supremacist ideals about beauty, youth, and productivity. Anyone who exists outside of these standards—any fat person, any Black person, any "non-conforming" trans person, anyone with disabilities, especially visible disabilities like facial or limb differences, the elderly, etc.—is dehumanized. Desire actively shapes systems of power and oppression. People who are deemed less desirable in a world that is actively constructed and centered on whiteness are relegated to the margins of society—invisible, or worse. This needs to be part of the conversation when we talk about eugenic policies around COVID. When we (especially white people, with invisible disabilities) talk about the ways in which high-risk people have been and continue to be discarded.

We understand the current state of COVID as one part of the larger fight against ableism. It's a much larger conversation. COVID is only one part. Ableism is global and structural. This is why we understand COVID mutual aid not as distributing masks, giving air purifiers, and helping people avoid COVID, but as the study, strategies, and practices of anti-ableism as a whole.

We must declare that life is more precious than capitalist economies. Historically, colonizers and capitalists have used plagues and pandemics as weapons to maintain domination. Today, our government and healthcare systems have allowed many people to die and become ill without doing much about it, especially in already marginalized communities. We are told to ignore how diseases can affect us and to disregard the scientific evidence that shows COVID-19 can be very dangerous. We are refusing to be sacrificed in this situation.

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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Anticapitalist Covid Conscious Reading Club

first Saturday of each month

access our discord to see the details

https://linktr.ee/HealthSelfDefense_

april 5
Moving Toward the Ugly: A Politic Beyond Desirability

may 3
The Role of Psychiatry in the Occupation of Palestine

june 7
Let Them Eat Plague!

july 5
Stop blaming people for not wearing masks and start having a political analysis of eugenics.

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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ME Has No Treatments Or Cures and There Is Lots Doctors Can Do To Help

What Does It Mean That ME Is Incurable & Untreatable?

Incurable - Only 5% of patients with ME have an improving trajectory. There is no treatment or medication that can cure someone of ME. Pacing is only effective at managing symptoms and preventing progression of the disease.

Untreatable - There are no medications that reliably improve the core functional limitation of ME: extremely lowered physical and cognitive energy and post exertional neuroimmune exhaustion in response to using more than this highly limited energy budget.

Just because an illness is untreatable and incurable does not mean there is no medical care available. For example: someone with an incurable and untreatable brain tumor may still receive palliative medications to help with muscle spasms, mobility aids to help with paralysis and so on.

—-

What Can Doctors Do To Help?

For starters, doctors should be providing emotional validation and reassurance to patients regardless of what they can do for them. But the concrete actions that doctors can take are also massive. The reason these actions are not curative or treatments for ME is because they are:

1. Diagnosing and treating something else that co-occurs with ME

☆Testing For Autoimmune Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Mold, SIBO & Gastroparesis

☆Treating Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

☆Treating Comorbid Mental Health Conditions

2. Palliative Care

☆Treating Migraine, Pain, Sleep & Nausea

☆Treating Acute Infections & Conditions

☆Treating Orthostatic Intolerance

☆Getting Disability Support & Mobility Aids

3. Not Supported By Evidence

☆Supervising Experimental Treatments

This post is in no way exhaustive of every helpful intervention a healthcare provider has access to and even more possibilities may exist depending on a person’s individual condition.

—-

Testing & Treating Commorbidities

Autoimmune Disease: Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Sjogrens / Vasculitis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Primary Immune Deficiencies, Mast Cell & Allergic Diseases, Hashimotos (and endocrine testing generally)

Dysautonomia: Postural orthostatic tachycardia, orthostatic hypotension, raynauds

Infectious Diseases: Herpes Viruses, H.Pylori, Lyme Disease, EBV reactivation or CAEBV, prescription of Valtrex, doxycycline, or other antivirals & antibiotics

Mold: Mycotoxin testing, environment testing, prescription of antifungals

SIBO & Gastroparesis: Breath testing or endoscopic sampling, gastric emptying study, prescription of antibiotics or motility-enhancing drugs.

Structural: Chiari malformation, Craniocervical instability Tethered chord, Hypermobility (EDS & HSD), Mitral valve defect, TMJ Disorder

Neurological: Hyper or hypokalemic periodic paralysis, MRI screening for tumors, MS screening (can be comorbid!)

Genetic: Mitochondrial disease (muscle biopsy also recommended if suspected), EDS & rare genetic conditions

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Treating Migraine, Pain & Nausea

Migraine: Abortative drugs such as rizatriptan to stop migraines. Preventative drugs such as beta blockers, Trazadone, CRGP inhibitors, pills or monthly injections

Pain Meds: SNRI's, nerve pain medications such as gabapentin and Lyrica, CBD / THC, opiods, NSAIDs

Sleep: Melatonin, Antidepressants, sedating pain medications, GABA agents or benzos, CBD / THC

Pain Treatments: TENS unit, Massage, Heat / Ice

Nausea: Odensatron, prochlorperazine, metoclopramide

Managing Hydration & Nutrition

Hydration: Salt pills, adaptive drinking solutions like hydrant bottles or drinking bladders, saline through feeding tubes, IV saline, hydration infusions through port or PICC lines.

Nutrition: Dietician advice accessible high nutrition low effort meals, testing for nutritional deficiencies, nutritional drinks, elemental formulas, feeding tubes & feeding tube formulas.

—-

Treating Orthostatic Intollerance

Testing for correct diagnosis of orthostatic intolerance with tilt table or NASA lean test.

Guidance on hydration & salt intake, compression stockings, heat avoidance.

Medications for tachycardia & blood pressure management including: Ivabradine, Beta Blockers, Fludrocortisone, Midodrine, Clonidine

Treating Acute Infection & Illness

DO NOT dismiss patients symptoms as simply part of ME if the patient feels they are atypical.

REMEMBER to keep in mind medication sensitivity & interactions when prescribing.

Provide at home pathology requests for blood testing including for blood cultures, inflammatory markers, and electrolyte imbalance

Prescribe antibiotics for urinary tract infections or central line infections, recognize early signs of sepsis and arrange a direct admission to hospital if necessary

Monitor chronic inflammatory conditions and manage minor skin infections, thrush, cold sores etc.

—-

Treating Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

Testing for mast cell mediators with blood and urine testing.

Dietary intervention: low histamine diet as able to accommodate within living arrangements.

Treatment of histamine intolerance with DAO & antihistamines

H1 blockers: Zyrtec, Xyzal, Claritin, Allegra, Benadryl, Hydroxyzine

H2 blockers: famotidine, cimetidine, nizatidine, rizatidine

Treatment of mast cell activation with mast cell stabilizers: quercetin, ketotifen, NAC, TQ

Treatment of asthma: Singulair, steroid inhalers

Prescription of emergency medications: Benadryl, prednisone, epipens

Treatment with biologic injections: Xolair 300mg monthly

Treatment of other autoimmune disease with biologics such as Humira may also assist

In some situations, long term prednisone or Benadryl therapy may be necessary to control symptoms.

—-

Treating Commorbid Mental Health Conditions

Illness Grief: Support groups (virtual), peer support from other chronically ill patients, informing family how they can help.

PTSD and CPTSD: Trauma-informed therapy. Nervous system regulation. EMDR therapy. Stella Ganglion Block.

Depression: Regular (weekly or as tolerated) phone therapy non-curative ACT or CBT. Antidepressant medication.

Anxiety: Psychotherapy. Regulatory exercises/breathing exercises. SSRI or SNRIs. Benzodiazapine medication.* Anti-anxiety supplements like valerian root & and passionflower extract.

ADHD: Diagnosis and management by a specialist psychologist. Option to use stimulant medications.**

Autism: Diagnosis and management by a specialist psychologist. Stim toys & accommodations. Autistic support groups. Communication aides.

OCD: Diagnosis & therapy by a trained professional. Harm reduction focusing on most physically dangerous (exertive) compulsions first.

Anorexia & EDs: Diagnosis and management under a psychiatrist and dietician. Provision of tube feeding as necessary. Extreme caution used around exercise compulsions. Providers should be skilled at dealing with both disordered eating and necessary dietary restrictions and modifications being used together.

Acute Crises: Inpatient treatment must be significantly modified to ensure patient safety including access to food and toileting aid, access to IV hydation or nutrition if used at home & exemption from mandatory activities as required for pacing. In cases where inpatient care is not possible sedation within the home may suffice. For non-mobile patients, safety may be possible simply by limiting access to materials and drugs.

*Can be addicting, may have beneficial effects on sleep and sensory overload.

**Can be harmful if they do not help hyperactivity. Should not be used to increase energy.

—-

Getting Disability Support & Mobility Aids

Wheelchairs - Prescriptions especially for expensive tilt-in-space electric wheelchairs. Encouraging wheelchair use that will improve quality of life.

Access to patient transport - Writing letters that can be used to ensure patients can get transport home from hospital if they take an ambulance. Writing letters confirming a patient's flatbound status.

Disability pensions - Writing supportive and detailed letters about a patient's diagnosis and limitations for disability applications.

School & workplace accommodations - Suggesting or supporting accommodations like flexible deadlines, excusal from physically exertive activities, access to "rest/nap rooms" (ie. Rooms where you can lie down during the school or work day), access to work from home or remote classes etc.

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Supervising Experimental Treatments

Low Dose Naltrexone - In a non-placebo controlled retrospective study of 418 ME/CFS patients, 73% reported a positive improvement in symptoms. (Olli Polo et all) A widely tested safe medication.

High Dose Benfotiamine (B1) - In a poll on health rising 60% of patients with ME/CFS/Fibromyalgia reported a positive improvement in symptoms. A widely tested safe supplement.

IVIG - A 2021 evidence review by Helen Brownlie and Nigel Speight concluded that despite currently mixed evidence "pending further research, clinicians would be justified in offering a course of IgG to selected ME/CFS patients at the more severe end of the spectrum." IVIG carries significant risk and infusions must be done under close medical supervision.

Mestinon - A number of promising studies including Open Medicine Foundations LIFT trial are being done on this drug which works on the peripheral nervous system and may improve excercise capacity. Comes with an array of side effects and overdose can be deadly.

https://www.meandmore.net/blog/me-has-no-treatments-or-curesandthere-is-lots-doctors-can-do-to-help-1

if you stopped caring about Covid) why should you still care? Because disengagement is what this system relies on. Our collective power lies in refusing to forget, in ensuring that the dead are not buried without justice. If you have any politics that align with liberation, the pandemic isn’t just a medical crisis—it’s a site of struggle. Every death, every prison left full, every person abandoned to fend for themselves amidst a plague is a reminder of what’s at stake.

There’s a deep silence settling like a layer of ash blanketing the millions of graves Covid-19 has already filled. This silence isn’t natural—it’s produced. Not from exhaustion alone, but from deliberate choices made by those in power to make us forget. Forget the losses. Forget the survivors. Forget that any of this could have gone differently. But the pandemic continues to rage, pulling lives from the present—not just the future—and in its wake, the systems that fuel this devastation persist.

Since 2020, the global pandemic has killed millions, disabled millions more, particularly concentrated among the working class, and poor, disabled, and incarcerated people. But we’re told that the real issue is “pandemic fatigue,” “learning loss,” and not being able to see each other’s smiles when we’re wearing masks.

We’re bombarded with narratives demanding we return to normal, get back to work, and stop resisting—if you do not comply you are shunned, punished, and we are all constantly forcibly exposed to a virus that devastates the body the more times you interact with it. This ideological sleight of hand masks the truth: the pandemic isn’t over because the structures responsible for it aren’t either. Instead, they’ve adapted, entrenched themselves deeper, and capitalized on our growing numbness.

Structural Violence and the Pandemic: An Update on Our Collective Reality (substack.com)
https://blindarchive.substack.com/p/structural-violence-and-the-pandemic

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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