Increasing Deposits due to Increasing Illnesses
I’m increasing my required deposit, as I’ve had several sessions unable to happen due to others testing positive for covid. My required deposit is now $150 for 1 hour session, plus an additional $100/hr for each planned hour to follow. This deposit must be paid via venmo ( @PayMissEee ) or cashapp ( $PayEee ). If venmo or cashapp aren’t possible, then I can take electronic gift cards to Twin Cities Leather, Smitten Kitten, or Thrift Books, though I will only deduct my $100 of that from the session fee, as I can’t pay my bills with gift cards.
I’d like to share a bit more info. This first part will be what I posted on Bluesky and Instagram. An estimated 20-40% of covid cases are asymptomatic (though asymptomatic cases also cause damage to the brain, heart, and esp immune system), and there’s just as much, or more, covid going around as there was in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Take steps to avoid getting covid to avoid losing your deposit. What steps can you take? I'm so glad you asked. Here are some great ways to reduce the risk of getting covid! Bonus, a lot of these help you to not get sick with other illnesses too.
1. Wearing a respirator (N95, KN95, or better filtration) offers YOU the best protection from others. Any mask is better than none, though. Key places to mask are medical settings, public transit, other indoor spaces. Because covid (and flu and rsv) are airborn, distancing doesnt help much indoors.
2. Asking people to test before gatherings is a great way to reduce the risk that someone has (and can spread) covid. Rapid at home tests are not super accurate, but they're better than nothing. Swabbing the throat before the nose, but otherwise following the instructions, increases accuracy.
3. Don't hang out with people who feel sick. This seems obvious but people do it all the time. Drop some soup or tea off to your friend, and then have a phone call or reschedule hanging out for another time.
4. HEPA filters and Corsi-Rosenthal boxes to clean the air! Airborne illnesses spread via the air (and move and linger through the air similar to smoke or spray paint), so cleaning the air helps get rid of them. Corsi-Rosenthals are fairly easy to DIY, but there are lots of ready-to-buy options too.
5. Cleaning the air is great, but where? Some good places to put an air filter/C-Rbox: Your workplace, ideally in meeting rooms and/or near your workspace; Home, in gathering areas like dining room or living room, or in bedrooms; Your kids' schools - ask teachers if you can donate a filter.
6. Keep an eye on wastewater data. It has a fairly strong correlation with cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, and shows patterns even when testing isn't happening. During high levels of wastewater numbers, you might choose less indoor dining or fewer indoor gatherings.
7. We talked about rapid at-home tests, but PCR tests are much more accurate. Many cities still have some free PCR testing available. There's one place in the twin cities still offering it, with no appointment required. Try getting PCR tested before get togethers, travel, or even regularly!
8. For some fucking reason this is controversial but getting your yearly booster shot is an easy, one time way to help prevent some illness, hugely reduce risk of hospitalization or death, and reduces some of the risk and severity of some of the long term issues getting the rona can cause.
Some sickness is inevitable in life. However, many of the 100,000 deaths per year in the USA due to SARS-CoV-2 are preventable with a little bit of forethought and effort. As is much of the skyrocketing increase in post viral illnesses and disability. Let’s take steps together! Plus, we can’t do kinky BDSM things if you’re sick. And if you show up to the appointment and are positive on the test, you’ll lose your deposit on an appointment, and we’ll have to reschedule. This will take forever because I’m slow at emails and my schedule regularly fills up. That seems worth a little bit of prophylactic action.
Now, none of this is all-or-nothing. Like many things in life, it’s way cooler and better to try and do a little bit than do nothing at all. Maybe you don’t wear a mask at work or while at the gym, even though those might be crowded indoor spaces. It’s still super great to wear a mask at medical appointments, the drugstore, the airport, and so on. Maybe you can’t afford quality masks or forget sometimes. The really cool thing about public health and infectious diseases is that EVERY infection that doesn’t happen or get passed on has an EXPONENTIAL effect. If you don’t remember your graphs and stuff very well, that means it is NOT linear. You’re not just helping one other person. You’re keeping one or two or five people from getting sick, and those one or two or five people go on to not get another one or two or five people sick as well.
As for affording masks and tests: it sucks that we don’t get free covid tests anymore. I am fortunate enough that I can eat the cost of buying tests for me and my loved ones, and I consider the cost of tests to be part of the cost of hosting unmasked social gatherings. I don’t LOVE doing that and it means buying fewer toys, less takeout, skipping some lingerie and fetishwear purchases, etc. But there are lots of people out there who are providing free masks, free tests, and even loaning out air filters! We have a local mask bloc, https://linktr.ee/maskblocMSP that helps with distributing masks and tests. And we have a local community center offering free PCR testing Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Saturday in Minneapolis. Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment or whatever asking questions, asking for sources, and so on! I love sharing information, and not sharing germs.