I Dunno-- 2020

[moon_custafer]

I was confused by this article, about an Australian company marketing face masks as protection against air pollution, making no mention of viruses— I kept checking to see if it was from a few years back, but the date of publication was January 2020.

Then I remembered that back in January we weren’t yet masking against covid, but Australia was on fire.

Comments

[dewline]

Yep. Different times, different needs.

[sovay]

Then I remembered that back in January we weren’t yet masking against covid, but Australia was on fire.

The thing where Australia being on fire has somehow receded into the distant past is completely unreasonable.

[lilysea]

Yes. I wasn't in the affected parts of Australia - I'm on the other side of the continent on the West Coast, the fires were on the East Coast and the South Coast -

but I remember the local news coverage

an older woman getting off a plane at Canberra airport and literally dropping dead on the tarmac/runway from the smoke pollution before she had even made it inside the airport terminal

Australia Post suspending all mail deliveries in Canberra for weeks because the smoke was too bad for the posties to safely do deliveries [they use motorbikes and go along the footpaths]

a woman having a very late term miscarriage in Canberra because of the smoke

Oh, and Canberra didn't even have any fires of its own at the time of all of the above - that was just the smoke pollution blowing in from the fires in neighboring states like Victoria and New South Wales...

[sabotabby]

fuckssake