Some Taylor Swift fans are embracing COVID as just one more concert "souvenir," and some, according to SCMP, are even calling it a "gift" from "Mother."
While Taylor Swift can't be blamed for this wave of COVID, her massive shows certainly aren't helping. As I shared last month, Spain had a huge increase in COVID cases in mid-June, when Madrid announced a 43.2% positivity rate, which many speculated was at least partly due to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour stopping in Madrid at the end May. Paris also saw rates of COVID increase earlier in May after Swift's shows there. And so did Ireland.
As if these super spreader events aren't bad enough in and of themselves, what's even worse is that SCMP recently reported that some Taylor Swift fans who have gotten COVID at her concerts are calling it a "gift" from "Mother."
A post on X from a Spanish Taylor Swift fan account asked followers: "Did you go to #MadridTStheErasTour and take Covid, a virus, or a cold with you as a souvenir? I open a survey."
Of the nearly 10,800 votes, 35 per cent voted yes. People in the poll's comments section described their symptoms and showed their positive Covid-19 tests – but also raved about how they thought it was worth it.
SCMP
SCMP also includes some quotes from Swifties, including this one from a fan who has seemingly suffered greatly from COVID but who insists that going to the concert was worth it: "Going to Taylor's concert has meant losing my voice, losing my mental health and, well, my health in general, I'm more dead than alive (but I would go to the concert a thousand more times)."
I just don't get it, especially as there are more than 24,000 studies of long COVID, and the consensus is that COVID is definitely not just a cold. According to a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—commissioned by the Social Security Administration, which sought to understand how long COVID will impact disability benefits—long COVID "is a complex chronic condition that can result in more than 200 health effects across multiple body systems."
This response on the Swiftie COVID poll, which, when I checked on Tuesday afternoon, currently has 145.7k views, very clearly sums up my feelings about the matter:
"Taylor Swift's concert attendees are calling their COVID infections 'souvenirs' and 'gifts' from 'Mother,' and I'm supposed to NOT wanna launch myself into the sun???"
Stay safe in this COVID wave, friends. And if you decide to attend any concert anywhere on this planet, please protect yourself and others by wearing a good respirator!
Previously:
• An AI illustrates Taylor Swift in the style of different comic book artists
• Taylor Swift threatens to sue social media account posting the public information about where her private jet is
• Taylor Swift escapes her enclosure at Sacramento Zoo
• Taylor Swift video rotoscoped into complete insanity by 49 animation students
• Taylor Swift fan discovers 'cursed' vinyl copy with songs about 'flakes of flesh'
