Xcancel link for tweet

(in case there’s any doubt that the damage is a result of COVID, here’s an older clip where she says that explicitly)

The reason I’m posting this is that it was interesting to see the reaction from fans on reddit:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Hololive/comments/1mlgshl/calli_getting_covid_last_year_has_permanently/

I was actually surprised to see some fairly decent comments right there at the top about how COVID is still an issue, how Long COVID affects a large proportion of people, and various people sharing their struggles with both acute and chronic COVID. Of course, the bar is in hell—there are only two comments encouraging people to mask up—but this is genuinely the best discussion I’ve seen outside of COVID conscious spaces in ages.

I would love to see this create a shift in attitudes in the VTuber community, but I think that would have to start at the head, and I don’t see that happening for two reasons.

First, Calli is known for being an absolute workaholic who grinds and grinds and grinds. It would be awesome if she became a disability advocate, but I just don’t see it happening based on her personality. For her sake, I just hope her doctors are properly informed about COVID and that she listens to their advice.

But secondly, I cannot imagine Hololive would want any of their members to even suggest that COVID is still a serious public health threat. Because if that’s the case, then every single in-person event that Hololive holds is putting their talents and their fans at risk for the sake of the almighty yen. As I’m sure you all know, the implications of this are far-reaching, which is why the public has not been allowed to consider them. I’m reminded of that one court decision in California a few years back that indemnified employers against liability for “take-home” COVID infections among their employees and the people their employees come in contact with outside the workplace:

“Even limiting a duty of care to employees’ household members, the pool of potential plaintiffs would be enormous, numbering not thousands but millions of Californians,” Justice Carol Corrigan wrote for the court.

“Hmm, is this an indication that there’s something deeply flawed with our public health policy? No, it’s the employees who are wrong!”

After every single VTuber event—concert, convention, what-have-you—I inevitably see people contracting COVID, and then some portion of them suffering long term disabilities. Calli is not the first high profile VTuber to talk about her long term issues; her coworker Mumei left the company recently as a result of debilitating long COVID symptoms (unlike most people who leave, she has not started streaming independently, almost certainly due to these health issues), and the two (former) VShojo talents Henya and Haruka have both taken extended hiatuses due to COVID sequelae.

I’ve said this before, but it makes me feel insane that VTubers have the perfect occupation to allow them to very tightly control their exposure to COVID—something most people could only dream of—and yet they are constantly flinging themselves into extremely high-risk environments. Of course, if they’re not masking up anywhere, there’s nothing stopping them from catching it outside of work; indeed, Henya and Haruka are both examples of people who acquired long COVID without participating in any of those large events, to my knowledge. That said, VTubers tend to be homebodies, so they’d still have a lower probability than the average person due to fewer exposures.

edit: I wrote “Xcancel” but forgot to actually make it an Xcancel link…fixed.