It’s time to stock up on masks, hoard toilet paper, and cancel your social plans. The warning signs are coming in: COVID-19 isn’t messing around anymore, and we’ve apparently got enough Yankee Candle one-star reviews to prove it.
For one, the government is now reintroducing free rapid COVID tests. Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced that it will send four free COVID tests your way if you apply via the COVID.gov website. You can register for your free COVID tests on Monday, Sept. 25, and the site also lets you check if your old dusty, untouched COVID tests are still usable.
Didn’t realize you could order more COVID tests again? You’re not alone. Many Twitter (sorry, X) users first heard about the new offering via Wario64, a Twitter account advertising video game deals via affiliate links.
“I still can’t believe that, for the 4th time, I find out about free COVID tests not from the government, but from the same guy I get cheap games from,” content creator Luis Illingworth said.
Another wave of Yankee Candle reviews?
Meanwhile, a viral tweet from this week claims Yankee Candle customers on Amazon are not happy with their scented candles again. For many Twitter users, that’s not a good sign, as loss of smell was a common COVID symptom early in the pandemic.
“Another COVID wave, another wave of one star Yankee Candle reviews,” Twitter user @CrappyFumes tweeted. Posts from early and mid-September show buyers complaining that their candle “does not give off an aroma” and, in one case, a Harvest scent candle “has no scent even after burning for three hours.”
A quick look through Yankee Candle pages on both Amazon and the official Yankee Candle site reveals one-star reviews are not exactly flooding every single candle page at the moment. But users are still complaining here and there about a faint (or outright missing) aroma with their candles.
This checks out, as loss of smell is not nearly as common with COVID-19 infections at this point in time. A CBS report states loss of smell was seen in only three to four percent of Omicron cases, down from approximately half of infections during the start of the pandemic. It’s also entirely possible that the occasional Yankee Candle complaint is legitimate, and doesn’t have anything to do with COVID messing with your sense of smell.
Nonetheless, for a lot of people who erroneously thought COVID-19 was a thing of the past, the government’s free COVID tests are a harrowing sign that shit is about to hit the fan. While the U.S. saw a drop in COVID hospital admission rates since January 2023, hospitals have been taking in more and more patients for the coronavirus since July, according to U.S. News.
So if you’ve fallen behind on your COVID vaccinations, you might want to chat with your doctor about that sooner rather than later. Doubly so if you’re one of those three to four percent of patients who can’t enjoy Yankee Candle anymore.
(featured image: Greenville, North Carolina)
Published: Sep 22, 2023 02:51 pm