@luckytran This is what a Republican congress does. ⬆️ Every #COVID post from now on should also be tagged #VoteBlue#Vote#Biden The cat is to remind you of how the MAGA views vaccines and the Rs in congress that are happy to let them. Rs want to fund billionaire tax cuts, Dems want to fund #healthcare. #CovidIsNotOver#CatsOfMastodon#GOP
NC are proposing a bill to ban masks (including medical masks) in public settings. This is not only discriminatory - it’s dangerous. It’s removing the LAST tool we have to protect against COVID.
It also sets dangerous precedent & fuels damaging narratives about COVID.
The proposed bill would see all masks banned in public settings. If a person requires a mask - they would need to have a medical exemption. Disabled people are exhausted. We’ve been forced into dangerous situations for 4 years thanks to “you do you” COVID policy.
To now expect us to do additional work to procure a medical exemption just to be able to wear a respirator to help us prevent death or further disability? It’s unnecessarily cruel. Doctor’s appts & notes cost money. They’re not accessible to everyone.
COVID mitigation is already a significant social justice issue. By virtue of the fact our governments and public health have done nothing to protect people - individuals are left to procure protection for themselves. This protection isn’t affordable for everyone.
Respirators, HEPA filters, rapid tests, far UV… all these tools are out of financial reach for many people. We have fantastic organizations attempting to get respirators into the hands of those who need them - but some people are always left behind.
Now we’re adding an additional barrier by putting the burden of proof that a mask is required on the disabled individual. We’re forcing them to risk exposure to go to a doctor, spend money out of pocket for a note and then carry it around in the hopes they don’t get arrested?
If governments and public health would take Covid more seriously -
People wouldn’t need to don respirators nearly as often. But when the powers that be take away access to vaccines & anti-virals, refuse to clean the air, provide testing or paid sick leave? We have no choice.
Even if everything goes perfectly (which rarely happens) and a person has access to a respirator, can afford to see a doctor & obtain medical exemption… there’s still a good chance they’ll be forced to remove their mask while law enforcement analyze the exemption’s legitimacy
COVID infects extremely quickly. Breaking the seal on your respirator - even briefly - can result in infection. We’re asking people to jump through an inordinate amount of hoops and spend ridiculous amounts of money only to quite possibly end up infected anyways.
There’s also a bigger issue that stems from the idea that the “medically vulnerable” can and should obtain an exemption. It continues to drive the narrative that Covid is ONLY a threat to people who are already vulnerable. Which we know is untrue.
COVID is a multi system disease that has a 10% chance of causing disability. The odds of Long Covid go up with each infection. It’s not 10% in those that are already vulnerable - it’s everyone. Many young & healthy people have had their lives ruined by this disease.
The lie that only the vulnerable need to be concerned is one of the most devastating of the pandemic. People are getting infected over & over & think they’ve “gotten away with it”….When there’s good odds that they’ve got silent damage & their next infection will disable them
It also propagates the notion that the vulnerable are expendable. That it’s ok if we die or become further disabled because the rest of the world needs to “go back to normal”. There’s nothing normal about a society that turns its back on others.
This desperation to return to the way the world was in 2019 is quite literally killing people. It’s ruining lives. It’s dividing people, straining healthcare systems and causing long term health consequences that will have ripple effects for decades to come.
This NC bill to ban masks is just the latest in a string of terrible decisions that are costing lives. And it didn’t have to be this way. Had we admitted Covid was airborne and worked to implement clean air standards - we wouldn’t be in such a dire situation now.
US Department of Health and Human Services is proposing a new rule requiring hospitals to electronically report cases of respiratory illness such as COVID-19 on a weekly basis, even in the absence of a declared public health emergency.
Public comments on whether to adopt this policy are open.
A great article from Julia Doubleday about our failed pandemic response. “Forever reinfections” is not the way out of pandemic.
I weep for lack of common sense these days. Herd immunity is NOT coming to save us & I want to know how many infections people need to get before they realize?
@GottaLaff Yeah, I just called about getting a booster and the CVS near me where I got my others didn't have it...had to call around to find a booster and they only had Moderna which I prefer anyway because it's supposed to last longer. There are some new variants going around and some scientists predicting a summer surge. #CovidIsNotOver
Disabled people are not ok. The pandemic has turned society against us (even more than before).
People were quietly ableist before. Now they’re openly hateful.
It was hard to access healthcare before. Now it’s impossible.
It was lonely before. Now it’s a pit of despair
It’s been an incredibly difficult 4 years for disabled and vulnerable individuals. We’ve had to endure terror of knowing we will be triaged out of medical care if system is overwhelmed, have DNRs forced on us & are witnessing aggressive expansion of medically assisted death
We’ve watched as the world clamours to get “back to normal” while completely leaving us behind. We are told to “just stay home” because people don’t want to push for clean air initiatives and can’t be bothered to mask.
Even in hospitals - the one place we have no choice but to go - masking is not required & you run the risk of being labeled difficult or anxious for requesting a HCW mask in your presence. We’re expected to just go along and risk our health & baseline for the comfort of others
When we speak up - we’re shouted down by people who are utterly convinced that the pandemic is over and there’s no risk. We’re told we’re wrong, exaggerating, hypochondriacs or worse. We endure endless trolling & criticism for just wanting to survive.
It didn’t used to be like this. Ableism has always existed - but it was never as aggressively in your face as it is now. People are experiencing trauma from Covid… and rather than cope with it they seem to be lashing out at disabled individuals.
I don’t know if it’s because many mitigations were sold as a means of protecting the vulnerable - or maybe it’s just because we represent a reality people can’t face.
That health is not a permanent state. That Covid is not over and that anyone can become disabled at any time
Whatever the reason - the result is the same. A society that treats disabled people as “less than”. That wants us out of sight & out of mind and that won’t do the bare minimum to protect us. That look the other way when we tell them eugenicist policies are going to end lives
It’s exhausting and terrifying and sad. I’m tired. We are ALL tired. Yet so many of us spend whatever incredibly limited energy we have continuing to advocate for safe public spaces, safe healthcare and an end to eugenics. We fight for equality. And we need allies.
Please remember this the next time you’re entering a public space without a mask. Or tempted to mock a vulnerable person for wearing one. Or accessing healthcare. If it’s easy for you access care - try and imagine how scary it would be if it wasn’t.
Try and have compassion and empathy for people who are different than you. Try and face the difficult truth that one day you too will be disabled - and when that day comes you will want to be treated better than we are currently being treated.
I promise you it’s far easier to advocate from a position of health & strength… so join us. Be our allies. Listen & believe us when we tell stories of unsafe spaces, eugenics and discrimination. Help us change things so that everyone will be better off. /end
"So much of this, as other writers have said, is about class in America. The Times’ Covid coverage has frequently tilted toward the needs of white and wealthy readers—ones who could sequester away at home or in their country houses during the height of the pandemic, whose kids went to schools with new ventilation systems and Covid testing and for whom the pandemic response was just good enough."
4 years ago today, Dr. Fauci contradicted Trump's claim that Covid would magically go away before the fall. After that, Fauci was sidelined from public briefings & barred from speaking to press.
During the greatest national crisis of our time, all Trump cared about was his ego
@rbreich Three years ago next month, shortly before the Delta wave got underway in the U.S., President Ice Cream told the country, "If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask." Tens of thousands of people, many of them fully vaccinated, needlessly died in that wave. The following year, he falsely claimed that "the pandemic is over." King Daddy Biden has never apologized or corrected himself. Robert, why do you insist on avoiding the truth? #Covid#CovidIsNotOver
@rbreich Yet another person pushing the bullshit "covid is over" narrative. Biden is doing the same thing Trump did right now. That has never ended. Don't talk like it ever has.
Lying about reality because it is politically inconvenient is never okay, no matter how hip his administration makes it. Not even when the letter by his name is a D instead of an R. All that does is feed denial, & promoting that has real world consequences that will continue to get worse.
An old practice from #AIDS movements that I think we should try out for this pandemic: at the beginning of events, inviting audiences to call out the names of people who aren’t here because of the virus. Covid deaths, long covid, people sick today, immuno-inaccessible events, caregivers, etc. It’s so hidden, people think they don’t know anyone despite the huge numbers.
“People have gone back to coughing into their hands and then shaking hands with other people. Mask-wearing has disappeared. We are going back to our old bad habits. We may come to regret that.”
Reminder: One of the best ways to prevent the next pandemic is to stop being in denial about the one that is ongoing.
We also hope May will be a lower-Covid month. But by taking mitigation steps as a matter of course, we hope we can have a successful conference while acknowledging the new-normal.
(Thanks @phpledge for giving us some language & ideas to work with! And to some attendees who asked us about Covid policy, which made it easier for me to push a little from inside, too.)
Another train trip with at least two sick people in the carriage coughing their heart and lung out. Mine is the only mask anywhere to be seen. Covid or something else - People just really think it’s not an issue to make others sick. I’m having a hard time accepting this and I do have the urge to go there and yell at them. But I would be seen as the unreasonable person. It’s sad 😷 #CovidIsNotOver#COVIDisAirborne#MaskUp
This person Kim is unaware of the reality of COVID or is a minimizer / believer in eugenics. Or is just delusional.
“In the first few years, the virus had a huge advantage in that none of our immune systems knew what to do with it, but now it’s been out a while and because so many people have the vaccines or had COVID, it seems like our immunity is kind of coming into balance with the virus.” Kim said."
"According to economist Steven Rattner of Morning Joe, the United States has now had 26 consecutive months—more than two years—of unemployment under 4%, the longest stretch of unemployment that low since the late 1960s.
Rattner pointed out that immigrants have helped to push U.S. growth since the pandemic by adding millions of new workers to the labor market."