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#COVIDisAirborne
It’s International Long Covid Awareness Day, and my latest article looks at the reasons why people believe they don’t know anyone with Long Covid.
We desperately need increased visibility into this debilitating chronic illness so that we can raise awareness and fund treatments, mitigations and cures.
Anyone can get Long Covid. It’s not limited to ‘only the vulnerable’ or those who had a severe initial infection.
This disease does not discriminate. Even people with asymptomatic initial infections have found themselves disabled by Long Covid.
It’s time we start processing the trauma of the pandemic and stop living in denial.
We are in the middle of a mass disabling event, and the longer it takes us to admit that, the more people will be harmed.
Let’s spread the word that the only way to avoid Long Covid is to avoid getting Covid in the first place.
Wear a mask. Stay home when sick. Clean and ventilate the air.
When we all agree to care about the air we share, we can begin to bring about real change.
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/i-dont-know-anyone-with-long-covid
"The act of forgetting has always been a tool of oppression. We cannot adequately resist that which has been revised, erased, or forgotten by our community members. But few will acknowledge that this is happening with COVID. Just as one may utter that “slavery was back then, get over it”, when we use verbiage like “post-pandemic” we are rendering oppression as a static past event rather than an ever-evolving present that shapes our shared future. This tactic has always been useful to those who wish to profit off of our suffering and the cycle will continue to repeat if we do not acknowledge and act on the truth of our current reality. If we do not reckon with our failures to each other around COVID and do the work to remedy it, are we better than those who try to ban our people’s histories’ from the schools? We aid in the crusade to forget every day when we do not consider the pandemic as both current and deadly."
~V. Copeland
https://forgeorganizing.org/article/reflecting-on-covid-year-5/
I wrote a guest article for Healthy Debate that looks at why we need mandatory masks in healthcare, why surgical masks aren’t enough, and how the mounting threats to public health are putting lives at risk.
If you’re a healthcare worker, mask up.
Show us you take your oath to “do no harm” seriously
https://healthydebate.ca/2025/03/topic/wear-mask-plea-health-care-workers/
Today marks the five year anniversary of Covid being declared a pandemic. Some things I want people to remember:
The threat is not gone. People are still dying and becoming disabled every single day
COVID is airborne. It’s always been airborne. Droplet transmission was pushed incorrectly & then doubled down on for economic reasons. If governments admit it’s airborne, they have to spend money upgrading air quality and providing respirators etc.
The only way to avoid Long Covid is to not get Covid.
A well fitted respirator like an N95 offers excellent personal protection
Mask mandates belong in healthcare
If you’re not masking for your patient, you’re abdicating your responsibility to do no harm
It costs nothing to open a window and it will improve ventilation and reduce odds of viral spread. Air purifiers work well too
COVID is a social justice issue. Masks, tests, air filters, paid time off… these things all cost money. The disease disproportionately impacts those who are most vulnerable and multiple marginalized
Repeat infections don’t make you stronger. They don’t give you immunity. They actually harm your brain, heart and immune system. They’re also NOT inevitable
Kids are harmed by COVID too. They need the adults to protect them. We need clean in schools and on school buses
We went “back to normal” for capitalism. It wasn’t because it was safe. It wasn’t because there was a cure. Governments and those in power Are willing to sacrifice us to keep end stage capitalism afloat a little longer
Repeat infections are NOT inevitable. We can still curb the spread. We don’t have to accept constant sickness and disability as our new normal.
May we be in a much better place five years from now than we are today.
If you know someone suffering from Long Covid, reach out to them. Ask them how you can support them. Remind them they’ve not been forgotten. Wear a mask for them. They are counting on you.
For years, folks looked the other way as millions died or became disabled by Covid. They shouted “your health is not my responsibility” or “only the vulnerable” were at risk.
This callous disregard for human life has desensitized us. It helped pave the way for the current atrocities.
You can’t label a group of people expendable and not have it change you.
You can’t turn away in the face of evil and not pay a price.
Wear a mask. Protect one another. Resist.
Stand up for anyone & everyone who’s different than you. Fight for their rights.
Don’t wait until it happens to you.
Pandemics change people. We aren’t used to dealing with the mass death, disability & uncertainty that comes with them.
Unfortunately due to technology & misinformation, society is choosing NOT to process its collective trauma.
Most people are firmly in denial about COVID, and many are grasping on to conspiracy theories and harmful rhetoric in order to return to their 2019 version of “normal”.
That denial is changing us. Refusing to deal with trauma has consequences.
We’re becoming more detached, reckless and apathetic.
There’s still time to change. It starts with acknowledging that the threat has not passed and we all need to do our part to protect our health & the health of those around us.
We have to begin to adapt so that we can heal.
@pixouls Thank you for sharing the photographs from the fungus class. Masked mushroom classes at the library will save the world. #mushrooms, #MaskUp, #COVIDisAirborne.
“I don’t know anyone with Long Covid!”
I promise you that you do.
Long Covid is an invisible illness. You won’t know someone is impacted unless they choose to tell you.
Many folks hide their disabilities because the world is NOT kind to disabled people. Be an ally. Be someone we can confide in.
Also, allow for the possibility that the person with Long Covid could be you.
We’ve done a terrible job educating people on what long COVID is & how it presents. Denial runs deep. people have it & either don’t know it or are writing it off as aging, menopause, stress etc.
My next article will focus on Long Covid awareness, politicization and denial.
#longcovid #covidisairborne #covidisnotover #disability #ableism #chronicillness
It’s hard to believe it’s been half a decade since the first cases of Long Covid were reported
I remember reading about it and thinking that the sheer size & scope of the problem would mean real progress in the treatment and recognition of complex chronic illness.
As someone who was suffering from POTS and MCAS, I had hope that COVID would mean medical breakthroughs. Better treatment. Faster time to diagnosis. More effective preventative care. Perhaps even a cure.
I was so wrong.
I’ve watched as Long Covid patients experience the same gaslighting, mistreatment and diagnostic delays as those who came before them.
Not only have we not seen improvements in the way chronic illness patients are treated, we now have 400 million MORE sick patients and nowhere near enough doctors to treat them.
Wear a mask. Protect your health. Support people with disabilities. We need it.
USA:
"59% of Americans believe the COVID-19 pandemic is over, while 41% think it’s not."
"47% of U.S. adults said their lives are fully back to pre-pandemic normal, while 40% said they think life will never get back to normal."
"More than 7 in 10 U.S. adults, 72%, reported having contracted COVID-19 at some point since 2020, while 28% say they have never had it."
#COVIDisNotOVER #COVIDIsAirborne
Source: https://www.livenowfox.com/news/americans-say-covid-pandemic-over-5-years-later
There’s measles outbreaks in multiple States now, and every time a new cluster is announced there’s an exposure at an ER
Why? Because that’s where the sick people go
It’s one of the reasons disabled people often say they won’t go to the ER unless literally dying.
They’re not safe places for us:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/i-wont-go-to-the-er-unless-im-literally
Never underestimate the power of wearing a mask. It’s a simple and safe act of compassion, resistance and self care.
Sick of being sick? Wear a mask.
Have a vulnerable loved one you want to protect? Wear a mask.
Work in healthcare and want to protect your patients? Wear a mask.
Want to fight fascists? Wear a mask.
Worried about low vaccination rates bringing back measles, polio and other eradicated diseases? Wear a mask.
Want to resist and keep your activism virus free? You guessed it, wear a mask.
When worn correctly, they’re highly effective. Trump and Vance are as anti-mask as they come, so we need as many people as possible masking in solidarity.
Let’s keep people healthy while normalizing them as an important tool in the fight against disease AND fascism.
“Take off your mask so I can see your pretty face”
“You won’t catch covid HERE! You can take off your mask”
“You seem anxious about Covid”
“Why are you masking? Are you sick?”
Lack of mask mandates in healthcare means patients are judged, mistreated & harmed when trying to access care.
Hospital acquired COVID has a 10% mortality rate. Patients are going in for necessary care and losing their lives or ending up disabled.
Healthcare workers are burned out, sick and exhausted.
The current situation is not sustainable.
We know how to reduce (if not eliminate) COVID and other hospital acquired infections.
So why aren’t we doing it?
My latest articles looks at masking in healthcare from the patient perspective. The challenges, the struggles, the avoidable infections and the trauma that comes from having healthcare workers abdicate their responsibility to “do no harm”
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-need-mandatory-masking-in-healthcare
Patients have been bearing the brunt of infection control in hospitals, having to go to great lengths to protect themselves and their loved ones.
They’re unfairly judged, psychologized and mistreated for masking and/or requesting staff mask.
Covid is still here. It’s still killing and disabling people. We’re also seeing outbreaks of tuberculosis, measles and the worst flu season in over a decade.
Public health is being systematically dismantled and gagged by the Trump administration, allowing misinformation and disinformation to flourish and putting even more lives at risk.
Why don’t we have mandatory masking in healthcare? Why are we killing and disabling patients who go there for help? Who can’t ‘just stay home’?
The second article in my Masks in Healthcare series looks at patient stories, retaliation, and what we can do to make hospitals safer for everyone.
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-need-mandatory-masking-in-healthcare
RFK Jr finally recommends vaccination to deal with the measles outbreak hitting Texas right now.
This is quite the about face for a man who’s been spreading harmful anti-vaxx rhetoric for years.
Just a few days ago he was minimizing the outbreak by saying it was “normal” and recommending vitamin A.
What changed? Not going to lie… my initial thought was “it must be really bad if RFK Jr is pushing the vaccine”
Please folks, get your boosters. Wear a mask. Clean the air. Protect your health & the health of those around you.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/03/kennedy-jr-measles-outbreak-vaccine
The fascist oligarchs want us to hate each other. They’re trying to condition us to accept atrocities. To stop caring. To throw people away.
The Covid pandemic accelerated this. It supercharged the idea that there are entire groups of people who are not worthy of protection. Not worthy of life. Acceptable losses.
If we don’t start acknowledging that and changing the narrative, the hate and division will only continue to grow.
One way you can do this? Wear a mask. Stand in solidarity with vulnerable people. Protect your health and the health of those around you.
Heartwarming aspects of this Sci-Fi dystopia:
* Rebel forest rangers
* Fursuited public-interest cryptographers
* Librarian dark networks
* Everyday people doing distributed archiving
* Doctors of the Resistance
RIGHT NOW THIS IS EXCITING! 
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/ucsfapathy/
An unvaccinated child died of measles today, the first such death in almost ten years in the United States.
The FDA just cancelled an advisory meeting to discuss next season’s flu shots, mere days after a CDC vaccine advisory meeting was also cancelled.
RFK Jr is anti vaccine and anti science. His appointment to the head of HHS will have devastating consequences.
If you’re not up to date on your boosters, get them now.
If you’re unsure, talk with your doctor.
No matter what happens, remember that a well fitted mask like an N95 can provide excellent protection against airborne viruses and bacteria.
It’s time to mask up.
