Thanks for asking. A covid safe setting is one where mitigations are in place to contain the spread of covid. This includes but is not limited to: universal masking in n95/kn95 masks, sufficient ventilation and filtration of the air to reduce the virus floating around, limited time indoors to reduce exposure, workers staying home when ill. So, pretty simple things that have together reduce ones chances of getting covid.

Most places have not achieved this, or stopped doing so if they did. I’m glad you and you’re pharmacists mask, but that is bare minimum and sadly not a universal experience. Many people live in places where there is no masking from others and any requests for it are denied, even though that’s illegal under ADA. Masks are also just one tool that can be used to stop spread and should not be the primary method used.

And also, no they aren’t available at any pharmacy for free. They’re available at some pharmacies, if covered by insurance or you’ve applied through the bridge program, but still unlikely to be administered in a covid safe setting. If the vaccine is nearby and covered but I’ll get covid while there, that is not accessible. The existence of the vaccines is barely anything towards actually controlling covid and reducing its impact on society and the ability of people who don’t want to get it to access society.

And let’s remember, the vaccines help prevent the worst case scenario of hospitalization and death. They do not prevent infection, stop you from spreading the virus, or nullify the damage covid does to your body.

Thanks for the link, it’s a good piece. And I definitely agree on it being an intentional path by our government not a failing per se. It’s not just the disabled that are and always have been afterthoughts, it’s everyone. Covid’s lasting damage is well-known, but that’s your problem not theirs, they have mitigations in place for themselves and the best care available if needed.

It’s very little but if you’re US based and want to remind your state officials that they’re killing people with their negligence, a group I organize with has a letter to send them about masking in healthcare. I really hope that this year we see actual progress on addressing covid instead of just ignoring it. We’re in the second highest ever surge currently, a lot of people are going to be sicker by November.

Same. I don’t even know how to respond to questions like this. It’s such a failure of our governments that people think loss of taste and smell from an infection years ago is the only lasting impact they’re experiencing. It’s a vascular disease that can damage every organ in the body and we’re being forced to experience repeat infections. Unfortunately most won’t realize what is happening until after it does, and there’s very few treatments and even little care for prevention.

I’m a disabled organizer focused on covid issues, and every day I hear constantly from people about the barriers covid has to their lives. Some are new barriers like new health conditions, increased precarity, and rising debt. Others are finding existing issues that were already hard to navigate become near insurmountable. Many of us haven’t had regular healthcare in years due to lack of covid safety or the system’s complete overwhelm. So many of us are fighting to just see a dentist without getting covid, and it’s nearly impossible.

And this is just from the folks who are aware of why covid should be avoided and what the current situation is, every day I talk to people who have long therm health issues from covid that now have to navigate a world they thought wouldn’t affect the. Covid has and will continue to impact every aspect of everyone’s life and it sucks seeing so many ignore it.

Edit to add- and yea, at least 7 million people died worldwide with over a million of that just in the US. The amount of people forever missing loved ones is hard to grapple with. A quarter of a million kids lost one or both parents, it’s had profound impact to their life trajectories that we’ll see for decades, and that’s not even accounting for the health implications they’ll endure along with the rest of society as we have continued repeat infections.

Hey friend, it’s 2024. Please leave the r-slur in the past where it belongs.

I don’t think they’re defending PRC, just pointing out there are others also deserving of your anger. The US not only did terrible at responding to the ongoing pandemic, they convinced people they didn’t but if so to just blame PRC for it. Sure, be mad that they covered it up, but also be mad that our government mishandled things terribly too.

Have been masking since early 2020, haven’t been sick with any contagious illness in 4 years. Infection is preventable, not inevitable, and I’ll never willingly expose myself to it again. Sucks people were convinced otherwise, would be nice to not have overwhelmed health systems (not that it’s new, definitely worse now though).

Ableism is so ingrained in our society that folks have trouble even recognizing it. OP is absolutely experiencing ableism, being dismissed and treated differently because of their health issues, recognized and intentional or not, is ableism.

Your example is a very legal perspective of ableism that barely scratches the surface of ableism and makes it difficult to address wider impacts. This is a similar thinking to racism only being legal segregation and the KKK, when it shows up in everyday life in far broader ways.

Yes.

able·ism /ˈābəˌlizəm/ noun A system of assigning value to people’s bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness. These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in eugenics, anti-Blackness, misogyny, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. This systemic oppression that leads to people and society determining people’s value based on their culture, age, language, appearance, religion, birth or living place, “health/wellness”, and/or their ability to satisfactorily re/produce, “excel” and “behave.” You do not have to be disabled to experience ableism.

This is also tied to healthism/health supremacy, recommended researching more about these topics to better understand how they impact everyone’s lives, disabled or not.

Why, because Israel didn’t stop where they agreed? Maybe stop projecting the real actions of the oppressor onto the ones being oppressed.

We have no idea what Hamas would or wouldn’t do in the future, only what has already happened and what they publicly declare. In any situation, what Hamas wants is largely irrelevant if nothing is done to stop Israel from continuing their decades long ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

No, actually.

People care because we’re people and don’t like to see unnecessary suffering, especially if we’re able to change it. In western countries, our governments (and taxes) are supporting this, we have significant power to influence the outcome.

We also understand that our struggles are connected. The problems in my community are tied to the US support of Israel and their ongoing violent oppression of Palestinians. They cannot be separated, and to create any lasting change we must address the issues in whole, which requires examining how they relate and working to break those connections. The “popularity” in the media is a moment to facilitate doing the good you’re talking about, that’s why so many long time organizers in social just areas are doing exactly what needs doing, seizing the moment.

They likely still want what they always have, freedom from the violence of their oppressors and a return to their indigenous lands. Until Israel, by choice or force, stops it’s decades long settler colonial violence against Palestinians - or succeeds in their annihilation attempts - this will continue.

Books Fiction, Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut. I first read it in high school and even then it hit very hard. I had friends going off to war at the time and it was a very different perspective than the pro-war media I had been immersed in to that point. I’ve read it every couple of years since and find more I love about it every time.

Non fiction, The Future Is Disabled by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. It’s a beautiful piece that felt less like a book and more like a conversation with a friend. It helped me imagine what a world centered on care could be like.

Movies Gaza Fights for Freedom. It’s a few years old now but extremely relevant, a documentary about the 2018/19 peaceful protest in Gaza and Israeli response. It was horrifying to watch and realize many things, and the horrors in it pale compared to the last few weeks. I think about it a lot right now.

I think they expected to swap the hostages for Palestinian prisoners, since they’ve done it before.

Not the commenter you asked, but my understanding of this situation is that in response to a Hamas attack on the 7th Israel has, for the past week and a half, been bombing a captive population that is currently without electricity, water, food and medical supplies, and our government is supporting that.

What Biden could do, now, is say “Hey, we understand your fear and pain, but Palestinian deaths won’t brings back those Israeli lives. Mass killing of civilians in the hopes of killing some of the people responsible won’t bring peace, trust me we’ve tried too.” From there he can engage in discussions about next steps, but this is the minimum fucking first step he refuses to take.

Same in the US, that’s what I assumed when I saw the pic. I’ve done it myself a handful of times.

No, I’m continuing the original statements I made. That covid is causing long term health issues, and while vaccines can lower the odds of long term impacts they do not prevent them. The only way to prevent long covid is to not get Covid.

I agree masks are cost prohibitive, I support free distribution of n95s or elastomeric and fit testing in communities, but how are they limiting where folks go? When we had widescale masking I was able to go the places I wanted, safely. I disagree that asking people to stay home while sick is a drastic reduction in freedom, I actually believe people’s desire to go in public and spread disease that can cause serious problems for them is a much great reduction in overall freedom. Another drastic reduction in freedom is what people who don’t want to get covid have been experiencing, which is being cut off from all public life. One-way masking is not enough, it’s like wearing a helmet in a monster truck rally, helpful but insufficient. Even hospitals are not places one can go without getting ill.

I can’t convince you to care about yours and others wellbeing. I believe that freedom is something we share and create for each other, not simply being able to move about and do whatever I want as an individual. I truly hope you educate yourself on the risks of covid and take proper care to avoid it. Peace.

These misunderstandings about covid are what I mentioned in my original post. Covid is currently killing fewer people than it did the first few years, it already burned through the most vulnerable and you can only die once. But illness is not rare at all. Aside from the rampant acute illness, Nearly One in Five American Adults Who Have Had COVID-19 Still Have “Long COVID” and about 10% of infections results in long covid. We don’t even know what the long term effects are, we do know it’s already having impacts on people’s health and on healthcare services, and that there is no lasting immunity. People used to suffer and die from preventable diseases, a lot. We didn’t say oh well, sucks to suck. We learned and adapted, that’s what we need to do that again.

You mentioned costs and freedom, what does freedom mean to you in this context?

Actually I’m proposing life is valuable and we should protect it.

The vaccines don’t solve the problem and the solutions do not require massive change, but they do require people reflect on what’s important and adjust their behavior accordingly. I think that living a good life is important so I believe we should do things to better those odds, like reducing the amount of damage covid does to the body. Choosing continuous illness and your worse years coming much sooner sounds closer to suicide to me. Masking, improved ventilation and filtration, paid sick leave, and other simple steps are not absurd and shouldn’t be temporary. We know easy ways to reduce massive suffering, it’s ridiculous to me that people oppose it.