I am not immuno-compromised, why should I continue to wear a mask?

Disabled people are not disposable. Governments have ignored the serious health consequences of COVID by telling us that only "high-risk" individuals need to take precautions.
(And if you’ve been infected before, you are now part of this category.)
1 in 5 cases will develop into Long COVID. Everyone should be able to safely participate in public life. Mitigating COVID is our collective responsibility.

1) Even if it were true that COVID affects immunocompromised individuals, our elderly, high-risk, and disabled community members are not disposable: their lives are worth protecting, and to claim otherwise is a eugenicist stance. It is a myth perpetuated by capitalism, which would have us believe that a person's value and, relatedly, their disposability, is based on their ability to participate in work. People currently in excellent health or younger are closer to being disabled or high-risk than we have been led to believe;

2) Anyone who has had COVID should consider themselves immunocompromised. Fighting COVID does not "strengthen" our immune response—COVID attacks the immune system and weakens its ability to fight future infections. Each infection makes us more vulnerable.

Improve your knowledge + COVID protocols

Covid moves like invisible smoke
COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke. Think of the people around you and yourself as people who are smoking all day; it makes it easier to understand how COVID moves.
COVID aerosols can quickly fill any crowded, poorly ventilated space, moving invisibly to infect anyone in the room. These aerosols travel with air currents and remain airborne for hours after the infected person has left. COVID also spreads outdoors. You can become infected within seconds or minutes of exposure.

You don't need to have symptoms to spread COVID
At least 50% of all transmissions are asymptomatic (you have it and you don’t even feel ill). In those symptomatic infections, it takes a couple of days for symptoms to appear, which means that you are infecting others for at least a couple of days without knowing it. Since we cannot know for sure if we have COVID at any given time, universal masking is essential.

There is no mild COVID infection.
At least 10% of infections result in long COVID.
Reinfections are devastating. There's no way to "train" the immune system because it's not a muscle; the damage from infections is cumulative. Any propaganda that talks about "training" the immune system is just lying to make you feel safer when exposed to harmful infections.

To say that infections are good because they help our immune system is like saying that having car accidents are good because they strengthen our bones; it makes absolutely no sense. That’s not how our bodies work.

Masks matter, find one that fits your face!
Masks are incredibly effective. They work best when everyone wears them. FFP2, KN95, KF94, and N95 masks offer aerosol filtration and should be used whenever possible. Surgical and cloth masks are less effective and do not filter aerosols. Get free masks and testing at your local mask block (maskbloc.org for searching maskbloc worldwide and you can also email us at [email protected]; we ship masks worldwide).

Make sure the mask fits snugly against your face so that the air you breathe is filtered through it. Aerosols can leak through gaps. If you can't get a good seal, try a different brand or size.

Test frequently + understand the limitations
Rapid antigen tests produce many false negatives. A rapid antigen test only successfully detects 60% of early symptomatic infections and 22% of asymptomatic infections (OntarioHealth has a guide on how to get the most out of them, as they are the most affordable tests for the general population).

Rapid tests are much more reliable when performed repeatedly over several 48-hour periods. It can take between one week and 14 days to get a positive result, so a single negative result should not be relied upon. Molecular tests such as PCR or NAAT are much more reliable and are best performed between 3 and 5 days after exposure, although they are expensive and less accessible than rapid tests. As COVID-19 spreads, the virus mutates, and our tests become less reliable.

Vaccines cannot be an excuse for not preventing the virus.

Vaccines do not prevent infections, reinfections, or long COVID. SARS-CoV-2 infection weakens immune-cell response to vaccination, meaning that the more we are infected, the less effective the vaccines we receive will be.

They have been crucial in significantly reducing mortality and hospitalization rates from severe infections. However, antibody levels decrease significantly in the months following vaccination. Each infection leads to new mutations that make the virus more complex.

To honor the effectiveness of vaccines, we must prevent the creation of more variants. Vaccines are not an excuse not to wear a mask.

HIV and COVID: united by ignored pandemics
“The statement that SARS-CoV-2 is “airborne AIDS” may be an oversimplification, but it draws attention to emerging evidence showing that the virus induces a distinct form of acquired immunodeficiency (AID).

SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1, though distinct, share parallels in their biochemical traits and mechanisms, long-term impacts and societal responses. Both can establish persistent infections in tissue reservoirs, immune dysfunction, vulnerability to other infections including opportunistic, systemic damage including hallmarks of accelerated biological aging, and premature neurocognitive disorders. HIV integrates into DNA, whereas SARS-CoV-2 and its parts persist in organs like the blood vessels, brain, heart, tonsils, and lungs.

As governments rolled back public health protections, leaving the public to navigate the uncontrolled spread on their own, stigma shifted to Long COVID patients and those advocating for continued precautions. These individuals are frequently dismissed as “fearmongers”, “anxious” or “overly cautious” despite the objective ongoing and significant harms caused by the pandemic. Meanwhile, Long COVID patients experience persistent gaslighting and ignorance from healthcare professionals, exacerbating their struggles to access appropriate care.

addressing SARS-CoV-2 as a systemic vascular infection with significant cumulative health impacts necessitates sustained public health measures and innovative strategies to mitigate its ongoing threat to individual and population health. It is essential to prioritize airborne infection prevention, especially while no causal therapies are available for the sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

Right now, the disabled community is being targeted. Like HIV, COVID can affect anyone, but this time the state has chosen to use the word "vulnerable" to seek complicity in ignoring the ongoing pandemic. Just as HIV is linked to queer activism, COVID is linked to disability activism, because the state uses our identity to justify the social murder we experience due to ITS mismanagement.

Only the rich can afford to be sick: viruses are weapons of the oppressors.
Do you know any working-class person who can afford to be sick? Neither can we.

Who can afford to miss work?

Long COVID is a new disease that the system wants to portray as a disaster when it's actually the result of a lack of prevention. In capitalism, science is used to get us back to work tomorrow, but for more complex issues, doctors tend to deny you care and tell you it's all anxiety.

People with long COVID face enormous violence and medical neglect. Furthermore, COVID can literally cause strokes, heart attacks, and autoimmune diseases. And all of this is preventable with masks.

We, the workers, are the ones who create medicines, masks, houses, and all the basic necessities a person needs. Yet we don't have the right to access them. We have to spend our lives being exploited for something that couldn't be created without our labor.

Workers' power means workers' care. We want union strength, we want workers' power, we want workplace safety, we want prevention of death and disability.

Getting infected with COVID at work is another form of employer terrorism. Everywhere you go, there's a worker who has no choice but to be there. Let's wear masks for our collective health.

https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/covid-continues-to-destroy-peoples

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice #HealthSelfDefense

.

Our virtual Book Club is back again next month! We will be reading Body Friend by Katherine Brandon.

#DisabilityJustice #bookclub

I think many of the difficulties in maintaining relationships as an autistic and/or AuDHD adult have a lot to do with how gender is perceived and the social norms around it. I'm a hijabi Muslim woman in Indonesia. There's a lot of expectation in my own culture for women like me.

My one and only non-platonic relationship as an adult was with my ex-fiancé. He's also AuDHD, like me. But a lot of his issues were more about him being socialised as a man his whole life than about his neurodivergence. So he never had issues with outsourcing emotional labour elsewhere. Since he was engaged to me at the time, I did the emotional work twice over for both of us in the relationship. We came from different backgrounds. He's American. I'm Indonesian. He was racist and didn't even know it. I kept pointing it out to him, but he didn't think he was racist. Clearly, as the only adult and politically literate one with integrity in the relationship, I had to end it.

If there is one thing I learned from my failed relationship and years of therapy, it is that relationships, platonic and non-platonic, don't have to be complicated. In the end, our disability and trauma are our responsibility to manage, and we have to make things work for the relationships that we want to keep. The details of "managing and making things work" are more or less about our communication, our willingness to be in the relationship, and our own principles not to compromise our morality or values (in my case anyway). But that's just me.

Another thing I should point out is that disability cannot be separated from structural issues. In the global power structures of racial capitalism, whiteness and its variants across the globe set the field people are moving in, and when white people don't name that, they end up universalising their experience. I just wish more of them named the exact difficulties they experienced in maintaining relationships as adults. Otherwise, being the dominant group on the internet, either on big tech platforms or on the fediverse, they end up universalising their experience.

It can be alienating when you have been conditioned to think in terms of exceptionalism and hyperindividualism your whole life. Try to be more structurally aware. Perhaps you'll see more similarities with others around you than you would if you avoided naming the exact reasons for the difficulties in maintaining relationships. Working on your trauma and navigating your disabilities don't make structural violence disappear. Poverty may persist when you are surrounded by better company. Racism and structural misogyny may still persist the moment you have a better paying job, a better partner, or are surrounded by better friends.

Stop individualising structurally engineered problems. Start having class consciousness.

But hey, that's just me.

#actuallyautistic #audhd @autistics @actuallyadhd
#materialist #disabilityjustice #neurodivergence @disability #disability #relationships #autism

“Vaccines kill more people than Covid.”
Talking to your friends and family about vaccines can be an especially emotional topic, and is one that takes time. It’s important to ask a lot of questions and get to the root of their concerns. Focus on shared values and be patient. You’ll probably hear a lot of popular anti-vax points repeated initially. Continue to discuss with them and try to find out what is underlying their concerns in their own words.
It is particularly important to come well-informed to these conversations about vaccines. Familiarize yourself with the technology and history of vaccines in general and the different types available for Covid in your area. That way, you can identify incorrect information and be ready to recommend a specific vaccine if they ask.
You can’t catch Covid from the vaccine. While you may feel sick after getting the Covid-19 vaccine, that is a sign your body is building protection against the virus that causes Covid-19. A controlled dose of part of a virus is not worse than an uncontrolled infection with a fully operational virus. Can you tell me more about your hesitation here, and what your main concern is?

"This was just a scam for big pharma to make money off of us!" "The vaccines aren't safe!" "We don't know the long term side effects of the vaccines!" "mRNA is a new technology!"
Unfortunately, it is true that we live in a predatory society. But the truth is that the predatory aspect is the cost and patenting of drugs; it’s not true that all drugs produced by the pharmaceutical industry are useless or harmful. People who have chronic health conditions who rely on medication to live (such as insulin) are placed in an impossible situation in our society. They have no choice but to rely on these drugs at whatever cost the pharmaceutical industry decides otherwise their life is at risk. Can you tell me more about your hesitation here, and what you’re most worried about?

“Why should I get vaccinated?”
Thank you for trusting me enough to ask this question! It’s good that you’re thinking about your health, and it means a lot to me that you feel safe enough with me to ask. So basically, when looking at any medication, we have to look at the risk/benefit analysis, right? In this case, that means: What are the risks of not being vaccinated? And for people who aren’t vaccinated against Covid, there’s a higher risk of Long Covid and higher risk of being hospitalized if you get infected. Even though Covid has mutated greatly, the vaccines still do provide some protection and help our bodies if we become infected. Sadly, governments around the world have restricted access to testing, making it harder for people to know how much Covid is around them. But by looking at wastewater data, hospitalizations, and deaths, we know that Covid is still running rampant in our communities.

While the Covid vaccines do give our bodies a head start if we are infected, they are not as effective as they once were. It is important that we see vaccines as an added layer of precaution and not as a safety net.
Insert your personal connection to Covid. Do you know people who are currently sick? Did you recently have Covid? Share this story.
The damage Covid is capable of doing to our bodies is much, much greater than the risk of an adverse reaction to the vaccines. If you’re nervous about having a bad reaction to the vaccine, the best thing you can do is talk to your doctor.
If they are thinking about maybe getting vaccinated, offer to go with them as a support person.

“How do we know they are safe?”
The peer review process for vaccines is extremely in-depth. To get rid of bias, the scientists' names have actually been removed, and their research passes through many hands and stages before it can be considered peer-reviewed. The peer review process creates a standard in the scientific community which proves the integrity of the study. Drugs like insulin save millions of lives every day.
And as for the Covid vaccines, they have been given primarily to the wealthiest countries (even hoarded for them). That wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t extremely safe. And many countries are still fighting to access the vaccines. Lack of access to the vaccines has led to additional Covid deaths.
It’s not just Covid vaccines, either. Other vaccines (like ones for the flu), HIV treatments, and even antibiotics or other medical treatments we might take for granted have seen massive delays in availability and limited accessibility in the Global South. Would you be interested in learning about what some of these countries are doing to try and improve their own production of medicine so they don’t have to rely on the charity of rich countries?

About mRNA
mRNA technology was first discovered in the 1960s, and testing with mRNA technology began in the 1990s. Several vaccines were being studied with this technology, including a flu vaccine and a rabies vaccine. Currently, even more vaccines are being studied with mRNA technology, including vaccines for cancer and HIV. The Covid vaccines are based off of the mRNA vaccine that was being produced during the SARS epidemic in 2003. What does this mean? It means we have several decades worth of testing and information regarding mRNA vaccines and the Covid vaccines. They’re not brand-new; they were built from existing research and pre-existing technology.

The Covid vaccines have been extremely well-studied. Pfizer's trials had over 43,000 participants and Moderna's vaccine trials had over 30,000 participants. We have a lot of data showing that these vaccines are safe for the great majority of people who receive them.
Most side effects from vaccines happen within the first few days. The most common side effects are mild, and you may feel under the weather the following day. These symptoms happen as the result of a normal immune response, which helps your body recognize the pathogen without becoming infected. This gives your body a head start in being able to be able to fight against Covid, if you were to become infected.

Long-term effects from pharmaceuticals happen when people take medications continuously (often daily) for extended periods of time and build up in our bodies. This is very different from vaccines, which degrade quickly in our bodies. Vaccine injuries are a real phenomenon, but they are very rare and would be something that would present quickly, not something that would show up over months or years. What we do know, however, is that Covid can cause long-term damage to our bodies and we don't know what the future holds for the impact of a novel virus infecting the vast majority of the population repeatedly. Many viruses can stay in your system after infection and can become reactivated later. This is why those who have been infected with chickenpox are at risk of developing shingles later in life. We are already seeing health impacts from Covid infection only a few years into this pandemic. We don’t know what the future holds yet, and we need to prevent everyone from being infected over and over.

"Aren't the pharmaceutical companies still profiting off of us?"
Vaccines only account for a very small percentage of profits from pharmaceutical companies; preventative medicine is not much of a money maker. Pharmaceutical companies make most of their money from exploiting people with chronic illnesses, since these people rely on ongoing treatments that they need to live. If you are concerned about big pharma profiting off of you, the best thing you can do is wear a well-fitted respirator to prevent catching Covid or other illnesses, which could leave you disabled and possibly reliant on pharmaceuticals for life.

For some time, governments around the world have been pulling back on resources for Covid, such as testing and sick leave. More recently, governments have been restricting the availability of Covid vaccines. The U.S. government is no longer providing free Covid vaccines. In the UK, children are no longer eligible for vaccination. Both in the UK and Canada, only those who can prove they are immunocompromised and those above 65 are eligible for boosters. This is not because Covid is no longer a threat; it is because governments are turning this into an individual problem and putting the burden (wrongly) onto us. Basically, they’re trying to absolve themselves of responsibility for keeping us safe. What they should (and could) be doing is investing in infrastructure. They should be providing funding for schools and businesses to upgrade ventilation and clean the air. They should be passing legislation around sick days. They should be offering us free masks, free vaccines, and free tests. The government has the power to do so much more to protect us. They don’t want to pay to do that, so they’re telling us the pandemic is over. It’s not over.

https://covid.tips/#%E2%80%9Cwhy-should-i-get-vaccinated%E2%80%9D

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice #HealthSelfDefense

.

Update

https://wrzky.com/update/

Grant opportunities for disability and technology nonprofits! Please spread the word!

#DisabilityJustice #Accessibility #AssistiveTech

https://www.openassistivetech.org/new-grant-opportunities-for-disability-justice-nonprofits/

Masks for people with sensitive skin and/or neurodivergent.

https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/masks-for-people-with-sensitive-skin

In summary, the masks recommended to us by neurodivergent individuals and/or those with sensitive skin are:

Kind

Laianzhi YX011 FFP2

Zimiair

Dräger X-Plore 1750 N95

Blox duckbill

Explanations about these masks follow!

“An autistic comrade with skin problems told me that the Laianzhi YX011 FFP2 was a huge difference for them.”

“I can recommend Kind (my partner and I wear these, we are both autistic), but honestly I find largely that trifolds (which I stick to) just tend to be roomier. However, I was just going to provide a tip - I know a lot of people use mask foam strips, as an alternative I use “fashion tape”. Sometimes this is known as “boob tape”. It is a clear, double sided, stretchy, smooth adhesive that is easy to source in bulk online. You use it to stop your shirt from gaping. It adheres to meltblown fabrics well, I also find it resists sweat (I am in the tropics). And as it often comes on a roll, you can line the entire mask if you so desire. I haven’t seen anyone else talking about the use of fashion tape with masks, but perhaps it will help others.”

“I wanted to share Zimiair because it has worked great for me so far. This is my current zimiair mask, but they also have non valve ones. They have an inner shell that is reusable and 3d printed, and you “replace” the filter part that goes on the shell, preventing the filter to go in contact with the skin when you talk or breathe. The part that goes on your skin is the grey one, which is quite smooth and more gentle to the skin than most textiles/filters I’ve tried (it’s barely noticeable to me most of the time)”

“I personally am very fond of Dräger X-Plore 1750 N95 masks. These have a single strap that goes around the back of the head at the neck and then also loops to the top of the head.

I am autistic with sensitivities to a lot of things like clothing and body contact. I’ve worn the same headphones for 11 years because everything else feels intolerable on my head!

I’ve been wearing them religiously since the fall of 2020, and they’ve never triggered eczema or caused skin irritation, even when wearing them for 8 to 10 hours at a stretch, flying.

They very much agree with my sensitivities. The little nubbin on the strap where it connects to itself can scratch a little, but it’s easy to move it around so it doesn’t do that.

Also, you can just unhook the top strap and the bottom one hangs around your neck, to keep the mask handy. I can even don it one handed. I wholeheartedly recommend them.”

“I’m neurodivergent with a big sensitivity for humidity, things touching my nose, or things moving my mustache around. I also have eczema and generally irritable skin.

My favorite mask is out of production now, but it’s a Blox duckbill mask. I like it because it doesn’t touch the tip of my nose or my lips ever, and the structure is rigid enough that it won’t flop too unpredictability or touch my cheeks any more than the mandatory contact points do. The high surface area and roominess inside decrease humidity issues and the material wicks moisture effectively. I have also tried a FloMask and original EnvoMask. Between them I prefer the FloMask with the Everyday filter. The silicone is kind to my eczema-skin, but the lower surface area is less kind to my humidity-aversion. The moisture is manageable with a dental roll kept inside and used as a wipe hourly.”

Skin problems when wearing a mask, explanations and solutions

https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/skin-problems-when-wearing-a-mask

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

Hi, could someone tell me if everything is right with the petition and if I can collect signatures even if I'm based abroad?

#crowdsourcing #question #petition #mutualaid #disability #disabilityjustice

https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/national_disability_insurance_scheme_lord_mayor_of_anna_halcionandon_must_be_safe/?cuvEkub&utm_source=copy&utm_medium=social_share&utm_campaign=1766089&utm_term=cuvEkub%2Ben&share_location=do_landing

UPDATE 4-MAY-2026 18:23 UTC+7
348/560 — $212 left to cover May essentials.
Thank you to everyone who’s contributed so far 🙂‍↕️

I’m disabled with no healthcare or fixed income, and I need ongoing support to stay afloat.
If you can spare at least $5/month, it would make a real difference.
If you prefer one-off support, that helps just as much.

Please help amplify this so it reaches more people. Thank you, truly.

https://wrzky.com/links

@posts
@[email protected] @mutualaid @disability @autistics
@actuallyadhd

#MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #disabilitymutualaid #MutualAidBoost #disability #press #activism #politics #artist #audhd #cptsd #chronicillness #neurodivergence #ongoingsupport #anarchism #socialmedia #writer #disabledwriter #medicalassistance #disabilityjustice #womensrights #Muslim #islam #Muslimah #muslimwomen #poverty #healthcare #mentalhealth #books #fedi #MayThe4th #maythe4th2026