I see we’re headed back in time to the Reagan era where those with HIV/AIDS were vilified and blamed for their condition and denied any form of support.

PrEP has saved countless lives. It was a huge advancement in the fight against AIDS.

Pausing funding will have devastating consequences around the globe, and will lead to an increase in new HIV diagnoses.

This is another example of Trump’s disdain for the LGBTQ+ community … as I guarantee he wouldn’t target prep if he thought HIV impacted people “like him”

Of course we know it does impact the heterosexual population, but facts and truth aren’t important to this administration.

What IS important? Lies. Discrimination. Bigotry. Cruelty.

#uspoli #trump #lgbtq #hiv #HIVAIDS #prep #healthcare #safehealthcare

How many people are currently suffering at home because they know they need the hospital but are afraid to go because of risk of COVID?

Why aren’t we controlling spread?

Hospital acquired Covid has a 10% mortality rate, yet most HCWs won’t mask

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/a-plea-to-maskless-healthcare-workers

#COVIDisAirborne #covidisnotover #keepmasksinhealthcare #safehealthcare #sarscov2 #chronicillness #longcovid

Trump has stopped the CDC, NIH & FDA from communicating any info to the public

Cancer research and other grants and programs are on pause

Not to worry! Soon AI can dispense your prescriptions for you!

I think of all the times I’ve had serious medication interactions & errors. This is terrifying

#uspoli #cdc #fda #disability #ai #healthcare #SafeHealthcare

“If you’ve been fighting for Covid mitigations for the last five years - you more than likely saw this coming. It was painfully obvious when the great unmasking occurred that many people on BOTH sides of the aisle didn’t care about the “vulnerable”. Didn’t care about community or protecting their neighbours. Didn’t care about anything other than their own ability to go to brunch, travel, socialize and get ‘back to normal.’

I’m not saying people should have shuttered inside their homes forever. None of us are. But they should have kept masking. There was no reason to stop. Respirators are highly effective at stopping the spread of Covid. The vast majority of people CAN wear them. We have mask blocs all over the world to provide masks to people who can’t afford them. It’s a simple thing you can do to protect yourself and - perhaps more importantly - protect others.”

If you missed my latest - it’s about the U.S. election, disability rights, eugenics, fascism and how we got to where we are. Perhaps more importantly - it’s about what comes next.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/how-did-we-get-here-and-what-comes

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhealthcare #MaskBans #NoMaskBans #fascism #election2024

Even if you don’t care about the health of others - you should be masking RIGHT NOW to protect yourself.

Disabled people have been telling you for years there is NO help when you become chronically ill.

This won’t improve in the next 4 years. Protecting your health is paramount.

Understand that those of us who’ve been advocating for Covid mitigations for years are exhausted. We’re frustrated. We’re fed up.

Many of us don’t have our health. We’re terribly sick and choosing to spend our limited energy trying to protect people who hate us.

We aren’t doing this for fun. We’re doing it because it’s necessary and no one else is bothering.

We know that there’s no exceptions - that once you lose your health your life changes forever.

We want to protect YOU despite the horrible way you’ve treated us for years.

Consider that the next time you’re tempted to yell at someone for masking or make fun of someone for trying to protect others.

We WANT to be wrong - but we know we’re not.

You NEED to be right because the alternative is too hard for you to face.

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhealthcare #MaskBans #NoMaskBans

For anyone who’s struggling right now and needs a reminder - you are not expendable.

A person’s worth should never be determined by their health or their ability to be cogs in the machine of capitalism.

To everyone else - if upon hearing that someone was disabled or killed by Covid your first reaction is any of the following - you are part of the problem. You’re telling people their lives don’t count. That protecting them is too much of an inconvenience. That they are expendable.

- They were sick anyways
- They were old
- How many co-morbids did they have?
- Hospitals have always been unsafe places
- They were going to die anyways

Despite what you’ve been incorrectly led to believe - COVID is a threat to everyone. We are ALL vulnerable.

The people you are looking down on did nothing wrong. They don’t deserve the suffering they’re going through. Disability and chronic illness are NOT a moral failing.

Perhaps most importantly - you won’t be the “exception” when it happens to you. We are screaming about the lack of help for Long Covid for a reason - listen to us. Wear a mask. Clean the air. Test and isolate. Stop letting the virus win.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/how-did-we-get-here-and-what-comes

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhealthcare #MaskBans #NoMaskBans

Disabled people have warned for years that embracing eugenicist Covid policies and discarding vulnerable people (and children!) would lead to escalating fascism and destroy what's left of public health and common decency.

It's simply not possible to make a conscious choice every day to put other people's lives at risk and not have it impact you in a profoundly negative way.

Years of politicians and leaders telling us that the vulnerable don't matter, that they will fall by the wayside, that they died because they were 'sick anyways' has changed us. And not in a good way.

It's time to think about what comes next. How we can resist, unite and fight back. We can't keep going down this road.

The hatred may have started with disabled and marginalized people - but it won't stop with us.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/how-did-we-get-here-and-what-comes

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhealthcare #MaskBans #NoMaskBans

People spend their lives running from suffering. Doing whatever they can to avoid feeling pain. The idea of “forever suffering” is terrifying to them.  I think this fear is behind a lot of the disdain we see directed at disabled people.

We remind others that suffering can be permanent. That it can’t always be outrun. 

We exist in the grey. Our illnesses won’t kill us - but they also won’t ever get better. There’s no cure on the horizon. No “are you better yet?” 

This reality scares the crap out of people.

As such - they pull away from us. They abandon us or treat us with such disdain that we walk away from them. The ones that stay often expect us to hide how sick we are. To plaster a smile on our face and say we’re “fine” so that they don’t have to feel uncomfortable. 

When they ask how we’re feeling or if we’re “any better”… they don’t want to hear the truth.  In fact - if you tell them the truth you could find yourself facing a lecture on “positive thinking” or how you just need to “try harder” and you will suddenly overcome your illnesses.

People are unable or unwilling to face the realities of chronic illness - so they make it harder for us to face it as well. They treat it like it’s our fault. Like we did something to become ill or like we could get better if we “really wanted to”.

They will push our boundaries, gaslight us and yes - put us at risk for covid.  So this is your reminder that it is ok to set and hold boundaries. It’s ok to protect yourself.  If someone won’t be there at your worst - they don’t deserve you.

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-dont-do-sick-if-you-cant-hide


#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhealthcare #MaskBans #NoMaskBans

Here is Part Two in my Series on POTS and Dysautonomia! This post focuses on the LONG road to diagnosis - and the gaslighting and barriers patients face along the way. The accusations of anxiety, the minimization of symptoms and of course the dreaded 'it's all in your head'.

I lost track of how many doctors worked me up - saw my very serious physical symptoms - and still said "What do you want ME to do about it?"

The answer was obvious - I wanted them to do their job. I needed them to think outside the box. To believe me when I said I wasn't anxious. To recognize that 'anxiety' isn't postural in nature. To figure out what was wrong.

It took years to get my diagnosis - and I hope my articles can help patients avoid some of the pitfalls and traps I fell in to. I want healthcare workers to read these posts and consider POTS the next time a patient comes in with unexplained symptoms like dizziness, tachycardia, fatigue and fainting.

There is hope. Things can and do get better. You learn how to manage symptoms, minimize setbacks and adapt to living life horizontally!

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/its-just-anxiety-or-perhaps-theyve

CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhealthcare #gaslighting #misdiagnosis #dysautonomiaawarenessmonth

People are angry that hospitals are bringing back mask mandates due to COVID outbreaks.

Patients like me are angry that we have to risk infection to get medical care. Some of us have died due to hospital acquired COVID.

Masks make sense in hospitals - why oppose them?

I’ve yet to hear a decent argument against mask mandates in hospitals.

The people who oppose them are almost always the ones screaming about how strong and healthy their immune systems are - so theoretically they never spend any time IN a hospital. Why do they care?

Inevitably people just trot out the tired “if your mask works then no one else needs one”… which just highlights that they’ve never spent any significant time in the hospital.

If you’re sick enough to need the hospital there’s decent odds something might prevent you from masking.

Even if you CAN mask - if you’re admitted what do you do when you need to eat, drink or brush your teeth? What if you require oxygen, having vomiting or airway complications?

The responsibility to stay covid safe shouldn’t be left to the patient.

It’s cruel and unusual punishment.

Mandatory masks mean that patients are protected by those around them - which is how it should be.

No one should have to risk covid to get care - and the normalization of hospital acquired covid needs to stop.

If you’re someone who opposes masks in healthcare - or who doesn’t understand WHY they’re necessary - please read my plea to healthcare workers.

Vulnerable patients feel unsafe. Expendable. Terrified.

Needing the hospital is scary enough - we shouldn’t have to worry about forced infection too:

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/a-plea-to-maskless-healthcare-workers

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidCautious #CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #WearaMask #Disability #LongCovid #Ableism #Denial #CleanAir #Pandemic #PublicHealth #InfectionControl #Eugenics #SafeHealthcare #N95 #Respirators #MasksWork #MaskUp #Spoonie #Discrimination #Dysautonomia #mecfs #pots #mcas #communitycare #wearamask #chronicillness #keepmasksinhe