Disability and access friendly (masks required) free dance classes in Berkeley and online! April 26

#Dance #DayOfDance #Berkeley #DisabilityJustice https://www.bigmoves.org/events/day-of-dance-2026/

Still no movement, sadly. It’s already the end of the month, and next month’s needs are going to pile up again. I appreciate any support rn.

Scan QR code in pic 2 if you’re willing to support.

If not, I’d appreciate it if you boost this. Thank you, thank you.

@[email protected] @mutualaid
@disability
@autistics
@autistics
@actuallyadhd
#MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #disabilitymutualaid #MutualAidBoost #press #activism #neurodivergence #ongoingsupport #anarchism #internationalism #groceries #writer #disabledwriter #medicalassistance #advocacy #marxism #disabilityjustice

Thanks to donations! This is where we sent masks!

Want to help us sending masks to Latinoamérica?
• Donate to our paypal (you have in our linktr.ee)
• Join our Telegram and Signal Channel: Antiimperialist Solidarity — Sending Masks to LATAM
How the channel works:
1. We send requests saying:
- If it’s urgent or not, and an estimated date if possible
- Country where the masks/tests are needed
- Number of masks needed, and if there’s a preferred model
- Number of COVID tests, if applicable
- How we can cover the costs, details if fundraising etc
2. If you can help with a request, feel free to message the person who posted it directly.
We created this space to connect people who need protective materials with those who can send them.
Join the channel in Telegram or Signal

https://linktr.ee/healthselfdefense_

paypal
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ADSinternacional

ko-fi
https://ko-fi.com/ADSinternacional

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

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Let's talk about vaccines and COVID-19.

https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/covid-vaccine-myths-and-facts

Information from the web Covid Tips and the blog COVID zine 2026 | Hazel Newlevant

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.

“Vaccines kill more people than Covid.”

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?

If Novavax is an option and they are skeptical about mRNA

Did you know that Novavax is not an mRNA vaccine? If you were skeptical about mRNA vaccine technology, you should look into getting Novavax instead, which relies on more traditional vaccine tech.

“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.

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

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Let's stop understanding masks as individual "self-care" and start using the political dimension to our advantage: what working-class person can afford to be sick?

Within the COVID-conscious community, the argument that masks are "self-care" is frequently used.
It's clear that this is an attempt to popularize masks without considering a long-term strategy.
The individualization of mask use is what eugenicist propaganda uses: "let everyone do what they want." However, if we want to connect with people, we have a common ground that can help us: no working-class person can afford to be sick. Masks aren't for the individual; they're for the community.
“If loving ourselves, prioritizing, caring for & working on healing ourselves is the answer… and there are a plethora of tools marketed to us (from therapists to embodiment coaches to mindfulness apps), then why are we more distressed & sicker than ever before on a global population level?
Some leftists may point out that mainstream mental health is depoliticized, making us blame ourselves for our pain rather than the systems oppressing us and so we turn to products sold to us as “solutions”.
The self-care industry has undoubtedly contributed to the rise in loneliness. So yes, that’s one piece of the puzzle but that doesn’t explain why people across the political spectrum tend to think that focusing on self-improvement & self-love will make things better for us in some way.
If personalized self-care & working on our trauma is the solution, then why so many of us still not fulfilled?"

Is our fixation on healing, self-care & self-improvement making us sicker? Ayesha Khan, Ph.D.
https://wokescientist.substack.com/p/is-our-fixation-on-healing-self-care

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

I have no symptoms, why should I continue wearing a mask?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

🚨𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝟮𝟭/𝟬𝟰/𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝟬𝟬:𝟮𝟭 𝗨𝗧𝗖+𝟳🚨 𝗡𝗢 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗟 𝗡𝗢𝗪. 𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗔𝗧 $𝟰𝟰𝟬/$𝟲𝟮𝟱
$𝟭𝟴𝟱 𝗧𝗢 𝗚𝗢

ℹ️ monthly pledges preferred due to disability; one-off support helps too.
🔗 https://wrzky.com/links/

Please contribute if able and amplify so this reaches people who can help. Thank you, thank you 🙂‍↕️

@[email protected] @mutualaid
@disability
@autistics
@autistics
@actuallyadhd
#MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #DisabilityCrowdFund #disabilitymutualaid #MutualAidBoost #mutualaidsaveslives #press #activism #neurodivergence #ongoingsupport #anarchism #internationalism #groceries #writer #disabledwriter #medicalassistance #advocacy #marxism #disabilityjustice

Hi! this is day 1 of asking you if you think you could help out my friends?

They need monthly medical attention and so do their dog and they've been struggling nonstop and now homophobic family has been making their life miserable. Can we show up for them? They need €600 to be able to eat and get their pup and them the medical attention they need.

We protect each other. So many of you showed up for my glasses, I'm sure we can come through for two babes and a doggie!

This is day 1 of us fundraising, we need a strong start so they can get food.

PAYPAL: [email protected]
REVOLUT: @majorglayzer

#mastohelp #mutualaid #socialism #wereallwevegot #lbgt #queer #disabilityjustice #medicalassistance

You probably don't feel comfortable with the idea of a person dying because you transmitted COVID to them.

Half of the infections are asymptomatic. Antigen tests give false negatives. Many healthcare workers do not care about their patients and do not wear masks. Let's break the chain of transmission. Let's wear a mask.

Mask up. Let's not let the state tell us when we should take care of the community.

Improve your knowledge + COVID protocols

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

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.

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

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