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

Wer die #Liegenddemo in #Tuebingen unterstützen möchte, hier kann man noch spenden: https://gofund.me/ee73d6c06

#LongCovid #PostCovid

Am 9.5.26 demonstrieren wir für mehr Sichtbarkeit von #PostCovid, einer Erkrankung mit der sich immer noch zu wenige Ärzte auskennen, sodass Betroffene oft keine Versorgung bekommen oder falsch behandelt werden.

Kommt, um die zu unterstützen, die selbst nicht für sich eintreten können, weil es ihr gesundheitlicher Zustand nicht zulässt.

#MECFS #LongCovid #PostVac #Tübingen

Berlin aufgepasst. 🚨

Die Initiative #Liegenddemo braucht in Berlin noch Unterstützung! Sie benötigen Ordner*innen, aber auch Menschen, die beim Auf- und Abbau helfen und den Stand betreuen. Einsatzzeit: 09.05. 12:30-16 Uhr am Brandenburger Tor.
Du willst helfen? Schreibe mir eine Direktnachricht oder kontaktiere liegenddemo.de via Kontaktformular.
#MEcfs #LongCovid #PostVac #Berlin

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