Poor and oppressed people bear the brunt of infections

From the beginning, our usefulness as workers has been prioritized over our lives. It was the “essential” workers who were not allowed to stay home and stay safe when we needed workers to run our grocery stores, hospitals, post offices, and fields. It is the workers who keep showing up to work, only to get infected again and again, worrying about childcare and rent and bills that need to be paid. It is our bosses who fail to protect us.

Ending the state of emergency has left us more vulnerable than before In 2023, the end of the Public Health Emergency was declared. But the pandemic continues. Returning to normal is about profits, not people: it means our government no longer has to pay for public health measures that have been proven to keep us safe; it means millions of people are living with long Covid, missing from public space as research is delayed, empathy diminishes, and palliative measures are abandoned.

DIDN'T THE HEALTH MINISTRIES TELL US THAT COVID WAS MILD? Covid is an airborne virus that attacks every organ system in the body, whether or not symptoms are experienced, and however mild the initial symptoms. In fact, the virus becomes more lethal as it evolves, spreading unmitigated through our communities. Every time you get infected, your risk of permanent damage, or long Covid, increases. This damage may not be visible at first. But Covid causes brain damage, blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, and cancer.

I'M NOT HIGH RISK. WHY SHOULD I CARE? Disabled people are not disposable. Our government has glossed over the serious health implications of COVID by telling us that only "high-risk" people should take precautions. (And if you've been infected previously, you're now part of this category.) One in five cases will develop into long-term COVID. Everyone must be able to safely participate in public life. Mitigating COVID is our collective responsibility. Do you remember the exact moment when anti-mask stopped being a far-right issue and became advice you were willing to follow?

MASKS OFFER THE MOST EFFECTIVE MEANS OF PROTECTION, RESISTANCE AND SOLIDARITY When the oppressed unite against our common enemy, we win! While the government continues to downplay the dangers and prevalence of COVID in our communities, masks are our most effective tool to protect against the spread of COVID. When we mask, we say no to forced infection and abandonment! COVID-19 travels through the air we breathe via larger droplets and smaller, invisible aerosols, which contain very tiny virus particles that can travel long distances on air currents. To protect ourselves from aerosol transmission, we need high-filtration masks, such as N9/FPP2 respirators. Surgical and cloth masks, while cheaper, do not offer aerosol filtration, making them much less effective. Also, yes, please continue to wash your hands, but know that airborne transmission accounts for many more cases than contact transmission.

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

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

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