Thread by @thrasherxy

For Scientific American, I wrote an essay assessing the Biden-Harris COVID-19 plan and critiquing the people who will implement it scientificamerican.com/article/we-fin…

One of the things I contextualize in the essay are the concerns of many disabled ppl active with #CripTheVote about the inclusion of Ezekiel Emanuel on the COVID task force, which I first explored in this thread

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1325865699533856768

One thing I'm critical of are the simplistic suggestions to "listen to science" unquestioningly, which we'll hear a lot after an explicitly anti-science presidency. But as I illustrate by linking to @TheTinaVasquez's important work, science can facilitate help or harm

Thx @MECFSNews for highlighting how the pandemic has impacted ppl living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. My @SCAatNYU colleague @emilyrogers researches this community. Frightening how disability/health needs are stymied by COVID

https://twitter.com/MECFSNews/status/1326606480695586817

Yes, @elimrogers, my bad, who has taught me more about CFS than about anyone except, perhaps, for Dorothy, @ehphd and @SharynJackson. (This is not a joke; like much of America, I was a little kid when Susan Harris used DZ to explain CFS.)

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1326610779261562884

One thing I mentioned to @jdesmondharris recently is that, while the questions of racism, ableism, and health remain, it feels nice to be able to write a level-headed, forward looking critique again instead of just writing immediate reactions to constant existential crises.

This isn't to minimize the immediate existential crises so many ppl face regardless of any administration. The ppl gassed by police in "blue" states and cities, the ppl @brian_goldstone writes abt, some of my own relatives have emergencies Dems won't help newrepublic.com/article/154618…

But, to the extent what I do can help in any way, I am appreciative that we now live in a country where there IS a COVID plan, and we can look at it, and critique it, and try to figure out how to make it more just, instead of simply responding to bodies piling up

It is nice, as @arielglenn eloquently phrases it, to be writing free of the "panic factor" for a change.

https://twitter.com/arielglenn/status/1326606364626530305

Also, per convos in my thread & essay about Emanuel's 2014 essay, he gave an interview in 2019 where he reaffirmed the same ideas. He still highlights disability as a reason not to live & frames productivity as the main reason for living, which is ableist technologyreview.com/2019/08/21/238…

I didn't get to get into this in the @sciam essay, but this is where @StephanieKelton's work on modern monetary theory (h/t @alexgoldmark) becomes so useful in this pandemic. The feds can print $, but citied & states can't—the ones holding the bag.

https://twitter.com/charliearchy/status/1326743178850914309

Something I do like about @Transition46 COVID plan is a financial plan for passing money to states/cities precisely so that they can keep teachers employed and such.

Fed govt has lots of options to share resources across society right now; cities/states' ability is limited.

This essay developed from this thread

https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1325636906730868737