Thread by @AbraarKaran

This piece is on point— but also not surprising. Individualism has plagued public health for a long time; it is a byproduct of our society & American culture at large. At the center of this is a *disregard* for equity. This is not new. ⁦@edyong209⁩ theatlantic.com/health/archive…

2/ That an institution like @CDCgov would make statements that refocus on individual responsibility is not surprising. This is a great way to shift blame and accountability to the public and away from the institution. This is the same as the “stay home” rhetoric

3/ The type of messaging referenced here telling individual to take matters into “their own hands”— that speaks to people who view the world through their lens of privilege & view others who aren’t living to their standard as being worthy of blame rather than in need of resources

4/ Doctors know this all too well— it’s the same blame put on patients who are re-hospitalized over & over because they are failed by the public health & social systems; yet, many are still seen as being blameworthy, lazy, exploitative of the system etc

Nothing has changed

5/ The new version of this will be those who are “vaccine hesitant”; those who continue to get infected in workplaces & crowded housing/ poor communities—> they will be blamed, prob by the wealthy/ privileged classes; they will be cast as “the problem” & why we have resurgences

6/ They will continue to disproportionately bear the burden of disease— because pandemics are less biological than they are social. This was always the case, throughout history.

& this will extend to the globe as well— immigrants & foreigners who never got access to vaccines...

7/ Will blamed for introducing disease & variants— they will be cast off as vectors of disease rather than human beings who were deprived life saving vaccines; they will be viewed as threatening the safety of American teenagers when their own country’s health workers are dying

8/ I appreciate @edyong209 for bringing light to this again— but at a point, when history repeats and repeats, we should get real about the immense, deadly privilege shared across American institutions of public health & medicine for whom equity is not a central goal.

Cc @sdbaral @RanuDhillon @JuliaLMarcus @gregggonsalves @DrWilfredoM @celinegounder @drlouiseivers @IngridKatzMD @jabarocas @GYamey