Stuff I want to say to the “friends” who have abandoned Covid solidarity 🧵(thread) A conflict in opinions is fine. (Do you prefer tea or coffee?) But a clash in ideology of this magnitude will drive a wedge in our relationship. (Do people deserve to be safe or get their lives cut short by a rapidly mutating, vascular, and immunosuppressive virus?)

August 8: #SevereMEDay of Understanding and Remembrance

If you can imagine that mild ME is considered severe by other disease standards, the “living death” comparison for severe ME might be put into perspective. 25% of cases can be considered severe to very severe, ranging from a housebound existence to bedbound suffering with intolerance to any light, sound, cognitive exertion, or other stimulation.

NOW ppl are scrambling to get masks and CR boxes because they can 👀see and 🐽smell the danger?? But if the hazard is invisible/odorless it doesn’t matter? We told you…Covid moves like smoke.

Also, Covid stays in the air for longer because of the smoke. And the smoke is likely to make respiratory infections worse.

We told you there are many benefits to air hygiene, including adapting to the climate crisis.

This is the video that I made on Blue Sunday to promote the virtual conversation at Reservoir, my religious organization, last month! I speak about being a pwME, and its connections to Long Covid, the pandemic, and disability justice. 1/6

https://twitter.com/The_Gloria_Sun/status/1665941470543503361

Context: Reservoir has two separate services, one in-person, and one that is fully virtual, which streams on YouTube from onsite. I am glad to remain a part of this community despite having moved out of Greater Boston and to have served on their REDI team these last two years. 2

Tonight I hosted a virtual conversation at the Reservoir community, the first of its kind to talk about the ongoing impact of the pandemic on mental health and well-being.

I loved holding space for everyone and receiving shielders’ and long haulers’ stories. 1/9 Emotionally, I am regulated enough for this work and it’s meaningful to me. Even when talking about grief, trauma, and discrimination. I do have the “counselor” personality type, after all. Maybe it’s a calling… 2/9

When I was getting into public health a couple years ago , I wasn’t focused so much on Covid because I thought there were tons of people joining the field for that reason. I thought there would be a new generation of the workforce interested in tackling the pandemic. 1/5 Basically, I assumed the renewed interest in my field would mean a stronger response to the continued spread of disease. I thought I could focus my interests on the inequitable mental health outcomes in QT/BIPOC populations. 2/5

Practicing a Love Ethic in the Ongoing Pandemic by @itsjiyounkim
“To continue to practice disability solidarity is to be in continual grief and rage and face immense social loss…requires a confrontation of the impermanence and precarity of abledness.” itsjiyounkim.com/blog/love-ethi… Part 2 “A crucial part of liberatory work is to embody the world that we want to co-create in our own communities before that world is tangible in its fullness on larger, more systemic levels.“ itsjiyounkim.com/blog/love-ethi…

🧵 To be transparent, I have not always been a Covid safety advocate.

I didn't arrive at this point effortlessly or without making mistakes.

But it's never too late. Humans are not static beings. Every breath is a new beginning. Although I never completely ditched the mask, there have been instances where I caved to pressure and social norms.

• A multi-day conference where we masked, but still had meals together.
• Going to cohort mates' houses but not discussing testing or masking beforehand.