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#CovidIsNotOver

54 posts48 participants10 posts today

Covid is a worker’s rights issue. Workplaces need to implement clean air standards, paid time off and provide free respirators.

We’re in a mass disabling event, and governments told people it was safe to “go back to normal” to prop up the economy.

Covid isn’t over. It’s still killing & disabling people.

This May Day, demand clean air & Covid mitigation.

Replied in thread

@tobi82

Die Chance als Maskenträger*in einen neuen Job zu finden, dürfte sich gegen Null bewegen. Mit den verschärften Maßnahmen gegenüber Arbeitslosen hier in Deutschland, die die neue Regierung durchsetzen will, wird das Maskentragen, das eine Einstellung verhindert, dann wahrscheinlich als Verweigerung, eine Stelle anzunehmen, gewertet und das Arbeitslosengeld bzw. die Grundsicherung (Bürgergeld) gestrichen. Goldene Zeiten. 🤡

#CovidIsNotOver #COVID #COVID19 #Corona
😷 #MaskeAuf #MaskUp

This is random even for me but bear with me:

I've been thinking about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. And how my house is like a seed vault but for me: my isolation life is doing its best to keep me intact and viable so that I can emerge one day fully functional to make a needed contribution to the world. I like the analogy of "keeping my health safe as a precious resource".

I'm sharing in casse other isolationists will take some comfort in this.

#CovidIsNotOver @lonelinesscorps

There’s a ton of overlap between the Covid Cautious & Chronic Illness communities because people living with chronic illness don’t have the luxury of ignoring the pandemic.

They know what a Covid infection will do to their precarious health.

so when the rest of the world decided to bury their heads in the sand and rush ‘back to normal’, we got left behind.
Stuck bearing the burden of knowing that the pandemic isn’t over.

That every day people are dying or becoming disabled.

That each Covid infection is playing Russian Roulette with disability and eventually, your number will be up.

There’s a significant mental toll that occurs when you are living in a different reality than the rest of the world.

People think we’re isolated and lonely because we’re often housebound and unable to do the activities we used to do, but they never consider the loneliness that comes from refusing to live in denial.

From knowing the danger everyone is in and being powerless to stop it.

All of these factors make maintaining a baseline all the more important, but it’s a delicate balance. Every thing we do is a cost/benefit analysis. We have to consider how much energy it will take. Do we have enough time to recover afterward? Is there a more disability friendly alternative?

The executive functioning required to make these decisions is considerable, and ironically also has a negative impact on our baseline. It’s exhausting having to be on high alert all the time. Unfortunately the alternative, throwing caution to the wind, is far more dangerous to our health.

disabledginger.com/p/maintaini

The Disabled Ginger · Maintaining a Baseline Means Everything When You're Chronically IllBy Broadwaybabyto

Mobilize.us has virtual events for those who are physically unable to protest tomorrow, May 1. If you need an accessible and/or #Covid safe way to express your resistance, you can enter a burner email to get a link to join any of the virtual rallies being held around the country.

Support immigrants, education, fair taxes and more from a safe location! Every person standing up matters! ✊🏼

#MayDayStrong #MayDay #HandsOff #Disability #CovidIsNotOver

mobilize.us/mayday/?is_virtual

MobilizeVolunteer Opportunities, Events, and Petitions Near Me · May Day Strong on MobilizeFind events, petitions, volunteer opportunities, fundraisers and more with May Day Strong.

If you’re not fighting against mask bans because you think they “only” apply to those committing crimes… consider the following:

Who decides who’s committing a crime? The police. POC who mask will be disproportionately targeted.

Who decides if your medical exemption is “good enough”? Police

The police aren’t doctors. It shouldn’t be up to them to determine who has a valid reason for masking.

Many disabilities are invisible. We struggle to convince healthcare workers that we’re sick. What chance do we have with law enforcement?

Non disabled people also need the right to mask.

Finally, anti mask sentiment is at an all time high.

Before COVID, no one cared if you wore a mask in public. The worst that would happen is you might get a strange look.

Now there’s an entire segment of the population who see it as political virtue signalling.

There’s others with unresolved pandemic trauma who get irrationally angry when they see someone wearing a mask.

It’s (sadly) no longer a non event. Now it’s controversial. Adversarial. Political.

As a result, criminalizing masks will only further embolden those who seek to harm maskers

We need to normalize masks as a public health tool before it’s too late.

If you care about social justice, disability rights, fighting fascism or your health… you should be wearing a mask. Ideally an N95 or better.

The more of us wearing them, the harder they will be to ban.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming these bans are “no big deal”.

They are a very big deal. They will cost lives. Both due to Covid spread and also violence at the hands of law enforcement or vigilante anti-maskers.

Call and email your elected officials. Tell them no mask bans.

A round up from Judy Stone at Forbes:

How Will RFK Jr.’s Cuts At Federal Health Agencies Affect You?

The Department of Health and Human Services announced drastic cuts on March 27 that would gut 20,000 jobs — 3,500 at the Food and Drug Administration, 1,200 at the National Institutes of Health, 2,400 at the Centers for Disease Control and more from other agencies.

A leaked draft budget released by the Washington Post and Politico on April 10 shows that the Office of Management and Budget plans cuts of $40 billion to HHS. The NIH and CDC will each face reductions of more than 40%. How will that affect the public?
What’s Being Cut?

Cuts at the CDC emphasized programs looking at smoking, gun violence and climate change — topics that this administration has devalued.

Under discussion are plans to eliminate the domestic HIV prevention program, although HHS officials told Politico this was part of streamlining programs for efficiency and not actually eliminating them. The $1 billion spent on the program is largely funneled to the states for testing, surveillance, offering pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV and outreach. What will states do now to make up for the shortfall?

Although costly, the HIV prevention programs pay for themselves. Each newly diagnosed person accrues $500,000 in lifetime healthcare costs. In 2022 alone, 31,800 people were newly diagnosed, which would translate to $15.9 billion in costs.

Journalist Marisa Kabas has a running list of HHS departments that have already been gutted to the point of non-functionality. They include:
Cuts at CDC

viral hepatitis lab
TB Communication, Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch
STD Prevention Lab and Disease Intervention branches
HIV prevention
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Development and Disability, Disability and Health Promotion Branch
Division of Blood Disorders and Public Health Genomics
Office of Health Equity (All: OD, Office of Women’s Health, Office of Minority Health)
Office of Equal Employment Opportunity
Traumatic Brain Injury team
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Smoking reduction
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease, discontinuing funding for Lyme Disease, Prion Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Cuts at FDA

Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
Call center phones are off
Media affairs is gone (there is no one for journalists to call for interviews or to verify information. Staff are not supposed to have any communication with outsiders)
The Freedom of Information Act office is gone

Cuts at NIH

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Office of the Director
Much of the Office of Communications and Government Relations
Office of Minority Health (entire office is gone)

These are just a smattering of the planned agency cuts. Some have already been implemented; others have not.

One other notable cut is that the Head Start program, which provides early child care and education, has lost all of its funding from HHS’s Administration for Children and Families.
What Might the Public Notice?

The FDA will no longer investigate food outbreaks. It just suspended a quality control program that tests milk and cheese for bird flu and other pathogens.

The administration said that the states will pick up that work. Given how strapped state public health departments are now, it’s hard to envision how this will happen. Also, many outbreaks cross multiple states and require extensive cooperation. A prime example is the outbreak of Cronobacter infections from powdered infant formula in 2022.

Vaccines Might Not Be As Available

A novel treatment for deadly pancreatic cancer, using an mRNA vaccine, is threatened by grant “purity”tests for mentioning a “forbidden” word, “mRNA.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who heads up HHS, has been vocal in his criticisms of mRNA vaccines. Because of this, scientists have reportedly been warned to scrub the word mRNA from their grant proposals for cancer trials. Kennedy has previously called mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations “dangerous.” He also tried to have their approval rescinded in 2021 when deaths from COVID-19 were rampant.

The NIH has also axed research in vaccine hesitancy, with Matthew Memoli, who served as acting director from January through the end of March, saying the agency is not interested in exploring ways to “improve vaccine interest and commitment.”

When we have widespread bird flu infections, we will likely be in trouble because mRNA vaccines can be developed faster than most egg-based vaccines.

The Novavax vaccine, which is not mRNA-based, is also in distress because of Kennedy’s mistrust and lack of knowledge about it. The FDA was slated to transition Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine from emergency use authorization to full licensure on April 1. But both Kennedy and Tracy Beth Høeg, now a special assistant to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, have opposed Novavax.

“It is a single antigen vaccine," Kennedy said. "And for respiratory illnesses, the single antigen vaccines have never worked.” Paul Offit, a leading vaccine researcher, immediately challenged this, as did Peter Marks, the former head of the FDA’s biologics center, who was recently ousted, and other prominent physician researchers. Kennedy is neither a physician nor a scientist.

Høeg has promoted incorrect information about COVID-19 vaccines, including misinterpreted data, multiple people with vaccine expertise said. Further, in 2022, Novavax explained that its bivalent BA.1 + wild type formulation performed no better than single antigen formulations. In 2021, Makary tweeted, “Novavax may be the best COVID-19 vaccine to date. It uses a tried & true mechanism of action and can be easily stored & transported. Needs a better PR firm.”

Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccination has far fewer side effects than the mRNA vaccines. Given all the expert opinions and data supporting its use, why did the FDA not approve its full licensure?

Will we have access to any COVID-19 vaccines next year? It appears increasingly doubtful for many. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met last week and is leaning toward recommending “risk-based” boosters, with semi-annual boosters for those over 65 or immunocompromised (by whose definition?) and no vaccination needed otherwise. That ignores that even “mild” COVID-19 infections can cause long COVID and years of side effects, including cognitive impairment. If ACIP doesn’t recommend vaccination, insurers are unlikely to pay for it.
Drug Development Will Be Slowed

Are you hoping for a new drug for your cancer? Don’t hold your breath. Did you know that funding from the NIH, totaling $187 billion, contributed to 354 of 356 drugs (99.4%) approved from 2010 to 2019? This is not an extravagant waste — the return was $2.56 for each dollar invested.

A number of clinical trials, done to test new drugs or treatments before approval, already stopped when HHS abruptly canceled funding. So many leaders at the NIH were fired that there is no one left to sign off on grants for funds that Congress already approved. (This means the administration is ignoring the will of the people by not dispersing these funds already allocated by Congress).

There is an upcoming Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on April 30: Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation. This title is clearly an oxymoron. Should you wish to share your thoughts, you can reach your senators at 5Calls.org or here: congress.gov/members/find-your

#Health #Eugenics #Vaccines #Novavax #CovidIsNotOver

forbes.com/sites/judystone/202

I'm sick and tired of being unable to gig, or even go to gigs, due to the lack of COVID cautious events with sensible mitigations (masks, LFTs, ventilation etc)

I'm not the only one, and I know such events are starting to happen in the UK and elsewhere.

Thinking v srsly about putting sth together locally, but first I need to find out more.

So if you know of any COVID cautious music events anywhere in the world, please let me know.

(Pls boost?)