How Did We Get Here and What Comes Next?
Disabled people have been warning others for nearly 5 years that eugenicist Covid policies would lead to a rise of fascist, racist, bigoted, misogynistic hatred. It's here now. So what’s next?
I rarely write about politics - it’s not my wheelhouse and I know that. What I do write about is the experience of being put in the ‘other’ category during a global pandemic. Being a disabled person in a world that has decided - quite emphatically - that we are completely expendable. Doomed to be left by the wayside.
I write about being a woman trapped in a misogynistic and patriarchal society that has more than once put her health in jeopardy. About the experience of being denied my right to bodily autonomy and having doctors substitute their judgement for my own.
I write about the need to have safe community. Not just for women and disabled people - for everyone who feels alone and left behind. For everyone who doesn’t feel safe. For people who are fighting against oppression, fascism, eugenics, ableism, racism, bigotry and misogyny.
It’s not a small group. We are many - but we also feel lost. And that’s OK. It’s ok to feel lost right now. Tuesday night was a painful reminder that a great many people don’t care what happens to us. Don’t care if we live or die. If we have access to healthcare. If we can love and marry who we want. If we can make our own choices for our bodies. It hurts.
Image Description: A photo of the White House at night with shadows of people in front of it.
If you’ve been fighting for Covid mitigations for the last five years - you more than likely saw this coming. It was painfully obvious when the great unmasking occurred that many people on BOTH sides of the aisle didn’t care about the “vulnerable”. Didn’t care about community or protecting their neighbours. Didn’t care about anything other than their own ability to go to brunch, travel, socialize and get ‘back to normal.’
I’m not saying people should have shuttered inside their homes forever. None of us are. But they should have kept masking. There was no reason to stop. Respirators are highly effective at stopping the spread of Covid. The vast majority of people CAN wear them. We have mask blocs all over the world to provide masks to people who can’t afford them. It’s a simple thing you can do to protect yourself and - perhaps more importantly - protect others.
Instead of normalizing masking - everyone stopped. Leftists included. Disability advocates. Organizations that claimed to be for disability rights refused to even make their events accessible. We pushed kids back into unsafe schools. We balked at clean air. The lowest hanging fruit that would be ALL upside if implemented. We let the virus win.
Perhaps the most egregious of all - we unmasked in healthcare. In the ONE place that high risk and disabled people can’t ‘just stay home’ from. In the place where you should have a reasonable expectation that people would want to follow the science, understand how disease spreads and not want to harm their patients.
Does that sound harsh? Yes. It’s also true. Patients are dying because of hospital acquired Covid in far higher numbers than outside of hospital settings. Nosocomial Covid is estimated to have a fatality rate of between 8-12%.
Numbers like that should SHOCK people. They should result in a push for mandatory masking in healthcare. Those on all sides of the political divide should be able to agree that people shouldn’t be force infected with a deadly and disabling virus in the place they go for life saving care.
Yet instead of speaking up - instead of joining the fight - we hear the following:
They were sick anyways
They were old
How many co-morbids did they have?
Hospitals have always been unsafe places
They were going to die anyways
It’s as though people can’t hear themselves when they speak. Would you be this cavalier about any other hospital acquired infection? (The answer is No). If someone gets MRSA, TB, staph or sepsis - we consider it an epic failure of infection control. Someone gets Covid?
Oh well, so sad, they were probably one of those ‘other’ people.
I don’t know why this needs to be said - but people with disabilities, co-morbids, the elderly and infirm deserve to live too. Read that again if you have to because I want this message to sink in.
No one is expendable. We all have value.
We are more than our health or our ability to be cogs in the machine that is capitalism. We have hopes, dreams and people who love us. When you say ‘they were sick anyways’ you’re effectively saying it’s ok if we die. From a virus that we KNOW how to prevent.
The only reason you think it’s ok is because it’s not happening to you or people who look like you - and that is the crux of the issue.
Covid is as much a social justice issue as it is a public health one - because it’s shown us just how great the divide is between the haves and the have nots. People who don’t think they are at risk won’t lift a finger to protect those who are.
This doesn’t just apply to Covid - but it’s an example that we shouldn’t ignore. People of all political stripes rushed to unmask and now we’ve got 400 million disabled by Long Covid. Millions are dead. People’s fathers, mothers, grandparents, spouses, children and loved ones.
Despite all the death and disability around them - in numbers people should be incapable of ignoring - MOST stopped caring as soon as they were told the threat was over FOR THEM. The threat was never over for people like me. That fact isn’t in dispute. We hear it all the time: “Covid is only a threat to the vulnerable”. Yet people still do nothing to protect us.
It’s the same for reproductive issues. Women have already died in States that have abortion bans. They’ve suffered tremendous loss and trauma by being forced to carry fetuses with lethal anomalies. By being forced to carry a pregnancy that is putting their life in danger. It’s already happening and yet most people are looking away. Staying silent. Not joining the fight.
Where women’s rights are concerned - it’s not just men who are remaining silent. Women who have means - who are cishhet, white and rich - aren’t fighting for reproductive healthcare. They know they will always be able to access abortion. Who won’t have access? Women of colour. Women living in poverty. Women in abusive relationships. Disabled women. You know - the ‘other’ people.
If you want to learn more about my own struggles with bodily autonomy and access to reproductive healthcare - please read this article:
So Where Do We Go From Here?
I wish I had an answer. I’m sorry to say I don’t. What I will say is that one of the simplest and most powerful acts of resistance you can do right now is wear a mask. It may seem trivial to you - but it is NOT trivial to us. It won’t be trivial to those in power either. They’re counting on your apathy - don’t give it to them so easily.
Mask bans already exist in some States and Counties - and JD Vance supported a national ban on mask mandates. It’s time to normalize masking as community care. Wearing a mask sends a strong message that you’re done swallowing the lies being fed to you by those in power. You know Covid isn’t over, you know it’s airborne and you know it’s a threat to everyone. You mask to protect not only yourself - but to protect all those around you. You mask to fight for our legal right to continue masking.
Image Description: A white N95 respirator with yellow headstraps is seen against a purple background
Find community. We need each other right now. Hold space for those who are hurting. Support them. Reach out to anyone in your life who’s disabled or marginalized and ask them if there’s anything you can do. Share, donate and amplify mutual aid campaigns. Donate to or volunteer with a mask bloc. Get involved. Thoughts and prayers aren’t going to save us - we need to unite together and find ways to resist and fight back.
I also want to give a gentle reminder that making jokes about moving to Canada or saying that people should simply flee the country is not helpful right now. Many disabled people are trapped in the United States. Those living in poverty, the elderly and/or multiple marginalized feel the same.
Moving to another country takes resources that most people don’t have. There are health and financial requirements for entry. Countries don’t want to take in disabled, chronically ill and “high cost health users”. They don’t want people who they see as ‘economically inactive’. They don’t want elderly people, LGBTQ+ people and marginalized individuals.
Once again the ‘others’ get left behind.
Lastly - some people might be tempted to ask me why I’m so upset despite feeling expendable for the last five years. Despite the fact that I saw this coming AND spent years trying to warn people. It’s a fair question - and one with an easy answer.
It hurts to see this many people choose hate.
People like me may have seen this coming - but it’s still shocking when you look at the numbers. When you’re faced with the cold hard reality of how many openly chose racism, bigotry, transphobia, misogyny and ableism.
You can know that you’re considered worthless to politicians and leaders - you can even know that many people in your own community don’t see you as having any value. You can have that knowledge but still hold out hope that the majority of people are kind and good and will do the right thing.
Anyone who’s disabled or marginalized has likely spent a good portion of their lives feeling “less than”. Feeling like they don’t matter. Feeling tossed to the wayside.
But there’s a unique pain that comes from seeing millions and millions of people strongly and loudly choose hatred. That’s why I’m angry.
This election ripped the masks off people. It confirmed - once and for all - what many of us thought was true but wanted to believe wasn’t. People don’t care about us. They don’t care about each other. They are selfish, spiteful and want to take us back to a time where straight white men ruled the world.
Make America Great Again - for ONE group of people only. It will be far far worse for everyone else. Never forget that - it’s an important message. These types of people don’t stop with one group. The hatred may have started with disabled and marginalized people - I promise you it won’t end with us.
We aren’t safe until we are ALL safe. It’s ok to hurt right now. It’s ok to be scared. To go offline. To take a break. Whatever you’re feeling is OK.
Know you’re not alone. There are people all over the world standing in solidarity with you. Horrified and disappointed at the way this election played out - and rooting for you to find a way forward that is loving, inclusive and not fuelled by hate.
Mourn what has happened. Support those who are struggling. Create safe spaces and show up for one another. Then regroup - and we will find a way forward together. Love over hate. Always.
For those who don’t know this about me - I was a theatre critic for years before becoming disabled (and a musical theatre geek my entire life). I firmly believe that art gets us through our darkest hours. We need music, poetry, books and theatre to survive. To teach us about the world. To inspire us to be better versions of ourselves. To give us something to live for.
As such - I’m looking to some of my favourite musicals to give me comfort tonight. I hope they will do the same for you. I leave you with a song from Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” sung by another amazing ginger - Bernadette Peters. Let it remind you that no one is alone.
“Hard to see the light now
Just don’t let it go
Things will turn out right now
We can make it so
Someone is on your side
No one is alone.”
Lastly - one of my favourite songs from Les Miserables. A musical which inspired me - at the tender age of five - to fight for the underdog. To grow up to be an advocate. To answer the rallying cry of those in need. Maybe it’s the rallying cry we all need now:
“Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drum
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes.”
How are you getting through these dark times? Do you lean on community? Are you involved in activism? What’s a favourite song, book or piece of art that comforts you? Share in the comments below. Let’s spread kindness and joy and lift each other up.
Kelly, let me be clear. This article is brilliant. NONE of what you said is unreasonable. As a disabled older MD with a large patient population who has many co morbidities and is often very frail, it is a rule in my office that EVERYONE wear respirators. I occasionally relax this rule, but also have high quality HEPA UV filters running at all times in the office, including in the examination rules. My staff MUST wear respirators when we are seeing patients. My colleagues criticized me frequently until it became clear they were incorrect and still refuse to wear respirators. I DON'T care because I HAVE A DUTY OF CARE to patients, staff, family and myself which I take seriously. You are completely correct in what you write here. I will NOT waver in my full support of you and those disabled and different from me to make their own choices regarding health care and other personal choices. Thanks for writing this.
Absolutely a fantastic article. You are so right. When the mask mandates were stopped here, hundreds of elderly died over the next 3-4 months. It was appalling. One guy commented on a post I had up that they probably would have died from a cold. I was so angry. COVID is an inflammatory disease that results in not just Long COVID but stroke, heart attack in those already at risk because of clotting. And permanent lung disease. As a Critical Care Nurse, I support your work and will also join in to support social justice for Everyone.