Direct Action LONG COVID March, 2026 Worldwide

AutoDefensaSanitaria@proton.me

What do we want to do?
Distribute masks and information about COVID. The focus is not on blaming people, but on holding governments accountable. We believe in humanity. It is not true that most people are selfish, evil, stupid, ignorant, or reluctant to learn. Most people either don't know what's happening, or feel powerless to stop it, or both. We can deliver masks wherever you are.
Stickers, flyers, posters, and banners everywhere: We can provide materials to print and phrases to write. We can provide the text in English or Spanish so it can be translated into any language you want!

We know that many of us are too disabled to be able to do things physically, and the reality is that we can coordinate and help with tasks for this action online. We are grateful to the comrades who can do physical things because we know that the street, the public space, is everything. We want to reach people.

The Objectives of this Action
Visibility
Keeping COVID-19 care present, in people's faces, does three things: first, it lets people know that COVID-19 continues to disable and kill our communities and that there are people who still care about this. Also, being able to speak out against the idea that disabled bodies are disposable is key. Second, it makes people think about it. Third, it makes everyone who cares, more or less, feel like they are not alone.

Build Community
To confront the increasing disasters—from climate change to increasingly fascist governments—we need communities made up of politically aware and committed people who care about one another.

Call out the oppressors
Calling out those responsible who are trying to wash their hands and make mask-wearing an individual issue, making as much noise as we can, connecting with feminist collectives, and signaling the need for community care. The point is to have a class and political analysis of the culprit: the system of oppression and the governments. Maybe putting up stickers, posters, and spreading COVID information left and right feels like nothing, but little by little, we're highlighting the root of the problem.
Building trust and a culture of resistance
Many of us against COVID eugenics are in different territories, and some of us can't put our bodies on the line, but we can coordinate direct actions. This gives us greater agency and confidence. When you experience this for the first time, it fills you with a sense of empowerment and empowerment. These are intangible things that help build a culture of resistance that will continue for generations.

Raise our consciousness
Many people against COVID eugenics haven't had experience in other movements, or don't necessarily come with a radical analysis against ableism. That's why studying oppressions and how we can't fight one form of eugenics and genocide without fighting them all helps us understand what we're up against and who our potential allies are. This isn't about theory in isolation, but in conjunction with practice. We study forms of direct action from other revolutionaries. This leads us to both have more hope (the struggle has happened before, and it can be reorganized) and to be more practical (we learn from the mistakes and successes of other struggles against eugenics).

We want eugenics and the culture of eugenics to be destroyed, and we know this goes hand in hand with liberation. We want to build community care with all our hearts. We do what we can, from each according to their ability to each according to their need. The struggle in Palestine is connected to all struggles. It's another front in the global struggle between the oppressed and the oppressors. Although our efforts won't directly free us from ableism, we are building the beginning of the movement for justice. Everything is important. Nothing is wasted. Let's keep moving forward.

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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We are seeing a huge COVID peak (and it will continue to rise)

Infections are preventable. Wearing a mask means participating in preventing deaths and disabilities caused by infections.

https://camaradademian.substack.com/p/we-are-seeing-a-huge-covid-peak-and

We are in danger of COVID continuously, and especially when there are peaks of infections (when a significant number of COVID infections occur in a region, we call it a peak)

COVID is transmitted through the air and with droplets and remains suspended in the air for HOURS afterwards (like cigarette smoke, so you can imagine), so when people gather in spaces without masks, we know that there is a COVID outbreak (start of school, vacation, some party or conference...)

We had wastewater data (a way to measure certain diseases, such as COVID in an easier way), it is true that this way gives lower data on the infections they give, so we should not take it as a dogma.

Capitalism has allowed us to take this data away from us, at least in some countries. In any case, when we know how it is transmitted and how to fight against COVID, we know what precautions to take and, above all, do so for as long as possible. Because COVID has not stopped ending and because we do not accept sacrificing the lives of the oppressed by the unbridled pace of work and consumption.

COVID is not over:
· At least 50% of COVID infections are asymptomatic.

· At least 10% of infections end in long COVID.

· Reinfections destroy us. There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. There is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. Viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don’t build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.

· Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives. A rapid antigen test only successfully detects about 60% of early symptomatic infections and about 22% of asymptomatic infections. PCR and molecular tests are the most accurate tests.

· COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke. Think of the people around you and yourself as people who smoke all day long. It becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.

· In infections with symptoms, it takes a couple of days to show them, which means that you are infecting for at least a couple of days without knowing it.

· Vaccines are not preventing infections, reinfections or long COVID. Vaccines have been crucial in significantly reducing mortality and hospitalization rates from severe infections. However, the levels of antibodies produced decrease significantly in the months following vaccination. Every infection involves new mutations that make the virus more complex. To honor the work of vaccines, we must avoid creating more variants. Vaccines are not an excuse to not wear a mask.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a great deal of propaganda around the normalization of the disease and a meritocratic way of understanding immunity (the best is that you will never be affected, the weak is that you will ‘have to die’ for prosperity).

The new variants are complex because of 1) the continuous transmission that we do between humans, as well as that which occurs between humans and other animals, creating more complex mutations; 2) the lack of research, lack of socialization of barriers against COVID, of antivirals when you have infections, and of PCR or molecular COVID tests. All of this is not isolated from the world of oppression where we live, in fact, that is where its origin is. Care against COVID is community care for workers, disabled, queer, anticolonial struggle and against all forms of oppression.

We have the tools to fight against eugenics, let’s organize!

“Every chain of transmission that is broken COUNTS. Every person who doesn’t get sick, who doesn’t lose THAT WEEK OF WORK, who doesn’t DIE or become DISABLED, from the smallest of inconveniences to the BIGGEST of losses – every single one of these things COUNTS.” - Becca on the Death Panel podcast

Infections have consequences…
36% of all adults who have had COVID have experienced long COVID.

The risk of developing an autoimmune disease after a COVID infection is 42.6%

SARS-CoV-2 infection weakens immune-cell response to vaccination | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Second infection in kids doubles long COVID risk | Penn Medicine

Beyond breathing: How COVID-19 affects your heart, brain and other organs | American Heart Association

Short- and long-term increased risk of all-cause mortality in a tuberculosis cohort attributed to SARS-CoV-2 infection: a time-dependent survival analysis in Chile - The Lancet Regional Health – Americas

Associations of epigenetic aging and COVID- 19: A 3-year longitudinal study | GeroScience

COVID-19 as a Trigger for Type 1 Diabetes - PubMed

COVID-19 infection history as a risk factor for early pregnancy loss: results from the electronic health record-based Southeast Texas COVID and Pregnancy Cohort Study | BMC Medicine | Full Text

COVID-19 may increase heart attack and stroke risk for years | American Heart Association

Changes in memory and cognition during the SARS-CoV-2 human challenge study - eClinicalMedicine

Prevention is key. The immune system cannot be “trained.”
There is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. Viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don’t build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on preventing infections is key.

“there is no evidence that an individual is worse off for having avoided earlier infection. “Immunity debt as an individual concept is not recognised in immunology,” Dunn-Walters says. “The immune system is not viewed as a muscle that has to be used all the time to be kept in shape and, if anything, the opposite is the case.” The constant onslaught of common pathogens such as cytomegalovirus, she adds, means the immune system begins to malfunction and slacken with age. She rejects the idea that infection is somehow good for health, saying vaccination is a far safer way of building population immunity. (..)

The immunity debt theory holds broad appeal because it can be employed in so many ways. It seems to intuitively explain the current wave of respiratory illness. It is attractive to those who would downplay disease in children, and those who advocate for infection over vaccination. It provides a post-hoc justification for opposing measures such as masking, even though evidence suggests that such measures curbed Covid and virtually banished flu.

Immunity debt also plays to the idea that the ebb and flow of childhood illnesses are best left to nature — until one remembers that the entire childhood vaccination schedule is about keeping the worst of nature at bay.” ‘Immunity debt’ is a misguided and dangerous concept

“More and more evidence is linking viruses to a range of diseases including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, type 1 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. When does illness make you stronger, and when does it cause permanent harm or leave you with chronic health conditions?

Our immune systems are amazing, and amazingly complex. Certain cells, called memory B cells and memory T cells, are able to “remember” invaders that they have seen before. They can rearrange their genes to create billions of possible memories and to respond more quickly to a future infection with the same pathogen. Is this an example of infection making you stronger? It depends. You can only catch the measles virus once, because you will form memory cells for it. But measles also destroys your pre-existing memory cells, meaning that you can now re-catch a bunch of other illnesses that you had already built immunity to. Also, a very small percentage of people (unvaccinated babies may have more risk) will seem to fully recover from measles, and then 6 to 15 years later develop brain inflammation that often leads to death. (…)

A crowd infection is one that would not last in sparsely distributed, small hunter-gatherer groups, because it either kills people, or offers enough immunity until the small tribe has been infected and there is nowhere else to spread. For instance, if a small tribe of hunter-gatherers caught a strain of influenza, the virus would die out once they had all caught it in short order, with no more hosts to spread to. The ability to circulate through megacities or crisscross the globe through international travel in our current world offers influenza far more opportunities to infect and time to mutate. It is able to continue infecting and reinfecting, decade after decade. Even viruses that don’t mutate much, such as measles, are able to continue infecting, due to dense populations and an ongoing supply of new people being born. (…)

Crowd diseases contribute to allergies and autoimmune diseases. Comparing the immune system to a muscle that gets stronger with use is overly simplistic and, in many cases, inaccurate. There is huge variety in how various pathogens impact us. Being precise in considering different types of microbes and infections will allow us to better understand human health.” Rachel Thomas, PhD - Your Immune System is Not a Muscle

Why doesn’t the system tell us that covid is dangerous?
“Actually solving the pandemic was never in the cards of the capitalist world. the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception” Let Them Eat Plague! – The Red Clarion (unity-struggle-unity.org)

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation

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The discourse of “personal responsibility” in handling Covid is just another way to market death as inevitable. It’s a rallying cry that masks the real stakes. The fact is, who lives and who dies is not a matter of personal failing—it’s a decision rooted in historical patterns of exploitation. The pandemic exposed these fault lines, but we should never think they weren’t already there. The uneven distribution of death follows the logic of racial capitalism, hitting the poor, Black, Brown, and disabled hardest.

This is why you can’t disengage, and why if you have disengaged now is the time to pick up where you left off. The same powers normalizing mass death today are the ones that have been exploiting workers, criminalizing the marginalized, and entrenching inequality for centuries. COVID has simply brought this into sharper focus. From the torture of prisoners under the guise of pandemic protections to the outsourcing of public health responsibility onto individuals, what we’re seeing is not new—it’s an acceleration of existing processes designed to preserve power for the few.

The normalization of mass death serves as a form of eugenics, where the unproductive—those who cannot be exploited for profit—are left to die. This isn’t a side effect of capitalism; it’s central to how it operates. From the start, this has been a pandemic of selective neglect. The poor, the immunocompromised, the disabled, those in low-wage work, those whose very existence threatens the perpetuity of the state—we were always going to be the ones sacrificed first. The system needs our bodies for labor and extraction, but not for care.

https://blindarchive.substack.com/p/structural-violence-and-the-pandemic

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

.

This study reports that in utero SARS-CoV-2 viral exposure results in decreased cognitive skills in toddlers mediated by structural differences in the regions of the newborn brain. Just over 50 % of the children in the SARS-CoV-2-exposed cohort scored “at risk” of developmental delay on the BSID-III, compared with only 14 % in the healthy pre-pandemic cohort, highlighting the potential impact of these exposures on this generation of children. Finally, toddler cognitive scores mediated the association between in utero SARS-CoV-2 exposure and toddler internalizing behaviors.

5. Conclusions

Children exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in utero display lower cognitive abilities than children who had not been exposed, mediated in part by the neonatal cortical gray matter volumes. Cognitive ability in toddlers also mediated the association between in utero SARS-CoV-2 exposure and their early social-emotional development. These findings highlight the need for continued surveillance to best identify and provide early interventions for at-risk children and provide new insights regarding prenatal exposures on early fetal programming. Further studies into the longitudinal effects of this exposure are currently ongoing.

https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/the-covid-generation-the-neurodevelopmental

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

.

•In utero exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 Virus resulted in altered neonatal brain volumes in the regions of the cortical and subcortical gray matter, cerebral white matter, and the left hippocampus.

•Changes in cortical gray matter mediated deficits in cognitive scores at two years of age in children who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero.

•Cognitive scores mediated an increase in anxiety scores at age two for children who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero.

Background

In historical viral epidemics, such as the H1N1 influenza and Zika viruses, prenatal exposures were correlated with risk for neuropsychiatric conditions in offspring. However, the long-term effects of prenatal COVID-19 viral exposure on offspring neurodevelopment are still being discovered.

Conclusions

This study reports that in utero SARS-CoV-2 viral exposure was associated with decreased cognitive skills in toddlers at age 2, and this association was mediated by cortical gray matter volumes in the newborn brain. In addition, toddler cognitive scores further mediated an increase in toddler internalizing behaviors. These findings highlight the need for ongoing assessments for children born during the COVID-era.

https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/the-covid-generation-the-neurodevelopmental

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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The COVID generation: the neurodevelopmental consequences of in-utero COVID-19 exposure

What are we doing to the next generation of children when we fail to prevent airborne SARS-CoV-2 infection and ignore the long term effects of COVID on our populations?

https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/the-covid-generation-the-neurodevelopmental

Highlights

•In utero exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 Virus resulted in altered neonatal brain volumes in the regions of the cortical and subcortical gray matter, cerebral white matter, and the left hippocampus.

•Changes in cortical gray matter mediated deficits in cognitive scores at two years of age in children who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero.

•Cognitive scores mediated an increase in anxiety scores at age two for children who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero.

Background

In historical viral epidemics, such as the H1N1 influenza and Zika viruses, prenatal exposures were correlated with risk for neuropsychiatric conditions in offspring. However, the long-term effects of prenatal COVID-19 viral exposure on offspring neurodevelopment are still being discovered.

Conclusions

This study reports that in utero SARS-CoV-2 viral exposure was associated with decreased cognitive skills in toddlers at age 2, and this association was mediated by cortical gray matter volumes in the newborn brain. In addition, toddler cognitive scores further mediated an increase in toddler internalizing behaviors. These findings highlight the need for ongoing assessments for children born during the COVID-era.

3.2. Association between SARS-CoV-2 exposure and newborn regional brain volumes

Infants exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in utero showed significantly larger cortical gray matter volumes (β = -8096.40, 95 % CI: −11179.55, −5013.25, q < 0.001) and left hippocampal volumes (β = -62.73, 95 % CI: −108.85, −16.60, q = 0.008) than infants who were not exposed to the virus (Fig. 3). By contrast, infants exposed to the virus had significantly smaller subcortical gray matter volumes (β = 1299.84, 95 % CI: 601.90, 1997.85, q < 0.001) and white matter volumes (β = 6259.79, 95 % CI: 2825.55, 9694.03, q = 0.005) than infants who were not exposed (Fig. 3. No other brain region was significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 exposure.

3.3. Association between SARS-CoV-2 exposure and toddler developmental outcomes

Overall, 14 % of toddlers in the pre-pandemic group were at high risk for developmental delays on the BSID-III compared with 51.6 % in the SARS-CoV-2 exposed group (p < 0.01; Table 1), unadjusted for covariates. On the ITSEA, 11 % of children in the pre-pandemic cohort were at high risk for behavioral problems compared with 24.7 % in the SARS-CoV-2 exposed group (p = 0.05; Table 1), unadjusted for covariates.

Toddlers exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero showed significantly lower composite cognitive scores on the BSID-III than those who were not exposed (β = 9.05, 95 % CI: 2.68, 15.42, q = 0.010; Fig. 4A). SARS-CoV-2 exposed toddlers similarly showed lower composite scores on the social-emotional scale of the BSID-III than unexposed toddlers (β = 20.85, 95 % CI: 9.75, 31.95, q = 0.001; Fig. 4B). While there was no significant association between SARS-CoV-2 exposure and overall composite language score on the BSID-III (β = 2.98, 95 % CI: −3.80, 9.77, q = 0.30, Fig. 4C), receptive language scores significantly decreased following in-utero exposure to the virus (β = 1.55, 95 % CI: 0.11, 2.99, p = 0.034, Fig. 5B).

4. Discussion

This study reports that in utero SARS-CoV-2 viral exposure results in decreased cognitive skills in toddlers mediated by structural differences in the regions of the newborn brain. Just over 50 % of the children in the SARS-CoV-2-exposed cohort scored “at risk” of developmental delay on the BSID-III, compared with only 14 % in the healthy pre-pandemic cohort, highlighting the potential impact of these exposures on this generation of children. Finally, toddler cognitive scores mediated the association between in utero SARS-CoV-2 exposure and toddler internalizing behaviors.

5. Conclusions

Children exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in utero display lower cognitive abilities than children who had not been exposed, mediated in part by the neonatal cortical gray matter volumes. Cognitive ability in toddlers also mediated the association between in utero SARS-CoV-2 exposure and their early social-emotional development. These findings highlight the need for continued surveillance to best identify and provide early interventions for at-risk children and provide new insights regarding prenatal exposures on early fetal programming. Further studies into the longitudinal effects of this exposure are currently ongoing.

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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Do you want to stop blaming individuals and move toward a compassionate, collective approach to masking? This is your space.

every Saturday of the month except the first

access our discord to see the details

https://linktr.ee/HealthSelfDefense_

Organized by demian!

I'm Demian (he/they), I’m a disabled communist spaniard who focus on organizing and liberation.

One of the big problems within the Covid Conscious Community is liberalism and individualism. It is very convenient for the system that you are angry with the oppressed. It takes away your energy to organize against those who are truly responsible. It confuses you about who your real enemies are.

This space is for those who want to learn about the nuances of being oppressed, to be compassionate and collective about masking while also finding new ways to inhabit the pain/anger/grief of what it means to be Covid Conscious in this world.

I've created 2 fanzines that can accompany you on this journey. I believe it's essential to have powerful words, collective analysis, and a politicized understanding of grief, while also having spaces to process what these words make us feel. I suggest you read some of those words; if you don’t have much energy/spoons, the quotes I've included in this post work for you! You don't HAVE to speak; you can listen to others if you prefer. Link of the fanzines:
https://maskupactup.substack.com/p/the-victim-who-is-able-to-articulate

This space can be uncomfortable, both for you and for me, because this conversation is both difficult and necessary. If you choose to be here, you understand that something is asking you to move forward.

I will take the utmost care with you, and I hope you will/can do the same for me. We can talk about whatever you want, at your own pace.

"Nobody cares what happens with Covid"
Who benefits from saying there is nothing that can be done? Exact. The same system that is telling us COVID is ‘mild’

"Nobody cares"
There was a time when you didn't care. There was a time when you didn't know. Genocides occurred, and you were distant or distracted by seemingly insignificant or small things.

Instead of dedicating their time to belittle people for their "indifference", let's strive people and find ways to connect with them and connect them with the fight.

"Covid-19 still presents us with a profound opportunity to build the world we want.

While devastating, and with many committed to forgetting, this pandemic still acts as a catalyst—a longue durée of reckoning that reveals the deep injustices woven into our society and the points at which the system of the state becomes vulnerable. The old world of exploitation, inequality, and relentless profit pursuit is crumbling, and in its place, a new vision of liberation and collective care is struggling to be born." Structural Violence and the Pandemic: An Update on Our Collective Reality (substack.com)

"We are asking people, essentially, to distrust the choices and assessments of everyone around them, as well as what their eyes and ears are telling them. We are asking them to realize their old life is gone forever. This is a huge ask. It is the hugest possible ask. On top of that, people cannot fathom how it could be true.

We have to find a way to build an on-ramp, to essentially “onboard” people into this reality we’ve all gotten so used to. We have to remember that we are asking a lot. All of this is normal to us now, and we’ve gotten acclimated (somehow). Our mitigations reflect the truth, and they are the right things to do. But we are asking people to change their entire lives in a very serious way. It’s not just masks, at this point. It’s everything.

We believe in humanity. It is not true that most people are selfish, bad, stupid, ignorant, or unwilling to learn. Most people do not know what is going on, or feel powerless to stop it, or both.

A great majority of people who have stopped taking Covid precautions have done so because they have been misled, because they are exhausted, and because we are in an information vacuum. Governments are downplaying Covid’s continued existence and evolution.

Individual risk assessment is nonsensical in an airborne pandemic with a disease that can be transmitted asymptomatically; we share the air and we all share this earth.

So we ask that you do not tell people to assess their individual risk, because encouraging more individuality will not get us out of this mess. Instead, you can say: “Save your own life. Protect your loved ones. Protect your neighbors. Break the chain of transmission.” We don’t want to lose all of our friends and family (most of whom are no longer taking the same precautions we are), and we don’t think you should have to, either." Covid.Tips

"Hope requires grief.

If we can’t mourn what has been taken from us, how can we begin to imagine what we can give to each other? How can we appreciate mourning when this grief is needless? How do we learn from this mourning when our sorrow is relentless? Mourning in grief requires gentle or sharp release, yet there is no release when our mourning persists. We want grief to be profound and not just a solitary experience we’ve been forced to adapt to and tolerate. In grief, we can connect to others. Grief remembers joy in our relationships and our humanity, and delivers ourselves to the purpose we live. Everyone deserves not only bare minimum safety, but also joy, depth, and community throughout their lives." People’s Health Education Program

Questions for you:
• What benefit does it give us to think that no one is doing anything?
• What was my political awakening like?
• Do I love my community more or less than I hate the oppressors?
• Do we have spaces to grieve over this eugenics?
• Do I want to put energy into organizing?
• What do I want: Covid-Conscious capitalism or the complete end of all forms of oppression?
• Do I want harm reduction, or am I trusting institutions that oppress us?
• Am I fighting for myself or for the future?
• Is my activism centered on shame? Has it worked so far?

The Black Panther Party is one of the clearest examples not only of political strategy but of humility, so I ask the following question:

Do you think revolutionaries like those in the Black Panther Party would blame people for not wearing masks?

No.

What do you think they would do? How do we revolutionaries behave? With curiosity, with compassion, and with scientific methods.

This requires not only a scientific understanding of how COVID works biologically, but also how to scientifically study the social contradictions that normalize COVID.

"I Am We
There is an old African saying, “I am we.” If you met an African in ancient times and asked him who he was, he would reply, “I am we.” This is revolutionary suicide: I, we, all of us are the one and the multitude.

So many of my comrades are gone now. Some tight partners, crime partners, and brothers off the block are begging on the street. Others are in asylum, penitentiary, or grave. They are all suicides of one kind or another who had the sensitivity and tragic imagination to see the oppression.

There is another illuminating story of the wise man and the fool, found in Mao’s Little Red Book: A foolish old man went to North Mountain and began to dig; a wise old man passed by and said, “Why do you dig, foolish old man? Do you not know that you cannot move the mountain with a little shovel?” But the foolish old man answered resolutely, “While the mountain cannot get any higher, it will get lower with each shovelful. When I pass on, my sons and his sons and his son’s sons will go on making the mountain lower. Why can’t we move the mountain?”

And the foolish old man kept digging, and the generations that followed after him, and the wise old man looked on in disgust. But the resoluteness and the spirit of the generations that followed the foolish old man touched God’s heart, and God sent two angels who put the mountain on their backs and moved the mountain.

This is the story Mao told. When he spoke of God he meant the six hundred million who had helped him to move imperialism and bourgeois thinking, the two great mountains.

The reactionary suicide is “wise,” and the revolutionary suicide is a “fool,” a fool for the revolution in the way that Paul meant when he spoke of being “a fool for Christ.” That foolishness can move the mountain of oppression; it is our great leap and our commitment to the dead and the unborn.

We will touch God’s heart; we will touch the people’s heart, and together we will move the mountain." Revolutionary Suicide, Huey P. Newton.

"We don’t fight for us, we fight for those who came before & those who will come after us.
Intergenerational collectivism is intuitive to some but many are not used to thinking deeply beyond the self let alone acting to preserve future generations. Capitalism convinces people to look out for themselves, effectively cutting them off from community not just in present day but communities of the past & the future.

Palestinian resistance factions are sacrificing everything including their lives knowing they may not necessarily see a free Palestine within their lifetime but future generations might." How do we keep hope alive in our movements? (substack.com)

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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Unmasking Mask Hate: The Racial-Criminal Pathologization of Dissent

https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2025/07/13/unmasking-mask-hate-the-racial-criminal-pathologization-of-dissent/

Masking as a constitutional matter hit the news cycle once again on June 8 when Trump threatened anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles for wearing face masks (“MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests,” he posted) and ordered their arrest. The hypocrisy and absurdity of this demand are clear to all, given that ICE agents themselves cover their faces. But a flurry of bipartisan anti-masking legislative efforts and propaganda aimed at Palestine solidarity protesters since October 7, 2023 has set the stage for the current assault on the mask rights of those trying to stop ICE kidnappings of their loved ones and neighbors.

Anti-masking efforts can be understood as a central facet of theracial criminal pathologization of dissent, a term Liat coined to describe how the state entwines racial criminalization and pathologization, especially sanism, for eugenicist, fascist, white supremacist ends. Racial criminal pathologization constructs both race, especially Blackness or “Arabness,” and disability (especially mental difference) as inextricably dangerous and irrational.

It is no coincidence to see mask bans being pushed in state legislatures and enacted into law after Palestine encampments were so widespread and effective. Mask bans are now on the books in 18 states, various cities, and counties. Since October 7, 2023 16 bills aiming to ban masks at protests were introduced in eight states, an effort which spread to college campuses.

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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I think we need three spaces: 1) anti-capitalist analysis; 2) anti-capitalist grief; 3) anti-capitalist actions.

1) anti-capitalist analysis to raise political consciousness, understand how state propaganda works, and provide other examples of popular health self-defense struggles to inspire us; 2) anti-capitalist grief where we can move from "nothing can be done" to "we have more power than we think," support each other emotionally, and talk about our deaths, the deaths of others, disability and mass death, and what hurts us;
3) Anti-capitalist actions are the way to combine steps one and two, ideas like campaigns for mandatory masks in health centers, distributing other forms of health sovereignty like pads, tampons, and narcan, children must be cared for and not infected, a mask campaign for schools... and much more.

I would like to create this space with other people.

Let's expand our care horizons!

contact me!

mvione@proton.me
telegram: demianmasks
discord: camaradademian
signal: demian.86

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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"For capitalism to function, it requires two things: a steady supply of workers producing value and an unending flow of consumption to realize that value as profit for the capitalist. The onset of a pandemic presented a challenge on both of those fronts. Workers getting sick en masse and being forced to stay home for a couple of weeks — or even dying or becoming disabled and exiting the workforce altogether — was only one potential headache for the capitalist class."

Let Them Eat Plague!
https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/let-them-eat-plague/

Ending the state of emergency has left us more vulnerable than before.
In 2023, governments systematically declared the end of the public health emergency. But the pandemic continues.

The return to "normal" is about profits, not people—it means that governments no longer have to fund public health measures that have been proven to keep us safe. It means that millions of people live with Long COVID, disappearing from public spaces while research is delayed, empathy decreases, and protective measures are abandoned.

Businesses have a clear interest in keeping you from worrying about COVID, and governments want to take credit for "solving the problem" by pretending it doesn’t exist. They want you working, shopping, traveling, and attending events at the same pace as in 2019—without demanding paid sick leave or workplace improvements for cleaner air.

Health ministries did not want to publicly admit that COVID is airborne because that could have led to lawsuits demanding workplace safety improvements. Masks are a visible reminder of the ongoing danger.

In a 2020 study, people who wore masks were found to spend 25% less time shopping . In 2021, health ministries reduced isolation time in their recommendations for people with COVID at the request of Delta Airlines’ CEO

“Only high-risk people are affected by COVID.”
Disabled people are not disposable. Governments have ignored the serious health consequences of COVID by telling us that only "high-risk" individuals need to take precautions.
(And if you’ve been infected before, you are now part of this category.)
1 in 5 cases will develop into Long COVID. Everyone should be able to safely participate in public life. Mitigating COVID is our collective responsibility.
1) Even if this were true, our elderly, high-risk, and disabled community members are not disposable. Their lives are worth protecting. To suggest otherwise is a eugenicist stance. Capitalism perpetuates the myth that a person's worth (and their "disposability") is based on their ability to work.
2) Anyone who has had COVID should consider themselves immunocompromised. Fighting COVID does not "strengthen" our immune response—COVID attacks the immune system and weakens its ability to fight future infections. Each infection makes us more vulnerable.

"We’ve reached herd immunity."
The reason we have so many variants is because we have allowed the virus to spread unchecked. Governments lifted mask mandates, dismantled testing infrastructure, and removed other protective measures from the start.
We do not have to accept the defeatist stance that everyone on the planet will eventually be infected. We can keep our communities safe by continuing COVID precautions: wearing masks, testing regularly, and staying informed can save lives.

"Didn’t the Ministry of Health say COVID was mild?"
It’s not. COVID is an airborne virus that attacks every organ system in the body, regardless of whether symptoms are experienced or how mild they may seem initially.
In fact, the virus is becoming more lethal as it evolves, spreading unchecked through our communities. Each infection increases your risk of permanent damage or Long COVID.
This damage may not be immediately visible. But COVID causes brain damage, blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, and even cancer.

"I had COVID and I was fine."
The truth is, many people who have died or become disabled from COVID (or Long COVID) had no prior health concerns.
You might have been "low risk" before your first infection, but repeated reinfection exponentially increases the risk of harm to your body.
COVID complications include severe damage to every organ system, including the heart, brain, and gastrointestinal system.

"COVID deaths and cases are low."
We have no control over how mortality is reported.
For example, governments changed the statistical baselines by including the years 2020-2022, meaning that the "new normal" will obscure delayed COVID deaths—such as heart attacks and complications from other illnesses—making them invisible.
Additionally, Long COVID represents a systemic disease that can impact nearly every organ, but is not counted in official statistics.

"COVID is milder now." / "I'm vaccinated."
Newer COVID strains are just as severe as previous variants.
Even if a new strain is considered "less deadly," it can be more transmissible, which ultimately leads to more deaths overall.
Vaccines do not prevent illness or transmission—they reduce the risk of hospitalization.
A virus constantly mutates to evade immune detection. It does not mutate in isolation—it needs a host.
Once inside a host, the virus replicates until it is neutralized by the immune system. The longer it can reproduce unchecked, the higher the chances of acquiring mutations.
If one of these mutations gives the virus an advantage, that variant will continue to spread.
We can try to prevent being hosts by wearing masks.
And if we do get infected, we can try to stop the chain of transmission by isolating while sick (if possible), testing frequently, and, yes, wearing masks.

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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Far worse was the prospect of workers staying home out of precaution, thereby grinding production to a halt. Consumers staying home and buying only the essentials would prevent the realization of profits across huge swathes of the economy, cutting off the flow of capital necessary to keep the whole system running.

Let Them Eat Plague!
https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/let-them-eat-plague/

Paraphrasing @themme_fatale
"Do you remember the exact moment when the rejection of mask-wearing stopped being an issue of the far-right and became advice you were willing to follow?
I try to communicate ways to deal with COVID in the most compassionate and non-judgmental way possible because I understand that we've all been failed in this, and my main anger is always directed upwards. BUT I also need you to understand: if you’re not taking precautions, you are aligning yourself with eugenicists. Both the person who actively says "to hell with disabled people, they deserve it" and never wears a mask, and the person who doesn’t wear a mask because "it’s annoying and besides, nobody else does," are BOTH devaluing the lives of people.
And that might be confronting for some of you, and I know your instinctive reaction will probably be to deflect by accusing me of "shaming people" or something like that. However, I’m not shaming anyone, it's just uncomfortable to accept because if you’re the kind of person who follows me, you likely don’t actually want to participate in eugenics. And reconsidering the idea that COVID is not only still here, but actively still dangerous, is a lot to ask when the alternative is the comfort of denial. Especially when many of the tools to keep ourselves and others safe have been taken from us. But the truth is that none of this is really a reason not to act.
There are people IN YOUR COMMUNITY who depend on you taking precautions so they don’t die.
With love and compassion for the fact that this shit is hard, ignorance is running out as an excuse. It’s time to do better and help your friends do better too. People in your community shouldn’t have to constantly remind you not to put their lives at risk. Surely you can see that’s a pretty fucked-up dynamic, right?
We shouldn't have to insist so much that "it's good for you to protect yourself too." While it is still absolutely true, saving the lives of people in your community should be enough motivation for you to act. It’s really fucked up to be okay with a large part of the population being confined to their homes indefinitely or at daily risk of death.
It should be considered more socially uncomfortable to participate in eugenics by killing and isolating disabled people in your own community than to wear a mask. The fact that it’s not should shame all of us until we change it.
It should be considered more selfish to endanger people’s lives than to ask for them to keep you safe. Your choices can change or reinforce that culture.
The government’s inaction is putting a weapon in your hands. Pretending it’s not there puts us all in danger.
Why do you need a mandate to care about other people?"

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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The moment it became obvious to market analysts that COVID was more than just a local Chinese outbreak, it triggered utter panic in the financial sector. Fears about the slowdown of profits led to several mass stock sell-offs from investors, lowering stock value, triggering even more panic-selling, across multiple different days.

Let Them Eat Plague!
https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/let-them-eat-plague/

Pandemics are a tool of the colonizer. Refuse to do the bloody work of empire.
“Viruses reveal the fault lines in our culture.” - The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide, Steven W. Thrasher
As Steven Thrasher writes in his critical 2022 book, The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide, viruses, and most recently the SARS-COV-2 virus, reveal inequities of society, not of nature.
As we witness US-made and -funded bombs fall relentlessly onto the people of Gaza, while the rubble of Palestinian life and homes is methodically trucked to construct a US port, built inevitably to exploit Gazan oil fields; while aid is blocked and medical kits containing safety scissors are confiscated; while meager airdrops of inedible food fall onto and kill Palestinian children and destroy essential remaining infrastructure like hospital solar panels; while poets, artists, journalists, medical specialists, mothers, fathers, children, and elders are targeted alongside Palestinian culture and futures; while disease, starvation, thirst, and injuries threaten traumatized families who have already survived 75+ years of occupation — we understand these attacks are part of a larger blueprint of american-israeli colonization and imperialism.
By bomb or by pathogen, these attacks on Palestinian life are man-made, intentional policy choices, ones intended to further consolidate wealth for the mis-rulers of the world.
Like the genocide of Palestinians, the unmitigated spread of Covid-19 across our communities is a policy choice — not an inevitability. Viruses defy borders, and when we say We all breathe the same air, we too, are not speaking in metaphor. Gazans report having been infected with Covid multiple times over six months of siege and genocide. And the very strains of the virus that plague Palestinians today directly evolved and made their way to Gaza as a result of the global north’s policies of denial and normalization.
The occupation and its siege on Gaza is an invasion on all fronts. Occupation forces bring new strains of Covid to Gaza with every incursion, simultaneously throwing parties and concerts while leading invasions of Al-Shifa Hospital and Nuseirat refugee camp. Every unmasked sniper, foreign aid worker, and reporter that enters Gaza off an transcontinental flight creates a pathway for novel strains to attack Palestinians made increasingly vulnerable.
Wherever we are in the world, viruses reveal both our inextricable connection and our common enemy — not viruses themselves, nor even necessarily those who spread them, but the larger forces of capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism that take root in our psyches and spur us to be their foot soldiers.
To become conscious of the ongoing pandemic and take on the daily, militant practice of wearing a mask in public is to refuse to turn away from the violence our government inflicts upon those deemed disposable. From Turtle Island to Palestine, we must resist mass death and disablement.
—MASK UP, WE NEED YOU: Palestinian Solidarity, Covid-19, and the Struggle for Liberation

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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my refresh (App for Covid Conscious Connections)

Hi! I'm Demian! Communist, non-binary, disabled, and COVID-realist from a compassionate and anti-capitalist perspective. I live with extreme chronic pain and fatigue that affects me every day.

For people interesed in connecting with me:
Signal: demian.86
Telegram: demianmasks
Discord: camaradademian

https://www.refreshconnections.com/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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On perfectionism, shaming people and cancel culture in the Covid Conscious Community.

https://maskupactup.substack.com/p/on-perfectionism-shaming-people-and

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

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Skill-up your covid knowledge and protocols
From the fanzine “MASK UP, WE NEED YOU: Palestinian Solidarity, Covid-19, and the Struggle for Liberation”

https://www.sheyamghieth.com/product/mask-up-we-need-you-palestinian-solidarity-covid-19-and-the-struggle-for-liberation/

COVID MOVES LIKE INVISIBLE SMOKE. Covid aerosols can quickly fill any crowded, poorly-ventilated space, moving invisibly, like smoke, to infect anyone in the room. Aerosols travel on air currents and linger in the air for hours after an infected person has left. Covid spreads outdoors, too. This understanding of aerosols means the “six-foot rule” is outdated. Assume Covid is spreading in all public air. You can become infected within seconds to minutes of exposure.

YOU DON’T NEED SYMPTOMS TO SPREAD COVID. 60% of all transmission happens pre- or asymptomatically, before symptoms start to show up, or without any symptoms at all! Because we can't know with certainty if we have Covid at any moment, universal masking and frequent testing are critical.

MASKING MATTERS. WEAR A KN95, KF94, OR N95 IF YOU CAN. Masks are incredibly effective. They work best when everyone wears them. KN95, KF94, and N95 respirators offer aerosol filtration and should be used whenever possible. Surgical and cloth masks are less effective and can't filter aerosols! Get free masks and tests from your local mask bloc.

FIND A MASK THAT FITS. Make sure your mask fits snug against your face so the air you’re breathing is filtered through your mask. Aerosols can sneak through gaps! If you’re not getting a good seal, try a different brand or size.

TEST OFTEN, AND UNDERSTAND THE LIMITATIONS. Rapid tests (RATs) work best when you swab your cheeks, throat, cough on the swab, then swab your nose. These kinds of tests provide very reliable positive results, but they're far less reliable at showing a true negative. False negatives are common! Rapids become far more reliable when taken in succession over multiple 48-hour periods. It can take a week to 14 days to get a positive, so don't rely on a single negative result. Molecular tests like PCR or NAAT are much more reliable and are best taken 3-5 days after exposure, though they're expensive and harder to access than rapids. As Covid continues to spread, the virus keeps mutating, and our tests become less reliable.

LAYER PROTECTIONS. Masking is the strongest tool we have to prevent Covid. Utilizing multiple layers of protection (in addition to masking!) can help us prevent Covid's spread. It's important to understand the limitations of our tools and not over-rely on a single layer; for example, vaccination is an extremely important layer of protection, but our current vaccines don't prevent us from transmitting and getting Covid, which is why universal masking is so critical. Other layers of protection include testing, limiting exposure, ventilation and air filtration, CPC mouthwash or nasal sprays, and isolating when sick and after exposures.

DON’T LET COVID LINGER, CLEAN THE AIR. Use ventilation and air filtration to limit the amount of virus in the air. Ventilation is most effective coming from multiple points to allow cross-breeze — open windows across the room from each other!

COMMUNICATE CLEARLY AND OFTEN. A 2024 study showed 75% of adults have concealed illness in interpersonal interactions, knowingly putting others’ in harm’s way. Combat individualism by modeling behavior, providing tests, initiating symptom checks, and conducting contract tracing. Create compelling virtual options for safe, at-home event participation!

PREVENT COVID TO PREVENT LONG COVID. Long Covid has no cure. Preventing infection is critical to preventing Long Covid and Covid deaths.

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/graisondangor/2021/09/19/cdcs-six-foot-social-distancing-rule-was-arbitrary-says-former-fda-commissioner/?sh=7c5b9e34e8e6
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-47829-8
• https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.872698/full
• https://theeclarel.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-getting-masks-in-2023
• https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/covid-19/when-is-the-best-time-to-get-tested-for-covid
• https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw5JEJYulZN/
• https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu75oi4vPkB/
• https://itsairborne.com/
• https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/misc-emerging-topics/three-fourths-adults-have-hidden-infectious-illness-work-travel-or-socialize#:~:text=Up%20to%2075%25%20of%20adults,given%20to%204%2C110%20survey%20participants.

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

.

We will practice what loving each other could look like every day. Courageously. And we will help each other to do it, in the face of seductive ableism; in the face of isolation as queer people of color, again; in the face of isolation from political community and movements, again. We will help each other love each other and, in doing so, love ourselves.

We will find other ways (create our own ways) and talk liberation and access and interdependency with our comrades. We will weave need into our relationships like golden, shimmering glimmers of hope—opportunities to build deeper, more whole and practice what our world could look like.

I want to be with you. If you can’t go, then I don’t want to go. If we are traveling together, sharing political space together, building political family together, then I want to be with you. I want us to be together.

Wherever You Are Is Where I Want To Be: Crip Solidarity

https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/where-ever-you-are-is-where-i-want-to-be-crip-solidarity/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

.

We will find other ways (create our own ways) and talk liberation and access and interdependency with our comrades. We will weave need into our relationships like golden, shimmering glimmers of hope—opportunities to build deeper, more whole and practice what our world could look like.

I want to be with you. If you can’t go, then I don’t want to go. If we are traveling together, sharing political space together, building political family together, then I want to be with you. I want us to be together.

We will practice what loving each other could look like every day. Courageously. And we will help each other to do it, in the face of seductive ableism; in the face of isolation as queer people of color, again; in the face of isolation from political community and movements, again. We will help each other love each other and, in doing so, love ourselves.

Wherever You Are Is Where I Want To Be: Crip Solidarity

https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/where-ever-you-are-is-where-i-want-to-be-crip-solidarity/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

.

Wherever You Are Is Where I Want To Be: Crip Solidarity

I want to be with you. If you can’t go, then I don’t want to go. If we are traveling together, sharing political space together, building political family together, then I want to be with you. I want us to be together.

We will find other ways (create our own ways) and talk liberation and access and interdependency with our comrades. We will weave need into our relationships like golden, shimmering glimmers of hope—opportunities to build deeper, more whole and practice what our world could look like.
We will practice what loving each other could look like every day. Courageously. And we will help each other to do it, in the face of seductive ableism; in the face of isolation as queer people of color, again; in the face of isolation from political community and movements, again. We will help each other love each other and, in doing so, love ourselves.

https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/where-ever-you-are-is-where-i-want-to-be-crip-solidarity/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

.

An intersectional analysis of long COVID prevalence

https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12939-023-02072-5

Findings indicate that women, some people of color, sexual and gender minorities, and people without college degrees are more likely to have long COVID and to have activity limitations from long COVID. Women have considerably higher odds of developing long COVID compared to men, a disparity exacerbated by having less education.

Intersectional analysis by gender, race, ethnicity, and education reveals a striking step-like pattern: college-educated men have the lowest prevalence of long COVID while women without college educations have the highest prevalence. Daily activity limitations are more evenly distributed across demographics, but a different step-like pattern is present: fewer women with degrees have activity limitations while limitations are more widespread among men without degrees. Regression results confirm the negative association of long COVID with being a woman, less educated, Hispanic, and a sexual and gender minority, while results for the intersectional effects are more nuanced.

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

.

Treatments for LONG COVID, ME/CFS, POTS, and MCAS
A compilation of medications provided by the RTHM clinic, detailing their purpose and side effects.
https://healthselfdefense.substack.com/p/treatments-for-long-covid-mecfs-pots

Post-Exercise Fatigue and Malaise (PEM)
Fatigue is a persistent feeling of extreme tiredness or lack of energy. It goes beyond normal tiredness and can significantly affect daily life. In conditions such as myalgic encephalomyelitis /chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fatigue is a characteristic symptom. However, in ME/CFS, fatigue is not just common tiredness; it is often severe and disabling.
Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is a hallmark symptom of ME/CFS. Patients experience a sudden drop in energy and a worsening of all symptoms after even the smallest activities. It occurs after minor physical or mental exertion, and symptoms worsen significantly between 12 and 48 hours after the activity. The effects can last for days or even weeks.
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Low-dose naltrexone (explained above)
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Pyridostigmine
Increases energy, improves exercise tolerance and reduces accelerated heart rate
Take back control of your health with pyridostigmine , an FDA-approved medication proven to relieve symptoms in people with POTS, long COVID, and ME/CFS.
Stabilize your heart rate
Pyridostigmine helps relieve tachycardia, whether constant or upon standing, helping patients with long COVID and ME/CFS who experience autonomic dysfunction return to normal .
[See study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10110930)
Improves cognitive function
Pyridostigmine helps maintain elevated levels of acetylcholine ( ACh ), which may benefit muscle function and cognitive clarity in those with long COVID and ME/CFS .
[Read more](https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/medsci.2023010?viewType=HTML)
Improves exercise tolerance
Pyridostigmine can improve exercise capacity and neurovascular dysfunction, helping you get moving again .
[Read article](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/978707?form=fpf)
· Learn more about the promising benefits of pyridostigmine
Initial research suggests that pyridostigmine is a promising treatment option for those suffering from autonomic dysfunction, exercise intolerance, and muscle fatigue associated with long COVID and ME/CFS. Adding pyridostigmine to your treatment may help improve symptoms and allow you to focus on brighter days.
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· The science behind pyridostigmine
Pyridostigmine , a drug classified as a cholinesterase inhibitor, works by blocking the breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter crucial for communication between nerve cells and muscles. By increasing acetylcholine levels, pyridostigmine improves communication within the nervous system and strengthens muscle contractions.
In conditions such as POTS and ME/CFS, where autonomic dysfunction is common, pyridostigmine 's mode of action may be beneficial. It increases parasympathetic ( vagal ) tone , which can relieve symptoms such as orthostatic intolerance (difficulty standing due to blood pressure fluctuations) and promote stability in heart rate variability.
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· Diseases and symptoms treated
Pyridostigmine may offer relief for those suffering from long COVID and ME/CFS, especially those with autonomic nervous system dysfunction, such as dysautonomia. Symptoms that may improve include :
• Dizziness
• Fainting
• Tachycardia
• Palpitations
• Muscle weakness
• Muscle fatigue
• Cognitive dysfunction or brain fog
Post-exertional malaise (PEM)

Masks are community care❤️‍🔥😷 free masks: maskbloc.org

• Remember: covid is not over, 50% of infections are asymptomatic, minimum 10% of infections end up in long COVID, re-infections wreck us, COVID spreads and moves like cigarette smoke, think of the people around you and you as people who are all day smoking, it becomes more visual to understand how COVID moves.
• There is no way to “train” the immune system because it is not a muscle. there is a common misconception that exposure to harmful germs strengthens the immune system. viral diseases like COVID, flu, measles weaken the immune system, leaving the possibility of lasting damage. The reality is that you don't build your immunity with repeated infections, vaccines strengthen the immune system by teaching it to recognize pathogens without all the risks. Focusing on infection prevention is key.
• Rapid antigen tests give many false negatives.
• Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world.
• Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception. Any reminder of the existence of a highly-transmissible, highly-dangerous, mass-disabling disease could trigger panic, or worse: organized, militant labor action. Averting this crisis required a careful campaign of culture-crafting; the people themselves needed to become convinced that there was no reason to fight. Consent for protracted mass infection needed to be manufactured.

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control. (…) Solving the pandemic was never in the cards for the capitalist world. Instead, the explicit goal of the ruling class has been to make the pandemic simply disappear from public perception.” Let Them Eat Plague! http://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice