Covid and Chronic Illness
When Covid initially hit the US and sent us into lockdown in March of 2020, things were too weird and new and unpredictable for anyone to really yell about. Masks were an odd adjustment but most of us made the change easily. We made our small groups the only people we socialized with, we took our daily walks outside, and a sense of community started to blossom as we pushed people to order takeout from local restaurants and urged each other to stay home to help protect everyone. We clapped and cheered and made signs for the medical staff that was left reeling and dealing with the unspeakable day after day. We collectively mourned the loss of thousands as death tolls rose. We hoped, prayed, wished for a vaccine to end this, and waited for the potential of normalcy to return to our lives. But almost as soon as the lockdown was lifted and certain things were allowed to happen again, that sense of community and protecting others was soon forgotten. A warped sense of “freedom” and “oppression” settled over this country as people faked illnesses to get out of wearing masks, fought people who not long ago they had praised for working through the pandemic, and has all culminated in a fight against a vaccine that everyone had wished for not two months earlier. While Covid is not over for a lot of people, I am here to speak on one specific group who has been lost in this senseless battle for perceived “freedom” over fake “oppression” and that is those of us with disabilities and chronic health issues.
A narrative has been spun that only older people, those of us with compromised immune systems are at risk for serious cases and complications of Covid, which have not only proven to be incorrect but is, at its core, an ablest and cruel ideal. The message being sent here is that if you are old or sick, your death and illness are not our problem. While the powers that be have greatly contributed to this idea, this society of ours has perpetuated it in the worst way possible by constantly doing things and making statements about how wearing a mask and advocating for vaccination is restrictive and authoritarian behavior. So let’s unpack some of these, shall we?
I am going to start with this most basic idea that Covid only affects elderly and immunocompromised people and for young, healthy people it is just a bad cold. “COVID-19 also has led to serious illness and even death in younger and middle-aged adults who are otherwise healthy. While most children have mild or no symptoms, some have gotten severely ill. As with adults, even if children have no symptoms, they can spread the virus to others” (Yale Medicine). This was part of the initial study of Covid when the first outbreak really struck the US and we finally had to deal with the ramifications the rest of the world had been. On top of this still being true, we are learning more and more about something called “long Covid” which is basically when your Covid infection just continues to last and gives you symptoms that mimic or turn into an autoimmune disease. “Even people who had mild symptoms or no symptoms at all when they were infected can have post-COVID conditions” (Yale Medicine). One specific condition that has been making its rounds for people who have had Covid is POTS, which is a heart condition I was recently diagnosed with. I wrote a post about it here, and even though I got mine from mono and not Covid, I can tell you all right now that this condition, this illness, has and will continue to change my life and the choices I make. There are certain jobs I will never be able to have, I will have to take medications and precautions the rest of my life, and I will have to monitor my other organs and body systems forever to make sure I do not end up with more dire complications. And I am considered to have a “mild” case of this illness. Post-Covid, people have been getting POTS and much worse complications, even if they were healthy before and had a mild run of Covid. And, as far as the death numbers not being “as bad” for young people, that is technically right in the sense that older people are dying from Covid in larger numbers, young seemingly healthy people are not excluded. How else do you think that hospitals are running out of beds if young people aren’t getting deathly ill?
I have seen this floating around a lot lately and feel like it needs to be shared as well: if you have Covid but die from something else in the hospital, they cannot record it as a Covid death unless it was Covid related. If you had Covid, didn’t know it, went to the hospital for a broken foot, and somehow died while dealing with that broken foot or from complications from it, you wouldn’t be ruled a Covid death. Ruling it as a Covid death is illegal, and not happening. That is what we like to call a conspiracy theory that has no backing in legit fact or science and is simply conjecture, based on people who are afraid of something that isn’t happening.
The next, and perhaps largest portion, of all of this, is looking at why a bunch of white, middle-class people are crying “oppression” and “freedom” from said false oppression. The dictionary definition of oppression is “prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control”. While I understand that some of this might be slightly subject to opinion, being asked to wear a mask to help keep the spread of Covid low is not oppression. Multiple studies have shown that wearing a face mask does not limit your ability to get oxygen. If it did, why would medical staff still wear them day in and day out while performing incredibly important tasks even before the pandemic? It does not somehow trap CO2 inside the mask and poison you (UCSD). Again, if it did, why would medical staff wear them even before the pandemic? If you are not used to wearing a mask, it can feel like your breathing is being constricted and there are different breathing techniques you can do to learn to work through that. But the science behind mask-wearing and slowing the spread of Covid is there (UCSD). I have linked some other studies below that show that mask-wearing severely limits the number of Covid cases. Getting used to wearing a mask is a little weird, but we are almost 3 years into this pandemic. If it is still such a struggle for you, so much so that you are claiming you are being oppressed and your personal freedoms are being stripped away, I encourage you to look into the systemic racism that is still largely at play in this country. Maybe also look into the horrific ways that the LGBTQ+ community is still having their bodies policed (no, being told to wear a mask is not the same) or that young children who have been victims of rape or incest will not be granted an abortion in parts of this country. What this really comes down to is you not wanting to be told what to do and you having to confront some things about yourself you may not have wanted to look at before. This brings me to my final point: you do not care about others.
This might sound like a hard truth, or this may be the point you quit reading because you think I am just some “angry liberal” but please keep going. From my own personal perspective, I have explained to several people why vaccination is important for everyone to limit the strain on the medical community: those of us who rely heavily on them are being denied. The CDC and many other public health institutions are being pushed by the capitalistic society we live in and being pushed by the local, state, and federal, levels to change guidelines to keep the bottom line in check. These pushes are to keep people working and get people back to work sooner than the original quarantine set (which no evidence has been shown that the time has actually changed with the life of the virus) which is, in turn, spreading the virus faster. And overwhelming the hospitals and medical facilities even more. While there is a lot at play when it comes to staffing shortages, which I will not be getting into now, part of the issue has to do with being so full of people dying from Covid, or those who now have long term issues from Covid, that those of us who were chronically ill before are now not getting medical care.
I have had to go to the ER only once during Covid. I usually have a much higher rate of ER visits but was lucky the past few years to have a lot of my health issues under decent control. But with the addition of a new health issue, I was sent to the ER with a possible life-threatening issue and made to wait a decently long time for such an issue. Then, once I was back there, not only was I completely dismissed by the care staff, but as soon as I was shown to have a negative Covid test, I was sent home and told to monitor my symptoms just to make sure. But that was all they could offer me since they were so overwhelmed, and they needed my bed. Without getting into too many details (mainly since I don’t have any yet) I could be looking at new complications and new specialists. These specialists have months-long waiting lists without an overwhelmed medical system, and the waits are only getting longer. People who have lifelong medical issues are being pushed to the bottom of the barrel because Covid is taking a precedent even though the powers that be are not making any changes or actual policy to help end Covid, because who cares if the already sick people are dying?
By fighting mask mandates, by refusing to get vaccinated, by hanging out in large groups of people without masks, and by constantly insisting that “only obese people or those with co-morbidities or pre-existing conditions” die or have serious cases, you are not only denying facts, but you are saying that these people’s lives do not matter. That my life doesn’t matter. That people who are much less healthy than me do not matter. Your so-called “freedom” is causing variants to keep coming. Your need for “freedom” is overwhelming hospitals so that people with medical needs outside of Covid can’t get the medical help that they need. People are dying as a direct result of your need to end your fake oppression. I would encourage you to think really hard about the things I have expressed here and the weight of your decisions. When it comes to things like a global pandemic and a massive public health crisis, your choices affect everyone, not just you. You choosing to think that you are being oppressed and choosing to not wear a mask and not get vaccinated could, and very likely has, already ended someone’s life. It’s not about you alone, so think before you decide to make choices based on conjecture instead of medical fact.
Madey
Sources:
Mayo Clinic - how masks work to slow the spread
CDC- more info on how masks do not inhibit breathing
4GAthletic- breathing tips to help you get used to wearing a mask
Cover photo found here