I am fortunate enough that my workplace provides free KN95 masks. I am fortunate that a lot of my co-workers work from home, decreasing office risk. I am not fortunate enough to work in a department with the ability to work from home. I am very conscious of the fact that my boss has had COVID multiple times, despite this increased ability to take precautions. My boss has gotten COVID more than once for a simple reason: he feels like he’s doing something wrong when he misses work. Sometimes he works from home despite being sick, when he should be resting. This makes it harder to recover.
This is just one of the reasons I don’t buy into the argument that the pandemic is over. The pandemic is ongoing because our society believes staying home sick is a failure of character rather than a way to get well. If people don’t allow themselves to recover from being sick, they won’t stop being sick. People who believe it is a moral failure to take the time needed to recover are more likely to stay sick longer, to get worse, even to die of illness. They are also more likely to continue to expose themselves to people who might get sick. Which means the more people buy into the idea that resting and recovering from illness is some kind of a moral failing, the longer pandemics last.
That’s why I was so glad to have Justine Barron on the show this week. Justine has been dealing with chronic illness and the disability that results from it since before COVID. She writes a Substack on the intersection between criminal justice policy and disability policy. She’s a journalist and author who has been on my show before to talk about police violence. So she’s really one of the best people to speak to on the topic of COVID, long COVID, and disability. We even manage to talk a bit about how ableism leads to homelessness and the parallels between anti-homeless laws and Ugly Laws targeting the disabled.
Next week should be a good show too! Everything is booked now, so I can share that Bess Goden of the Millenialsplaining podcast has joined the show as an alternate co-host! So every Sinday I will be joined by other Renee Johnston or Beth Goden and a guest!
On 01/21/2024 Bess and I will be joined by Ben Theobald of WEFT Radio in Champagne, IL! Ben is also a member of Chambana DSA and an organizer with #NoAmerenShutoffs. We’re going to be talking about local Palestine activism and catching up on current events in central Illinois!
Join us! Until then, I will tweet at you!