COVID-19 GLOBAL PANDEMIC
QUARANTINE NEWS
23 MARCH 2020
It’s safe to say that there’s almost nobody on our planet who hasn’t been affected by our current covid-19 virus pandemic, save for the few remaining uncontacted tribes on our planet, who should be left alone. If you’re reading this, you’ve undoubtedly been impacted in some way by it.
I am chronically ill and have multiple autoimmune disorders, including severe asthma, that make me high risk for contracting this virus. It would almost certainly hospitalize me, and quite possibly kill me. I’ve been in self-quarantine at home for over a week now and expect to be here for the foreseeable future.
My partner is thankfully able to do his IT Network Engineering/Virtualization work remotely; now instead of being expected to do that only on his personal time, during evenings and weekends, he was able to get approval last Thursday to perform his assigned work hours from home. He was potentially exposed at work last week, and so keeping him home has reduced the risk of our spreading it if we did get exposed, reduced my continued exposure, and reduced the triggering of my cPTSD. I am privileged and I am grateful for it, while recognizing that there are still vulnerable others who need their rights fought for, and I’ve been pressuring our state officials through social media, Resistbot, email and phone calls to take measures to protect the unhoused, victims of domestic violence, and prisoners, as our Governor has escalated up to an Executive Order for our state, mandating remaining at home for all but essential workers and travel.
Of course, as I write this, Fox News is attempting to manipulate POTUS into forcing everyone back to work during a pandemic, and based on his immediate responses on Twitter, they are experiencing some success. This is concerning, but not shocking, because as I’ve pointed out here many times in the past, the capitalist upper/ruling/owner class has always regarded workers and their families as disposable. It’s always been reflected in their policies, but they’ve constructed complex bureaucracies in which they were able to couch and obfuscate their cruelty, justifying those policies as somehow “fair to everyone,” when in reality, those have always placed already wealthy and powerful people in an advantaged position to maintain, and often gain more wealth and power.
They’ve indoctrinated us with white supremacist capitalist propaganda to elevate a minority of rich and powerful people as somehow more worthy than the rest of us of enjoying not simply the luxuries of life, but the necessities, like healthcare, safe housing, safe reliable food and water, personal needs, transportation, and happiness. They hold workers hostage to their paychecks and healthcare, even during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC that is spreading like wildfire because those at the top refuse to tolerate a pause to their resource hoarding. They even delayed, deceived, and denied the news of how serious the covid-19 disease is, in order to first position themselves to profit from people’s suffering.
Now that we are all facing literal life and death, it’s not as easy for them to use indoctrination, propaganda, and coercion to convince us to serve their avarice and whims. While many working class folks are still in denial and playing useful rubes to capitalists by believing the continued attempts to diminish its severity, despite world health officials pleading with us to take this seriously. Many doubters cite the annual deaths from influenza as reason to dismiss covid-19 as posing even less of a threat, however, those seasonal flu deaths are ALSO preventable, AND – influenza is infectious when people are symptomatic. That means they can either recognize their own illness, or at least other people can avoid those who are observably symptomatic. This is not true with the coronavirus. People can be asymptomatic – that means no observable symptoms, not even to themselves, for weeks! They can be unwittingly spreading the virus to others.
Some links I’ve shared on social media this week that are directly related to this crisis and should factor into your understanding:
A map for the US population and leaders to consult on expert projections regarding spread of the virus in each state, and how long before their healthcare system is overwhelmed if they do not implement and enforce social distancing.
Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now and its follow-up, Coronavirus: The Hammer And The Dance, are both packed with information and resources you may not be familiar with yet.
Cloth masks are no replacement for N95 surgical masks and may help spread the virus.
What you need to know about online tools during social distancing, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
I hope that this information is helpful to you. I’m fighting horrible seasonal allergies right now, so my speaking voice is quite limited. Rather than attempting to record podcasts, I’ll be writing blog posts in the meantime, to keep in touch during quarantine.
Planetary Peace, Love, and Solidarity!
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