The click-bait feel-good stories relating to #longhaulers magically feeling recovered post-jab, feeling “back to normal”, or otherwise no longer in need of care or research is quite literally the ableist public at work: this is precisely how a widespread global health crisis (relating to the largest mass disabling event in modern history: #covid_19) gets swept under the rug and the cycle of gaslighting, ignoring and essentially further disabling the chronically ill occurs. This isn’t new. It’s politics and media and a society that cannot think two seconds about future repercussions, too blinded by their temporary privilege to see that chronic illness isn’t just a ‘them’ thing: it’s an all of us thing, and simply a matter of timing.
Your grandma that can’t get answers for her chronic pains and ailments? It effects her.
Your sister with endometriosis having heart-breaking difficulty family planning? It effects her.
Your son who has debilitating depression making it hard for him to feel like a part of society? It effects him.
Your new-onset arthritis from using your phone too much, ordering stuff online but not simply emailing or calling your representative with the same few button presses? It effects you too.
You and all of us cannot go back to “normal” because normal was a giant brush, sweeping the chronically ill (and everything else unearthed this past year) under the rug of public awareness.
And it’s our job as tax payers to inspect the work and ask why our money was used to hide the trash instead of cleaning it up.
One is a short-term fix that keeps rearing its head until it’s resolved: the other is a long-term solution that doesn’t resurface continually.
Both require the same amount of time initially, but the former causes significantly more time spent addressing a much larger, unavoidable problem. But guess what? With the chronic public ableism #chronicillness has been met with for decades? We’re long past that breaking point.
*Please* call your representatives and ask them to approve this bill. And please ignore any click-bait trying to gloss over the FACTS about #longcovid: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative