Mask Bans & Eugenics
I have not posted in months, mostly due to finishing the semester, but now that that's over, I want to get back into talking about disability rights issues (and COVID, unfortunately). So I'm returning with a post about a fairly important issue right now, for anyone who hasn't heard about it.
For years, I have watched with frustration as people act like the “mask mandates” and “lockdowns” that didn't even exist for very long were the most oppressive things that could happen to anyone during a global pandemic. It didn't matter that it has been proven by many studies that masks are effective at reducing the spread of COVID and have saved many lives. It didn't matter that repeated COVID infections are jeopardizing the health of people around the world and leading to disability and death. It didn't matter that disabled people and chronically ill people depend on the public masking to keep them safe and participate in their communities. Now these people, who continue to complain, have gotten exactly what they wanted - the CDC has adopted a “you do you” public health response. When we ask people to mask, we're told we can still mask if we really want to, but we can't “tell others what to do.” Yet they can tell us we have to put up with the lack of safety for chronically ill/disabled people and for everyone else too.
But now, the government is trying to tell us we also can't keep our masks on in public. Politicians in North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Chicago, and Ohio have talked about mask bans - and in North Carolina’s case, they passed one. The details of the mask bans vary, but they all serve to further stigmatize wearing masks in public spaces, making the public more suspicious of us, and in the most extreme cases, they criminalize mask-wearing.
So now the real intentions of the individualist public health response is revealed: it was always meant to be “You do you,” unless you're vulnerable and you care about your health and the health of others and want to wear a mask. Are the people who advocated for a “you do you” approach going to take a stand and say mask bans are wrong? Are the CDC, the WHO, or anyone in the public health fields ever going to say a word on this? Or any of the politicians who promoted the idea that mask-wearing can be “optional”? Will more doctors speak out against mask bans? These questions are unfortunately mostly rhetorical.
It's bad enough being told over and over again that our concerns about a virus don't matter. It's bad enough having our government tell us “we have the tools” despite doing nothing to actually promote public health. After years of isolation, alienation, and grief, to start seeing states and cities move towards banning the best tool we have to protect ourselves from a deadly, disabling virus…it's a step past total abandonment. It is the most deliberate attempt at forcing the disabled to choose between having absolutely nothing to protect themselves from a deadly, disabling virus or being forced to remain inside their homes 24/7, shut out of society. We already knew we couldn't always protect ourselves 100% at this point. Mask bans will help the virus kill and disable many people (yes, including non-disabled people) at a much faster rate. I’ve talked about eugenics in the response to COVID before, and this is the most clear-cut example of it.
People who still care about COVID are told by anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers that we are overreacting. It is so frustrating to be told I'm overreacting while our government is trying to equate masks to crime. I remember when I first heard Eric Adams try to do this. It is so easy to fuel paranoia about crime in this country that I instantly became worried. People are constantly searching for “criminals” to punish and ostracize, and constantly looking for an excuse to ostracize those who are still wearing masks for whatever reason.
It is not lost on me or anyone paying attention that part of this is in response to pro-Palestine protests. They are coming after multiple (sometimes overlapping) marginalized communities at once with this move. Because a lot of protests have happened during surges, many protesters have been masking. By banning masks, they are not only harming disabled, chronically ill people everywhere but also anyone at protests who want to keep themselves and their communities safe. People have a right to protest, and they have a right to protect their health while they do that. Mask bans serve to discourage any protesters who don't feel safe protesting without a mask while COVID is a threat.
It is also important to remember the people who are at risk of being the most harmed by laws like these: people of color, undocumented immigrants, homeless people, the working class, people without health insurance. Not only are these groups targeted by the police more often, but when these laws lead to more community spread, they are more likely to be harmed by COVID.
We all have a right to choose what we wear on our faces and heads. We have a right to protect our health in public spaces. These choices should never be criminalized or politicized. Whether you've been masking or not, whether you live in a state that's discussing mask bans or not, we all have an obligation to speak up about this before it's too late.
From a post on ActUpNY’s Instagram, regarding the mask ban in New York specifically:
HOW TO FIGHT BACK
1. Call (518) 474-8390 or text SIGNPLNHSQ to 50409 to demand Gov. Hochul stop supporting this proposal
2. Use #NONYMaskBan to share why you still wear a mask
3. Stay tuned for future calls to action
To stay up to date on news related to mask bans, and COVID in general, I recommend the following organizations/pages:
Death Panel podcast (they have at least one episode about mask bans, and have many episodes about COVID)
Any local mask blocs (find them in the directory and follow them on social media, your state most likely has at least one)
There are many other good resources out there and I'm sure I missed some important ones, this is just for those who don't know where to start.
There are also a lot of great disability activists who post about COVID! I didn't want to start listing them because I'd inevitably end up leaving out so many important ones. But in general, everyone should follow more disability activists.