Texas and New York are currently trying to enact mask bans, even as measles cases sore and politicians adopt eugenicist mindsets that say it’s our “patriotic duty” to remain healthy.
You know what helps people stay healthy? Wearing a mask.
Don’t let them say medical exemptions are the answer:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/nassau-county-ny-makes-masking-illegal
@ahimsa_pdx @broadwaybabyto masks have been super helpful in the summer months to deal with our allergies. we have an air purifier at home that also helps a lot, but still have to open windows sometimes and go outside. just gonna say the minor discomfort of a well fitted and breathable mask is nothing compared to the asthma issues we'd have previously on a bad pollen day.
we wear masks for allergies, we wear masks for air pollution (which in a city is a daily issue, there's a lot of cars unfortunately), and we wear them to protect ourselves and others from infections. all of these are valid and important uses.
@broadwaybabyto Hell, even if someone wants to wear a mask to avoid pollen (due to hayfever) that should be okay!
And it should definitely be okay to wear a mask to avoid a virus! (flu, Covid, etc)
No. Mask. Bans. Ever!
Mask bans are ableist, discriminatory ugly laws.
Disabled advocates have been warning for years that if people didn’t help normalize masking, bans would follow
Please call legislators in New York and tell them No mask bans!
Medical exemptions aren’t enough, everyone needs the legal right to mask
The police are not doctors. They can’t determine who’s “sick enough” to wear a mask.
Many people with invisible illnesses struggle to get healthcare workers to take us seriously. We don’t want to be questioned by police.
Everyone should be allowed to mask up to prevent covid.
If you think mask bans are “no big deal” because there’s medical exemptions, please consider the following:
Police are not doctors Many disabilities are invisible Disabled people don’t live in a bubble. I need my friends and caregivers to mask to protect me Everyone should have the right to protect their health, you shouldn’t have to already be sick to be permitted to mask Criminalizing masks sends a message that maskers are “bad”. It emboldens anti-maskers and increases odds of aggression
The reality is that mask bans are discriminatory, ableist and eugenicist. They push disabled people out of public spaces. They put marginalized and POC at increased risk of police profiling.
There’s no official policy for a medical exemption either, it’s at police discretion.
If you’re stopped and questioned, you will have to prove you’re masking for the “right reasons”
I’m more than willing to admit that if I were stopped by a cop for masking, I would appear nervous, shaky, tachycardic and probably “suspicious”.
Not because I’m doing anything wrong, but because my illnesses do not respond well to stress and the police are stressful.
It’s not right to put the onus on the masker to defend their right to mask. We’re still in a global pandemic. Texas has a measles outbreak. There’s tuberculosis in Kansas. Bird flu is spreading and it’s the worst year for influenza A in over a decade.
Masks are a public health tool. They’re a disability accommodation. They should NOT be criminalized.
For more on mask bans and medical exemptions, I wrote an article on the Nassau County ban here:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/nassau-county-ny-makes-masking-illegal
Another day, another attempted mask ban. This time in Maryland.
Please, if you stopped masking we really need you to start again. It will reduce the number of Covid and flu cases, but it will also help normalize masks as a health tool.
Disabled people need you to help fight us these ugly laws:
North Dakota becomes the latest state to try & enact a mask ban
Pay particular attention to this part of the bill
“With intent to conceal the identity of individual while congregating in a public place with any other individual wearing a mask”
Being masked with other maskers should NOT be a crime
Just saw this 1/17/25 NYT article, and will be seeking all possible boosters asap before they're banned.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the nation’s health agencies, formally asked the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the authorization of all Covid vaccines during a deadly phase of the pandemic when thousands of Americans were still dying every week.
Mr. Kennedy filed a petition with the F.D.A. in May 2021 demanding that officials rescind authorization for the shots and refrain from approving any Covid vaccine in the future."
The Sick Times has an analysis of the law on mask bans across the United States. Freelance journalist Justine Barron interviewed legal experts and compiled a comprehensive list of bans across 21 states. The bans put vulnerable people at higher risk across the country, she found, as they create a climate of criminalization.
https://thesicktimes.org/2024/09/03/perfect-storm-of-criminalization-analyzing-mask-bans/
Version 2 of the Ban Proof Respirator is finished. Much improved over Version 1. Cost = about $80. Un-bannable N95+ protection. #maskban #nomaskban
https://medium.com/@samyoureyes/ban-proof-respirator-bpr-version-2-07e4b45ef843
Yesterday, the CDC very quietly updated their guidance on covid to acknowledge that covid is NOT seasonal and ventilation helps.
Also, "Although COVID-19 is not the threat it once was,* it is still associated with thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths each week in the United States, and can lead to Long COVID."
*i.e., not the threat to capitalism that it was; but not necessarily unthreatening to you or your loved ones....
#CovidIsNotOver #MaskUp #WearAMask #N95 #NoMaskBan
https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/covid-19-can-surge-throughout-the-year.html
The North Carolina House has overridden the Governor’s veto of the bill to criminalize masks.
Now the bill will go the Senate where Republicans also have a “supermajority.”
#MaskUp #NoMaskBan
#CovidIsNotOver #N95 #AirPollution
https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/republican-led-nc-house-overrides-gubernatorial-vetoes/
