As part of #VulnerabilityIsntSeasonal, we’re amplifying stories from just a few of the people who’d be impacted if BC discarded mask protections in healthcare - and whose lives have already been changed by a lack of safety measures.
Next up, from R. (they/them):
“I got Covid because someone knowingly came to work while infectious – something that healthcare workers in BC are now allowed to do as well. It was my first Covid infection, and I never got better. I’m now severely disabled and bedbound.
“We need masks in all healthcare settings as an absolute bare minimum, including for patients. Without mask requirements, neither me nor my partner can safely get medical care, and going to the doctor, hospital or for blood work is a risk to my life.”
As #LongCOVID Awareness Month draws to a close, we’re reminded that the growing number of people with Long Covid deserve safety and solidarity year round. A thank you to @wanderingkayli (she/her) for sharing her story:
“A single COVID infection completely upended my life two years ago by disabling me with Long COVID. This is happening to millions and yet public health is not treating COVID with the seriousness it deserves and preventing infections in all healthcare settings. I haven’t seen a dentist in so long because I keep hearing people getting reinfected there. COVID isn’t seasonal, and unless everyone is wearing a mask if they can do so, my vulnerable family members and I can’t safely access healthcare. In an ongoing airborne pandemic, the more masked up, the better – we all share the same air, and we should be preventing healthcare-acquired infections year round. Everyone is at risk of Long COVID and post-COVID damage, not just the disabled and/or immunocompromised. It’s also not sufficient to merely wear baggy surgical masks where aerosols get through! Let’s follow the science.”
One of our asks for #VulnerabilityIsntSeasonal is to require privately-run medical settings like medical labs to meet the same minimum mask coverage as public facilities. This account from Red (he/they) shows why it’s important.
🚨 Content warning for healthcare-acquired infection
“I don’t want to get Covid in BC healthcare – not again. The first time it happened, I got infected at LifeLabs over the summer (well after the winter “respiratory season”). That Covid infection seriously worsened my chronic medical conditions, to the point where I no longer feel safe getting my regular bloodwork. All healthcare settings – whether in a private lab, public hospital, or doctor’s office – should protect both patients and workers from the risk of infection. Healthcare workers should be using respirators widely year-round to properly protect against airborne diseases!”
As part of #VulnerabilityIsntSeasonal, we’re amplifying stories from just a few of the people who would be impacted by the loss of masks in healthcare - and who’ve already been impacted by a lack of sufficient protections.
Next up, from Tracy Connor (she, her, hers):
🚨 Content warning: sudden loss, negligence
“My aunt was healthy and active for her age, but one day she suddenly collapsed and died. The coroner said it was “natural causes”. Family requested an autopsy, but were discouraged from having one. At no time was a PCR test offered or given.
“My aunt’s husband (my uncle) wound up testing positive for COVID. Others who had been in contact were infected, including persons at high risk. We then learned that staff from my aunt and uncle’s caregiving service had tested positive for COVID-19. One of them had been in my aunt’s house prior to her death.
“When I went to the house with flowers I saw that a healthcare worker in the house wasn’t masked at all. In my opinion, it is possible that my uncle was still contagious.
“Anyone acting as a professional caregiver, or an employee of health authorities in BC, should be required to wear an N95 mask when entering people’s homes.”
One of our asks for #VulnerabilityIsntSeasonal is to require privately-run medical settings to meet the same minimum mask coverage as public facilities. This account from Lisa Sherwood (she/her) shows why it’s important.
🚨 Content warning: negligence, denial of care
“I was having problems with my heart in 2023 and was referred for testing to a private clinic. When I arrived, I found one medical office assistant (MOA) at the desk wearing a surgical mask under their nose, and the other MOA had their mask dangling from a single ear. When I asked the MOAs to please mask, they refused. I tried to prop the door open a little for better ventilation, but one of them told me it was too cold. The doctor was wandering around unmasked.
Upon the MOA’s suggestion, I waited outside for my appointment. The doctor came out and suggested I would be “happier getting tested elsewhere” and an MOA deposited my belongings outside.
I immediately got into my car and started phoning to determine how a mask requirement was enforced in private clinics. It became clear there was no process, and no enforcement. A complaint to the College of Physicians was my only option. I faced months of delay and increased heart irregularities before I was able to get testing in a hospital. As such, diagnosis and treatment were delayed. It’s clear that patients at private health care clinics are more susceptible to similar breaches in infection control practices for SARS-CoV-2 and other airborne illnesses.”
As part of #VulnerabilityIsntSeasonal, we’re amplifying the voices of just a few of the people who’ve been impacted by BC‘s fluctuating mask protections.
Next up, from Jay (he/him, they/them):
🚨 Content warning: surgery, medical negligence
“I had surgery last year after masks were discarded in BC hospitals. It was a nightmare. Despite the fact that I’m disabled and extremely medically vulnerable (including immune system damage from previous Covid infections), staff didn’t mask in my hospital room. It was entirely on me to “manage my own risk”, even though that meant I couldn’t safely remove my mask to eat or drink. The lack of healthcare mask protections risked my recovery, and could have resulted in me bringing new illnesses home to my high-risk family members. Patients shouldn’t bear the burden of infection control, especially at their sickest and most vulnerable. That’s why we need proper airborne precautions in healthcare year round.”
As part of #VulnerabilityIsntSeasonal, we’re amplifying stories from just a few of the vulnerable British Columbians who would be impacted by discarding mask protections in healthcare.
First up, from Maria Brink (she/they):
🚨 Content warning: bereavement
“COVID has significantly reduced my ability to access healthcare safely. My grandmother died from a healthcare-acquired infection, and that loss is unconscionable. Healthcare workers have a duty and obligation to protect all patients (especially the vulnerable) which includes not spreading airborne viruses.
“Masks (specifically KN95/N95s or better) must be worn year round by everyone in all medical facilities to provide appropriate source control, as just under 60% of SARS-COV-2 is spread by asymptomatic individuals. One-way masking is not sufficient or acceptable. This is common sense, and it’s unacceptable for healthcare to consider anything else.
“HEPA filtration and appropriate air exchanges would also be helpful metrics to consider, so that when patients need to eat/drink/remove their mask for any required medical reason that it reduces their risk and also reduces the risks to all the other individuals who have to share that air.”
Let’s talk about THAT NPR article. I’ve taken a few days to grieve for those forced into dangerous situations by spouses/family who would rather go back to normal than protect their vulnerable loved ones. Where has kindness gone & how do we stop treating ppl as disposable?
I wish I could say I was shocked to read that piece - but after 4 years of being abandoned by more people than I care to admit - little surprises me anymore. We were “all in this together” for a few weeks - and then people got sick of it.
People don’t want to change their behaviours. For many healthy & privileged people the pandemic was the first time they ever had to make sacrifices or change their “normal”. Most didn’t like it.
Some people were empathetic enough to see the isolation from stay at home orders and connect it to the lives of disabled people. I had a number of people reach out and say things like “wow is this what your life is always like?”
Of course my answer was “Yes”. My chronic illnesses isolated me long before the pandemic - Covid only intensified that isolation. When people would draw parallels I felt great hope - I imagined we would move forward to a more inclusive society.
Instead what has happened is people got tired of having to make sacrifices. Government & public health told them that they no longer had to protect the vulnerable & that it was OUR responsibility to shield & isolate.
So they stopped masking & went back to normal.
There were some holdouts - usually people who love or care for a vulnerable person. But as it became clear that herd immunity wasn’t coming, that Covid wasn’t going away…. Even those people grew resentful of the modifications to their daily lives.
They started pressuring their vulnerable loved ones to stop worrying so much & go “back to normal”. Many started doing high risk indoor actitivies and simply lying about it - while others wrote articles for NPR.
The sad reality is that people now view the vulnerable as THE people who ruined their lives. After all - mask mandates & stay at home orders were sold as a means of “protecting the vulnerable”. People are angry their “normal” was altered & they’re not being subtle about it.
I would argue they should take that anger and direct it where it belongs - at government and public health officials who’ve bungled the messaging around Covid from the very beginning. The people who lied & downplayed the risks & cost us our best chance of containing Covid
Of course most leaders and public health officials are telling people what they want to hear. That the threat has passed, that we’ve “defeated Covid” and that they can party like it’s 2019. As a result people aren’t angry at them - they’re angry at the vulnerable instead
They’re angry at disabled people for trying to protect themselves, at advocates for reminding them that we’re STILL in a pandemic and at the sight of a respirator. These things & people remind them of that time in their life when they couldn’t do what they wanted.
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They don’t want to be reminded of the few weeks or months they had to sacrifice for other people. They want their “normal” back. And they definitely don’t want to consider they too could end up disabled like us “vulnerable people”.
So they buy the lies despite overwhelming evidence that the threat is still with us. And they direct their anger towards disabled and vulnerable people instead. They put us at risk - often deliberately - so that they can stay in their denial bubble of normalcy.
I’m sick of it. It’s made life much harder for so many people and it didn’t have to be this way. We understand Covid & how it’s spread and we have the tools to keep everyone safe. The reason people don’t want to use them is that they fear change & adaptation.
They also don’t see themselves as vulnerable. They still see Covid as only an issue for those “other people” that they think they’re so much better than. So they do nothing to protect us.
How do we change this? I don’t know anymore. Given most of us can’t even get our loved ones & doctors to take steps to protect us… what chance do we have of convincing strangers?
I don’t have the answers but I do know that writing articles shaming your vulnerable spouse is NOT the way. Lying & exposing vulnerable loved ones to reinfection is NOT the way. Refusing to take any precautions & getting Covid over & over is NOT the way.
We can clean & ventilate the air we share. We can mask in high risk settings. We can demand mask mandates in hospitals, free access to tests & better vaccines & treatments for Long Covid. There’s much we CAN do if we would stop othering people & admit there’s a serious threat
For now the best I can do is protect myself & those around me and continue to tell stories of challenges I face. I encourage others within the disability & Long Covid communities to be ready to welcome many new members - our ranks will keep growing in the ‘let ‘er rip” era
We need to remember how scary it can be when you first realize you’re chronically ill - and we need to have compassion for those joining us regardless of how or why they ended up here. When we figure out how to work together as a collective voice - we will be unstoppable.
I don’t know who needs to hear this - but it’s normal to be anxious if you’re at the ER. Especially during an airborne pandemic. HCW’s should not be slapping an anxiety label on patients who request they wear a mask.
A person sick enough to need the ER is too sick to handle Covid. Instead of judging them just put on a mask. It’s a kindness and it’ll protect you too!
A government campaign tells parents to send their kids to school with Covid, Measles and Strep symptoms as well as conjunctivitis, threadworms and head lice.