Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by David Davison

loscharlos @loscharlos.bsky.social · 3h

Not sure if anybody is doing it better than @juliadoubleday.bsky.social —Please read:

“when you shrug off the difficulty.. of practicing COVID safety.. you are casting that burden onto the shoulders of those who are already carrying more than you are. ”

Link: www.thegauntlet.news/p/beyond-all...?

Why not recognize: wow! What a difficult reality we’re creating for anyone who’s been harmed by the virus. That could be me next, since I’m getting reinfected in these bi-annual waves. Instead of complaining that disabled people are asking me to participate in normalizing COVID mitigations, why don’t I acknowledge the absurdity and severity and difficulty of this situation? Why don’t I participate in changing the culture before it’s my turn to suffer as others ignore me?

Yes, it is difficult. It is burdensome. You could call it unreasonable! But when you shrug off the difficulty and burden of practicing COVID safety in the current climate, you are casting that burden onto the shoulders of those who are already carrying more than you are. Who can afford infections less than you can. Who in many cases have fewer resources than you do and almost certainly have fewer safe social outlets than you will.

1 28 66

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 2h

If I said that people shouldn't drive drunk because driving drunk puts other people at risk, it would be offensively silly to mock that idea by saying in bad faith, "Wouldn't people be safer if everyone just stayed home?"

But you do you. Keep advocating for avoidable illness, disability, death.

1

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 2h

The point of using two-way masking to make public places safer is to allow people to do whatever they need to do out in the world more safely. Currently, C19 poses an active risk to everyone and an outsized risk to some who have been totally abandoned.

1 1

Reposted by David Davison

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4h

“the constitution forbids race conscious remedies” would be news to the people who wrote the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments

Michael Li (李之樸) @mcpli.bsky.social · 4h

Griem goes there, arguing in response to Justice Jackson that there can be no race-conscious remedy absent a finding of intentional discrimination.

77 1.3K 6K

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 4h

(More specifically, when I say folks have to mask until we clean the air, what I mean is that the moral burden of not masking now is meaningfully different from the moral burden of not masking in the clean-air future. The moral burden will remain but reduced. Which…I find is an unsatisfying answer.)

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 4h

If it's the reality that forever masking is necessary, then that's the reality. I get that. But in terms of making a harm-reduction argument to dual-advocate for masking + cleaning the air, so far my own future horizon doesn't go that far. I guess I'm wondering what I should be advocating for.

2 1

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 4h

What I mean is that I'm not sure how to make the argument to folks that masking in public spaces is more a perpetual intervention than a stopgap intervention. Right now, many people's first argument against masking at all is, "How long will I need to?" And if I say, "Always," that's tricky.

1

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 4h

Do you have a sense of proportion of spread comparing airborne and droplet? In my experience, more common than the idea that covid *only* spreads like smoke is the idea that it *mostly* spreads that way. You're right about source control ultimately, but I find that for me it's a rhetorical problem.

1

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 4h

One-way masking is much less effective than two-way masking. Until we institute structural changes to clean the air more effectively, universal masking in public spaces is a moral necessity that society has decided to ignore. C19 endangers everyone—but especially vulnerable folks left to die.

1 1

Reposted by David Davison

Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · 23h

the alternative is actively advocating for systemic clean indoor air interventions (12 ACH, etc) - or being cool with excluding immunocompromised, disabled folks from public life

Joad The Wet Sprocket @joadsprocket.bsky.social · 1d

I am not interested in living in a society of Universal Public Masking and neither are most people. This ask is not reasonable, and the invocation of solidarity in service of it is ridiculous.

3 24 86

Reposted by David Davison

Kate Violette @kateviolette.com · 23h

Multiple threads on the timeline today that all boil down to adults saying with their whole-ass chests "I JUST WANT TO BE ABLE TO HAVE FUN ALL THE TIME AND NOT DEAL WITH THE LESS FUN PARTS OF REALITY"

And like yeah, I get it, we all get it.

But also, my Frodos, it has indeed happened in our time.

2 16 92

Reposted by David Davison

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 1d

Trump says a lot of weird and concerning stuff that people just kind of shrug at but right now I’m stuck on how he keeps insisting he’s going to hell

150 300 2.3K

Reposted by David Davison

Kate Violette @kateviolette.com · 1d

"Sometimes things are hard or unfair but reality and science don't care"

one million times this

I am genuinely sorry this is how the universe works but it is indeed how the universe works, and the sooner more people get hip to this the healthier and happier we collectively all will be.

Julia Doubleday @juliadoubleday.bsky.social · 1d

The framing “it’s unreasonable to ask me to mask” reminds me of climate change discussions - “it’s unreasonable to ask for net zero” etc - bc ppl think of the politics as more “real” than the science. Sometimes things are hard or unfair but reality and science don’t care

3 20 82

Reposted by David Davison

Julia Doubleday @juliadoubleday.bsky.social · 1d

If you’re a person who cares about not disabling and harming other human beings, including children, you must know that nearly half of COVID cases are asymptomatic, that Covid spreads before symptoms begin, and that you have a responsibility not to harm others. That is simply humanity.

1 31 160

Reposted by David Davison

bats 🦇✨ @itsbabs.bsky.social · 1d

even the smartest folks whose takes i otherwise appreciate, who otherwise want to resist fascism themselves & encourage others to, find wearing a mask in, at least, public indoor spaces—to prevent the harms of this administration from impacting others—to be a bridge too far; it’s shameful, frankly.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

yeah, i think a commitment to public health obligates you to get vaccinated and, when you are sick, do what you can to avoid spreading that to other people. the demand that one mask at all times in public spaces is, i think, unreasonable.

12 110 350

Reposted by David Davison

Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 1d

We can’t even have a hypothetical conversation about masking, because we have to spend our first god knows how many skeets giving caveats and reassuring people who have their own super valid and very important reasons they can’t that they’re not dicks.

1 14 120

Reposted by David Davison

Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 1d

You can declare yourself against “universal public masking”, but that means I can declare you a dick.

Long COVID absolutely wrecked my shit because people just couldn’t see themselves considering the health of others. Knowing you’re comfortable with that tells me everything I need to know.

24 150 890

Reposted by David Davison

Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 1d

Honestly, so much of our struggles can be summed up this way, but we might make abled people ~uncomfortable~ and ~scared about the inevitable failure of their bodies~.

Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 1d

It is always about their feelings. Not our deaths.

2 22 83

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 1d

Not masking is taking a vote: that incidentally killing or disabling something with C19 is no big deal.

It is a big deal!

You should feel terrible for refusing to prevent suffering. Not masking now is the same morally as not masking when it was popular: and the justifications against are the same!

4

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 1d

What's unreasonable is the demand that people put in danger by society's collective refusal to make public spaces safe just shut up. No, I refuse!

You want us to be quiet as you stigmatize and put our bodies in mortal danger. I can't make you mask, but I can keep reminding folks why they should.

Joad The Wet Sprocket @joadsprocket.bsky.social · 1d

I am not interested in living in a society of Universal Public Masking and neither are most people. This ask is not reasonable, and the invocation of solidarity in service of it is ridiculous.

1 4 22

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 1d

With C19, you are often most contagious *before* symptoms. The "mask after it's effective" argument you're taking for granted as reasonable is anti-evidence and lazy-come-late.

I'd strongly encourage you to spend more time with the research on re-infection risks—something people avoid out of fear.

1 46

Reposted by David Davison

57ARK 🔆🍉 @57ark.bsky.social · 1d

Disabled people are, in fact, typically rational assessors of the threat environments they inhabit. Their pleas with their "community" to mask aren't mutually exclusive with that, and frankly, disabled people showing others the door for being asshats about masking is very rational threat assessment.

1 3 37

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 1d

This is so well-put.

3

Reposted by David Davison

Alex @admiringbog.bsky.social · 1d

Whenever people talk about COVID mitigation being irrational, I want to know what they think the facts are. Most people don’t have a strong understanding of COVID risks.

2 13 140

David Davison @notdrdave.bsky.social · 1d

If this is what you think, then you haven't actually listened to the population you're describing. The research literature on C19 and PASC is horrifying: and vaccination, while beneficial in tons of ways, does very little to avoid the greatest dangers. You don't have to be pro-mask to hear us out.

24