PSA: The way you talk about Covid and those with #LongCovid can be hurtful, even if you don’t intend to be.

[britt@mstdn.games]

PSA: The way you talk about Covid and those with #LongCovid can be hurtful, even if you don’t intend to be. I’ve seen it a lot here lately and it hurts.

You contribute to stigma when you buy into popular assumptions that are parroted on social media:

“If they’d just worn a mask, it wouldn’t have happened to them. It’s their fault.” (assuming they didn’t.)

“If they’d just been healthy before they got sick, eaten right, and exercised, this wouldn’t have happened to them.” (assuming they didn’t.)

“If they’d just try harder to get better and stop focusing on what’s wrong, they’d be fine.”

Ableism can easily creep into our language and our thoughts. It is pervasive.

> I ask you to please be mindful of your language and self reflect.
> *Especially* if you believe you’ve never had Covid and carry that as some sort of badge of honour.
> *Especially* if something inside your mind tells you that it’ll never find you if you just do X,Y,Z.

It can find ANYONE.
It found me despite my best intentions and it’s entirely destroyed my life.
Every. Single. Day. is a fight for survival.
I got it once, and only once.

Be kind.
You never know what burdens others are carrying.

[tamtam@mastodon.de]

@britt and it happens to women more often than men. To nurses to mums that cannot shield from their children, to anyone who wasn't able to minimze exposure cus they were personally responsible for other people.

[britt@mstdn.games]

@Tamtam absolutely true. Well said.

[britt@mstdn.games]

@neonsnake wow, that’s a terrible intersection to have and I’m sorry you had to experience that.

You’re right to have pushed back and stood up for yourself and others, imho. 🫶

[robotistry@fediscience.org]

@Tamtam @britt Also people who had to attend an in-person medical appointment or went to get vaccinated and caught it there.

I'm careful - still masking in an N95 when I leave the house, masking in the house when delivery people come by (and rarely leaving the house in the first place) - but I caught it twice because my husband brought it home from work.

Even for people who test: people are still contagious before the tests turn positive, and the tests themselves still miss 20% or more of infections.

(In my most recent, doctor-confirmed reinfection, I tested negative on rapid tests for 21 days while my family was sick with PCR-confirmed Covid, both the week before and through the entire course of my symptoms.)

And there are a number of people in support groups struggling because they blame themselves for the actions (risky or not) that led to them getting sick.

Telling people "don't catch covid" in a culture of "my government made it legal for police to require me to take off my mask" is completely divorced from reality.

[britt@mstdn.games]

@gunchleoc yes, managing PEM is unfortunately part of my daily lived experience… I have ME/CFS as part of my long COVID sequelae.

I hold steady in the moderate range now. I have previously been steady at mild/moderate.

Living with an aggressive autoimmune disease now, I think those milder days are long past.