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“Urgency of Normal” Rhetoric Fuels Pandemic Ableism
Content note: ableism, death, suicide inference
The US response to Omicron is a continuation of its failure to take COVID-19 seriously from day one. Growing “urgency of normal” rhetoric, stemming from two years of pandemic fatigue (which should not be discounted), suggests that ignoring COVID will end the pandemic. We are all tired of the pandemic, but one group in particular — chronically ill people — know that you can’t ignore your way out of an untreated health issue.
Everyone wants the pandemic to end, but how are chronically ill and other disabled people faring?
CONTEXT
I am reasonably certain I had COVID in March 2020. Before this infection, I was inundated by the constant refrain: “Don’t worry, only vulnerable people will die.” This messaging was successful: it made many people feel better about the novel virus. For me, it was the opposite: because I am high-risk, I heard “Don’t worry, only people like you will die.” Since day one of COVID, people like me have been presumed disposable, complementing longstanding societal messaging that being disabled is intolerable. I often hear, “I’d kill myself if I were you.”
I take three immunosuppressive medications to manage a disease called axial spondyloarthritis, and I have multiple other conditions. I cannot, and do not, trust my immune system: any infection can send me to the hospital.
I survived that probable COVID infection, but I wrote my will, and my chosen family organized a “this might be it” video call. We all believed I was dying. That was nearly two years ago, before vaccines, before Delta. Before Omicron. Before the USA decided against more stringent mitigation efforts — again.
SHELTER IN PLACE
In late February 2020, many disabled people, myself included, began sheltering in place. Many of us haven’t stopped. I began cancelling medical appointments and switched to a new specialized drug that I could inject at home instead of in an infusion clinic. I treated the existence of SARS-COV2 like a pandemic before one was declared. Since those early days, disabled people have been sounding the alarm at every step, warning what would happen if we did not take immediate…
