Watched it. Still ableist.
1) This disease is still killing people, they’re not acceptable losses, and covid can also mutate further into a even more new variants so the shortened quarantine is super fucked up. Also she listed just the number of dead, there are a lot of people still getting disabled and getting long covid, including vaccinated people.
It’s 100% for economic reasons and not for public health reasons, which is why there are conflicting recommendations from other orgs. “Sick people that tested positive should quarantine long enough to be safely uninfected” should be one of the bare minimums we’re doing, even more important than vaccines or masking because they’re confirmed as infectious.
So a lot of the anger is because the policy is now writing those people off instead of still treating proper quarantine as still important. And doing it for shitty reasons.
2) “Only people with complex health issues are dying, this is good news in the context of omicron” is rhetoric that’s dismissing said people as acceptable losses and saying “good news, everyone else is okay!”
People with complex health issues are still dying when they might otherwise not and plenty of the complicating health issues aren’t immediately fatal by themselves, or even in concert with each other. People can have multiple comorbidities but not necessarily terminal comorbidities. These are people that might otherwise live. “It only kills X group of disabled/ill people, not everyone else, this is promising!” is 100% ableist and dismissive of their lives in terms of how to speak about it.
Even in terms of phrasing, that information can be communicated in a less of an ableist way. “While people with four or more multiple comorbidities are still at high risk, the majority of people aren’t with omicron. [lists all the stats she listed] This is proof vaccines are offering protection for most and we should try to maintain high vaccination rates. We also need to maintain high rates of vaccination and boosters, as well as masking, to keep protecting the still-vulnerable groups.”
Plus, ideally, a less stupid quarantine policy.
Part of ableism is not being aware that phrasing is dismissive of the very lives of the disabled. Speaking about this in a non-ableist way is something the leader of the CDC should be conscious of setting an example as a major leader in public health. Context doesn’t change the shitty phrasing and how someone in her position should just be more thoughtful about it than the average layman. She should be the MOST thoughtful about it. Maximum amount of thoughtfulness.
Pair that with the actual quarantine policy being economically motivated... and it’s a bad look.
And keep in mind. I say this as someone going back into healthcare myself after being out of it during covid. This is kind of shameful and embarrassing on a professional level
I also say this as someone with a few comorbidities and with a parent that’s immunocompromised and has at least 4 comorbidities. My mom’s life isn’t an acceptable loss and “good news, everyone else is okay!” would be no comfort if she died. She’s only 65 and the health issues she has aren’t easy but provided she doesn’t get some heinous life-crushing illness, even with her comorbid conditions she can expect a normal life expectancy. (And all her organs are in fairly good shape.) I’d like to have her around ten more years if possible, thanks. Could be the difference between her seeing me get married or not.
tbh the people with multiple comorbidities dying are some of the most tragic cases because they often do everything right. In many cases they would survive otherwise, and are conscientious about their other health issues. But they’re dying despite personally doing what they should be doing and getting vaccinated and boosted, all because of the carelessness and uncaring-ness of others, and shitty choices in public policy.
It’s a big problem in healthcare where issues are sometimes discussed as “It’s fortunate only the disabled/chronologically ill/etc that are affected” when that’s...not fortunate at all. They’re not castoffs where it’s fine if things are only happening to them.
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