Government, media, institutions no longer work to protect us; we need to keep raising our voices and taking action.
I didn’t need my first big article of 2024 to be a COVID op-ed.
The concept came about when our co-founder Marke sent me a reader’s letter imploring 48 Hills for more COVID coverage. The letter talked about me talking about it in my theater reviews. I started the first draft of this article just before the site published Galen. Sanger’s heartbreaking Long COVID essay. After reading it, I think everything I said would be superfluous.
But as I write this piece, I have a tab open in Firefox for a MissionLocal article about SF shuttering vaccine sites. When I caught COVID last year, my life was saved by those free resources. Since those protections have vanished, the US has been in an unbroken wave of infections not seen since the start of Omicron onset.
Folks like Galen tell a frighteningly common story, but the powers that be continue to feign surprise to find that “Fuck around” is still followed by “find out.” Being COVID-safe is like being Juno from Beetlejuice: no matter how clearly you explain things the football team, they remain oblivious. Eventually, they slink back into your office and reluctantly admit “Coach, I don’t think we survived the crash.” All you can do is stare at them and ask “How did you guess?”
But here’s the thing: Just because it’s getting harder and harder to locate and report COVID data doesn’t mean we deserve to stop. On the contrary, it is my duty as a progressive, a journalist, and a citizen of the world. If any of those terms apply to you, then you deserve to devote yourself to the truth as well.
“But where to find it?” I hear you ask.
First place would be the weekly pandemic round-ups of SF’s Violet Blue (who recently moved to New Zealand to examine and write about early pandemic response). She’ll be the first to tell them she didn’t need to write Pandemic. Summaries are no longer done after four years, but they are now some of the most reliable aggregations of COVID data after primary resources simply stopped being tracked.
Exactly how are experts tracking? Wastewater levels. Yes, really. Through sources like Biobot Analytics, scientists have to shovel through shit just to get accurate numbers that used omnipresent. What they’re finding is that people are literally shitting out COVID in the highest levels in years. But instead of finding reliable treatments and preventions, people are turning to anti-vaxxer morons like Joe Rogan who tell them to eat the horse paste Ivermectin (which does absolutely nothing for COVID) and to swallow hydroxychloroquine (which will likely kill you).
The explanation for why infections and deaths began to decline between 2021 and 2022 is that most resources, especially Paloxvid vaccines and antivirals, were loose. Not only has it saved countless lives, but flexible distribution has proven that a government health plan is what America desperately needs.
But that was then. Today, you have to pay $140 out of pocket for a vaccine that you can only get once a year, even though it has subsided after six months. (When I won my pre-infectious booster shot, I was denied service at my favorite SF. clinics before I tracked down one who gave it to me by “accident”. Getting my Novavax vaccine before Thanksgiving was a similar deterrent. )”We have the tools,” Biden tells us. During this time, you receive high-level treatment and may not even enter a room unless each user has undergone a full medical examination approved by the Secret Service.
The pandemic is only “over” for the powerful. The rest of us, the proletarians, must return to the mines.
And it’s not just politicians who are ignore COVID as it continues to wreak havoc; it’s also mainstream media and entertainment. Another thing Violet Blue and I have in common is that we’ve both written articles about the blind eye Hollywood has turned towards COVID. For them, it either never existed or was so brief that it’s only mentioned in passing. Hell, I watched a digital screener of Saltburn this past week and nearly fell out of my chair upon seeing an extra (a barista) wearing a mask—one of the two prettiest things in the entire film. (The other being Jacob Elordi’s face in soft-focus.)
In fact, it doesn’t matter that Screen Actors Guild president Fran Drescher, who agreed to a seriously compromised studio deal just to end last year’s strike, opposes all COVID-related protective measures for the production of movies and television.
Ignoring a public health crisis of this magnitude is bad enough in itself. It hurts us seniors (especially San Franciscans) even more because we’ve noticed it before. How many videos from the 1980s talk about HIV/AIDS?You’ll probably count them all with one hand. I’d like to say that future generations will criticize this era’s similar rejection of COVID, but my concern is that there will be so many stories like Galen’s that there may not be many other people left. to tell our story to future generations. They’ll settle for over-the-top episodes of. . . And so, where “the total pandemic” is only briefly discussed once and in overtime.
Which brings up another point…
Earlier today I heard about AJLT actress Sara Ramirez, who would possibly be fired from the show. For what? Because they spoke out in favor of Palestine. For the past three months, U. S. taxpayer money has funded Israel’s brutal ethnic cleansing of Gaza, but public figures who even whisper the word “ceasefire” are squandering their jobs from left to right. As you may recall, the same was true of Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the post-9/11 “war on terror,” among other conflicts.
I repeat that it is our progressive duty to take a stand against Israel’s attempted genocide in the same way that we oppose police brutality, rape culture, and wealth inequality, because all of this is false. That’s why I’ve spent the last three months protesting with other pro-Palestinian people like me. (I was nearly run over by the APEC presidential motorcade. ) That’s why I personally spoke to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to get them to pass a ceasefire resolution. (Which they did, only to have London Breed publicly attack them and us. )
When I first arrived at City Hall (already masked and wearing goggles), I took a photo of two other protesters handing out COVID masks to others entering inside. One of them took them out of a bag with a sign he had made. himself: “It masks us from diseases and surveillance. “
That’s what I love about activism: combating smart combat and the movements of my fellow protesters that make me feel seen. He is one of them.
We, the pro-Palestinian activists, have pushed for “ceasefire” resolutions around the world. We COVID activists have been so tireless in our fight for protection that countless medical establishments are reinstating their mask policies; It’s all thanks to us.
As loud as the powerful people shout at us from their ivory towers, we have proof that our collect power can’t be ignored. This isn’t the time to stop activism for COVID for the same reason we shouldn’t give up our support for the people of Palestine. In both cases, too many lives are at stake. Turning a blind eye to either issue is immoral and unconscionable.
I’ve recently gotten back into directing. Since the start of the pandemic, my theatre work has mostly been limited to seeing and reviewing shows. Directing this piece has given me a wonderful insight into how local, indie theatre—which needs more support than ever—operates during a still-ongoing pandemic. The company I’m working with takes COVID safety seriously, requiring everyone test before entering a meeting or rehearsal—including having tests on-hand to screen onsite. And everyone has to mask. (The actors can only forego masks during late-stage rehearsals.)
However, this giant corporation has also had to reduce its public protection requirements, making the mask optional, in order to improve protection performance. They would have kept them just as strong, but when you don’t have millionaire donors, you’re forced to make painful decisions to remain an already dwindling audience.
They shouldn’t be in that position. Nor should any citizen wake up in the middle of the night to the realization that an avoidable infection left them with lasting disability, which our government won’t pay for because they’re funding the bombing of schools and hospitals on the other side of the world.
Let me repeat it so that there is no doubt: as progressives and leftists, it is our duty to confront those injustices. It starts by talking about police brutality, abortion rights, homelessness, and much more. That status belongs to trade unions. That’s talking about our taxes being invested in the Palestinian genocide.
And yes, it means talking about COVID.
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