Bernie, #PodSaveJon, and the Rest of Us

 On Thursday, Bernie Sanders tweeted about having Covid, and this happened:

Favreau got slammed for this comment, and explained his intentions on Friday,

"Just to follow up: the brand of person I was referring to is someone who tells people to fuck off if they choose to work from home while sick. I don't find that persuasive, I find it unhinged. 

Long Covid is real, tragic, and deserves more attention (I had a post-Covid condition myself - not fun). Covid is still dangerous for a lot of people, especially older and immunocompromised. If you get even a mild case and feel too sick to work from home, you absolutely shouldn't have to. But advocacy for any of these issues isn't coming on this platform to swear at strangers from perfectly reasonable statements and actions. It's counterproductive and absurd and I won't pretend otherwise. People suffering deserve better advocacy than this shit."

It's not a bad explanation, except "swear at strangers" chooses to ignore that this wasn't a random person talking about working from home, it's a senior US senator. He forgets that both of them have extraordinary power compared to the rest of us. Three others added further notable concerns. I'm saving them here because they each make important points.

First, RipperMD41 explained the problems with Sanders' original statement:

"First to get it out of the way: He’s isolating —> good. 

In accordance with CDC guidance —> 🫤. CDC guidance is inaccurate and does not follow the science. Many are still contagious past day 5 of illness. (Side note: the 5 day rule was created to appease businesses)

But what people are more upset about: - “continue to work from home” - only mitigation he mentions is the vaccine - doesn’t mention the current Covid wave.  

Continuing to work goes against the guidance of many Long Covid and ME/CFS experts. There’s a common theme in these patients that the final straw is them overexerting themselves or trying to push through during/right after an acute infection. We need more research into this, but there have been indicators of this association between overexertion and post infectious chronic conditions for decades. 

This came from a small study looking at ME/CFS in athletes almost 30 years ago. 

'Acute viral infection, training or competing when initially ill, emotional stress, and overtraining were each respectively determined to be a major factor precipitating the onset of the condition.' 

“But he’ll only be working on emails. It’s not like he’s running 🙄” True, but there are more forms of exertion besides exercise. Just ask anyone with ME/CFS or Long Covid. (It’ll take me all day to write this thread.) This is from the excellent pacing guide by @MEActNet 

Sanders stating he’ll continue to work also normalizes this behavior. We really love to “push through” here in the US, lest we be viewed as “weak.” But it’s not good for our health. Many people don’t even have the option to work from home and can’t afford to take time off. Which leads to the next point: sick days. There is no requirement for employers to offer sick days in the US. Given his large platform Sanders could use this as an opportunity to say he’s taking a few sick days and that everyone in the US should have that right. 

Alright, moving on. He emphasizes he’s up to date with the vaccine. That’s great! It can definitely decrease your risk of hospitalization. He doesn’t mention any of the other mitigation measures though. The US reliance solely on vaccines and Paxlovid isn’t working. How do I know it’s not working? Because we’re currently in the 2nd largest wave of the pandemic. Millions more will develop Long Covid due to this wave and we still don’t have a treatment for it. 

So Sanders could’ve warned people about the current wave, but he chose not to. He could’ve encouraged: Increasing ventilation - Adding HEPA filters or Corsi Rosenthal boxes - Wearing N95s indoors or in crowds, or to stop transmission to household members. But he chose not to.

“But why is everyone so angry?” Because they’ve been left behind and abandoned. Because Biden and the Democrats did not follow through on their promises. The immunocompromised and high risk have been shut out from society. Your choice is catch Covid or stay home. Even healthcare isn’t accessible. People are getting sick and dying because of infections they picked up at their doctor’s office or hospital. The general response from everyone in the establishment is 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

Long Covid patients especially feel abandoned. Their governments said it was fine to get infected. Many of them had “mild” acute infections and were previously healthy. Thanks to Long Covid they’ve lost jobs, friends, families, homes, and so much more. They know all too well that if you get long Covid there isn’t some magic safety net. There are no approved treatments. Experts are few and far between (and often don’t take insurance). There’s no financial support and the process to get disability benefits is grueling. 

Because they’ve been abandoned Long Covid patients also pay close attention to the science. Every week more and more papers come out that detail all the destruction Covid can wreak on your body. The chronic affects of this virus will impact us for decades. Still no one in power does anything to mitigate infections. This is damaging our healthcare system and will continue to damage our economy unless we acknowledge the problem and deal with it. The current method of pretending it’s just a cold isn’t working. I think all of this is made worse because it’s coming from a progressive who claims to support the labor and disability movements. It’s frustrating to see him follow along with everyone else. More on the importance of rest during illness."

Second up, Phil Park explains how dismissive the interaction is,

"I wanted to talk about why people are so angry w/ Bernie and Jon Favs from my personal experience. This will be long. Sorry. Regarding the #PodSaveJon incident, I haven’t posted much about COVID for a few years for a reason (related to my burnout) but maybe now is the time. 

For people that really know me IRL, they know that my wife has chronic health issues and can’t work. My boss and his boss know. I make sure management knows. It’s why I switched to work from home full time again when new variants started showing up. She’s had MANY doctor’s visits over the years to deal with her health issues, and I’ve witnessed some of them treat her like absolute shit, like she’s exaggerating her pain or wasting their time. I’ve lost respect for a lot of medical professionals. Side story, relevant later: her health started deteriorating after she caught mono as an adult, and after being rear ended twice in less than a year (circa 2012), she developed more issues, eventually she couldn’t work full time and lost her job a month before we got married. A little over a year ago she caught COVID. She was *masked and outside* for some work with our HOA, but one person was visibly sick and they were in close proximity for a couple of hours. I managed to avoid it and take care of her. But as someone with chronic health issues it was an awful experience for her and she is determined not to catch it again. She still has lingering symptoms. The only upside is that she caught it after vaccination, because it could have been so much worse before vaccines. 

Ever since the pandemic emergency was declared over, she has been angry at our institutions (mainly the CDC). Everyone that didn’t get long COVID (LC) have been in denial that COVID is a problem anymore. It’s wild that our medical facilities don’t require masks.It’s not even a red vs blue problem either. We know elected officials on the right don’t give a shit. But to see people left of center (both the government and voters) also not give a shit hurt her a lot. She has lost friendships. She can’t socialize in person. This is because every time she catches COVID her health deteriorates further and now that our institutions don’t make an effort to mitigate spread the responsibility falls on individuals, which is a depressingly familiar theme. 

So a few posts up I mentioned how my wife’s health got worse after mono (aka Epstein Barr). That’s post viral syndrome. That’s also what LC is, with a different virus. What makes LC exceptional is the high rate of post viral syndrome. What does that mean? It means that as we continue to let COVID spread, we’re allowing more people to become disabled forcing people out of the workplace, and many healthy people are taking care of these newly disabled people and picking up the slack at home. If you don’t believe me, search for LC support groups on Facebook. Those groups continue to grow. I should also mention that chronic illnesses affect women much more than men, and getting disability support from the government is an impossible task for many. Ask me how I know. 

Now “post pandemic” every appointment is a chore. We ask every office when we schedule and confirm at the appointment that staff will wear masks. We ask every person that works in our house to mask up. A lot of doctors are useless and unhelpful when treating COVID. For most people I’ve noticed four types of responses to COVID:
1) it’s not a problem anymore; they roll their eyes at people who still take it seriously. There are doctors and nurses like this.

2) ambivalence but they’ll take precautions as long as it doesn’t inconvenience them too much (but usually don’t)
3) people who believe the government did not handle this well but they still take COVID seriously and take precautions
4) people who take COVID very seriously, it’s extremely debilitating for them, and it’s still the foremost issue because it directly affects them. 

People who have LC or other post viral syndrome are type 4. They have been abandoned by institutions and friends. Many of their friends on the left (and I mean left, not liberals) have quietly shifted to type 2. So yes, chronically ill people feel abandoned. So while the guy who said fuck Bernie probably wasn’t helping the cause, it’s a reaction to the despair they’ve been feeling. Many of them know voting Dem is the only choice, but it’s an extremely disappointing choice. So if Biden ends up bragging about how he “ended the pandemic” this will be so hurtful to them. I know people will defend the current admin. We wanted to go back to normal so badly that most of us are willing to look the other way when sacrificing disabled, but I think it’s a mistake to think that repeated COVID infections won’t have long term consequences for everyone. Even as we try to return to normal, things have felt off. It’s not the same as 2019, it’s worse in subtle but numerous ways. People are worse drivers. 

More people are generally angry or have shorter tempers. It’s an unsatisfactory return to normal. I have family members who truly believe they’ve never caught COVID because they tested negative ONCE. Anyway rant over. My 🐶 needs his walk."

Finally, here's Chalis Montgomery about dads in the pandemic:

"After four years of reading peer reviewed research to try to get a handle on facts instead of propaganda, I really have too much to say about the #PodSaveJon situation for a single thread. So, I want to talk about dads. 

When our daughter was little, she was in too much pain to sleep well. My husband sacrificed many nights to stay up and cradle her. She didn’t sleep even three hours on her own until she had a diagnosis and some strong meds, at age 2 and a half. Hubs didn’t complain. When our daughter was four, she would sometimes choose to scoot across the floor rather than walking if she was in too much pain. 

A few years later, when my husband’s department was cut, he found three part time gigs to make sure our little girl had the meds she needed. As a teacher, my husband has continued to wear an N95 daily, long past the time most people have stopped. He tests regularly, and has never had Covid or given it to a student. He’s never brought it home to our immunocompromised daughter. We choose a level of caution that @CrookedMedia and @PodSaveAmerica would gleefully mock us for, because as a working class family with the primary earner on the front lines daily, getting sick does not actually mean he will be afforded an adequate amount of leave and rest. In fact, current recommendations were determined not by science, but by the CEO of Delta Airlines, who had staffing issues. However, inadequate rest during acute Covid is linked to a higher likelihood of severe long Covid symptoms. 

To put it bluntly, if my husband were to be unable to work due to Long Covid, we would likely lose everything. So, instead, we read peer reviewed journals. We stay as informed as possible. We hope it’s enough. He teaches at a school he loves, in a poorly ventilated overcrowded room in the middle of Atlanta. It’s not like the school Ashish Jha sends his kids to - one that got a $5 million upgrade to ventilation and had a strict testing protocol. They are worlds apart. 

Now, some people would say that Ashish Jha is a great dad for sending his kid to a school with mitigations in place that allow kids to stay healthy and learn. If by having more money than most Americans and the privilege of some notoriety make one a good dad, then, uh, sure. But, I think the guys with dirt under their nails are good dads, too. The guys between jobs doing DoorDash. The guys recently off paper who are working any job they can find. Their kids don’t go to schools like Jha’s. And they sure as hell don’t get time to rest when sick.

So when a politician 🗣️ with an entire ass comms team🗣️ sends out a tweet reinforcing the idea that a person should work while sick? It’s a slap in the face when we all deserve better policy. Sanders could have used the tweet to, for example, advocate for paid leave. And I understand. It’s a canned response, crafted to convey a sense of calm. But we aren’t wrong to want better. A hard working union dad from New York wanted better and said so. He knows that when labor conditions improve, his kids also do better. That’s a great dad. Thomas @t_NYC and guys like @the_tattooedjew who understand that disability justice is at the core of so many issues critical to our children’s futures are also great dads. They’re looking out for their kids, mine, and yours. But, for his effort to raise a concern about labor and Covid comms, Thomas is currently being trolled by former staffers for progressive politicos, and dudes with over a million followers, who then somehow think they are the victims of bullying. 

Those guys are also dads. I won’t speculate as to the lessons they’ll teach their kids about who matters in this country or how to be an ally without tokenizing people. I’ll just look to the positive examples of Dr. Montgomery, Dom, Thomas, and others and be exceedingly grateful for the contrast."

Yesterday, Favreau commented on the names he was called or might have been called, but still ignored the real problem with Sanders' original sentiment, which was a missed opportunity to create a larger platform for some very real issues being caused. 

ETA: Also check out an article from Disability Visibility Project

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COVID BASICS: (1-3 from Dr. Joe Vipond):

"1. Covid is predominantly airborne. [It can cross a room in minutes and linger for hours.]

2. Over 50% of transmission is from asymptomatic people. [They feel perfectly healthy!!]

3. Long Covid is real and impacts a substantial number of people." And...

4. Vaccines help reduce severity of cases, but can't eliminate transmission and wane in effectiveness within months because Covid mutates so fast (because of all the spread!).

5.  N95s trap Covid using inertial impaction, diffusion, interception, and electrostatic attraction. They really work!!

6. Covid's the #3 killer in Canada, and we don't know how many people it has disabled. Avoid being one of them. There is no treatment, only prevention. Be wise with N95s!