Veterinarians Working on #BirdFlu, Pet Food Safety Fired in HHS Purge
#CatHealth #RFK #N95 #MaskBan #PublicHealthAttack
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/04/02/bird-flu-fda-veterinarians-laid-off/
Trump Targets #Disabled with #MaskBan
- #AI can ID perps with masks: no legit reason to ban
- Masks collect DNA: benefit to police
- Trump cronies ban masks to forbid disabled from protesting
- #N95 
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/columbia-university-mask-ban-trump-administration-demands/
Apparently Columbia University has agreed to Trump administration demands:
But I'd still urge US folks to call their congress rep to say these kind of research funding cuts are unacceptable.
You can remind your congress rep that ME/CFS research is badly underfunded.
You can also say ME/CFS patients are against mask bans because masks are needed to protect our health!
New York Governor Hochul is trying to sneak a mask ban into the budget, despite the opposition of many disabled & high risk people who NEED masks to safely access public spaces.
Criminalizing masks during an airborne pandemic, while measles is on the rise, is dangerous, ableist & eugenicist.
Call and email elected officials and tell them you oppose mask bans and that medical exemptions are NOT sufficient
https://gothamist.com/news/gov-hochul-is-pushing-a-last-minute-subway-mask-ban-in-state-budget-talks
@thetyee it also taught governments that #democide and #genocide by criminal #neglect and action (i.e. #MaskBan) is acceptable and won't result in #accountability or #consequences...
If you think mask bans are “no big deal” because there’s medical exemptions, please consider the following:
The reality is that mask bans are discriminatory, ableist and eugenicist. They push disabled people out of public spaces. They put marginalized and POC at increased risk of police profiling.
There’s no official policy for a medical exemption either, it’s at police discretion.
If you’re stopped and questioned, you will have to prove you’re masking for the “right reasons”
I’m more than willing to admit that if I were stopped by a cop for masking, I would appear nervous, shaky, tachycardic and probably “suspicious”.
Not because I’m doing anything wrong, but because my illnesses do not respond well to stress and the police are stressful.
It’s not right to put the onus on the masker to defend their right to mask. We’re still in a global pandemic. Texas has a measles outbreak. There’s tuberculosis in Kansas. Bird flu is spreading and it’s the worst year for influenza A in over a decade.
Masks are a public health tool. They’re a disability accommodation. They should NOT be criminalized.
For more on mask bans and medical exemptions, I wrote an article on the Nassau County ban here:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/nassau-county-ny-makes-masking-illegal
This Texan mask ban https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1704ui-FIcCqF97SX5uVnjP-Xi4A6m4WUXjce2ZonKEI/mobilebasic is proposed not enacted - that link from @broadwaybabyto has to resources to block it. Do you know any Texans? They might want to know about this.
Today #NH is hearing #HB361 in the education policy and administration committee.
IT PROHIBITS REQUIRING MASKS IN SCHOOLS.
I’m going to wait to make public comment on that one because I want to see what evidence people introduce, but when we make public comment online we can upload links they actually appreciate it. They get kind of annoyed when we talk about studies or statutes but then we don’t upload them.
I’ll put the link in the replies in case anyone can help me oppose this house bill. They’ll be taking public comment until 11:59 PM tonight.
#WearAMask #ProtectKidsBrains
#MaskBan (that’ll be next)
Hey they introduced a bill to ban masks in Maryland. This is not ok.
https://www.thepeoplesstrategist.com/p/emergency-call-to-action-to-stop
New #MaskBan Bill
Your HELP needed
410-841-3103
joe.vogel@house.state.md.us
410-841-3524
karen.toles@house.state.md.us
410-841-3792
ryan.spiegel@house.state.md.us
410-841-3436
karen.simpson@house.state.md.us
410-841-3047
adrian.boafo@house.state.md.us
@GatekeepKen fubfuckibgtastic, so like with #COVID19 vecause some place didn't get their shit together everyone else suffers?
(Okay, the non-enforcement of #MaskMandate|s and even introduction of #MaskBan|s isn't tueir fault, but coveribg up a #SARS epidemic since at least August when it became common klowledge by doctors in the "P.R." #China is!)
North Dakota becomes the latest state to try & enact a mask ban
Pay particular attention to this part of the bill
“With intent to conceal the identity of individual while congregating in a public place with any other individual wearing a mask”
Being masked with other maskers should NOT be a crime
Columbia University NY: Professor Submits #MaskBan Proposal
Medical mask exception -it’s not clear what documentation is required to prevent being unmasked, fined, harassed, jailed
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/01/28/columbia-professor-submits-mask-ban-proposal-to-university-senate/
@micchiato exactly that!
COVID News Pandemic LongCOVID
Pandemic Roundup: November 28, 2024 by @violetblue
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-116865587
"- New review of potential #LongCOVID treatments (Naltrexone, Modafinil, Metformin, Antihistamines, more)
- New XEC variant is better at ignoring immunity from previous infections
- Long Covid brain fog linked to lung function
- Fight for the Future releases interactive #MaskBan action map
and much more.
Stay apart, stand together, mask up, & stay strong."
Jfc the president of my school just sent out an email titled, "Starting a special year with a renewed commitment to belonging," that lays out why they are soft banning masks on campus.
The policy states that campus security will determine whether you're wearing a mask for health or to conceal your identity. If they believe it is the latter, they will ask you to remove your mask to be identified.
Not only does that pose a health risk, it will most certainly result in an I crease of racial profiling on campus.
Wtf.
As many other observers have noted, I think the increasing appetite for mask bans by conservative governments (regardless of which political party they ostensibly represent) in America sits at an odious junction between a eugenicist approach to Covid policy, a desire to impede anti-genocide protestors under the guise of fighting "antisemitism," and appeasing the anti-vax and Covid-denying fascists those right wing government bodies rely on for political support. Unfortunately however, unless you're extremely plugged in to the experiences of the various groups being targeted by these mask bans (people with disabilities, Covid-cautious maskers, anti-genocide protestors, antifascists, etc) it can be very difficult for the average person to understand the sheer reactionary animus and fascist motivations behind these policies. As such, I think this eye-witness account by Jews for Mask Rights of the Nassau County, NY mask ban meeting is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to understand how this intersection of horrifying reactionary goals leads to the adoption of disastrous policies like a county-wide mask ban.
https://www.jewsformaskrights.com/resources/anti-mask-harassment-nassau-countys-mask-ban-hearing
Anti-Mask Harassment at Nassau County’s Mask Ban Hearing
"The public comment period devolved into a spectacle of intolerance. Masked individuals were not called to speak until 5:30 PM, nearly five hours after the start time. By then, some would-be speakers had to leave before they could testify, and the bill's proponents in the legislature had spent hours hearing arguments from Democratic legislators about the bill’s unconstitutionality and the waste of taxpayer money to defend it. Yet, they still were insistent on pushing this problematic bill through.
Former Mayor Wayne Hall, an immunocompromised kidney transplant recipient, was the first to speak against the mask ban. The crowd loudly booed the elected official at the mere mention of COVID-19 remaining a threat to his health.
One co-writer of our Jews for Mask Rights open letter was booed during her testimony about her concerns about the bill and her struggle with Long COVID. The crowd yelled obscenities when she shared her fears about harassment – a valid fear, considering another co-writer had been harassed for masking in NYC just that morning. The irony of a group allegedly “opposing hate speech” and ”concerned with Jewish safety” mocking a disabled Jewish speaker was not lost on us."
To be frank, I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn that a public meeting about an anti-mask law in a New York suburb that ultimately passed the ban along party lines (12 Republicans vote for it, 7 Democrats voted against) was a reactionary clusterfuck, but even by the standards of winger politics on the local level, this gathering was a fascist nightmare. Opponents of the ban were forced to wait five hours to speak, and even when they were allowed to do so suffered under the clearly biased interpretations of the meeting rules by the presiding official, Howard J. Kopel. Pro-ban supporters harassed, attempted to intimidate, and even coughed on mask wearers, including immune compromised individuals, while local police stood idly by; although they were happy to physically assault one anti-ban speaker for the crime of asking for more speaking time when her allotted three minutes were up.
On the surface, all of this may sound excessively authoritarian for a public meeting about a county policy, but as the authors of this piece note, the oppression is indeed the whole point of the so-called Mask Transparency Act in the first place, and why the vague wording of the law effectively empowers police in the county to selectively enforce it against what amount to political enemies of the conservative government that passed it. Quite frankly, the fascists in Nassau County wouldn't have it any other way.
Version 2 of the Ban Proof Respirator is finished. Much improved over Version 1. Cost = about $80. Un-bannable N95+ protection. #maskban #nomaskban
https://medium.com/@samyoureyes/ban-proof-respirator-bpr-version-2-07e4b45ef843
