Immunocompromised are ignored in the 2023 State of the Union
Immunocompromised are ignored in the 2023 State of the Union
So I made a BINGO board of shared spaces they can no longer access
As President Biden delivered the State of the Union, I was watching the broadcast on Discord with the MarkedByCOVID community discussing, live tweeting and collectively anguishing.
By the time it was over I had a needing to be finalized draft of the #SOTU bingo board which I now realize is evergreen. Not in a good way.
Get ventilation and air quality upgrades will make indoor spaces more accessible; testing gets reliable and ubiquitous enough as to render the need for masks obsolete in which case, a Bingo board featuring the spaces no longer safe and accessible to all will be dated. The Bingo board continues to have relevance, for now.
For the record, yes I did play #SOTU bingo in the before-times and yes I know that it’s a drinking game. Given Biden’s announcement about ending the public health emergency a couple of weeks ago I’m lucky I got through SOTU on reheated leftovers and ginger ale. The word “immunocompromised” wasn’t even mentioned in this year’s State of the Union address. Not even once.
It helped to have the Marked By COVID community to watch SOTU with and I recommend checking them out along with the Still COVIDing community groups on Facebook and World Health Network.
At the fulcrum of these new connections, friendships and communities I’ve been connecting and engaging with is COVIDmeetups I’ll write about more when I share ally stories, anecdotes and comics in future posts. Meanwhile please post about new friendships you’ve been cultivating in the comments section. How do you negotiate and navigate COVID safety concerns.
I’d also love to hear about any experiences with COVIDmeetups. If you haven’t yet and want more context I recommend reading Siobhan Neela’s article for the Well section of Fortune.
For more about what ending the public health emergency is going to look like (based on what we do and what we do not know) I recommend the Kaiser Family Foundation’s article and am, once again, recommending Katelyn Jetelina’s rundown below