Clean Air is Essential for Disability Justice

Since 2020, you have probably heard more about clean air. Clean air benefits everyone because we’re all able to get sick from air that contains pathogens or pollution. It especially benefits marginalized people who are already disproportionately harmed by capitalism, white supremacy, ableism, and other forms of oppression. Methods of cleaning the air and reducing the risk of infection from COVID and other viruses include ventilation, filtration (such as HEPA filters), masks, and monitoring CO2 levels. For more information, see this guide from World Health Network (an independent public health coalition).

It’s pretty well-known that schools are unfortunately petri dishes of various infectious diseases, especially COVID and the flu. The attitude that schools, governments, and the public in general take is usually that this is normal and there’s not much we can do about it. Students, teachers, and other employees who do not take precautions end up getting infected with COVID over and over again, increasing their chances of getting Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis are debilitating illnesses with no FDA-approved treatments. Long COVID cases in children now likely exceed asthma cases in children. Because of the school environment and lack of clean air, disabled students and teachers are either excluded from these environments entirely or put at risk. Many disabled students (and disabled adults) are unable to wear masks or get vaccines because of their disabilities, making them even more vulnerable. Children in general do not have the same autonomy as adults when it comes to masking, vaccines, and other forms of mitigation. All of this is unfair and not in line with Disability Justice. Everyone should be able to attend school without risking their health. Clean air could decrease the number of absences children experience, which is becoming more of an issue yet nothing is actually being done about it besides blaming and punishing students. If more people put pressure on schools to adopt clean air methods, the health of everyone in schools could be protected.

Another place where clean air is necessary is hospitals. In 2023, mask mandates in hospitals were lifted, which has always seemed dangerous to those of us who understand the risk of COVID transmission in hospitals. Hospitals are already full of infectious diseases and many vulnerable, sick people are unfortunately gathering there. It’s one place where many immunocompromised people are often forced to go regularly. Many immunocompromised and otherwise vulnerable people avoid healthcare now because of the increased risk of COVID and other infections since universal masking policies were dropped. I have always been disappointed that this was so widely accepted rather than challenged more. Sometimes people brush off our concerns about the lack of masks in healthcare by saying we can still mask if we want to, but this ignores the fact that not every disabled person can wear a mask and that masks don’t always fully protect us when we’re the only person masking. Some patients have to remove their masks for certain procedures. Many doctors don’t mask around their patients, no matter how vulnerable we are, unless we specifically ask. This puts us in an awkward position because we are depending on them for our care. If the doctor feels annoyed by our request, this can impact the quality of the care we receive. I have personally felt a shift in how I was treated during an appointment after I asked a doctor to wear a mask and even provided her with one. I suddenly felt all of my concerns brushed off in a way I hadn’t before. It is unacceptable that patients have to risk their health to get care and that we have to deal with doctors who don’t care about our safety.

Leftist / progressive events are one more example of places that should prioritize clean air. Unfortunately, too often, they fail to do this and refuse to change anything when someone suggests masks or HEPA filters. This unfortunately is even true for some events put on by Disability Rights organizations. As a result, immunocompromised people and anyone who needs clean air are excluded from events that they wanted to attend. This is especially frustrating because leftists often talk about community care and the fact that “we keep us safe.” Community care means valuing and protecting vulnerable members of our community who can’t afford to get COVID. We’re not keeping anyone safe if we refuse to do that. Not only are leftists and progressives who ignore the need for clean air excluding disabled people who would add to the number of people attending their events, they’re also increasing the odds that attendees will end up with Long COVID. The more people with a debilitating condition that has no FDA-approved treatments, the more movements end up suffering. How many organizers can your movement afford to lose by people becoming bedbound, suddenly too sick to go to protests and organize any events? Because that is a real possibility if people don’t start to value clean air more.

Climate change is another reason to care about clean air. Pollution can cause many health issues, even in “healthy” people, but people who are immunocompromised or who already have lung conditions are especially at risk. Every summer in the US and Canada, we hear about wildfires impacting the air quality. Many climate disasters can make the air we breathe less safe. In addition to all of this, we should all be concerned about the fact that climate change leads to more infectious diseases, including respiratory viruses. Unfortunately, our government and corporations continue to make the issue of climate change even worse. We need strategies to protect ourselves and our communities. Thankfully, some great options that allow us to do this (at least to some extent) are HEPA filters, wearing masks, and ventilating rooms. Of course we need systemic change more than anything when it comes to climate change, but these are good harm reduction strategies that can help us for now.

Clean air is important because it allows us to practice the principles of disability justice. Disability Justice is a framework developed by Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, Stacey Park Milbern, Leroy Moore, Sebastian Margaret, Eli Clare in 2005. The group Sins Invalid published the ten principles of disability justice in 2015. Disability Justice goes beyond disability rights, because in a capitalist, racist, ableist society, policy and laws will never be enough to liberate us. Disability Justice is more concerned with intersectionality, anti-capitalist values, and mutual aid than the mainstream disability rights movement has been. Here are some of the principles of Disability Justice that clean air and masks fit in particularly well with:

Intersectionality: By now, most people are aware that many disabled people are more vulnerable to COVID. Immunocompromised people are also more vulnerable to poor air quality from wildfires. We know that people of color are more vulnerable because of environmental racism, capitalism, and our racist healthcare system. Trans and queer people are getting COVID at a higher rate, and women are too. People who experience multiple forms of marginalization are especially vulnerable to all of these things. Intersectionality is important because we need to consider how connected the various forms of oppression are and how many people are more vulnerable to COVID, other viruses, and poor air quality because of the oppression they experience.

Leadership of the Most Impacted: The people who have been advocating for clean air and masking the most are often vulnerable to COVID and other viruses themselves, yet they are not being listened to. Immunocompromised people, one of the most vulnerable groups, are being excluded from public spaces. More people need to listen to immunocompromised people, people with Long COVID, and people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, when they talk about the importance of clean air.

Anti-Capitalist Politics: The reason there was so much pressure to ditch masks, stop caring about COVID, and “go back to normal” is because of capitalism. They wanted everyone to go back to work, and they didn’t want to pay for anything that would allow us to “return to normal” more safely, not even in hospitals or schools. Caring about clean air and refusing “back to normal” is anti-capitalist.

Collective Access: Clean air and masks allow us to create accessibility for as many people as possible. Outside of COVID conscious spaces and some disability spaces, these access needs are routinely forgotten. This is true even when it comes to many events in the disability community. There are mask blocs and clean air organizations who are willing to help out organizations whenever possible.

Interdependence and Collective Liberation: Interdependence is the idea that none of us are truly independent in a society because we all need other people. Mutual aid is an important aspect of interdependence, and one powerful thing that has come out of the ongoing pandemic is that mask blocs, clean air organizations, and similar mutual aid organizations for virus mitigation have formed. Collective Liberation is a concept closely related to interdependence, because it means our oppression is interconnected and we can’t liberate one group of people if others are still oppressed. There is no liberation for any marginalized group while disabled people, who are a part of every marginalized group, are still experiencing oppression. And as long as COVID exists, as long as we don’t have clean air, every marginalized group, especially people of color and the working class, will continue to be impacted because every marginalized group is vulnerable.

As I said in the beginning, clean air benefits everyone. This cannot be stressed enough, because too many are under the impression that they’re immune to a virus as deadly and disabling as COVID. But even if immunocompromised people, people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, people with Long COVID, and other disabilities and chronic illnesses were the only ones vulnerable to COVID, our safety should be enough of a reason for everyone to see the value in clean air. People should want to protect the chronically ill and disabled people in their communities who are vulnerable to COVID. We shouldn’t have to beg our doctors and the organizers in our communities to care about us enough to wear a mask or turn on a HEPA filter. People who are “healthy” really could never imagine what we’ve been through since the very beginning of the pandemic when we first started hearing that COVID wasn’t a big deal because it supposedly “only impacted elderly people and disabled people.” And unfortunately, many people who think they’re invincible when it comes to viruses like COVID likely won’t truly understand how wrong they are until it’s too late. I really, really hope more people start to wake up, listen to people with Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and embrace the importance of clean air.

Suggested Reading:

Skin, Tooth, and Bone (A Disability Justice Primer) by Sins Invalid

Resources I recommend:

The YouTube channel of Lola Germs - Interesting educational videos on topics like clean air and masks

Death Panel podcast - They cover many different topics that are of interest to leftists, and I highly recommend going back and listening to any of their episodes about COVID

People’s CDC - info & updates on the pandemic, resources and advocacy

World Health Network - global independent public health network with a lot of information about COVID and clean air

The Sick Times - the best source of journalism about Long COVID, also features many articles about COVID, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Disability Justice, and clean air

MEpedia - Resource for learning about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

Mask bloc directory - find a mask bloc near you

Clean Air Club - Chicago clean air club, sometimes has general clean air resources

Fan Club - based in Boston, also offers general resources