There’s a teenager in the ICU in BC with bird flu.

As news spreads- I’m seeing increasing number of people ask:

“what health conditions did he have? Was he overweight?”

Can we PLEASE not do this again? A 16 year old is fighting for his life. Stop looking for fault and blame.

Just like with Covid - people are trying to tell themselves there must be “something wrong” with that individual to make them more vulnerable.

They must be in the “other” category. They’re “expendable.”

It needs to stop.

First off - no one is expendable. We’ve been dealing with this horrible “othering” for five years. Disabled and chronically ill people are exhausted.

Second - bird flu is no joke. It can be quite serious.

Instead of looking for fault with the victim so YOU can feel better about your own personal risk - we should be taking steps right now to minimize spread.

We should be demanding transparency from the government on the severity of the threat.

We should have mandatory masking in healthcare. We should be cleaning the air and educating the public on the benefits of respirators and how to use them properly.

We should agree to stop asking ableist questions. Stop blaming the victim. Health is a temporary state. Death and disability can and do befall everyone.

When the first question someone asks when they hear of a person dying or being disabled is “what comorbids did they have?” all they’re doing is trying to cling on to the comfortable lie.

They’re trying to make sure they can keep telling themselves everything is fine, they’re the exception, the threat doesn’t apply to them.

As long as we continue to take that selfish and faulty approach - viruses keep winning.

Everyone can’t be the exception. Once people realize that and start protecting their health and the health of others - we will ALL be much better off.

cbc.ca/news/canada/british-col…

#avianflu #birdfu #H5N1 #keepmasksinhealthcare #maskup #respirators #airborne #n95 #covidisairborne #eugenics #ableism #discrimination #disabilityrights