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#like disabled people are largely still isolating because of people who don't give a shit if they catch or spread covid
liminalweirdo · 1 year
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[image id: two screenshots of four tweets by user lisa_iannattone on Twitter, posted on 19 December 2022 at 1:14 p.m., reading sequentially: "It's absolutely wild to me that we're pretending that the higher than average number of respiratory tract infections and the pandemic of adults with pneumonia this year is not a warning sign of immune impairment. This is literally how immunodeficiency would present.In clinical practice, we we want to screen for the possibility of an undiagnosed underlying immunodeficiency syndrome, "how many respiratory infections do you get in an average year?" and "have you had pneumonia more than once?" are the 2 first questions we ask.There's been more pneumonias among my healthy adult friends & acquaintances in the last 6 months than among my immunosuppressed patients in the last 6 years. Something is clearly off. And healthy adults with pneumonia is not a viral transmission dynamics issue.This thread blew up and some people aren't sure if I'm suggesting immunity debt. Definitely not. Staying healthy doesn't make you sick, pathogens do. As for the immunity "gap", it's likely a contributing factor but doesn't explain adults with pneumonia. It's SARS2 I'm worried about.
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hey, the pandemic is not over. wear a mask.
in case this is unclear, immunocompromised, immunosuppressed, and other disabled people are not getting sick the same way as healthy adults because they are masking the fuck up and/or still largely being forced to isolate, while many many “healthy” adults are not. just because you are healthy doesn’t mean you are immune to long-term effects from covid. anyone can become disabled at any time. immunity debt is not real.
do your part to protect yourself and others. not wearing a mask is worse than ableism. It’s disablist.
Please at least wear masks in public indoor, and crowded outdoor spaces. Make public spaces safe and accessible for everyone.
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pathetichimbos · 6 months
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Ok actually I've been in love with your toughts about Thomas, YOU'RE AN AMAZING WRITER!!!
Btw, I can't stop thinking about how this man deserved a childhood friend that would eventually become his lover, someone that decided to treat him like an human being once and discovered he's just really sweet boy and not a monster.
Do you think that would change anything about how Thomas behaves in the future?
Oh, this is something I have thought about, I could write a whole fic on the AU, but let's not bite off more than we can chew and put that idea to the side for a future project. Please bear in mind that this post may seem lesser than my others and more rushed, that was quite literally because I had to continuously stop myself from writing endless drabbles on this idea.
But, I digress. Let's dive into the factual and realistic results of giving Thomas a childhood friend.
So, as we know, Thomas has had a lot of health issues from birth, and the Hewitt family did their best to get him the medical help he needed, taking him to doctors up until he was about thirteen or fourteen.
We also know that Thomas has been bullied for most of his life, and was isolated from his peers and community at a young age.
And we know that Thomas is some flavor of neuordivergent, so if we add all of these things together, we get a school record full of absences, low grades, and detentions from fights he didn't start, because we all know that in small southern towns, teachers really don't give a shit who starts the fight, they care about who's family has the better reputation.
So, he's in an out of school from the get go, has a bad reputation with all his teachers (and going into every new grade because teachers talk), and struggles with learning in the traditional way.
This starts tons of rumors about him.
They float all around the school, everyone knows who Thomas is, and no one in particular likes him.
But! Let's back up here, and take it back to, oh, I don't know, first, second grade? Around that time frame.
Thomas is still a little dude, being harassed and bullied by his peers and generally not having a fun time.
But, this time around, we'll drop another little dude in there. (that's you!)
And this little dude (non-gender term) doesn't particularly care about Thomas' deformities and disabilities. Who would?
So, you start hanging out with him. And Thomas, (who we all know thrives on positive attention), is confused, but not unwelcoming.
I don't think he'd be really clingy right of the bat, but give it a school year (maybe two if he's out of school a lot that particular year), and he's going to be a lot more comfortable with you, and that's what's going to lead to that clinginess.
Especially if you're nonchalant about grabbing his hand or touching him in general, because, remember, most people are afraid to even come near him, so the fact that you don't care and are willing to just casually touch him, is a huge thing in his eyes, and as he gets older, he's going to want more.
So, we'll skip ahead a bit until y'all are 10-12ish, and at this point, you're Thomas' best friend. Everyone knows you two hang out, the Hewitts love you, and it leads to a bit more isolation on your end, because no one wants to be friends with the freak, let alone the freaks weird best friend. (and yes, you're weird, I know you are because you're listening to me rant about leatherface /affectionate <3)
But, this also opens Thomas up to people a bit more, as the few people that do talk to you, eventually talk to him, maybe not go as far as to be his friends, but enough to be friendly.
Of course, some people are fake, and they'll ditch the both of you the moment the 'popular' kids find out they talk to you.
And other people don't, it's middle school, life in general sucks. Y'all are just trying to survive your way to highschool.
Now, if we assume you help tutor Thomas and you help keep him out of trouble (i.e. a large tree limb tends to deter bullies), we can assume his grades will go up, which will probably get his teachers off his back. All of these things are good. Thomas has a real friend, and not everyone treats him like a monster. His grades are better. His family is proud of him.
But Thomas still has mental health issues. And just like he hid them from his family, he hides them from you as well. His peers and community may have shunned and isolated him, but he also shuns and isolates himself from his family and friends, so I believe that despite being clingy and wanting to be around you a lot, if he hits a depressive episode, he's going to isolate from everyone.
That's what leads to his self mutlilation.
He slices the skin off his cheeks in an attempt to "fix" his deformities, believing that if he just gets rid of them, his disease will go away.
...But it doesn't. And he doesn't get to see you for a long time, a worried and frightened Luda Mae keeping her baby locked away and protected from the world while he heals.
That's when Thomas stops speaking. The healing wounds and eventual scars make it harder for him to speak, making anything more than a mutter or whisper painful for him.
This is when he finally drops out of school. It's a small southern town in the early 1950s, so there's no fight to stop him, after all, he's expected to help his family run the farm.
When he finally sees you again, he's worried you'll have changed your mind about him, and even though you haven't done anything wrong, it takes time for him to trust you again, his own self doubt ruining his confidence in your friendship.
But, after that, you're pretty much inseparable again. Everyone in town knows that if they see one of you, the other isn't far behind. Thomas still struggles a lot on his own during this time, and I don't believe he'd be capable of loving himself enough at this point to love you, or at least, I don't think he'd believe you actually like him, and for the sake of this post, we'll keep it that way.
Thomas spends a lot of time at his house at this point, so you spend a lot of time after school there with him. His house is practically your house. Luda Mae, Charlie, and Monty all know that once school lets out you're headed over, and they set an extra plate at dinner for you. (They don't know how Thomas could be so possibly blind to your affection towards him, but other than Charlie's stray comments encouraging Thomas to 'give it a shot', they mind their business)
Once Thomas gets a job at the slaughterhouse, and you get your own job in town, you'll often walk to the slaughterhouse after work to meet Thomas just finishing his shift, and the two of you will walk together until you have to separate to go to your own house.
It breaks people's minds seeing how soft Thomas is with you, their own preconceived ideas about the man leaving them baffled when he's gentle and caring to his friend.
It's about his early to mid twenties, when people start looking at you as more than just his friend, and as someone to actually chase and date, that Thomas finally snaps.
You don't know what comes over your best friend, but he becomes extremely affection and protective of you, no one can approach you in a flirtatious way without Thomas following close behind, simply standing behind you as a warning for them to move on.
But he doesn't actually try to date you. He's still torn by his own poor self esteem. It drives you insane.
You'll have to confront him, and give him an ultimatum. You can't keep playing this game, where he refuses to let you out of his sight but runs away every time you try to make a move.
He caves, obviously, not willing to lose you in any capacity, but your relationship is slow and careful, working at his pace as he learns to accept himself and your love for him, which takes a very long time.
He's not comfortable with any PDA, just barely letting you hold his hand when you meet him after work.
"But we've always held hands." You point out, and he looks away with a shrug.
It's different now.
But, let's step away from the drabble territory. I've already had to rewrite this post like five times now.
Over the years, Thomas becomes more and more comfortable with your relationship, and you have to teach him practically everything. He genuinely doesn't know anything going into this. And I mean anything.
As the town starts to die, and your family decides to leave, the Hewitts welcome you with open arms, but Luda Mae moves you into the guest room. After all, you're not married.
That doesn't stop you from sneaking into his room at night though.
But, despite the implication I just made, I don't think Thomas would be ready for actual sex until marriage. He's still a traditional man, just the way his mother raised him.
But, again, not my main point. Stick with me, I'm wrapping it up now.
All in all, I don't think Thomas would be that much different. A little more self confidence and self esteem, sure, but he'll still be Thomas. When the factory shuts down, he'll still snap, and he'll still kill the supervisor. He'll still start preparing human meat like he's asked. But other than feeling a bit more comfortable in his own skin and mind, he wouldn't be much different. He's still our same old Tommy.
Ok, that's all for now. Thanks for sending in the ask love <3
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"I'm just so tired of this covid shit and I don't want to live in fear anymore so I am just going to live my life and I'll be just fine, even if I get it - I'm just so sick of these restrictions and can't do it anymore."
...
Like...I hear this and I wonder...do you think the rest of us aren't sick of this? I mean, do you think you're special? Do you want a medal?
Is there some large agreement out there that everybody else has that nah, we aren't sick of this, and saying you are is a radical and brave act?
Also, you know who is really sick of this?
Disabled people. Their families. Their friends. The people who are still in isolation after two years and it's not looking like it's going to get better because the people who are giving up in favour of normal are making the world more dangerous for them. Us. More dangerous for us. Because yeah, I've been relatively strictly isolated now for nearly 2 years and yeah, getting REALLY TIRED OF THIS.
But I can't just set everything aside in favour of normal because doc says nope, that's not something your body should be exposed to for any reason, so you're going to be staying TF home. And because I like being alive, yeah, I'm still staying TF home.
Y'all - we live in fear because people like the aforementioned have decided they don't want to live in any kind of caution at all or think of other people like they matter. People are still in isolation because the lives and value of disabled people don't matter to a whole lot of folks. They want to go out and lead "normal" lives, but fuck if we want to go to the library. Not their problem, right, even if what they're doing is why we can't?
Out of sight, out of mind. Disabled people are disappearing from public spaces and it's not because we want to be.
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