{"id":482583,"date":"2022-01-26T01:43:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T09:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/?p=482583"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:19:10","slug":"disabled-deaths-are-not-your-encouraging-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/2022\/01\/26\/disabled-deaths-are-not-your-encouraging-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Disabled Deaths Are Not Your \u201cEncouraging News\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><b>Disabled Deaths Are Not Your \u201cEncouraging News\u201d: Resisting The Cruel Eugenics of Comorbidity Rhetoric<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><b>Ada Hubrig<\/b><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cComorbidities\u201d is a weaselly, cruel, violent word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This word, this concept, of comorbidities, keeps surfacing in even my most mundane conversations with colleagues, friends, and family. Conversations that are mostly happening on the phone, Zoom, or through messaging because I need to be safe. Because I\u2019m one of these immunocompromised people in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-news\/covid-cdc-disability-comorbidity-anger-1282759\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cfour or more\u201d comorbidities camp<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> we keep hearing about&#8211;with a bit of emphasis on the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">more <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">part, to be honest. These days&#8211;with so many people repeating the \u201conly people with comorbidities\u201d talking point&#8211;I feel like a heap of comorbidities in a trench coat, pretending to be a person.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sure CDC, babe, but at this point I am just a heap of comorbities in a trech coat. <\/p>\n<p>And I really need you to understand that I still have a whole life worth living. Comorbities and all \ud83d\ude18<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ada Hubrig (@AdamHubrig) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamHubrig\/status\/1479735684239962114?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 8, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So in a Zoom meeting with colleagues, in messages with friends, or on the phone with a family member I have loved my whole life, it stings every time they repeat this messaging: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but only people with comorbidities are dying<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I need to pause for a moment to point out that the claim that it\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">only <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">people with comorbidities that are dying is simply untrue. When Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said\u00a0 several weeks ago in an interview with ABC\u2019s Good Morning America that 75% of those who are dying of COVID19 have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/01\/12\/politics\/fact-check-walensky-cdc-comorbidities-good-morning-america\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">four or more comorbidities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Dr. Walensky was speaking <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/71\/wr\/pdfs\/mm7101a4-H.pdf\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">specifically <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">about vaccinated individuals. <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unvaccinated people remain <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">much more likely <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to be hospitalized or die from the coronavirus, and that\u2019s a vital, necessary public health message. It\u2019s also necessary to remember that other people&#8211;even vaccinated people&#8211;are dying or developing disabilities often related to long-covid. This virus has claimed many lives&#8211;and disabled many more&#8211;among of those previously deemed \u201chealthy\u201d by the medical industrial complex, without the dark stain of a \u201cpreexisting condition\u201d or \u201ccomorbidities\u201d on their medical charts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But as a disabled, immunocompromised person, I\u2019m haunted by how Dr. Walensky added, after explaining that over 75% of the deaths of vaccinated people from Covid have been people with four or more comorbidities, that this is \u201cencouraging news.\u201d This messaging&#8211;meant to encourage a return to normal and\u00a0 apparently meant to comfort nondisabled people&#8211;is the real sting of this constant refrain of \u201cpeople with comorbidities\u201d rhetoric. I have been told, almost daily since the earliest stages of this pandemic, that it\u2019s only <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">people like me <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that are dying, that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">people like me <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are somehow a completely acceptable sacrifice for \u201cthe economy\u201d and a \u201creturn to normal.\u201d What should be read as a profound failure of national policy to protect the most vulnerable among us is being repackaged as \u201cencouraging news.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As someone who is immunocompromised, it\u2019s disappointing how quickly everyone went full on eugenics when it came to COVID.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Aislene \ud83c\udf19 (@aislenes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aislenes\/status\/1484144662675922948?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m troubled by how deeply this messaging has permeated our culture. In talks with nondisabled people about how I\u2019m still being careful, isolating and using a mask when I absolutely have to leave my home, I am gaslight by nondisabled people, who robotically repeat to me this \u201cit\u2019s only people with comorbidities dying\u201d talking point. When I remind them that when they talk about <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">people with comorbidities<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that they are talking about people like me, the response is predictably the same: \u201cI wasn\u2019t talking about you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A lotttttt of healthy people telling sick folks how to feel about COVID. Take a step back.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; kayle hill \u267f\ufe0f (@kaylejh) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaylejh\/status\/1482793873923579910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 16, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the fact that they\u2019re not talking about me&#8211;and about <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">us <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as immunocompromised and<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">disabled people&#8211;is the problem. \u201cPeople with comorbidities\u201d is deployed to make us faceless non-people, to erase us from the conversation even when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we are&#8211;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the most literal sense&#8211;the people being talked about. The rhetorical function of that word, of \u201ccomorbidities\u201d is to erase our identities, to talk about us <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">without talking about us<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. With the rhetoric of \u201ccomorbidities,\u201d we\u2019re not your siblings or your grandparents or your neighbors or your friends anymore. We\u2019re statistics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reality of the situation is my government doesn\u2019t care if I or other disabled, marginalized people die as long as nondisabled people can eat inside at an Applebees. We\u2019re disposable as long as most people can continue to offer their labor (coerced by capitalism) and consumption to make the richest people a bit richer. In the push for a return to normal&#8211;a normal which already disregarded disabled people, and especially multiply marginalized disabled people&#8211;the eugenic belief that lives like mine are less worthy continues to solidify as policy, as schools and businesses reopen, as my state government here in Texas continues to stand in the way of local mandates and protections.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A versatile concept, \u201ccomorbidities,\u201d is rhetorically deployed like the other eugenic weapons of capitalism and white supremacy, making faceless abstractions of the very people most at risk from this widely unmitigated pandemic. But framing the deaths of those with comorbidities as \u201cencouraging news\u201d sidesteps conversations around other prevailing injustices, including how BIPOC communities are more likely to have comorbidities because of systemic inequalities, how this pandemic has disproportionately harmed indigenous communities, and how the medical industrial complex already maligns disabled people, BIPOC folks, fat people, and LGBTQA+ kin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Yes! And those most impacted are going to be Black and Brown folks. So we need to center theory and action around race and disability. We cannot ignore the intersections of racism and ableism. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/A5955NR3Ur\">https:\/\/t.co\/A5955NR3Ur<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Septima P. Snark (@DrSubini) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrSubini\/status\/1482357502519898115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 15, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sinsinvalid.org\/news-1\/2020\/6\/16\/what-is-disability-justice\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disability justice<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211;a framework and movement created and sustained by the work of disabled queers and activists of color&#8211;reminds us that these are not separate issues, but are deeply and intricately interconnected. Disability Justice highlights how the people being sacrificed for \u201cthe economy\u201d (a convenient abstraction for the violence of capitalism) in this push for normalcy are the very people \u201cthe economy\u201d has always disregarded at best and destroyed at worst. Forgive me if I don\u2019t care about your stock portfolio while my disabled, LGBTQA+, and BIPOC loved ones are dying. I find this situation devastating, nothing \u201cencouraging\u201d about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;Omicron is mild&quot; translates to &quot;I don&#39;t care about disabled people&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michael A Osborne (@maosbot) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/maosbot\/status\/1481641343134748674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Immunocompromised and disabled people have largely been left to fend for ourselves before and during this ongoing pandemic. And as long as the abstraction of \u201ccomorbidities\u201d prevails, so will policies and practices that disregard disabled lives. This is why we need to leave the rhetoric of \u201cpeople with comorbidities\u201d behind and get to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">talking about us<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, because when this dehumanizing messaging prevails people like me die en masse. We need to move away from the soul crushing declaration that disabled deaths are encouraging and see them, instead, as a collective failure to protect the very people most susceptible to the virus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I want you to think long and hard about how you talk about people with comorbidities dying of covid, because whether you realize it or not, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you are talking about me <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and people like me in this community of disabled people that I\u2019ve come to love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><b>ABOUT<\/b><\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_482580\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-482580\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"482580\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/2022\/01\/26\/disabled-deaths-are-not-your-encouraging-news\/me-with-cat\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?fit=4032%2C3024&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"4032,3024\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"me with cat\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Graphic with a blue-gray background. In the center is a photo of a white, nonbinary, disabled fat person sits on a tan couch with their legs folded. They are wearing a wine red cardigan and a blue striped scarf, and have long, dark curly pulled back in a hair clip and have a dark beard. They are drinking a cup of tea and looking down at a tan cat sitting in their lap and petting the cat.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-482580 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Graphic with a blue-gray background. In the center is a photo of a white, nonbinary, disabled fat person sits on a tan couch with their legs folded. They are wearing a wine red cardigan and a blue striped scarf, and have long, dark curly pulled back in a hair clip and have a dark beard. They are drinking a cup of tea and looking down at a tan cat sitting in their lap and petting the cat.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?resize=1800%2C1350&amp;ssl=1 1800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/me-with-cat.jpg?w=2720&amp;ssl=1 2720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-482580\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graphic with a blue-gray background. In the center is a photo of a white, nonbinary, disabled fat person sits on a tan couch with their legs folded. They are wearing a wine red cardigan and a blue striped scarf, and have long, dark curly pulled back in a hair clip and have a dark beard. They are drinking a cup of tea and looking down at a tan cat sitting in their lap and petting the cat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Ada Hubrig<\/strong> (they\/them; Twitter <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamHubrig\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">@AdamHubrig<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) is an autistic, nonbinary, multiply-disabled caretaker of cats. They live in Huntsville, Texas, where they work as an assistant professor and English Education coordinator for the English Department at Sam Houston State University. Their research and teaching explore disability, especially at the intersection of pedagogy, queer rhetorics, community literacy, and teacher preparation. Their research is featured in<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> College, Composition, and Communication<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and their words have also found homes in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brevity<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disability Visibility Project<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taco Bell Quarterly<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Adam is currently co-editor of the AntiAbleist Composition blog space and an advisory board member of the Coalition for Community Writing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Support Disability Media and Culture<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/donate\/\"><b>DONATE<\/b><\/a><b>\u00a0to the Disability Visibility Project\u00ae<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disabled Deaths Are Not Your \u201cEncouraging News\u201d: Resisting The Cruel Eugenics of Comorbidity Rhetoric &nbsp; Ada Hubrig &nbsp; \u201cComorbidities\u201d is a weaselly, cruel, violent word. This word, this concept, of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/2022\/01\/26\/disabled-deaths-are-not-your-encouraging-news\/\" class=\"read-more\">Continue Reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Disabled Deaths Are Not Your \u201cEncouraging News\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":482579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6701202,1],"tags":[159346,587153098,587153099,587152846,11795,587152996,587152847,587152623],"class_list":["post-482583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-blog-posts","category-uncategorized","tag-ableism","tag-cdc","tag-comorbidities","tag-coronavirus","tag-eugenics","tag-immunocompromised-people","tag-pandemic","tag-systemic-ableism","post-has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Adam-Twitter.png?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4H7t1-21xB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityvisibilityproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}