Several government resources about accommodations for people with Long COVID have become unavailable in the last week, following purges of government websites and datasets under the Trump administration. These pages offered crucial information about rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for people with Long COVID and their employers.
In 2021, the federal government recognized that Long COVID can be considered a disability under the ADA. Pages and articles on AskJAN, a public-facing website by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Accommodation Network, explained how people with Long COVID could use this law to request accommodations that would make their jobs, schools, or other aspects of their day-to-day lives possible.
As of February 11, Long COVID is no longer included in AskJAN’s directory of disabilities. The website’s Long COVID resources — which previously included information about the disease’s legal status, key symptoms, and suggestions for accommodations — are also unavailable. (View an archived copy of AskJAN’s Long COVID landing page here.)
I really don’t understand why they made this disease into such a political thing. Like what’s even the point? The disease is going to spread and kill people nonetheless, so why exploit it as a political divider?
Control.
Conservatives saw COVID as the government telling them what to do.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
They do not want to be bound by the law and, if anything, want to completely be outside of it.
So all the masking mandates, vaccine requirements…they saw that as government oppression.
So anything that hurts their narrative is going to be removed.
I think politics, especially, but not exclusively right wing politics strives for division to create an in and out group.