Article link: "COVID Hasn’t Disappeared — But Empathy, Care and Solidarity Have"

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"COVID Hasn’t Disappeared — But Empathy, Care and Solidarity Have" by Tithi Bhattacharya, Truthout.

First humiliation: sharing intimate medical history with a class full of freshmen, mostly 18-year-olds.

“I have asthma… etc. etc., so I would be very grateful if you all masked in my class.” Many nod sympathetically, others are indifferent. “I will supply you with masks,” I say desperately. Thus begins a two-year relationship with Amazon, where at the end of each week, I buy, with my own money, a box of masks for my students. Some of my classes are large, and students often forget their masks, so each day of class I supply them with a new one. And on and on. And yet, I feel lucky — at least they are not refusing.

Let me rephrase that last sentence: I am made to feel lucky for others observing minimal protections against a debilitating disease. The effect is, I feel, not unlike the way workers on unconscionably low-wage jobs are made to feel lucky (“at least you have a job”).