
People with infection associated chronic conditions (IACCs) use a broad range of strategies to fight for awareness and better care.

Utah’s proposed ban became an important case study demonstrating the overlapping concerns between airborne pathogens and environmental air pollution. It highlighted the necessity of building coalitions between environmental, health and disability, and civil liberties groups in resisting mask bans as climate change is on track to worsen a variety of environmental public health threats, not…

While some anti-mask policies have failed — a win for workers — there is a larger effort to ban masks in the U.S. on state and local levels. And more businesses may attempt to ban masks in the workplace even though these policies may violate laws that protect masks as accessibility devices. The Sick Times…

In May, The Sick Times published an op-ed about a novel bill in Illinois that would enshrine the right to wear medical masks into that state’s law. The op-ed’s author, a writer and advocate who was part of the coalition behind the bill, wrote that advocates in several other states had worked on similar legislation.…

Anti-mask laws are discriminatory and dangerous, and so I and other disability advocates across the country are stepping up to counter criminalizing with codifying: our bills would enshrine the right to mask in public spaces in state law.

U.S. government officials began introducing mask ban proposals and legislation during the summer and fall of 2024, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has killed at least 40,000 Americans this year. Mask blocs in impacted regions were sometimes the only groups poised or willing to respond. In this final piece of a three-part series, mask…

While the conversation around mask bans has focused on new laws and bills, 21 states and many municipalities have laws banning masks and/or disguises in different settings, which is more than other organizations have reported. Even where these bans have apparent limitations or exemptions, the finer language of the laws leaves all COVID-conscious people vulnerable.…
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