Meet a BIPOC-Led Initiative: Pandemic Solidarity for the Long Future

by Agueda Pacheco Flores

While COVID-19 and its variants might not be making daily headlines like they used to, the pandemic and all its ramifications are still impacting people every day. And People of Color, including transgender people, who were most impacted by the pandemic early on continue to be the most impacted still.

This is why J Mase III, a Black/trans poet, author, and organizer, is on a mission to get COVID-19 to be taken seriously again. Alongside a handful of people across the country, located as far as New York City and Los Angeles, J Mase III is organizing the Pandemic Solidarity for the Long Future (PS4LF) initiative. The effort is pushing to reinforce more safety measures, including air purifiers, access to better respirator masks, and better (and more frequent) testing, as well as demanding a change of narrative that pushes for protection from the government to employers. The organization is also fundraising to buy and distribute high-quality personal protective equipment (PPE) masks through a GoFundMe campaign.

In the beginning, J Mase III remembers hearing "we're all in this together," but as pandemic mitigations, which were once ubiquitous, were slowly removed until they were eventually seen as obsolete, he says it became apparent, to People of Color especially, that "we're really on our own."

PS4LF will convene on Gather, a virtual gathering space widely used for conferences due to its ability to simulate in-person interactions, from March 8 to March 10. The event will also feature workshops, as well as a vendor and resource fair. Currently, PS4LF is seeking artists, facilitators, and vendors who will be given a stipend ranging from $250 to $350. Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, and Pacific Islander people are encouraged to attend, but people who are white (or white-passing) are asked to refrain from attending.

"What we're trying to do is make information about how to advocate for COVID mitigations, advocate for safety as successfully as possible," he says. "As well as making sure all communities know how they can get involved."

PS4LF's advocacy extends to post-infection impacts as well. Long COVID has been described as a syndrome of symptoms that linger after a COVID-19 infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms include, but aren't limited to, brain fog, chronic pain, shortness of breath, and fatigue. These symptoms can persist for weeks, months, and even years. There is currently no cure for long COVID, and the CDC estimates that 1 in 5 adults who have had COVID-19 have long COVID.

J Mase III says the goal is to get people to understand the urgency. He also points to the U.S. Census Bureau survey that found that transgender people have the highest rate of severe long COVID symptoms compared with people who identify as cisgender. That survey found that nearly 46% of all trans people who caught COVID-19 went on to experience long COVID symptoms.

"I'm doing this because our lives depend on it and our communities depend on it," he said.

📸 Featured Image: While COVID-related news seems to be slipping from the headlines, Pandemic Solidarity for the Long Future is a BIPOC-led initiative to reinforce better safety measures for the long term. (Image courtesy of J Mase III.)