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Thread, because I don't know what else to do: New York State and @NYGovCuomo are murdering disabled and elderly people! Let's use my new friend as a case study.
She has Parkinson's, a condition that fluctuates, moving her from fully functional to essentially paralyzed from hour to hour, based on when she takes her medicine. She fought like hell to employ her own aides through medicare. Then they stopped showing up to work last week.
This means she is liable to starve, fall, or get stuck, unable to move or call for help. She depends on her aides to live. The agencies that sends her nurses provided them with no PPE. This week, she tested positive for pneumonia and COVID19.
In response to her diagnosis, her agencies have blocked her aides from coming. Several were too scared to show up. They are underpaid and overworked-- they don't get paid if they don't show up. When she told the agencies she needed an aide to function, they called EMS on her
When she tested positive for COVID, her doctor sent her home because she is not sick enough to warrant a hospital bed. She does not want to go to a hospital, where she feels she is taking a bed from someone in need and risking infecting more nurses
So, the hospital won't take her because she isn't sick enough, the agencies won't help her because she is sick. There is no coordination between the two. If she gets nothing, she dies.
In San Francisco, Gov. Newsom just announced a team of 900 nurses to address situations like this. The mayor of SF announced that care workers will get an extra $600/week to continue to care for their in home patients. @nycgov and @NYGovCuomo have done nothing.
I know my friend is not the only one this is happening to. If you've been abandoned by your government, make some noise
