#HighRiskCA
Disabled and Chronically Ill people should have been given a voice in the vaccine rollout plan, they should have been prioritized and among the first to be vaccinated because contrary to popular belief it is impossible for us to remain in our homes indefinitely.

I have Lupus, GBS & I am immunocompromised. Before the stay at home orders, I was already home. My disabilities was already impacting my income & then Covid19 came along and the jobs I had lined up for 2020 were just gone. My partner had to quit his job because of the risk for me

Our main source of income, our ability to pay rent, bills, and for my medications comes from my tee shop. If I don't sell at least 150 shirts a month, which amounts to just under $1650, we can't pay rent.

Living here in LA, here's just an overview of my monthly cost of living and as you can tell $1650 doesn't cover all my expenses, but I also take on freelance graphic and writing jobs, my partner was doing mobile bike maintenance but it just got too risk as Covid surged here.

We scrape by, we still don't have rent for next month because my health has been in the dumpster. I just had a liver biopsy done yesterday, last year I almost died twice, was hospitalized 4 times, had numerous appointments & tests that required us to leave our quarantine bubble

Everytime I was in the hospital, had testing done or follow-up appointments, I was at risk of Covid exposure. In fact, the first time I was hospitalized last year, i was discharged early because a patient on the non-covid floor tested positive and I was terrified for 2 weeks.

Every time my partner leaves to pick up my meds or go grocery shopping, he's at risk and in fact, on the 22nd, I was tweeting about us coming to the conclusion that it may be inevitable that get Covid and that we were running out of options https://twitter.com/johnniejae/status/1352770044791463936?s=19

I ended that thread by saying
"it seems inevitable cuz despite being immunocompromised and at risk, I am not high priority or even eligible yet for the vaccine. Not to mention that my body is literally trying to take me out before COVID as it is."

Everything felt so discouraging because while we have been doing everything to keep me safe, folks running around without masks and being selfish assholes.....and then there's the whole other group of able-bodied, overprivileged white assholes skipping lines to get vaccines.

It was bleak and while we could have made the trek to OK, where the IHS clinics are vaccinating Natives and prioritizing disabled and chronically Natives, it would mean having to travel halfway across the country, in a pandemic to Oklahoma...way too risky on so many fronts.

Not to mention, I would selfishly be taking a vaccine from a Native still living there so it would be no different than the line jumpers here....and also in no no way could we afford it nor have the means cuz my partner sold our car to help with my medical bills

It just seemed like we were hitting barriers left and right and then I got a lucky break because @UAIIinc a nonprofit organization here in LA that services the Native population was able to set up a vaccine clinic for Natives.

On the 26th, I got my first dose....right around the time that @GavinNewsom and the state of California was deciding that once again, Disabled and Chronically ill folks were expendable and not worth trying to save.

I got lucky because I'm Native and our governments and funding programs prioritizing Elders knowledge and language keepers and disabled and chronically ill Natives because our societies understand that we have value and are not expendable. This is the way it should be.

It's also why I will continue to speak in solidarity with my non-Native spoonies and fellow disabled and chronically ill folks because ableism, racism and classism are at the very root of why the folks who most need the vaccine are being systematically denied.

I am asking you all to read #HighRiskCA and elevate the voices of Disabled and Chronically people fighting for their right to live and access to the vaccinations because we are among those at higher risk of infection and death and among the least protected during this pandemic

Chronically ill but chronically people works too