TESTIMONY
Ngozi Alston on Barriers and Neglect Faced by Disabled, Poor, and Black New Yorkers During the COVID-19 Pandemic
2:44:08
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125 sec
Ngozi Alston criticizes New York City's pandemic response, highlighting neglect and barriers experienced by disabled, poor, and Black communities.
- Ngozi Alston, a disability justice trainer and member of Mask Bloc NYC, addresses the city council about the city's failure in providing sufficient support during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Alston describes personal experiences of self-advocacy and the lack of high-quality respirators and tests for disabled New Yorkers.
- Local community groups like Mask Bloc NYC and Peoples PPE are commended for their efforts in filling the gaps left by the state.
- The testimony emphasizes the need for normalizing masking, improving air quality, and increasing access to resources and remote work for vulnerable populations.
- Alston calls out the undue burden placed on disabled individuals and criticizes the city's lack of proactive measures in protecting its citizens.
Ngozi Alston
2:44:08
My name is Ingozi Alston.
2:44:09
I'm a disability justice trainer and currently organizing with Masscloak NYC.
2:44:14
I am disabled and to my knowledge, I have never had COVID.
2:44:17
That said, I'm constantly experiencing barriers, self advocating basically every time I leave my house, I look and start ableist phrase here, being individually wrapped masks for other providers to my doctor's appointments and plugging my air purifier in, The city of New York has been doing an abysmal job at keeping New Yorkers safe.
2:44:37
Instead of following the line of the fascist cop there, Eric Adams, you need to be making sure black poor disabled New Yorkers are safe.
2:44:43
High quality respirators and high quality tests are expensive, and the city has neglected us.
2:44:48
Local community groups such as mass block NYC and Peoples PPE have been filling the very large gaps that the state has left us with.
2:44:55
We are still in the pandemic and we are still fucking dying.
2:44:58
Bad air, the air quality was well over a 110.
2:45:02
On February 10th.
2:45:03
And I know this because I plan to enjoy a local day at the park, but, like, the city cannot wait for a bad air day to hand out high quality respirators be fucking proactive.
2:45:12
With the CDC dropping its guidelines, we have been completely left to fend for ourselves.
2:45:16
It is difficult to find remote work.
2:45:18
Employers and society are hostile to us, to those of us who continue to mask.
2:45:23
Masking needs to be normalized, and the city owes us access to resources.
2:45:26
We are currently still in the surge of 780,000 COVID cases per day in the United States.
2:45:32
As layers of mitigation continue to disappear, everyday basic tasks become burdensome with trying to avoid catching COVID.
2:45:38
I'm often the only person masking in the grocery store at the pharmacy medical facilities.
2:45:42
Leaving the burden on disabled people is trash, not to mention Eugenics.
2:45:46
Over 1500 people continue to die from COVID every week and nobody fucking cares.
2:45:51
It is exhausting being gaslighted by medical staff from receptionist to providers from asking whether I have COVID because I'm wearing an N95, which literally happened at a doctor's appointment morning to being outright hostile for asking providers to wear N95s to help mitigate the transmission of COVID.
2:46:07
This is on top of the fact that incarcerated folks in speed gels do not have access to high quality masks.
2:46:12
Freedom all