<
https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/ng-interactive/2024/dec/02/matt-mcgorry-long-covid>
"On 28 October, Matt McGorry posted a video to Instagram. “This is definitely
the most vulnerable thing I’ve ever shared, and is a conversation I haven’t
even had with a lot of my closest friends,” he said.
The actor, known for roles in
Orange Is the New Black and
How to Get Away
With Murder, revealed he had “never fully recovered” after two Covid
infections. “Long Covid has dramatically changed my life,” said McGorry,
describing symptoms including debilitating fatigue, depression, dysautonomia,
Raynaud’s disease and brain fog, which he called “a cute little name for brain
damage”.
“Some things that I love that I can’t do any more are exercising, lifting
weights, hiking and reading an hour a day,” he said. In early November, McGorry
posted another video, in which he encouraged people to mitigate risk for
themselves and others by wearing a mask in essential places like doctors’
offices and pharmacies. “Having to still think about Covid fucking sucks. Trust
me, I get it,” he said. “But empathy alone is not enough without actions of
solidarity.”
According to one report, 400 million people have been affected by long Covid.
But it is under-diagnosed and misunderstood. McGorry said in the video he
hesitated to speak publicly about his health “primarily because of fear of
career discrimination and also people making assumptions about what I can and
can’t do”.
I spoke to McGorry over video chat in mid-November about his diagnosis and
sharing his story. “I want able people to learn from disabled people,” he said,
listing Alice Wong’s
Disability Intimacy and Leah Lakshmi
Piepzna-Samarasinha’s
Care Work and
The Future Is Disabled as useful books.
“I’ve been organizing white people for anti-racism for quite a few years,” he
said. “Those conversations are so different than a conversation where your own
life is impacted. I’m happy to say, here are the resources, but having to
convince people that accessibility and disability justice are social justice
issues in the first place is incredibly dehumanizing and exhausting and usually
very fruitless.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity."
Via Violet Blue’s
Cybersecurity Roundup: December 3, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-3-117190768
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
