Editor’s note: The following is a letter to the editor. The opinions expressed in this letter are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Mendocino Voice. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor feel free to write to [email protected].
Dear Editor:
We are a group of people from across Mendocino County who care about disability justice and COVID-19/Long COVID prevention and education. We provide free high-quality masks to Mendocino County residents, such as KN95 and N95s. We also provide free COVID-19 rapid tests. We have a variety of different types of masks, from earloop to headstrap, in many colors and sizes, including children’s sizes. We provide these because the science shows that wearing well-fitting N95/KN95 masks, especially when indoors in public places, protects people from viral illnesses such as flu, RSV, colds, measles and COVID-19.
We provide free masks upon request to individuals, families and organizations. We encourage local organizations to reach out to us for baskets of masks (we call them “maskets”) that we provide and refill. We also have air purifiers available for lending for events.
We are not a nonprofit, we are a mutual aid group. We are a group of people who care about our community and pool our resources to provide masks for each other and our neighbors. In his book, Mutual Aid, Dean Spade defines mutual aid as “collective coordination to meet each other’s needs, usually from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them.” We organize to keep us safe, when our government and economic system refuse to.
We chose the name Mendo Clean Air Club in order to connect us with a growing network of clean air organizations and mask blocs across the country, who provide free masks to their communities. We have also chosen it in order to emphasize the importance of filtering (cleaning) the air we breathe during an ongoing airborne pandemic and climate crisis.
We started the Mendo Clean Air Club because the COVID-19 pandemic has not ended, Long COVID and other post-viral conditions are on the rise, and it is impacting the health and wellbeing of our community on many levels.
Here’s a partial list of reasons why you might want to start wearing a mask. Illness: Maybe you are tired of being sick, can’t afford to miss work and/or can’t afford to become disabled or further disabled. Or maybe you need relief from seasonal allergies or want protection from air pollution or wildfire smoke.
Or maybe you want to be in solidarity with communities disproportionately affected by COVID and Long COVID, including but not limited to disabled and immunocompromised folks, people of color, and trans folks.
Please reach out to us for free masks or COVID tests—text or call us at (707) 621-5139 or email us at [email protected].
Megan Wolf
Ukiah