victoria
@vashetc.blacksky.app
8.1K followers 1.4K following 1.3K posts
† doktora | research+policy | perpetually horizontal ID’s: Brown skin grl w/ curly hair wearing shirt that says hot girls arent ableist. Banner: Sepia picture of a couple married w/ family around. vashetc.com | restandmecfs.com | survivorsandallies.com
![PHONE SCRIPT
Hello, my name is [name] [add if you are a constituent of the Senator]. I am a [student/staffmember/alumni/etc] at [higher education institution], and I am calling to ask Senator [last name] to vote Aye on AB 2212, the HEAR Survivors Act, in the June 23 Judiciary Committee hearing.
California's Higher Education Code has not been updated to address today's emerging forms of sexual violence, including Al-generated sexual harassment. A recent statewide survey found that student survivors of online sexual harm were disproportionately LGBTQIA+ and women, that 70% never sought support from their institutions, and that they reported significantly worse mental health than other survivors. California lawmakers must protect students by updating and standardizing definitions of technology facilitated sexual harassment and strengthening existing student trainings. I'm urging the Senator to stand with students by supporting AB 2212.
Thank you](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5h73uzi5rw67ncwrtt6cygfk/bafkreigdnzojdpq3gbb6uhjseqbnnvxbqwfbuifzj3vt4pasuja4zpknza)
![Today I will send the following demands:
1) I will write to my congressional representatives urging them to repeal antiquated medicaid work requirements. Research shows that work requirements DO NOT increase employment and would exacerbate the backlogs of already overloaded state agencies.[1] Discretionary categorizations of ability-to-work will force people into the cracks, worsening systemic neglect that so many already experience. HHS and congress should reconsider the ramifications of implementing and enforcing work requirements for disabled Americans who are already struggling to survive.
2) The second is just as important. Today I will write to the NIH and HHS demanding funding for real treatments that move the needle on treating ME/CFS in a meaningful way. There’s a completed research roadmap that was created by brilliant researchers that includes plans for medical trials. This roadmap needs to be funded now, as millions of people are needlessly suffering.
With love, spoons, and devotion,
Dr. Victoria Copeland
Empowerment through Community
[1] https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/eight-million-medi-cal-enrollees-at-risk-of-losing-health-coverage-if-congress-imposes-work-requirements/
[2] https://www.ninds.nih.gov/about-ninds/who-we-are/advisory-council/nandsc-mecfs-research-roadmap-working-group](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5h73uzi5rw67ncwrtt6cygfk/bafkreidnjfib423ujkoyxnw6jmz4fyb2dkbm2eodgrgobfhklsez4jaqty)
!["rior to contracting COVID, I had no limits, exercised vigorously 3-4 x/
week, and walked wherever/whenever I wanted (like, up to 9-11 miles
a day!). I was an athletic person, and worked full time, and never lay
down from getting up around 8 am until 10:30 at night. I developed
ME/CFS symptoms immediately after Covid, and, although I am now
mild, I immediately dropped in functional capacity in a day, and in
exercise capacity. A body does not decondition in 10 days, but Long
Covid hit like a bomb——destroying my old life, and my ability to sit
up even, within 2 weeks of testing negative for that first Covid
infection."
PEM"At its worst feels like I'm having acute covid all over again: chills and body temp disregulation [sic]. PEM will trigger a cough. Congestion.
Dizziness. Migraine. And of course just feeling so dead tired. like I'm
made of led. My brain gets confused. Sometimes I am too tired to leave the sofa to go to bed. “
“It feels like having covid again. At its
worst I will have lung pain, muscle
spasms in face and body, elevated HR,
broken sleep, nightsweats, sore throat,
hardened glands, enormous light/
sound sensitivity (everything hurts),
dizziness/POTS symptoms, migraine-
like symptoms, air hunger/
breathlessness, body aches, and a tired-
but-wired feeling where I feel an
adrenaline rush as though I’ve just been
chased by a bear even if I’ve been lying
down resting all day.”
Need for Specialists
“We need long covid and ME/CFS specialists! Especially these specialists who accept insurance, Medicare/Medicaid, and are not outrageously priced (although I understand why they must do so). It is so wrong that Duke receives millions to conduct long COVID research and touted their AI tool that diagnoses ME/CFS, yet they do not have a single doctor who treats either long COVID or ME/CFS. . .”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5h73uzi5rw67ncwrtt6cygfk/bafkreigblyc2iiyix3v53pdexjtlb4cggis75whwzyo77p7tvyf3nfsetq)
