US citizens with permanent disabilities get free lifetime pass to National Parks

Re:US citizens with permanent disabilities get free lifetime... by user_7832 on Wednesday October 11, 2023 @07:14PM (#37851588)

> There are about a million things that make it difficult to support yourself: being newly divorced is a huge hardship, as is being newly laid off, as is not having health insurance in the US (see today's stories about Mary Lou Retton needing to crowdfund for her medical care on GoFundMe).

Don't disagree with any of these also being very significant, personally I wouldn't mind if these folks also got the pax. But

a. these aren't considered "permanent" in the general sense (you can get rehired/remarried), and b. permanent disabilities are much "easier" for a govt to classify than to spend resources everytime someone needed assistance

And > Otherwise they should restrict it to disabilities that actually have a medically demonstrated increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID.

ADHD does have a medically increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID. Perhaps not "directly" like someone on immunosuppressants, but as someone w/ adhd and another chronic health condition (T1 diabetes), adhd makes it several times more difficult to handle my health (and T1D has life threatening complications within arm's reach of poor management).

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Re:US citizens with permanent disabilities get free lifetime... by munk-a on Wednesday October 11, 2023 @07:22PM (#37851647)

As someone with ADHD I can't imagine that I would've made it to 25 without severely screwing up my T1D care - that requires pretty constant vigilance and, well, there's a reason I voluntarily don't drive.

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Re:US citizens with permanent disabilities get free lifetime... by drewmol on Wednesday October 11, 2023 @07:55PM (#37851898)

I wonder if it's ADHD or just the side effects of continual stimulant usage that causes worst COVID outcomes. Stimulants can be hell on a lot of bodily system functions.

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Re:US citizens with permanent disabilities get free lifetime... by user_7832 on Thursday October 12, 2023 @04:03PM (#37862442)

Stimulants at therapeutic (pharmaceutical) doses aren't as terrible on the body as one might expect. Especially when you compare it with something like cocaine (which does funky stuff to the heart/Calcium channels) or recreational doses (several times the avg/median prescribed dose). They can and often do have side effects etc, but Jeff blowing coke at a party is much more likely to have a problem.

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Re:US citizens with permanent disabilities get free lifetime... by btilly on Wednesday October 11, 2023 @08:13PM (#37852016)

I agree with you. But T1 diabetes is something which should suffice for Paxlovid.

BTW if you haven't checked out OpenAPS, I highly recommend it based on friends who have used it. It greatly reduces the self-discipline needed for T1 diabetes maintenance.

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Re:US citizens with permanent disabilities get free lifetime... by user_7832 on Thursday October 12, 2023 @03:42PM (#37862160)

> OpenAPS

Thanks, I've been wanting to get on a pump forever. Hopefully it'll be sooner than later. I'm 99% sure I'll use a looping system (either Tandem's or one of the DIY ones), heard a lot of good stuff about them.

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