About Us
Pan End It! arose in early 2022 as an outlet for our growing rage at the state negligence and intentional obfuscation of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We are a disabled, ill, and immunocompromised-led group that envisions a world where disabled people everywhere enjoy safety, not just from COVID-19 but also the conditions that enabled this pandemic to wreak the havoc it has. We organize for policies and practices that can reduce the burden of COVID-19 in the lives of the most impacted members of our community, engage in education and outreach, and support our community members in advocating for safe care and access to public life.
Guiding Principles
Pan End It! uses disability justice principles in its approaches and work. We recognize that COVID-19 is an intersectional issue and that structural inequities exacerbate the impacts of COVID-19 on all levels - locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. While disabled/ill/IC people are at increased risk of negative outcomes of COVID-19 and other infectious disease, the culture of ableism and health supremacy that has left us subjected to the risk of infection harms everyone.
Disabled people - like all people - are impacted by the spread of infectious disease in myriad ways. Illness can cause significant disruption to daily life and medical needs, and disabled people are at increased risk of severe illness and death to diseases than our nondisabled peers. Pan End It! believes that disabled people belong everywhere. Public society should be accessible and safe for all - including those who can't (or don't want to) risk infection. For this access, we need to adapt and adopt measures to reduce the spread of infectious disease. We support measures such as universal masking in healthcare, transit, schools, and all public places, as well as improvements to indoor air quality like sufficient ventilation or filtration to reduce spread of airborne disease. Folks also need access to resources to reduce the spread of COVID-19 - public health education, well-fitted high filtration masks, tests, vaccinations, treatments - at no cost. The commodification of health is a root cause of our pandemic failures.
Organizing structure and methods
Pan End It! is decentralized and horizontally organized with members across the country. Members freely organize with each other in their areas of interest, individually, or with others in their local community. The organization is comprised of a core steering committee that directs overall organizing efforts, and of smaller working groups that are dedicated to pursuing policies and practices that can reduce the burden of COVID-19 in the lives of the most impacted members of our community. Members are free to engage with committees and working groups as desired and can flow in and out of them depending on their ability and availability. Members are encouraged and supported to act autonomously while keeping in line with Pan End It!'s principles. Projects may be presented to the larger group anytime for feedback and collaboration. Permission does not need to be granted. If there are disagreements about principle alignment, then the project will need to be discussed as a larger group.
These are the ways Pan End It! currently operates but they may change over time. What will not change is the thing that brought us together, our commitments to disability justice principles and COVID-19 precautions.
Statement of Solidarity with Palestine
Originally posted to Instagram and Twitter, October 2023
We join others in the call for an end to the current and ongoing siege on Gaza and to end the 75+ years of colonization, occupation, and genocide of the Palestinian people.
Pan End It! envisions a world where disabled people everywhere enjoy safety, not just from COVID-19, but also the conditions that have enabled this pandemic to wreak havoc. We operate from a disability justice framework, which is intersectional and organizes across movements. We critically examine the root causes of disability, including the violence of racism and colonization, in order to dismantle them.
The harsh conditions in Gaza that Palestinians are subjected to - including crowding, lack of access to healthcare, and the ongoing exposure to contaminants in the air - allow the spread of COVID-19 and further its damaging effects. Israel is causing disability as a weapon to further oppress Palestinians with the support of the US government. There's never enough money for COVID-19 prevention and treatment but there's always money for violence.
Our struggles for a better world are deeply tied to Palestinian liberation.
Free Palestine.
Membership
To join Pan End It!, we ask potential members to review our About and Actions and, if you feel in alignment with us, please fill out this contact form to be contacted by a volunteer. While we would like to welcome everyone seeking to organize for safety from COVID-19, we recognize that to maintain our focus we must limit membership to individuals who share our ideals and goals.