Disabled people adversely affected by Covid 19

[Dystopiary]

"Today, the BBC has released a major project highlighting the impact of the pandemic on Britain’s disabled people. It’s a huge issue hardly any major media is talking about - thanks fab
@Cleggins82 and @FoxNikkiFox"



Disabled people forgotten during Covid

Freelance journalist Raya Al Jadir, 43, uses a ventilator. She was told by her specialist doctors that if she caught Covid-19, she should not go to hospital because the level of care she would need could not be guaranteed.

She was also warned that it was unlikely that she would be considered for life support.
"It made me feel alone and isolated. If I did end up in hospital and I was really sick - who was going to fight for me?"

Raya was one of the hundreds of disabled people who told the BBC that they would avoid going to hospital during the pandemic.
From March 2020 to May 2021, Raya did not leave her house for fear of catching Covid.
Shielding may have officially ended but there are still many disabled people living an isolated existence. Nearly 2,000 told the BBC that they had left their house on only a few occasions since the start of the pandemic, with almost 250 saying they had not ventured outside since March 2020.

 

[Dystopiary]

"As a disabled person, I feel like the weakest link in society. And now, because of Covid-19, no-one knows what to do with the weakest link”

 

[Pickman's model]

i have been surprised by treelover's absence over the past year, this is the sort of thing he'd have loved to raise - so i am glad you have

 

[May Kasahara]

I wouldn't say hardly any major media are talking about it I do a regular round up of SEND and education news items for my work, and there have been loads of stories on both the BBC and the Guardian covering research that highlights the massive disproportionate impact of Covid on people with disabilities. The problem, as ever, is that few people in charge seem to give a shit.

Always glad to see another project bringing it to the forefront though, albeit I wish it wasn't necessary. And I suspect there has been more focus on children and young people with disabilities, rather than adults, in the coverage I've picked up. Certainly adults with learning difficulties living in care homes have been woefully neglected in the care home/Covid narrative.

 

[BillRiver]

I wouldn't say hardly any major media are talking about it I do a regular round up of SEND and education news items for my work, and there have been loads of stories on both the BBC and the Guardian covering research that highlights the massive disproportionate impact of Covid on people with disabilities. The problem, as ever, is that few people in charge seem to give a shit.

Always glad to see another project bringing it to the forefront though, albeit I wish it wasn't necessary. And I suspect there has been more focus on children and young people with disabilities, rather than adults, in the coverage I've picked up. Certainly adults with learning difficulties living in care homes have been woefully neglected in the care home/Covid narrative.

Yes the BBC and Guardian have been less bad than others at covering this, but overall I don't feel it's been covered enough or with enough sense of outrage and urgency tbh. And I know the other disabled people I'm in touch with directly, and/or read on social media, feel that too.

 

[May Kasahara]

No, it never is.