Disabled Rights and the Covid Enquiry
Post by Journey to Justice volunteer Rona Topaz.
Everyone knows about what happened in the care homes during the Covid-19 outbreak. Some even went so far as to suggest that those residents who caught the virus were helped to a speedier departure. There is evidence for a certain drug prescribed to residents prior to the vaccinations (don’t get me started, please) which did just that.
Little thought is given to the position of disabled people during that panic mode period of the spread ofCovid. To be honest, little thought is given to disabled people overall: society would love to pretend we do not exist. I blame this not on neoliberalism or social Darwinism, but purely on the fact that some disabled peeps remind us of our fragility and the fact that we are all mortal, something many of us prefer to forget. But I digress.
For the most part, during the Covid outbreak, disabled people were deprioritised to an alarming extent. Many learning disabled people, alongside those with visible disabilities, were having “do not attempt to resuscitate” on their charts, should they enter hospital with Covid, regardless of whether they approved or not. I was almost turned away from hospital when I arrived with cardiac arrest symptoms. Fortunately my errant breathing did not sway my self advocacy skills and I was treated and diagnosed. (For the record, I am mobility challenged.)
A scale of priority was created in terms of who was most “worth saving,” should resources have had to be reduced to a minimum, at the start of lockdown. Number one priority were healthy men and women, between ages 18-35, followed by 45-70 year olds. Next were children. Further down were people with one underlying health condition. Next, people with 2 conditions. And so on, until the bottom of the pile, which included severely disabled people and those over age 80 and so on.
Disability Rights UK were one of a number of charities called in to give evidence to the recent Covid enquiry: https://bit.ly/DRUK_covid_inq
The Coronavirus Act made it easier for people to be sectioned and significantly watered down a council’s duty of care to disabled people in need of care. A handful of MPs, including Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry, and former Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, had been pushing for the act to be reviewed 6 months after lockdown finished, but as far as we are aware, there was not enough support in Parliament for ministers to act upon this. The struggle for disability rights continues, much more so than ever.
