Ever-changing but always constant: “Waves” of disability discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, 2022, Lund and Ayers

Abstract

The ongoing novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had considerable effects on the disability community. As the pandemic has progressed and changed, the manifestations of these effects have differed, and yet the underlying causes—ableism including the devaluation of disabled lives—have remained consistent. In this commentary, we explore the impact of the pandemic on the disability community in the United States, conceptualizing four distinct but overlapping “waves” of discrimination: 1) healthcare rationing and missed opportunities for disability inclusion, 2) access to resources, supplies, and accommodations; 3) vaccine access; and 4) long COVID and disability identity. Throughout our discussion of these waves, we detail the discrimination faced by people with disabilities, the underlying ableism that perpetuates it, and the resilience shown by the disability community. We end with a call for combating systemic ableism in healthcare and public health systems.

Open access, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1936657422001248

 

thank you for posting this.

elsevier, in its infinite wisdom, however, has denied my humanity with a captcha that just decides i am not after i correctly answer their qs.

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well i am denied access to vaccines, although nobody in the solar system would seem to agree.

i cannot leave the house without very high probability of possibly permanently harmful consequences which could end up being fatal; being woken when my body needs to deal with circadian issues is similarly harmful. i am still worse beause many years ago a mobile dentist was let in too early. i cannot set an appointment for a vaccine at a time that has less chance of harming me.

on top of that, for some reason, the omicron mrna is denied to unvaccinated. idk why.

circadian issues in general are as if not disabling. changng 2pm but uncertain to 4pm is as if heinously onerous.

 

The anglosphere decided after 1.5 years they didn't care about protecting the old and disabled anymore and went back to normal. There never was any real disabled provision for healthcare if you weren't able to go to outpatients and they didn't bother to add any just for Covid. The most vulnerable can't get Paxlovid or even vaccinations and the NHS has done nothing about it for years. Like all the lies told by politicians on TV the defense of the unable is one of the more evil lies.

Calls to change have fallen on deaf ears, the cruelty and eugenics is the point.