From the BBC:
“Covid:
Disabled people account for six in 10 deaths in England last year – ONS”
Nearly six out
of every 10 people who died with coronavirus in England last year were
disabled, figures suggest. Some 30,296 of the 50,888 deaths between
January and November were people with a disability, Office for National
Statistics (ONS) data shows. It also suggests the risk of death is three
times greater for more severely disabled people. Charities have called
for urgent government action, describing the data as "horrifying and
tragic". The ONS figures suggest disabled people were
disproportionately affected by the pandemic - accounting for 17.2% of the study
population but nearly 60% of coronavirus deaths. Among women, the risk
of death involving coronavirus was 3.5 times greater for more-disabled women -
defined as having their day-to-day activities "limited a lot" by
their health - compared with non-disabled women. For less-disabled women,
defined as having their day-to-day activities "limited a little", the
risk was two times greater. Compared to non-disabled men, the data showed that
the risk was 3.1 times greater for more-disabled men, and 1.9 times greater for
less-disabled men. Looking at people with a medically diagnosed learning
disability, the risk of death involving Covid was 3.7 times greater for both
men and women compared with people who did not have a learning disability.
'Lives
cruelly cut short' The ONS said an "important part" of the
increased risk was because disabled people were "disproportionately
exposed to a range of generally disadvantageous circumstances" compared
with non-disabled people. James Taylor, from disability equality charity
Scope, said disabled people had been "hardest hit" by the pandemic
and there was "an urgent need for the government to act". "Behind
these horrifying and tragic figures are individual stories of disabled people
whose lives have been cruelly cut short by coronavirus." Richard
Kramer, chief executive of national disability charity Sense, said that
throughout the pandemic disabled people had "largely been forgotten, left
without sufficient support, information and communication". "The
government must act now, planning its way out of lockdown with disabled people
and their family's needs prioritised, to show that it's learnt from the
mistakes of the past year."
^ This is a sad
statistic in an already sad Covid Pandemic. ^
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