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Disabled women are 2.4 times more likely to die from Covid-19 and men with disabilities 1.9 times more likely to die. The fears and anticipatory grief I described all those weeks ago, writ large in the ONS data today. This won't get the coverage it should. 1/2
These risk levels *rise* for disabled people *under* 65. @ONS think these estimates are "conservative". It's a tragic indictment of the government's approach to shielding, its failure to prevent the spread in care homes and other institutional settings... 2/3
...& the utter misjudgement of their inertia to prepare for the crisis earlier in the year. Disabled people have been erased from discussion throughout the period of the crisis, had our rights eroded&lost lives on a massive scale. Thanks2 @Channel4News excellent coverage tonight.
Coming after ten years of the @Conservatives' austerity decimating our services and teaching us we are not valued and don't deserve to be treated with dignity. And do you know what? I'm exhausted. Exhausted of fighting, of trying to make people care.
But then I say to myself - that's 22,487 disabled people who have lost their lives. 60% of the total Covid-19 related deaths in the UK. The fight *must* continue. We need a country that values disabled people. @johnpringdns @BBCNewsnight @TheOxfordMail @BBCr4today @BBCWomansHour
