People with disabilities in England should be given priority for vaccination against Covid-19, according to leading charities. Here’s what you need to know https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685

Official data showed that people with disabilities accounted for 60% of all deaths from the disease between January and November 2020 https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685

This week, health officials announced that they were moving people up the vaccination priority list, including some with severe or profound learning disabilities https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685

Campaigners said that although some people had been moved up the vaccine priority list, the government had still not included those with mild or moderate learning disabilities, who are at equal risk of dying from Covid-19 https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685

The disparity in coronavirus outcomes is glaring. The Office for National Statistics data show that women with a learning disability normally die at three times the rate of non-disabled women — but they have died from Covid at four times the rate https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685

For men with learning disabilities, death rates are generally 2.8 times higher than other men, but in the pandemic they have been 3.5 times higher https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685

For those with a physical or mental disability, living in the closed confines of a care home is the single biggest risk factor for death from the virus. Other significant factors are low socio-economic status and pre-existing health conditions https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685

For some disabled people, the pandemic had meant ‘a year of agony’ cut off from much human contact and in some cases facing worsening health because of cancelled medical appointments https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685

Will lasting change come from the stark impact of Covid on the disabled community? https://www.ft.com/content/bc616b88-0368-43e9-94b7-a715ef456685