Disability rates rose sharply during the pandemic. Long COVID is largely to blame

Marcy Ross recalled to Salon that Michael was a 46-year-old black man whose life was shattered by a heart attack.

Mr. Ross is Director and Chief Executive Officer of the World Disability Institute, an international non-profit center for public policy. Her voice was full of emotion as she recalled Michael’s story. Michael’s heart attack had nothing to do with Covid-19, but Covid-19 left her disabled and sent her to a nursing home. While there, he developed COVID-19, so the nursing home sent him to the hospital. Disability discrimination raised its ugly head there.

“The hospital made the decision to refuse treatment because of Michael’s disability,” Ross told Salon, adding that his race also appeared to be a factor. “They had a pleasant conversation. Their family was very involved, but suddenly he was declared unfit for treatment by the hospital.”

Instead, they moved him from the intensive care unit to hospice care. “His wife had recorded the conversation, and basically they said to her, ‘Do we want to be very proactive in his care, or do we think it’s a waste?’ Doctors claimed that Michael had a poor quality of life because he was paralyzed and had a brain injury, said Ross.

“Ultimately, the hospital was limiting his treatment even though they didn’t have many COVID-19 patients,” Ross concluded. “They may have decided that he could not tolerate further treatment. Afterwards, the guardians agreed to withhold treatment from him. The guardians were his parents, not his wife. Not even one of the children.”

There are many stories like Michael’s out there. (Salon chose not to reveal his last name to protect his family’s privacy.) In the era of the COVID-19 pandemicMore than 3 million people over the age of 18 have come forward with their disability, according to recent data, and many more are expected to follow. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).) The problem of COVID-19 is not yet completely over and is no longer considered an emergency, but it is closely linked to the issue of disability rights.

This association manifests itself in two ways. One is that it has over-afflicted disabled people, and the other is that, as her BLS data reveals, it has created an entirely new group of disabled people.

Following the first group, Salon contacted Darcy Milburn, Director of Social Security and Health Policy at Ark, an organization that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been a complete catastrophe for our community,” Milburn explained. “Apart from the death toll, people with disabilities were hit first and hardest and we are still grieving.”

First, the health care system has often failed for people with disabilities, including providing poor care and struggling to accommodate disability in the first place. Milburn thought the pandemic had at least raised awareness of existing inequalities in the health care system, but the status quo for people with disabilities in 2023 is little better than it was in 2020. Both Milburn and Ross touched on the same subject. Because disability is so individualized, there are countless small ways in which disability discrimination can hinder the provision of quality health care.

Want more health and science articles in your inbox? Subscribe to the salon’s weekly newsletter, The Vulgar Scientist.

“For people with disabilities, it goes in different directions,” Ross noted. “The challenge of getting through COVID-19 is in many ways more complicated than most.”

For example, deaf people struggle with wearing masks all the time. Those unable to maintain personal hygiene, such as washing their hands without assistance, struggled as well. In fact, many disabled people live alone and are effectively stuck seeking the same help that people without disabilities take for granted.

“The lack of access to personal protective equipment [life] “People who live in communities with assistance are having more difficulty getting people to come to their homes,” Ross told Salon. One of the biggest challenges is that people with disabilities must be in the community to gain physical access, access to programs and access to effective communication in order to prevent institutionalization. I think it completely eliminates the protection based on the right not to. “

People with disabilities also suffer from social intolerance. In particular, there is still a strong prejudice against receiving public assistance in American culture. This is especially ironic, according to academic research. Whole society benefits from providing accommodations for people with disabilities. There is also Known for long wait times It relates to the Medicare eligibility that so many people with disabilities need to survive, Aid that exists is never a luxury. Indeed, some proponents argue that it is insufficient to achieve any meaningful economic security. For example, in the 2019 report, american progress center It was found that “adults with disabilities experience poverty at almost twice the rate of adults without disabilities.”

“SSI [Supplemental Security Income] “The asset limit is the total amount of financial resources you can maintain while you are in the SSI,” Milburn points out. It means the total amount of the insurance contract.” A certain amount of money, burial money, that sort of thing. Since 1989, SSI participants have not been allowed to have assets in excess of $2,000. This is farce. “

From there, they are given the bare minimum to provide food, clothing, and other necessities. The amount varies from person to person, but is often around $600 per month.

There is also an emerging category of patients who develop prolonged COVID-19 with long-term symptoms lasting months or even years. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been found to cause long-term disability, including mental health problems (SARS-CoV-2 virus change the structure of the brain), metabolic disorders, joint pain, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neurological problems. To make matters worse, there is very little medical research on the effects of being a so-called “long-term resident.” While information about people with pre-existing disabilities is relatively abundant (because these disorders have existed long before his 2020), COVID-19 is a new disease. No one is known to have had the disease for more than a few years.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is indeed causing new long-term disabilities for millions of people,” said those affected by COVID-19 and the post-COVID-19 situation. Andrew Wyrum, president of Pandemic Patient, a nonprofit that supports the pandemic, told Salon in an email. . “The long-term consequences of COVID-19 are not yet clear, but we do see some people show some recovery, while others see their symptoms diminish or stay the same. It is mixed in nature, primarily cognitive and physical or physical, and is associated with organ damage.”

Wylam then provided insights on how to raise awareness and learn more about the long-term COVID-19 disease.

“Covid-19 is still prevalent and still causing disability,” Wylam wrote to Salon. “We need to continue our efforts to educate people about the long-term COVID-19 risks and how to recognize them. “Prolonged COVID-19 symptoms do not reverse.” and it can be difficult to convince people that this is an important issue.”