A caring society would have made this group a priority. However, a cavalier prime minister thought differently
From the very beginning of the pandemic, disabled people have been treated as an add-on. See, for example, how deaf people were ignored in Downing Street’s vital public health messaging, with no British Sign Language interpreter used in daily briefings. Those with intellectual and development disabilities were initially not on the priority list for vaccines, despite being five times more at risk of hospitalisation and eight times more likely to die from Covid.
I am a survivor of polio, a crippling disease that is preventable by a vaccine – which was one reason that my Covid jab felt like an early Christmas present. As a Paralympian and a campaigner for access and inclusion, it has been incredibly frustrating to see a clinically vulnerable group being treated as an afterthought, or even as apparently undeserving of medical treatment.
Anne Wafula Strike MBE is a British Paralympian, disability and inclusion campaigner, and sporting ambassador
