U.S. COVID Response Mirrors NJ Response, Bias To Disabled: Report

NEW JERSEY — A new report released by the National Council on Disability, a federally appointed watchdog group, found that the U.S. pandemic response showed "extreme disability bias," and as a result, people with disabilities "died in large numbers," due to biased policies.

The report mirrors similar findings from the NJ Disability Action Committee Covid-19 Full Report. "Those most vulnerable, people of color, people with disabilities, and the elderly saw a disproportionate impact from the COVID-19 pandemic," the NJ report reads.

The national report put together findings from doctors, bioethicists, disability advocates, and patients and families. In a letter addressed to President Biden, the council expressed a clear need for change in the system. The letter reads in part:

"NCD found that COVID-19 exacted a steep toll on certain populations of people with disabilities, and the events that unfolded during the pandemic, including measures to mitigate the spread, posed unique problems and barriers to people with disabilities in each of our seven focus areas. The pandemic also exposed extreme disability bias, failures in modifying policies to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities, and gaps in disability data collection and antidiscrimination laws that need to be rectified before the next pandemic or public health emergency."

The national report highlighted how social distancing rules affected people with disabilities, taking their caretakers away from them when they required them most. The NJ-focused report came to a similar conclusion, recommending that exceptions for visitors in hospitals be extended to the physically disabled as they were to the mentally and developmentally disabled patients.

A shortage in Personal Protective Equipment and lack of proper distribution to care facilities also had a large hand in COVID's harmful effects on disabled people, both reports found.

"Residents of CCFs such as nursing homes, assisted living homes, psychiatric facilities, and board and care homes, where bedrooms, direct care workers, and amenities are shared, and infection control is highly challenging, caught the virus and died in large numbers, largely due to lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), close contact with others in confined settings, and the higher susceptibility to the virus due to other health conditions. The institutional model was once again shown to be detrimental to vulnerable individuals," the national report reads.

Read the full national report here, and the full NJ report here.