Many disabled people will be asking the same question as Hannah Devlin (Covid rules are to be axed in England, but is pandemic’s end really in sight?, 9 February), and feel concerned about the relaxing of rules.
A common theme in disabled people’s experiences of the pandemic has been a sense of profound inequality. Disabled people have faced a higher clinical risk, bigger threats to job security and more barriers to living well from Covid-19. And the feeling among many disabled people that their needs are being ignored has only been accentuated by a perceived desire by the government to return to the “old normal” while the virus still poses a serious threat to lives and livelihoods.
We all want to put the pandemic behind us, but the fact remains that social distancing measures are being scrapped while rates are high and policymakers are shying away from making decisions on mandatory vaccinations. We need the government to consider our roadmap out of restrictions carefully, so that everyone remains safe and treated equitably.
Gemma Hope
Director of policy, Leonard Cheshire
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