Thread by @rollwthepunches

Reasons disabled and chronically ill folks will continue to die en masse, not from COVID19:

- All non-life threatening emergency medical appts, surgeries and procedures are being cancelled (including things like infusions, feeding tube placements, MRIs, bowel resection, etc)

- Many Home Health Services are being cancelled. This means missed meds, bed sores, lapses in nutrition/hydration, pts accessing their ports or doing tube changes for the first time themselves (⬆️risk of sepsis, infection, errors etc)

- Home Health/Care Workers bringing in COVID

- Loved ones or friends unable to come by and help w/ food, meds, cleaning, mental health, etc

- Unable to go to an ER/call an ambulance unless *positive* you'd die without one

- Disabled pts are being asked/told to sign DNRs are alarming rates, even if they don't have COVID

- This knowledge (1) makes pts more reluctant to go to an ER when in crisis, and that crisis alone may take their life as they weigh the risk, and (2) is still lethal to too many who do get to a hospital, are coerced into a DNR, and then die when they should have been revived.

- Fear of going to an ER where you know staff are overworked, underprotected, traumatized, losing coworkers, and not 100% sound of mind. If you have complex issues, you know you can't risk someone not on their game.

- Loss of life due to ACTUAL medical errors caused by the above

- Active discrimination against disabled and chronically ill patients is sky high rn. We are currently triaged far down the list, even without COVID and presenting w/ entirely fixable issues.

Our lives are deemed less worthy of saving compared to others (even unconscious bias).

- Reallocation of supplies. Not just ventilators that folks withOUT COVID may still need, but all medical supplies. So many risks and lives lost when being treated w/ reused or absent medical supplies.

- Inability to get routine bloodwork/scans (many critical issues go missed)

- Mask/glove shortage for personal use
Many disabled people require these daily. Not having protective masks for allergies, other communicable diseases, or poor air quality; gloves for sterile procedure, port care, etc; alcohol wipes; will cause anaphylaxis, sepsis, infctn,death.

- Inability to get medications from the pharmacy properly or on time

- Actual inability to access the medications that they depend on bc they're being stockpiled, reallocated or mis-prescribed

- Inability to access social or therapeutic supports and decreased mental health

- Loss of life due to SUI (prompted by unmanaged pain, increased eugenics talk or disabled abuse, inability to obtain routine treatments/procedures leading to major decline in quality of life, in-hospital/social/familial mistreatment or neglect, reduced access to MH services)

- Malnourishment or food reactions due to unavailability of only foods they can safely consume. Same concern w/o access to delivery services (either bc everyone's abusing it or it's too unsafe for a stranger to handle their food in this time)

- Lost job + 0 prior savings allowed