Remember when I said COVID would be a mass disabling event with the majority of Americans disabled and people were like “Stop using scare tactics! Stop exaggerating!” But here we are. I want us to prepare for disabled futures not fear them.
https://twitter.com/lauramiers/status/1597662200944287745
And when I say mass disabling event, I don’t just mean long COVID. I also mean all the people with psych disabilities, esp PTSD, from the trauma of the pandemic (like front line workers) & everyone who have had medical care denied or delayed in an over-taxes hospital system.
Here’s my tweets from January
https://twitter.com/DrSamiSchalk/status/1481261654847467527
So to do this math for yall again. There are about 200 million adults in the US. About 60 millions already identify as disabled. Now add 24 million long COVID cases. Let’s assume some of those folks were already disabled & say we’re at 80 million disabled out of 200. In 3 years.
I don’t have numbers for increase in psych disabilities but conversations among therapists and the recent NYC institutionalization news (combined with housing crisis) makes clear those numbers are up too. Are we close enough to “majority” yet for yall to believe?
The pandemic continues on. More people WILL become disabled & we WILL need to build more accessible worlds, physically & socially in terms of our expectations & understanding of what people can be expected to do in their personal & work lives.
Want to prepare for our disabled futures? I suggest you start following, reading & listening to leaders in the #DisabilityJustice movement. Recently @thellpsx & @RoomofOnesOwn made a great reading rec chart on IG: instagram.com/p/ClCchfFPcad/…
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