The Science of Aging Well: How Your Beliefs Affect Your Health
At this point, over half of Americans have been vaccinated, but unfortunately, that won’t be enough to protect everyone. The COVID-19 variants are dangerous, and without the proper protections, many are at risk.
Here, we’ll explore that risk as well as measures we can take to keep those with disabilities safe.
The Risk COVID-19 Variants Pose to Those With Disabilities
Viruses like COVID-19 constantly mutate. This has, unfortunately, given rise to some dangerous variants of the virus that may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines while increasing how contagious COVID is. These are the variants as defined by the CDC:
- Delta: most common variant that is twice as contagious as earlier iterations of the virus.
- Alpha: dangerous variant that transmits 50% more and increases the risk of hospitalization.
- Gamma: variant that reduces the effectiveness of some COVID antibodies.
- Beta: variant with both a 50% higher transmission rate and reduced antibody effectiveness.
All this means that more dangerous versions of the COVID virus are out there, threatening the lives of vulnerable individuals such as those living with disabilities. In the meantime, confusion has also been prevalent as to who is covered by government assistance in terms of COVID-19 protections.
For example, short-term disability insurance may or may not be available to you depending on your insurance provider and your situation. In the meantime, those with disabilities who also have major COVID risk factors often aren’t comprehensively covered by benefits and financial protections.
Type 2 diabetes, for instance, makes an individual at risk for experiencing more dangerous COVID effects. However, a type 2 diabetes diagnosis without complications is no longer covered by Social Security Disability Income (SSDI). Although those over 65 with type 2 diabetes who need medication may still qualify for Medicare, there are still many who are not 65 and do not qualify for healthcare coverage or disability assistance, even if they do have a disability.
These factors and many compounding others have produced a dangerous environment for individuals with disabilities as they navigate the COVID-19 variants. Already, these individuals face barriers in accessing standard services that give them poorer health outcomes. To better protect persons with disabilities, we need to answer both systemic and individual problems.
How to Better Protect Individuals with Disabilities
If anything good has come out of COVID-19, it is the insights the virus has given us regarding the many ways we can improve healthcare and social services. As we formulate methods to protect society’s most vulnerable from the worst of the virus, we can look to modern science and the insights we’ve gained to structure better protections.
For example, epidemiologists are trained to investigate the spread of viruses, analyze the data, and provide actionable public strategies. For many, their recommended strategies have included getting a COVID-19 vaccine. A wide variety of factors make this an impossibility for many individuals with disabilities, however, so we need a comprehensive set of alternatives.
Here are a few of the ways you can better protect those with disabilities from COVID-19 and its variants:
- Get vaccinated if possible to get society closer to herd immunity.
- Speak out against discriminatory healthcare practices.
- Speak with community leaders to determine how vulnerable individuals can be made safer.
- Share COVID-19 safety information in accessible and alternative media like transcripts of audio or braille text.
- Follow strict hygiene and mask-wearing procedures, especially around vulnerable individuals.
Always take the advice of accredited medical professionals when it comes to keeping yourself and others safe from COVID-19. Unfortunately, however, this won’t always be enough to guarantee the safety of at-risk individuals living with disabilities.
As we continue to fight the spread of COVID and its variants, we need to apply these protections and continue the battle for better access to healthcare for those with and without disabilities. Throughout the pandemic, greater awareness has been created for this important issue, so now is the time to fight for greater equality of care outcomes for every American.
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