Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

At long last the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released figures confirming something that we already suspected – that a disproportionately high number of disabled people have died in the UK since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Despite constant pressure from disabled activists and groups and organisations of disabled people, the government have either ‘lost’ or have been reluctant to share information regarding the affects of the Coronavirus on disabled people.

However, the ONS have also called on the government to take urgent action to protect disabled people from COVID-19, after the figures showed younger disabled women were as much as 11 times more likely to die from coronavirus than non-disabled women in the same age group.

Despite the shocking figures, their publication passed almost unnoticed in the media and was only picked up by disabled journalist John Pring of the Disability News Service (DNS).

The news was released as the government announced a further relaxation of the restrictions affecting disabled people who have been shielding during the crisis.

I know that I get some stick for harping on about this government and its (not so) hidden agenda regarding disabled people. But, as one of the more vulnerable groups within our society when it comes to the effects of this virus, we not only seem to be completely ignored when it comes to structuring any safety rules, but are also actually put into harm’s way by the stopping of the support services that many of us rely on.

These new figures confirm what we’ve all feared …  

You can read the full article in the Disability News Service here.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A small group, representing disabled people of differing impairments and ethnicity are surrounded by large black cloaked figures, floating and holding various cards that read ‘target the disabled’ and ‘target the mentally ill’ and ‘target the learning disabled’. The black figures are identified as the coronavirus Covid 19.