it has never been about us
Tags: Coronavirus, Disability Rights, Disability

The UK Government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis is not, and has never been, a public health response.

From the day the first lockdown was announced, it has been one of public order, and has grown increasingly carceral. This should have been worrying to anyone invested in left or liberation politics, but an effective smokescreen was constructed by the Government and fed to us by the media: it’s all about protecting the disabled.

Stopping young black men on the street under section 60 [1] — it’s to protect disabled people.

Stopping people from driving to open green spaces to exercise and walk their pets [2] — to protect disabled people.

Waiting lists for cancer treatment lengthening dramatically, with the lifesaving 6 week target being missed in 12x more cases [3] [4] — protecting disabled people.

Blocking disabled children from having their educational needs met by shutting or partially shutting schools [5] — it protects disabled people.

Freezing people out of their universal credit applications, or making them wait out the 5 week delay whilst they’re out of work [6] — for disabled people.

It’s disturbing that I could go on, and on, endlessly, with this list. Things that not only massively impact the lives of many groups of marginalised people, but also often directly impact the lives of disabled people. We were told time and time again, these measures were to protect the vulnerable, whilst negatively impacting the lives of many vulnerable people. Disabled people are not a monolith, no matter how often the media positions us as one. One person’s access need may infringe on another’s; keeping one person safe may endanger someone else. Any talk of ‘protecting the disabled’ is worthless unless it bears this in mind.

18% of people in Britain are defined as disabled by the Equality Act 2010. That’s 1-in-5 people, that we’re aware of. We know for a fact that many, many disabled people who needed to stay safe during the peaks of the virus were simply unable to. People were missed from the shielding list, and had no choice but to continue going out to work [7, 8]. People are unable to access disability benefits due to the cruel disciplinary application and approval system. I am one of those people, and have had to work customer facing jobs since June.

The shielding program itself has been far from a caring and protective response[9]. In my own experience, I have not seen a hospital since I was rushed in for CT and MRI scans in February following a seizure; no progress has been made in my care. The BMA report ‘The hidden impact of Covid-19 on patient care in the NHS in England’ gives important context; with all services diverted to Covid-19 care, the NHS simply had to hit pause on several other services. Disabled people who rely on the NHS for support, care, and therapies which allow them to survive were trapped away for months on end with little-to-no recourse to that support.

Yet still, people — including disabled people — champion the government’s carceral public order measures, cheering from the sidelines as everyday tasks are criminalised. In some cases, people even claim the government hasn’t gone far enough, and that the fascistic legal interventions simply don’t make enough actions illegal. Police brutalise disabled people regularly, as a group we are overpoliced and suffer extensively at the hands of the law [10]. More emergency laws, a constantly changing legal landscape, and increased police powers put us, as a group, in greater danger.

The law is changed on a day’s notice, and something that is legal one day, like visiting your mam for Christmas, is illegal the next. How and why should we believe this is to protect disabled people, when no policy so far has been introduced which protects disabled people? Why are we to separate social and political context from each and every one of these announcements, pretending as though this government has not sacrificed and murdered disabled people in their hundreds and thousands before now [11]?

If we wanted to protect disabled people in our communities and in this country, we wouldn’t bar them from receiving necessary healthcare or criminalize them for seeing their support system over the holidays. We could

demand higher, and universal, sick pay. there is no public health without adequate sick pay. there is no disability justice without adequate sick pay

demand fair and liveable disability benefit, demand the disestablishment of the PIP assessment program

demand the end of benefits sanctions

demand a strong unemployment benefit, the end of UC and the introduction of immediately available financial help, with no waiting period

arrange food deliveries when online orders are not possible

donate or volunteer with foodbanks, which many disabled people are relying on to eat

drop off prescription medications when the local pharmacy doesn’t run a delivery service

do patient advocacy work, attending GP appointments as backup for those who want or need it

help draft emails to doctors, specialists, demanding care needs be met

walk people’s pets if they can’t get out to green space

provide financial support, especially to those whose income has been lost or those who rely entirely on measly UC and PIP payments to feed and house themselves

work with trade unions to provide fair deals for those who have to take periods away from work due to sickness

Through our actions, we must address the issue on both a community level, providing mutual aid and care for those in need, and a national political level, demanding the end to a punitive system which has killed disabled people since its induction. This would be a public health response to the Covid-19 crisis that protects and prioritises disabled people. This is not what is happening.