Disabled women have begun a three-week protest to highlight “appalling” research findings that showed they were almost twice as likely to die from Covid-19 during the pandemic as non-disabled women.
They said that the research showed that disabled women have been treated as “collateral damage” by the government during the pandemic.
A new study, partly carried out by ONS and based on analysis of 29 million adults in England during the pandemic, says that working-age disabled women with higher support needs have been about 90 per cent more likely to die from coronavirus than non-disabled women of the same age, even after taking factors such as underlying health conditions, poverty and whether they lived in a care home into account.
About 20 disabled members of the Women’s Equality Party (WEP) and allies – including the party’s co-founder, Sandi Toksvig – were outside the Houses of Parliament to begin their #91Percent campaign.
The party wants to ensure that the official inquiry into the handling of the pandemic crisis examines its impact on disabled people, including the disproportionate loss of life faced by disabled women. They believe these deaths were avoidable.
Disabled women and allies will be protesting in shifts for a total of 91 hours outside parliament over the next three weeks, with the action split into 90-minute chunks*.
Their campaign will run for three weeks, and it will end with a larger protest on 20 July.
